Every time I got to a college website I see their merit scholarships and I usually qualify, but I wanna know if it decreases the amount f financial aid I get. When I add the average amount of financial aid and a scholarship that I qualify for it adds up me being debt free at some colleges. It seems too good to be true at some schools
You can get merit aid and need-based aid at the same time. If you get merit aid, you may get less need-based aid than you would have otherwise gotten (this depends on the school). You can use net price calculators to get an idea of how much aid you would get at any particular college. Keep in mind that the average amount of financial aid is taken over all students, and doesn’t necessarily reflect the amount of aid that will be given to you specifically.
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When I add the average amount of financial aid and a scholarship that I qualify for it adds up me being debt free at some colleges
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That is wrong.
First of all, the “average amount of financial aid” is meaningless. That’s not what likely you’d get. That’s like seeing that the average grade in a class is a B-, and thinking that you’ll get a B-. You might get an A, you might get a C…you might get an F.
Merit is awarded FIRST…then after that, your “need” is determined. If the school promises to “meet need” (most schools do NOT promise to meet need), and if you still have need after merit is awarded, then you’d get more aid.
Merit does VERY OFTEN reduce the FA you’d get.
You seem to be thinking that you’d first get FA to cover “need” and then get merit to cover the “family contribution.”
NO…it doesn’t work that way.
The only way to cover some/all of the family contribution is to get a HUGE merit award that covers ALL of need AND also covers some/all of EFC.
Run the Net Price Calculator for each school of interest to see what aid you might get.