Founders Scholarship?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

<p>Can anyone explain this to me? It sounds like a merit based scholarship, but NU says they don't offer merit based scholarships? This is copy and pasted from their site</p>

<p>Summary: Northwestern created the Founders Scholars Program in 2007 to honor the nine individuals who founded the University in 1850.
Eligibility: Awards are offered each year to a select group of incoming students from middle income families. While academic credentials weigh heavily in the selection process, other criteria taken into account include student essays, recommendations, leadership experience and potential, and academic interests. There is no separate application to receive consideration for a Founders Scholarship. Eligibility for renewal beyond the freshmen year requires a cumulative GPA of 3.0 which is reviewed on an annual basis.
Award range: $14,750 average award in 2008-09. These scholarships are renewable for four years so long as students make satisfactory academic progress.</p>

<p>Does anyone know how often people get these? and if need is taken into account at all? thanks</p>

2

<p>

</p>

<p>There is a financial aid aspect?</p>

3

<p>I’m curious about this as well. It looks like it’s merit- as well as need-based…?</p>

4

<p>I didn’t see anyone saying he/she got it last year (it was a bad year financially for NU). But I saw some CC members got some two cycles ago; for them, the scholarships seemed to turn much of the loans into grants. The people that got them seemed to come from mid-income families and got multiple offers from peer schools. So it does look like a hybrid of merit and need-based, like Toward speculated. It seems to me it is still in a “pilot” stage - i.e. they probably haven’t committed to budgeting for it every fiscal year like it does for other established programs and they want to keep it low profile for now.</p>

5

<p>Yeah, turning loans into grants sounds reasonable, as technically the total “financial aid” package stays the same…</p>