<p>Does anyone know any students who have received top level merit scholarships at Richmond University, Lafayette College, George Washington University, or American University and have applied regular decision, or do they really only reserve the top merit scholarships for students applying ED or EA?</p>
<p>Why would colleges give the top merit aid to a student who applies ED? That student is “captive” – they have committed to attending unless the need based package doesn’t work for them. I would think that if you are in the range to get good merit aid your odds would be better for that aid if you were an EA or RD applicant.</p>
<p>In most cases (unless you are applying someplace else that won’t allow this), you should complete your application EA if they have an EA pool. It is non-binding and shows that you are interested enough to get your act together and apply early.</p>
<p>Most schools awarding major merit scholarships have early deadlines for consideration To be eligible for Richmond’s top scholarship, for instance, you have to apply by Dec 1st.</p>
<p>You should check the website of each school that interests you, because they each have their own rules and deadlines.</p>
<p>I am not sure “most schools” have early deadlines for merit scholarships, but some certainly do. Of the 8 colleges my kid applied to last year, six offered merit scholarships. Two of the six had an early deadline for merit aid consideration, the other four did not. But agree that you need to check the websites.</p>
<p>Between my kids, they applied to 11 colleges. The most generous merit awards did have early priority application dates…by December 1. Some of the smaller, less competitive scholarships dis not have early deadlines. The scholarships that required a special scholarship application all had early priority dead,ones.</p>
<p>But as noted…check the schools. YMMV.</p>