Merit aid at Miami of Ohio

We received our Financial Award today and even with the nice Merit we received from Miami The projected 2018/19 Tuition and Fees for The Farmer school of Business is $36,320. We loved Miami (probably one of our top two choices) and we are very grateful for the opportunity. However, it is still much too expensive compared to even Ohio State among others.

Do you receive the merit letter with the letter notifying of admission? Or does it come separately?

Yes, we received our acceptance around Christmas time. About ten days after that, we received a letter of the amount of merit awarded. Today, we received a Financial Package (Large White Envelope) from the Office Of Financial Aid. It describes all the different merit awards and the actual cost of attendance including room and board.

What is the difference between the RedHawk Excellence Scholarship and the RedHawk Eminence Scholarship?

@WM1987 I’ve wondered the same thing. One of my Ds received the Excellence and one received Eminence. Eminence was a high dollar amount and second D did have slightly higher stats. But I have no idea of the criteria.

We just received the award letter from Miami for my son.

3.94 GPA
4.59 Weighted, he took a lot of AP/DE and Honors classes.

Eagle Scout. His Eagle project was a memorial for a local soldier killed in Afghanistan. He raised $10,000 and coordinated the entire project.

He participated in many extracurricular activities which included 4 years of marching band, jazz band pep band and orchestra. He also played baseball for 2 years and played in bands outside of his school.

27 on ACT
1220 on SAT

His award was a handshake and a wish for good luck coming up with the entire amount of attending Miami University.

It was his first choice but there is no way we can swing that much.

@DSDad Are you saying he did not receive any merit award at all? Did he apply EA or RD? I am sorry if so, that must be very disappointing.

@DSDad I would maybe inquire because according to the Miami merit chart his ACT was in their range for the third level they list on the website (27-29 ACT). Did he apply by Dec. 1?

@DSDad The chart says merit aid for 27 ACT is “Up to $8,000” for in-state and “Up to $11,000” for OOS. It doesn’t really promise anything for that score but suggests there’s a chance. Would an award in that aid range have made the difference? If it would then you should call them.

Miami has tightened-up on the merit aid enough that it really ought to revise the published chart to avoid unrealistic expectations and angry parents.

@DSDad We have a friend who is a Miami alumni who had a son who applied to Miami three years ago. He was OOS and received $0 merit even though he fell within the chart range (lower part). Because it was his top school, his father called and they ended up giving him $5000/yr ($20,000 total). It doesn’t hurt to call. You know your numbers and what is needed to make it feasible.

I think the merit aid chart is very realistic. I have not seen an example of someone getting something other than an award inside their respective range on the chart. There have been plenty of posts on here where people reported having received the upper end of their respective range, and I am sure there are many more that received large awards and have not said anything out of respect or others. There will always be some happy recipients and some unhappy recipients no matter what they publish or don’t publish.

33 ACT / 1510 SAT with 3.33UW (3.45 after midterms, but I don’t know whether that matters.) I received 4,000, which, while I am grateful for the award, seems to be a bit below their lowest scholarship award. Anyone else receive a similar amount?

@rudebowskinator Your stats are really unusual in that your SAT/ACT is way above Miami’s average and your GPA is way below their average. They obviously let you in based on the strength of your test scores but refused to give you an award in the appropriate merit aid grid range because of your grades.

I was accepted during the December EA round. I haven’t received any merit, however, I had a 32 ACT Composite. My school does not report GPA but it’s one of the top ten private schools in my state and if I were to calculate one it would be about 3.83.

Does anyone know why I may have not received it yet?

@college4747 Call the school on Monday.

General question for the group… regardless of your offer, will you be asking for more? Has anyone had any success?

No, because I would not feel right about demanding more money from a public school in a state where I don’t pay taxes. I feel like anything they offer an OOS state student should be considered as being very generous.

Thanks for your reply.

My son received the Redhawk Excellence Scholarship award for $6,000. Wish it was more (of course!) but I still feel this is a nice scholarship for a state school. He has a 4.2 gpa and a 31 on the ACT. Three sport varsity athlete and many other extracurriculars. Don’t think Miami takes those things into account though.