Is Macalester merit aid "negotiable"?

Hi everyone,

My son was just admitted to Macalester today. His high-level stats are GPA 4.1, ACT 33. Strong but not strong enough, I guess, because he was not offered merit aid. We did not expect to get any financial aid due to our finances, but were hoping to get some merit aid. In reading the thread on admissions, many admitted students did appear to get merit aid in the $10k-$20k range.

I’ve read that the yield at Macalester is probably in the 25% range - it stands to reason that many students who were admitted with merit offers will decline. So… is it possible that Macalester would offer an admitted student a merit scholarship at a future date depending on who accepts/declines in the upcoming days/weeks?

He has already gotten into another (slightly lower academic) school with a significant merit scholarship offer, and there are also in-state schools in play that are much lower cost of tuition. So at this point the Macalester offer makes no sense for our family. Just curious if we should give up and move on from Macalester if there is a benefit to talk to admissions. The school was very high on our son’s list.

Thanks for the advice!

They don’t shift merit offers just because a student with one declined. They take that into account when offering the merit. But it can’t hurt to ask them if any merit might be forthcoming. One of my kids did get merit there, but had stronger test scores – and not really as much merit as we expected.

Their Financial Aid FAQ is not very promising for a better award.

http://www.macalester.edu/financialaid/faq/aboutyouraward/