Wow, just wow. Not even going to ask how you figured that one out!
But you’re right - at a school that meets full need, a merit award is pretty meaningless for a very low income student. And for a high income student, it makes all the difference in the world! My son received two very generous merit awards from schools that also met his full need and, as you say, the awards really didn’t really change his cost of attendance. But they definitely did make him feel appreciated - the awards recognized all the hard work he put in during high school. And there were additional perks, like early notice of admission and paid trips to visit the schools. And, frankly, those paid trips did make a difference, because he’d never have been able to visit those schools otherwise.
Good for your kid to get whatever merit awards he or she received . . . and if you don’t like the way the aid package is configured, then don’t send your kid to school there.
The government has determined students and their families must make a contribution for the education, the EFC.
The government determined the EFC formulas we all use.
The government is also the one who determined that when you get a merit scholarship, this will lower your need based aid so that a family is expected to still pay the EFC.
It seems pretty obvious to me, but I’ll explain, because often what seems obvious to a person isn’t obvious to others
Assuming that:
for the average person, EFC accurately represents how much the family is capable of paying. This is the average family, and we are ignoring the outlying families, because outliers are equally represented in high and low income families
and
difficulty of meeting EFC for wealthy family (fam A) on average = difficulty of meeting EFC for less wealthy family (fam B ) on average
and
difficulty of meeting similarly reduced EFC for fam A = difficulty of meeting similarly reduced EFC for fam B
and
difficulty of meeting EFC for fam A > difficulty of meeting reduced EFC for fam A
and
difficulty of meeting EFC for fam B > difficulty of meeting reduced EFC for fam B
then:
difficulty of meeting regular non-reduced EFC for family B > difficulty of meeting reduced EFC for family A
@dadoftwingirls then why would a student with an EFC over cost of attendance receive any merit money at all?
That’s the problem - no, it does not. Myriad factors that impact a family’s ability to pay are not taken into account in calculating a student’s EFC, and I’d guess that the majority of families would say that their EFC does not accurately represent their ability to pay.
That’s incorrect, @dadoftwingirls. A student’s EFC is used to determine eligibility for federal grants and subsidized loans - that’s it. There is no “law” telling private (or public) colleges how much need-based or merit aid they can award to a student. If a school wants to award a full ride to the daughter of a multi-millionaire in order to entice her to attend that school, nobody’s going to stop them.
And, frankly, @ibenheim, that’s why the disparity you’re complaining of makes sense: schools use merit awards to entice their best applicants to enroll. And, for a family that’s full-pay, it’s a good strategy - saving them $20k/year is quite a lure! But when a “meets full need” school offers a spot to a financial aid recipient, that additional sales strategy shouldn’t be necessary. Winning the “brass ring” of receiving a (supposedly) affordable education should be enough, on its own, to entice that student to attend. True, the school’s calculation of “affordable” may not jive with the family’s calculation, but that’s a disagreement that needs to be worked out with the financial aid office.
If you don’t like the financial aid policies of a specific school, or the costs, apply and attend elsewhere.
Some schools DO allow stacking of need based and merit awards…up to the cost of attendance. Find one of those if you want to be able to stack awards.
Or apply to a school where your merit award will be large enough to reduce your family contribution. For example, there are a lot of high stats students with higher EFCs who are taking advantage of the very generous merit awards U of Alabama offers.
If your stats are not high enough for merit awards, start at a community college where you can commute from home, and can likely pay all of the tuition with a Direct Loan…and a job.
I think your complaining about this is going around in circles…and is pointless. It is what it is.
Wrongo. Tell that to the many people who cannot afford to pay their EFC…and this is not just lower income students.
Because merit money is based in the strength of your application stats, or by special application…and is not related to EFC at all in most cases.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
To quote Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest: “Ah, but nobody ever said life was fair, Tina.”
At this point, the conversation is going around in circles. The OP has asked a question, and has received some very good responses. The fact that she wishes to challenge the responses does not invalidate them. Therefore, I am closing this thread.
