Has anyone been surprised with additional merit aid being offered above-and-beyond what was expected? We have a junior in high school who has recently started college visits. The schools he is looking at are all state schools (not in our state, though one of them does offer “reciprocity”), and all list the merit aid they offer based on GPA and Test Scores on their websites, so the offer package seems like it would be pretty transparent.
However, his guidance counselor mentioned that her daughter received additional merit aid above what was expected when the offer was made to her from her school of choice, which is a state school. My son is a good student with good test scores but is not in the top 5% or anything like that. His first ACT was a 29 and his GPA is around 3.9, which is similar to the stats for the guidance counselor’s daughter.
We just want to make sure we have all of the facts before he starts actually applying.
My kids chanced merit at state schools, 3.9 UGPA 34 ACT got pretty much what we expected, except the schools that gave less than expected (I’m looking at you UMD and Pitt).
Colleges which announce automatic-for-stats or competitive merit scholarships do not necessarily mean that those are the only merit scholarships they may offer. Keeping some hidden and discretionary as the admissions is being done allows for more flexibility on the college’s part (e.g. they may find some particularly attractive candidates to give extra merit beyond announced scholarships to, or adjust the total amount of merit based on college budget concerns).
Some colleges use “preferential packaging” of nominally-need-based financial aid as another way of offering merit scholarships without calling them as such.
In 2006, our younger kiddo got a huge scholarship from University of South Carolina that would have had our costs for four years at less than $1000 a month (we are OOS). This was after she heard that she had not been accepted to the their honors college or Capstone programs. We were very surprised.
My D’s two safety schools offered some extra merit $ after the initial offers were made. One was for honors college and study abroad. The other just added an additional stacking scholarship. She was also invited to apply to a music scholarship (outside her major) at another school but it was after she had already been accepted to her first choice program so she didn’t bother.
UMD doesn’t have automatic merit aid, it’s a crap shoot and depends on who the college really wants to go there. Some high stat students get no merit. Some lower stat students get merit. Nothing should be expected going into UMD.
My D received a fairly large department scholarship offer, on top of the advertised merit award, from a large state university. It brought the OOS cost down below our in-state options.