<p>I'm applying to Fordham EA. I have a 3.9 GPA UW (school doesn't weight, but I've taken 7 AP classes), and a 2310 SAT and I am a white female. I'm not in the top 1% of my class (I'm top 2%, 4th in a class of 285 at a good MA public school), and I'm a national merit "commended student", not a semifinalist. My family makes $46K/year so I think I qualify for a lot of need based aid, but I'm hoping to also get some merit aid. Financial aid calculators estimated that my family could pay $24,000 per year. Do my stats keep me automatically out of range for President's scholarships? Do I seem like a strong candidate for a Dean's scholarship (how do they rank the "top" 6-8% of applicants)? Have any recipients received the full $22K with the Dean's scholarship? </p>
<p>I plan to live off campus, possibly as a freshman (if it's financially possible). Would I receive a Metro Scholarship in addition to need based and merit aid or is it one or the other? Can you apply your sophomore year for a Metro Scholarship?</p>
<p>Most importantly, how do apply for these scholarships? Thanks so much.</p>
<p>I had roughly the same stats as you (3.9 unweighted GPA, 2320 SAT).</p>
<p>I got 22K Dean’s scholarship.</p>
<p>My family qualified for zero financial aid.</p>
<p>I had only 1 AP; I had very little EC’s. </p>
<p>I was not 2% of my class - I was more like 8%.</p>
<p>The metro scholarship will not help you; your Dean’s scholarship will negate the metro grant. And you will undoubtedly get a Dean’s scholarship. </p>
<p>You can expect financial aid.</p>
<p>You can expect a very, very sizable merit award. Possibly a full ride. I’d be amazed if you wind up paying more than 10K a year. </p>
<p>But of course I can’ know for sure (though I’ve worked in admissions and seen tons of applicants getting sizable scholarships…top 2% of class with a 2310 on SAT? Yeah…that’s full ride caliber student…though not having the stupid “semifinalist award” is the one thing that may hurt you).</p>
<p>EDIT: and another thing to be aware of…it’s very possible that on your first admittance letter to Fordham they’ll give you something like 10,000 of merit-based aid. Just wait a few months and they’ll keep sending you letters, bumping up the merit-based award each time. That’s what happened to me, and that’s what happened to several other people I know who applied to Fordham (and who were high quality students).</p>
<p>Though I don’t know how that’d work with regards to financial aid because I didn’t qualify for any.</p>
<p>Merit Scholars semi-finalists are offered free tuition, but you still have to pay your room and board. I don’t know if the same offer is made to commended scholars or not. You’d have to check that out.</p>
<p>You have way better stats than I had and I got a full ride. You will probably even be invited to the Honors program too. You don’t apply to them separately, they just look through applicants and consider them for awards. Good luck!</p>
<p>I received 35k/yr as my Dean’s scholarship, my stats were lower than yours, and my family income was higher, if that helps. You should be offered substantial scholarships/aid.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, that was extremely helpful and I feel much more at ease. Although, do you think I’ll be offered less aid being an early applicant? What are the requirements for the honors college?</p>