Is michigan need-blind or need-aware?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
1

<p>refer to title</p>

2

<p>You wanna hear a joke? Michigan financial aid. (unless you’re a genius or URM)</p>

3

<p>In short, no. In long, what he said. I have several NMF friends with 31+ acts who are getting $0.</p>

4

<p>Need-blind. Affirmative action was outlawed by the state of Michigan in public universities. Everything is 100% merit based.</p>

5

<p>Michigan’s FA is need blind. However, Michigan only guarantees to meet demonstrated need of IS applicants. OOS applicants do not usually get 100% of demonstrated need. From personal experience, I would estimate that IS applicants get 100% of need met, while OOS applicants get 80%-90% of need met.</p>

<p>Michigan also offers scholarships, and those are usually merit based.</p>

6

<p>^ Alexandre, I’m IS but probably don’t qualify for need-based FA. If I have a 35 ACT do you think I can get a merit-based scholarship? If one does qualify for need-based, would one still be able to obtain merit-based if he/she is qualified?</p>

7

<p>If there is one aspect of Michigan I am not very familiar, it is its approach to FA/scholarship. </p>

<p>I do know that students who apply early have a better shot at getting scholarships, but I also know that scholarships are handed out to only very few students, so do not count on it.</p>

8

<p>Ahhhh okay. I shouldn’t really complain since it’s already IS tuition.</p>

9

<p>

What does that have to do with need-based financial aids? And if you are talking about merit based scholarships, name some top tier schools where a 31+ ACT will guarantee you merit grants.</p>

10

<p>Partial list of U-M merit based scholarships – [OFA</a> Scholarship Listing](<a href=“http://www.finaid.umich.edu/Home/TypesofAid/ScholarshipsandGrants/OFAScholarshipListing.aspx]OFA”>http://www.finaid.umich.edu/Home/TypesofAid/ScholarshipsandGrants/OFAScholarshipListing.aspx)</p>

11

<p>[ImageShack&#174</a>; - Online Photo and Video Hosting](<a href=“http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/842/finaid.jpg/]ImageShack®”>ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs)</p>

<p>They gave me plenty last year even while OOS. It’s really a case by case thing.</p>

12

<p>laxbrah, I’m not sure what it is you want to know, because people often confuse need-blind/need aware.</p>

<p>My understanding is that the school is need-blind in terms of admissions (to a degree, but they do ask a general parental income figure, optional to supply, on the application form) but “need aware” in consideration of “merit” – at least for some of the schools.</p>

<p>What this means is that the school will not consider your economic status for admission, but with SOME of the merit programs, will allow “need” to “inform” its decisions. This does not necessarily mean that students who receive merit have higher need than those who don’t, but it does mean that the school has the discretion to consider need when evaluating where to offer merit, wanting the “most mileage for its money” per se.</p>

<p>The reason no one can figure out the merit formula is (I suspect) because the university uses merit very strategically. For major awards such as shipman, I believe it is very much stat-and-accomplishment based. For the Michigan Tradition/Experience scholarships, I believe it is a combination of merit with unique qualities or other ways in which the student fulfills UMich’s idea of balancing its admission profile – eg. unusual accomplishments, underrepresented areas, etc.</p>

<p>The school of music specifically informs families that scholarships are talent-based but also need-informed so that they can make their sparse scholarship money stretch as far as possible. So if a student already has an academic scholarship, the departmental award will likely reflect that and as a result be lower.</p>

<p>Hope this helps answer your original question.</p>

13

<p>I am NOT trying to hijack this thread in anyway, but I have an interesting situation that could be placed in this general discussion here. I will be going to U-M using the GI Bill and the Yellow Ribbon Program (which the school partially shares payments with the VA for the remainder that isn’t covered by the GI Bill). Anyway, my income would be ridiculously low (because you aren’t really supposed to count the living allowance as income) and there are no other sources of income that are applicable (i.e. my parents). I really want to know how that would reflect in the eyes of the admissions because my tuition is entirely covered, although on paper it would appear that I would be at the highest level of need-based aid. </p>

<p>I know for residency I’ll have to apply for it since I’m military, but I’m more or less concerned about the admissions aspect. </p>

<p>Sorry again for hijacking the thread, but any comments would be appreciated and help me out greatly!!</p>

14

<p>reason i’m asking is because i can pay full-freight and i was wondering if it’s going to help my admission at all</p>

15

<p>it won’t affect your admission at all</p>

16

<p>^mag, your situation will also not affect you admission at all.</p>