<p>I found that the general college merit scholarships were based on statistics, but that I had to apply specifically for scholarships within a certain department, in my case classic departments that offered merit scholarships.</p>
<p>DS's merit money offers came with his acceptances. In no case did we have to fill out anything extra. They were based on the strength of his application (I assume the overall picture, no one ever said, "This offer is because of your GPA or your SATs.") One of the offers required him to join the college's Honors Program and maintain a 3.something GPA. But another school offered $10k/year, all 4 years, with no minimum GPA - he just had to be "progressing" toward a degree to keep the money. And that offer wasn't contingent on him being in the college's "honors" program.</p>
<p>In the end, DS turned down all the merit money offers to go to a full-price school.... and we didn't discourage him, because we really thought it was the best school for him. And he's very happy there, has made great friends, and is doing very well academically.</p>
<p>mikew, i think baylor and southwestern (tx) both had merit aid calculators at one point on their websites. i don't know if they still do but you might run those and look for calculators at other colleges as well.</p>
<p>Be sure to check the applications as well. Some schools have earlier deadlines for merit scholarship applications than for regular applications. Many require the student to apply for financial aid, too, even if you don't qualify. Our came with the admit letter.</p>
<p>Oh, yey, forgot to mention that FAFSA might be extremely important for getting MERIT $$$ at some schools. It is at my Ds. School strongly recommended to file FASFA to receive the most MERIT $$ that student is eligible even in cases when family knows for sure that they are not eligible for need based. We are not eligible for need based. Each school might have their own rules and requirements in regard to financial aid. It is important to follow them without questionning. </p>
<p>Another point, there are considerable additional MERIT $$ for returning students for the following year based on freshman GPA. At D's school, they have to apply to them, they are not automatic. My D mentioned that most kids do not apply, thinking that they do not have a chance. D. applied to every single one that was sent to her by school in email. She got additional $4000 for her sophmore year. It might vary from school to school, but it is definately worthwhile to strive for high GPA and not skipping to apply.</p>
<p>There is one "automatic" merit scholarship outside of NMF types. DS2 was the Rensselaer medal winner junior year in high school. I hadn't known of this award but it conveys a guaranteed $15,000/year scholarship for 4 years at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. This was a nice way to start the college app season and RPI gets an applicant they would not have had before.</p>
<p>It's also very important to know - if you think you are eligible for financial aid - that merit aid is often given "within need," meaning it doesn't necessarily reduce what the student would have to pay even if she didn't get the scholarship. If you don't qualify for need based aid, then go for the merit aid without question. The strings they may have attached are going to be worth it.</p>
<p>My kids got plenty of merit aid offers, including a $20,000 annual scholarship form one school, but in the end the non-merit-aid-granting schools gave them the best offers.</p>
<p>Forgot to say that U of R is notorious for this.</p>
<p>Like others who wrote in, we eliminated from D's list all but one school that did not give merit aid since we knew we were not qualifying for any financial aid. (We kept in one full fare school which was her favorite -- on the outside chance that she did not get merit aid from the others.)</p>
<p>Once we determined what schools gave any merit aid, we really researched to find out the particulars for each school. She had to write specific essays for some merit scholarships and audition (sing/act ) or send portfolios for others. For some, it paid to declare a particular major to qualify for a specific departmental award.</p>
<p>This was our experience:</p>
<p>NYU - $10K talent (vocal auditions)
Brandeis - $15K Dean's scholarship (visited, interviewed, sent vocal tape and art portfolio slides)
Muhlenberg - $19K (several special applications/scholarships--wrote essays, auditioned in acting and voice, sent portfolio of art work)
American University - $22K total ($20K through regular application-visited and interviewed, $2K from music department after audition and applying as music major.)
GW- $15K talent scholarship (through vocal audition)</p>
<p>Some schools have merit money for which there are minimums or guidelines stated, but then you also apply, like USC and it seems to go to the 1500+ old SAT type kids</p>
<p>Other schools, Whitworth, Baylor, etc, have merit money base don SAT/GPA/rank stated on their site for every single kid who qualifies and if your situation is unusual they will try to find a way to help justify you qualifying; their purpose is to bring strong students in at a discount. Put one or two of those on your list, in geographical areas you prefer and it is nice to have a rolling admission school in October offering you a 4 year $48k package plus any need based aid for which you qualify</p>
<p>My s was out on some of the college websites that have scholarship calculators and has started to receive some letters about scholarships in the mail. I believe that you have to fill out contact information in order to use some of the calculators. Today's letter was from Ohio Dominican about a merit scholarship for $14000/yr. I asked s how he found the scholarship calculator and he said the google search 'scholarship calculator tuition' was what he used. The colleges weren't on his list, but it is interesting to see nonetheless.</p>
<p>If you are talking unsolicited merit aid,
D got a Furman Scholar award at the end of junior year:5K per year with chance for the full ride Lay scholarship.
Just opened the mail this weekend, and Auburn will give her full tuition plus other awards if she becomes a National Merit Finalist.
Kings College in NYC will give her 12K per year if she applies.
There have been others mailed to her last year but I haven't had a chance to go through those letters yet.</p>
<p>We made every mistake in the book with our oldest. He got very little in merit money, and he could have gotten a lot, had we known better. With his stats, despite a hook, he needed to look for much less known colleges where he would have been truly sought. Any of the "name" schools were not going to give him much if anything. The second one got talent scholarships and also "out of the way" awards because he did apply to some schools where he had advantages geographically and typewise. Where we did really well, however, was when we looked for the money, and planned as we did with our third. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the single prognostic sign for merit money, in my opinion, is the test scores. High test scores seem to trump all when it comes to significant merit money. The rest seem to mostly be icing on the cake.</p>
<p>^I say that GPA is just as important if not more, in particular, if a kid is top of class, it is bringing a lot of merit $$$. There are merit scholarships available just for Honors students - being in Honors at college in many cases requires combo of GPA (ranking) & SAT/ACT scores. D's package kept on growing and final one was much more than originally aniticipated after she indicated her plan to enroll. There were some named Merit scholarships that we were not aware at all and never applied for or knew their qualifications. D. has chosen her school based on other criteria, and we were very pleasantly surprised by generosity. So, keep in mind that final package might exceed what originally inidicated.</p>
<p>ONe of them was competitive and she had to apply for it. The others were offered with the acceptance letter. Both her GPA and her SATs and subject test scores were very high. Also really good recs. But we were surprised to get them because we didn't know it worked that way (that they would just offer them). One of her real reach schools accepted her, but they didn't offer money. The higher you are on their "applicant desirability scale," the more they will offer you merit money as an incentive to go there.</p>
<p>The merit offer my S accepted came after the college sent him their EA decision. He contacted the person in the admissions office who he had meet at his HS college weekend and had a question for her. He mentioned that he was planning on visiting the weekend before President's Day. She told him to wait and that (off the record) he would be receiving an invitation to a potential scholars' two day event on campus in March and that the college would pay for the airfare. </p>
<p>I think they notified him that he had received the scholarship in late March.</p>
<p>My son's merit fell out of the sky like manna from heaven! Seriously, we anticipated one NMSF offer after he was accepted, but he was offered (some) merit aid from three other schools that just came in the mail either with or shortly after the acceptance letter. I think parents who really go after this and research their options can find merit for most top students. And these days, who doesn't want to save tens of thousands of dollars a year?</p>
<p>The Ivies don't give any merit aid. I suppose if they did, they would have to give aid to everyone! D got a Robert Byrd scholarship for good SAT and GPA. The application was just fill out the name-address etc bubbles. I think the GC sent in the scores. Now it's just a bit up in the air about its continuation or changes. There was a thread about that earlier this year.</p>
<p>DD got Byrd, too- that one depends on your state rules and your school policy, in many states the school can only nominate 2 people and that's it. In CA you are chosen based on UW GPA so the school needs to nominate a 4.0 UW w high SAT.</p>
<p>I have not read anything this year on the funding, but every year it is dependent on congressional funding and it can arrive as late as December for the fall term.</p>
<p>Washington & Lee gave 44 full merit scholarships last year.</p>