<p>When you run the NPC you see the COA - Scholarship grants = Net Price. </p>
<p>Does Merit Aid if any included in the above (scholarship grants) or Merit aid will be on top of this grant.</p>
<p>It depends on the NPC. Fordham’s does. You put in a gpa and test score and it gives you an estimate of what you might get in terms of merit money. Not 100% accurate but close.</p>
<p>Even if the NPC doesn’t ask for your GPA and test scores it may include a possible merit award. If you run the NPC and raise the household income up to, oh, $500k and you see that the school is still offering an institutional grant…yup, that’s for possible merit.</p>
<p>I personally think it’s pretty sketchy to include a possible merit award when you’ve not been asked for GPA/test scores AND when the NPC doesn’t mention merit aid at all. Just giving a heads-up.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>I agree. I’m very suspicious of mention of any merit when stats aren’t inputted. I’ve seen too many NPCs include merit w/o asking for stats. Misleading!</p>
<p>I also think its bad when NPCs indicate SEOG grants (large ones sometimes!). One student last year saw $4000 SEOG award on his NPC results, yet got NONE. </p>
<p>However, some do ask for stats, and may include merit. Some won’t include merit because their merit is competitive, so they wouldn’t yet know if you’re going to get it. Or you might be applying after the deadline for scholarship consideration.</p>
<p>Also, if a (non-Pell) grant is awarded and then merit is added, some/all of the grant may “go away”. Not all schools will stack…especially if need was met with the grant or partial merit.</p>
<p>I was curious as to what Bama did since it has assured scholarships for stats, and does ask for your stats, its NPC does include merit awards.</p>
<p>An “honest” NPC should only include need-based aid and stats-based merit scholarships, not holistically or subjectively determined merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Regarding “stacking”, schools may have different policies. Some will use merit first to replace gap amounts and the student contribution (student loans and work study), but this is not necessarily true everywhere.</p>
<p>I’ve been having an interesting conversation with Kelsmom on how financial aid is distributed at some schools that do not guarantee nor meet full need for most of their students. It appears (and correct me if I’m wrong, Kelsmom) that in some situations, a school makes the commitment to meet a certain amount, say the tuition, or maybe even an arbitrary figure. They do that for all students that get their apps in on time. Any students who get merit awards get the amount ADDED to that figure, rather than anything to do with need as defined by FAFSA (COA minus EFC). So, it such scenarios, the way it works is that the merit aid is going to directly reduce the financial aid even the official need is not met. This was not something that had occurred to me as what a school would do.</p>
<p>Cpt…can you reread your post. I’m thinking that you’re contradicting yourself, but maybe I’m too ADD to follow. lol</p>