<p>..if you're not applying for FA? We have saved money for our son since day 1 for college. His GC gave him information on a merit based scholarship but it requires him to have a high financial need. I don't believe he does but why should he be disqualified based on need?</p>
<p>Some merit-based scholarships have need components, some don’t. Some that have need components pay out pro-rated sums based on the family’s financial situation. Read the information about this particular scholarship, and see if you can figure out how it works. If you can’t, it is perfectly fine to contact the sponsoring organization and ask.</p>
<p>because the people that administer the scholarships make the rules. Yes, in some cases, it stinks. We are dealing with the same thing. There are some scholarships for merit that do not depend on financial need, but you have to search for them, and they are not huge. There are small ones in the community usually. The biggest “merit only” scholarships are through the colleges themselves, but not all colleges offer merit only scholarships. </p>
<p>I feel for you, we have been very disheartened about the lack of “money” for kids that have worked really hard in the middle class.</p>
<p>Two of my children attended private colleges that offered large merit aid scholarships that did not require us to show financial need. In fact, by our second child, we stopped filling out any FAFSA forms.
The rules are different at every school.</p>
<p>You need to look very carefully to identify pure merit scholarships. Many of them are actually preferred packaging of need-based aid. The schools often describe it somewhat ambiguously, probably because they know that people like to “win a scholarship.”</p>
<p>Almost always, a requirement to fill out FA forms means that it’s not purely merit-based. However, we have seen a few counter-examples here (very few). Erin’s Dad has one has one, for example.</p>
<p>We’ve never provided financial info, but both of my kids received large merit scholarships from their univ based solely on their stats.</p>
<p>If you’re looking at private scholarships, then “need” is often a component.</p>
<p>I you WANT your child to have a financial safety school that will offer him large merit, then have him quickly apply to a school that gives them. Some have Dec 1st deadlines.</p>
<p>We are a middle class family and my S received some aid that was merit based only. I had to search for them and he applied to quite a few but he did receive one scholarship for $300, another for $750, and a third for $16,000 ($4K for 4 years). This one was quite a surprise as we found out about it in May and had forgotten about him applying. It did require that the money be given directly to the university but it was a blessing. He ended up attending Stanford and the scholarship covered most of the student responsibility portion of his aid package. </p>
<p>Just do a lot of searching and fill out as many as you can. You never know and every penny counts. Good luck.</p>
<p>Have you looked into Chapman University? They have excellent need-blind merit scholarships.</p>
<p>There are a lot of merit scholarships out there. Some schools even advertise how much they will give students who have a specific GPA range and SAT score. For example: </p>
<p>[Guaranteed</a> Achievement Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.gotobsc.com/fa/achievement.htm]Guaranteed”>http://www.gotobsc.com/fa/achievement.htm)</p>
<p>Other merit scholarships are more specific and need a separate application. For example:</p>
<p>[Academic</a> Scholarship & Fellowship Programs](<a href=“http://admissions.wustl.edu/scholarships/Pages/default.aspx]Academic”>http://admissions.wustl.edu/scholarships/Pages/default.aspx)</p>
<p>Most merit scholarships are automatically renewed for all 4 years as long as the student maintains a certain GPA. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the help!</p>
<p>I don’t believe he does but why should he be disqualified based on need?</p>
<p>Schools want to maximize their money. By not applying for fin aid, that takes that whole pot out of the picture. Money that is merit only is much smaller than merit + need.</p>
<p>My ds got a $26,000 a year scholarship (total cost of school is $48,000) based on merit only.
We did not fill out the FAFSA and won’t for next school year either. We did check with the college last year when he was applying to make sure that this was okay. He needs to earn a 3.0 each semester to keep his scholarship. D is applying to colleges this year and is looking for schools that advertise their merit aid for stats so she knows it isn’t based on need.</p>