<p>Some merit aid offers are done by nomination, primarily at end of junior year. At our school the GC's work with the schools to decide the nominees. The University of Rochester has quite a few, others to award merit offers at our school are Clarkson, St Lawrence, Wells, Elmira and Rensselaer. Worth a look if you are a junior or younger.</p>
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<p>First, "none" is quite different from "few, not many". Second, you are incorrect, for top students UM actually has a relatively large number of excellent scholarships, including: 15 for full tuition, R & B; 35 for 26k/yr (OOS); 90 LS&A for up to 20k/yr; and many more in Engineering and the other colleges. Compare this to other top publics like the UCs (none) and UVA (Jefferson scholar) for OOS students.</p>
<p>I had too much time on my hand so I went to all the colleges that were mentioned in CC that are known for good merit aid. I used Excel to compile a list of 76 schools, taking into account of free application, size of merit aid and I narrowed down to 26 schools. I then sat down with my daughter over these schools, she then only agreed to apply only to one or two schools from the list(sigh!). But the effort was not wasted, I did enjoy the process.</p>
<p>D has the same situation with Miami's D - she was very interested in Hamilton, her Latin "study buddy" from a few years ago got a nice merit scholarship there, that they have since discontinued, along with all their other merit aid I believe. I know I probably would not get enough need-based (if any) to counter the merit aid she has already qualified for at other schools based on her GPA and ACT score, so she won't even apply...</p>
<p>S1 has two merit scholarships. He applied for both after being accepted. He found the scholarships listed on the school's website, one under general scholarships for incoming freshman and one on the departmental page of his intended major.</p>
<p>Another school he was accepted to sent a merit scholarship offer (no application required) six to eight weeks after acceptance.</p>
<p>At WPI and RPI they came with the acceptances. (Well RPI it was a little later, the acceptance letter in November said there would definitely be merit aid.) I imagine they were based mostly on SAT scores, NSMF status and an excellent GPA.</p>
<p>D got merit aid from her "likely" (our guidance counselor doesn't like the term "safety") school. She visited campus and did an off-campus interview, and before she sent her application in the college sent her a letter encouraging her to apply and stating that she was a very strong candidate for their merit scholarships. She applied, was indeed granted a scholarship (15K per year), and decided that she liked the school a lot; she liked her other acceptances, too, but not enough for our family to pay the extra 60K over 4 years. So she enrolled as a freshman this fall and LOVES her choice.</p>
<p>I know the guidance counselor at her school keeps track of where kids have gotten merit aid offers and will provide that info to parents who ask, so I would second the suggestion to ask the guidance counselor.</p>
<p>entomom,
When I mentioned about UM and Merit Scholarships, I meant the ones that are available to many applicants across majors, not to few top students in a country who would get them at any school. By many, I meant many more than 15 for full tuition, R & B + 35 for 26k/yr (OOS) + 90 LS&A for up to 20k/yr. For, example, D. and few other kids at her school got considerable scholarships at Case Western, which is known for good merit awards. Specifically D's tuition was lowered from $33,000 to $5,000/year. D is attending different college. She and her classmates would not get anything at UM. We live 50 min. from UM and D always wanted to go there. But being OOS made it too costly.</p>
<p>A few other ideas:</p>
<p>My D had an interview earlier this week with an admissions officer from Harvey Mudd who gave her a brochure about a merit scholarship for females and minorities. It has a special application form so I'm glad the officer brought that to our attention. </p>
<p>It's not a college-based scholarship, but the company my husband works for gives scholarships to employees' children so we are hoping they will come through with something for our D. So you might want to check with your employer. </p>
<p>I have been reading through the websites of the colleges my D is planning to apply to. Here is the basic information I came up with regarding to how to apply for merit aid. Our family is unlikely to qualify for need-based aid. Please let me know if you think any of the information is incorrect since I don't want to miss out on anything:</p>
<p>MIT: must apply for financial aid to qualify for merit
UChicago: check box on common app to be considered for merit
Olin: no merit awarded (tuition is already free)
Princeton: no merit awarded
Stanford: no merit awarded
Carnegie-Mellon: automatically considered for merit with application
Harvey Mudd: automatically considered for merit with application
Case Western: apply for merit after being admitted?? numerous merit scholarships listed
UMichigan: automatically considered for merit with application
Duke: automatically considered for merit with application</p>
<p>ColumbiaStudent, care to share what you found???</p>
<p>Three of the four schools w/merit $$ to which S applied automatically considered applicant, assuming the student had checked a box (UChicago) or applied by a Priority Date (UMD). Caltech considered all applicants, as did Mudd (at least for their $10k award). There was a separate app for the big Mudd scholarship, as well as a departmental award, for which S had to send additional material.</p>
<p>He also won several external scholarships -- his summer research mentorship proved to be more lucrative than any paying job he could have found! :)</p>
<p>Some schools also sweeten the pot for kids who are NMSFs. UT/Dallas, Oklahoma, USC, Arizona State, Macalester and Carleton come immediately to mind. Check their websites, though, as these things may change from year to year.</p>
<p>
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MIT: must apply for financial aid to qualify for merit
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</p>
<p>I don't believe MIT provides merit aid. They also have not gone no-loan for the upper middle-class.</p>
<p>Electronblue is correct on both counts.</p>
<p>
[quote]
When I mentioned about UM and Merit Scholarships, I meant the ones that are available to many applicants across majors, not to few top students in a country who would get them at any school.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's fine, but it was not stated in your earlier post. The OP asked in general about merit scholarships and did not stipulate the level of the student. So to say that UM has none or not enough merit aid to be concerned with is misleading. </p>
<p>In addition, while the Shipman for LS&A and Engineering goes to students who can get into the most selective colleges, a much wider range of students receive the scholarship in the other colleges that participate.</p>
<p>Similar to constructing a general college list, there are merit aid safeties, matches and reaches. Finding them takes time.</p>
<p>dsultemeier,
"Case Western: apply for merit after being admitted?? numerous merit scholarships listed"
- as I mentioned before my D. was accepted with tuition being lowered down to $5000 / year by Merit $$4. She did not apply for merit scholarships, she got them automatically. She has chosen a different school. Good number of kids from our HS (not necessarily very top students) got very good financial packages from Case Western. Couple have chosen to attend.</p>
<p>mikew,</p>
<p>sometimes colleges sent letters to my d advising her of their merit scholarships. sometimes she received phone calls and emails as well. she had scored well on the PSAT.</p>
<p>additionally, we did a lot of research here on cc and at other websites.......(petersons.com.........and princetonreview). </p>
<p>we also emailed the admissions reps and honors dept. staff at additional colleges and provided d's gpa, class rank, ACT, and PSAT score (d was later named an nmf). in the email we would inquire about merit aid opportunities. one thing that was helpful was to note the name of each college mailing received in a spreadsheet we kept. we then used this list to contact colleges about merit aid. it never hurts to ask. start with in-state schools and expand to schools in adjoining states. sometimes colleges want to lure top students to their state from an adjoining state.</p>
<p>in most cases, d applied to the college, was accepted, and her financial aid package then indicated what merit aid had been awarded. </p>
<p>good advice we received on cc was that d should apply to at least 8 to 10 colleges. she ended up applying to 15 and made her decision by the end of April.</p>
<p>d included applications to need based colleges also. sometimes institutional grants were awarded from those need based only types of schools.</p>
<p>so mike........don't be entirely focused on applying only to schools known for good merit aid........include some need based schools in the list too.</p>
<p>some colleges have merit aid calculators on their websites. look for those. </p>
<p>google and read everything you can on "tuition discounting" and "merit aid." read also about "institutional method, federal methodology, and consensus methodology." some schools are FAFSA only schools.</p>
<p>you can glean a lot of information by reading the "common data set" for the colleges too if that is available. also look at "freshman profile."</p>
<p>I believe some on cc have suggested subscribing to the premium online edition of usnews and world report. that sounds like a good idea and something i plan to do for ds and younger d (still yet to go through the process).</p>
<p>keep in mind that merit aid is sometimes awarded on a first come basis........so get applications in early.</p>
<p>have you already run your numbers through an EFC calculator to see what your EFC amount is? princeton used to have one on their website. i think there are others on the internet......try the collegeboard website. i think merit aid usually reduces loans and grants, not the EFC, so read up on that too.</p>
<p>miamidap - d received a merit aid offer from case too. it came with her financial aid award. i don't believe she had to complete a separate application. </p>
<p>mikew - the financial aid packages includes:</p>
<p>grants and scholarships
loans
work study</p>
<p>and also notes your EFC amount separately from the above. look at some sample financial aid packages.......you can probably google and find some.</p>
<p>there were times it was indeed necessary to apply for financial aid and the merit aid award was noted in the financial aid package.</p>
<p>thank you all for your comments. lots of helpful info here! and my post is at the top of the featured discussions page! woo hoo!!!</p>
<p>haha</p>
<p>: )</p>
<p>i have been researching all links you have posted. and i am getting quite edjumacated on the subject .. so ... thanks bunches.</p>
<p>my student is a good student, but not a stellar student like many here on CC. top 20% (200/1200) at pretty competitive suburban high school. above average PSAT score (that's all we have to go on so far), not sure of gpa (probably about 3.5 unweighted (weighted, higher)), all honors and AP classes, not a lot of ECs due to being in the band but she does have some.</p>
<p>Hope it helps...and I LOVE your screenname (put that thing back where it came from, or so help me!)</p>
<p>OP, one thing that other posters have mentioned is to check on the GPA a student must maintain in order to remain eligible for the scholarship, esp. if you can't afford the school otherwise. Some places offer generous merit money, but require a 3.5 college GPA, regardless of major, to renew the funds, which can be VERY tough, esp. in a major like engineering. </p>
<p>I've read stories here of folks who got burned by this, and others who negotiated with the school (before matriculation) for a lesser scholarship amount, but with a more reasonable GPA to maintain it.</p>