Yes, one has to be very careful to distinguish between “automatically awarded for [stats]” versus “competitive scholarship with minimum eligibility of [stats]”. The automatic ones are less common, particularly for larger scholarships.
And be careful to read the fine print- some “merit” scholarships also have a “need” component, so your student isn’t going to be in the running if you have no need. I find this somewhat misleading.
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But it’s one situation that doesn’t fit the claim that you shouldn’t expect any merit at all if you aren’t in the top of a school’s admitted stats range. The real answer is “it depends.”
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@guidedbywire I noted that in the OP.
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Sure, the schools like the “just good students,” too, but schools are not going to hand over mega-bucks in merit to entice them to attend. (The exceptions to this seems to be those small privates that are desperate for warm bodies in the seats, so they’ve raised tuition so that they can flatter acceptees with a token merit…maybe $10k per year off an overly-inflated COA of $55k.
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Yes, there are some schools that use the “Kohl’s department store pricing policy,” where 25% off is the “real price.”
That is why I never shop at Kohl’s anymore. Ridiculous pricing and those Kohl’s dollars!
Why not shopping at Kohl’s? They keep giving me free money to shop on their overprice items. Free item is still free.
We were fortunate to work with a private consultant who thoroughly explained the differences between need-based and merit-based aid, as well as between “free” aid (grants/scholarships) and “self-funded” aid (loans) and helped to guide and direct us toward schools that are generous with need-based and free aid as well as merit money. We have twins and fortunately started the research process very early (late sophomore year) which gave us lots of time to thoroughly investigate every option. Without his help, I can’t imagine where we would be, as one person previously stated, the school’s counselors have offered no help, no information, nada! My kids repeatedly tell me, “Mom, you know so much more than the guidance counselor does.” Sad! So for those students who do not have parents actively engaged in the process and doing tons of research to educate themselves about the options, I am truly saddened because yes, they are the ones in the dark who will be in for some rude and heartbreaking awakenings. It took quite a bit of time for my kids to understand the financial aspects, as original poster noted, they start out just focusing on where they want to go and the prospects of getting accepted. S’s first choice is a Northeastern private school not known to be very generous. We’ve been discussing this a lot and he knows that the financial aid may prevent him from attending. However, he only recently pointed out to me, “Mom, you know there were 9 kids from my school accepted last year but only 1 of them is attending.” Me: “Why do you think that is?” S: “Because it was too costly and they chose more reasonable options.” Me: Silently doing the happy dance in my head that YES, he finally gets it! Lol!
Those people who are expecting large merit awards are often the same ones blissfully (until March) unaware of applying by merit scholarship deadlines or who refuse to provide their children with the information needed to fill out the FAFSA in a timely manner or as others have mentioned have never heard of a NPC. They likely don’t have a good understanding of the difference between merit aid and need based aid and that the most selective schools often don’t offer merit aid. I know I am generalizing but have talked to many parents who were flabbergasted at the cost of a particular university and that their child did not receive the aid they felt was due. In most cases either the child was not qualified for the awards they felt they should have received or the parent simply made too much money to receive the need based aid (which many perceive to be scholarships) they had hoped for.
At our D’s HS there is a parent luncheon group that meets monthly and is organized by parents. The topic in October was financing and applying to colleges. There was a panel of parents who had been through the process before. Around 30 or so parents or so attended out of a class of 700. These were parents who wanted to understand the process. If I have the opportunity to discuss the subject with parents the fall of their senior year and feel there is information I can impart then I do so. If I were talking to them now unless directly asked I probably will just nod and wish them luck.
When I just moved to US I have a huge cultural shock about US education. Every week my DD’s ESL teacher sent us thank you cards for doing homework. Finally I decided to meet her and discuss the teachers’s expectations. It was a very interesting discussion. I asked a lot of questions about her childhood trying to understand if it was always like this or just recently. She told me that when she was at school homework was a duty, and when she did mistakes she was often not only corrected but criticized, in good way. She almost forgot about it. She is now not allowed to criticize and she has to encourage any effort and always tell children that they did great, even if the work was really mediocre. It’s the new way of teaching. I asked her to stop sending cards because I did not want my child to think that life was so easy and any tiny effort would always bring a huge reward.
All these expectations of merit scholarships are probably the result of too many thank you letters. We did so great, now we have to be awarded.
To be fair, many schools are quite cagey about merit awards. How many are given, actual value, what they are actually rewarding them based on – it can be very difficult to glean that info if you don’t know where to look, and even then you have to do some guessing. I regularly post advice out here about ways to try to peer through the smokescreen thrown up by colleges around this. But it isn’t easy to do. Just using the scholarship page on the college website isn’t very helpful.
I was at a meeting for parents about college admissions with a panel, including parents with a student at Yale. Only at the end of their talk about how he may have achieved admission, was there a throw-away line about yes, how expensive it is. Knowing that most of the parents there had not experienced the process yet & that our public school district is in a pretty affluent area, I explained the importance of educating oneself (if not interested in full-pay) about the differences between need-based & merit aid. One mother turned to me & said “but if they really want you, they have ways of making it work.” (MIT was being discussed at that point.) I was speechless. Ok, believe that if you want & good luck to you.
Did this mother explain why MIT would want her kid so badly?
Did her kid win any technical world competitions, Math and Physics international Olympiads? Invented something useful, holds a patent? Made a mobile application and sold it to Google? Won anything in Olympic games at least?
What’s her sales pitch?
exactly: none of the above, I’m sure, other than being a “GT” kid.(of which there are many) & I took the comment, (delivered in that knowing way, suggesting that I wasn’t really aware how the world worked) to be about ‘any’ of these elite schools. A generalized delusion.
Well… they will find out the hard way.
GT = Gifted and Talented program kids
yes, my apologies
I’m so glad I discover CC when my daughter was in 8th grade and learned how important NM could be for paying for school. We are cautiously optimistic that she will officially be NMF very soon. She plans to attend OU which offers very good merit for NM but is not a full ride. We were hoping to cover some of what their NM package does not cover with some departmental scholarships and outside scholarship but it’s proving more difficult than I expected.
She auditioned for the School of Music and was accepted but was not offered the $1k cash departmental scholarship she was after. This was very disappointing as she plays a instrument that they are in need of. We are trying to look at it as a blessing in disguise as now she won’t feel obligated to play in any ensemble that she doesn’t 100% want to and won’t have to play in the orchestra.
She was also invited to apply for an international fellowship program that would help pay for study abroad. She had planned to do a semester aboard anyway but this program requires two different experiences abroad, one summer and one semester, as well as taking an additional class. The extra summer program will cost about $8K and the fellowship only cover $1.5K of the summer program and taking the extra class won’t help for any of her graduation requirements so accepting the fellowship will add more to the cost of her education and not allow for summer employment. OTOH she would enjoy a summer experience abroad and it would help her language skills. Students need to be very aware of all the extra costs that can be involved with accepting money that comes with strings attached so they can make an informed decision.
Crossing our fingers she does better on outside scholarships!
GREAT thread! It should be posted on the top of BOTH the Parents Forum and FA forum.
I feel bad for families when the reality of college financing hits. In our relatively affluent public high school, parents often don’t realize until it’s too late that our school’s terrific counseling staff specializes in getting good students into the state flagships (we’re in CA so even getting top students into the flagships isn’t easy). There are many workshops on affording UC and Cal State schools but little information about private colleges even though a large chunk of kids get admitted to the elite private schools every year.
My son was initially baffled when his older friends and classmates would react with glee to be accepted to their dream LACs only to see them enroll at a UC. At least that’s made him aware of affordability. My victory came the first time he shouted at me from his bedroom “Hey Mom, what do you know about the math program at X College? I ran the NPC …we can afford it but it there would be some loans.”