Merit Aid Percentage from Common Data Set

<p>You just have to dig in a little bit:</p>

<p>INSTRUCTIONS:</p>

<p>(1) Go to www . collegedata . com and click on “COLLEGE MATCH >Search for colleges.”</p>

<p>(2) Type the name of the college in the box (e.g. Yale), then click on the matching entry that pops up (“Yale University”)</p>

<p>(3) Click on “Full Profile” in the upper right-hand corner, next to the Adobe Icon and it will bring up a PDF profile that I believe is from the college’s common data set submission.</p>

<p>Here is the hyperlink: [CollegeData:</a> College Search, Financial Aid, College Application, College Scholarship, Student Loan, FAFSA Info, Common Application](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com%5DCollegeData:”>http://www.collegedata.com)</p>

<p>==============</p>

<p>Re: Muhlenberg, </p>

<p>Out of 652 freshmen, 339 applied for financial aid, and 234 were found to have need. That leaves 418 who do not have need. There were 171 merit-based gift awards to freshmen without need, average amount $10,585. That means that 171 out of 418 non-need students (41%) got awards. </p>

<p>(By comparison 60 of the 234 freshmen with need (26%) got merit awards.)</p>

<p>From Muhl’s website: <a href=“http://www.muhlenberg.edu/finaid/merit.html[/url]”>http://www.muhlenberg.edu/finaid/merit.html&lt;/a&gt;
“Approximately 150 new students enroll at Muhlenberg each year with some kind of merit award from the College.”</p>

<p>Muhlenberg is remarkably candid about their preferencial aid packaging and merit awards.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.muhlenberg.edu/admissions/aid.html[/url]”>http://www.muhlenberg.edu/admissions/aid.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Yale is worth looking at in terms of the EFC being far lower than average. From the website:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Thanks, Dad’o’2, that is a wonderful resource.</p>

<p>I understand your figures, but I don’t understand Muhlenberg’s. They report that 171 freshmen without need received merit-based gifts, and they call that 31% of the freshmen without need, which sounds like exactly the category you are also calculating. Where do you think they get that percentage? 171 is 31% of about 552, but I don’t find that number (or 551) anywhere.</p>

<p>I see your point. No idea where the 31% comes from.</p>

<p>1) Be careful when you use these numbers to make the decision for applying/attending the colleges. You need to consider the requirements for merit scholarship renewal.
2) My daughter’s experiences for this year 09-10 are as following</p>

<pre><code> a) Case Western offers her 27.4K/year for 4 years undergrad with overall GPA >= 3.75 and some minimum GPA of science courses requirements for renewal
b) USC gives her full tuition scholarship (Trustee scholarship) with much over GPA requirement for renewal
c) Brown gives $0.00, but she decided to go to Brown after consulting with her parents!
</code></pre>

<p>thanks dado2…you rock!</p>

<p>here’s a reminder to students/families when looking at the schools, check with the f/a office to see what their undergraduate stacking policy is…as there may be different policies and not all schools follow the same policy.</p>

<p>undergraduate stacking policy? Sounds like putting three freshmen in a double dorm room;) Could you elaborate?</p>

<p>GPA requirements for maintaining a merit scholarship are certainly an important factor to consider when deciding which school to attend. My son has to maintain a 3.0 at Case to keep his scholarship. That doesn’t sound too bad, but he has taken up to 19 hours per semester load including tough math, science, and engineering courses, took AP credit for several intro classes that might have been easy A’s, and elected to take the more rigorous options for math courses. If the threshold was 3.75 the money would have been long gone. He is right on the borderline now, and I have reminded him that keeping above the magic 3.0 means a difference of tens of thousands of dollars. (Those AP credits don’t look as attractive right now as they used to.) </p>

<p>This post was reallly aimed at characterizing how schools distribute their “merit” money for students who don’t qualify for need-based financial aid. Obviously these numbers don’t tell the whole story, circumstances can change, etc. If you qualify for need-based aid, then you have a very different search criterion. If your kid can get into Yale or Princeton, you might get “need-based” aid not available elsewhere. With those stats, you might get one of the big-dollar merit scholarships from Duke or JHU, as well. For the rest of us, it is interesting to see that there are some schools that seem to discount tuition a big percentage of kids for whom they don’t have to give need-based money.</p>

<p>dado2…“3 frosh in a double dorm room”…lol</p>

<p>stacking…relating to stacking of scholarships…usually something like the annual aggregate of the combined awards cannot exceed the total coa or it might be…cannot exceed the value of full tuition…or you might see that the policy only allows that certain scholarships can be stacked while others cannot. it’s one of those things where the student has to really check with the financial aid office for each of the colleges of interest to see what their particular policy on stacking is…hope this explanation makes sense. i know others here on cc can give a better description than me…so please feel free to chime in :)</p>

<p>to get a general feel for this…google “scholarship stacking policy” or similar terms and you’ll find some links.</p>

<p>also…find out the school’s policy on private scholarships and how they affect the financial aid package (does accepting a private scholarship reduce the aid package?)…versus how scholarships from the college themselves affect the financial aid package (no reduction in the aid package?).</p>

<p>good work dado2…your info. has been helpful. i never thought about the ap credit scenarios.</p>

<p>Dad’o’2, are you still taking requests? </p>

<p>If so, Rice and Wash U St. Louis.</p>

<p>Added Rice & Wash U for sacchi;
New and improved! Now alphabetized, with indentation and arbitrary smilies!</p>

<p>(Just to recap, I find the number of non-need students getting merit aid divided by the total number of non-need students. This gives an indication of how likely it is for a non-need student to get a merit award at a given school.)</p>

<p>Legend:
School…
non-need kids with awards %;
$ average non-need award
(# non-need awards / # non-need freshman)</p>

<p>
American…36%; $16,086 (367/1027) :slight_smile:
Brandeis…25%; $17,940 (128/513)
Brown…0%; $0 (0 / 863)
Bucknell…6%; $11,126 (30 / 465)
Carleton…12%; $2,990 (33/265)
Case Western…71%; $20,329 (189 / 265) :smiley:
Colo College…7%; $10,961 (26/391)
Dartmouth…1%; $450 (4 / 562) :rolleyes:
Delaware…28%; $6,073 (654 / 2342)
Dickinson…9%; $10,571 (31/331)
Duke…3%; $36,009 (30/1025)
F&M…39%; $12,844 (129/335) :slight_smile:
Fairfield…11%; $18,232 (43/401)
Fordham…47%; $9,259 (489/1032) :slight_smile:
Gettysburg…30%; $10,665 (103/346)<br>
Goucher…40%; $13,951 (117/294) :slight_smile:
GW…27%; $22,632 (441/1624)
JHU…2%; $27,471 (14/621)
Lafayette…24%; $12,894 (56/229)
Manhannan…48%; $8,443 (226/466) :slight_smile:
Maryand…30%; $5,441 (695 / 2298)
Muhlenberg…41%; $10,585 (171/418)
Northeastern…72%; $13,970 (876/1224) :smiley:
NYU…9%; $7,250 (327/3456)
Pitt…18%; $13,504 (294 / 16544)
Princeton…0%; $0 (0/559)
Rhodes…75%; $13,060 (200 / 265) :smiley:
Rice…35%; $15,912 (176/508) :slight_smile:
Richmond…11%; $29,539 (61/571)
Rochester…73%; $9,620 (388/529) :smiley:
RPI…94%; $14,085 (436 / 464) :smiley:
Smith…13%; $8,973 (35 / 272)
St. Joseph…28%; $9,885 (13/46)
Syracuse…27%; $9,440 (390/688)
TCNJ…47%; $6,386 (320/688)
Ursinus…36%; $12,381 (60/169) :slight_smile:
USC…30%; $13,757 (706/2381)<br>
UVA…15%; $7,403 (411/2658)
Vandy…23%; $12,879 (223/982)
Villanova…10%; $8,972 (96/991)
Wake…8%; $12,427 (66/815)
Washington Co…49%; $12,211 (94/190) :slight_smile:
WashU…25%; $9,460 (242/969)
WPI…87%; $12,288 (158 / 181) :smiley:
</p>

<p>lol, great improved version, Dad’o’2!</p>

<p>Thanks very much, Dad’o’2!</p>

<p>I’ve updated the chart to include Davidson, Elon, Furman, UNC-Chapel Hill and William & Mary. The smilies didn’t copy, so if Dad wants to weigh in on these results, he is welcome to do so.</p>

<p>A parent who wishes to obtain an even better idea of the odds of his or her child receiving significant aid could compare the average non-need award to the total cost of attendance. Some colleges seem to give a high percentage of merit aid but the amount given is very small compared to COA.</p>

<p>(Just to recap, I find the number of non-need students getting merit aid divided by the total number of non-need students. This gives an indication of how likely it is for a non-need student to get a merit award at a given school.)</p>

<p>Legend:
School…
non-need kids with awards %;
$ average non-need award
(# non-need awards / # non-need freshman)</p>

<p>American…36%; $16,086 (367/1027) 
Brandeis…25%; $17,940 (128/513)
Brown…0%; $0 (0 / 863)
Bucknell…6%; $11,126 (30 / 465)
Carleton…12%; $2,990 (33/265)
Case Western…71%; $20,329 (189 / 265) 
Colo College…7%; $10,961 (26/391)
Dartmouth…1%; $450 (4 / 562) 
Davidson…21%;$19,079 (57/269)
Delaware…28%; $6,073 (654 / 2342)
Dickinson…9%; $10,571 (31/331)
Duke…3%; $36,009 (30/1025)
Elon…34%; $5,670 (282/835)
F&M…39%; $12,844 (129/335) 
Fairfield…11%; $18,232 (43/401)
Fordham…47%; $9,259 (489/1032) 
Furman…50%;$16,230 (154/307)
Gettysburg…30%; $10,665 (103/346)
Goucher…40%; $13,951 (117/294) 
GW…27%; $22,632 (441/1624)
JHU…2%; $27,471 (14/621)
Lafayette…24%; $12,894 (56/229)
Manhannan…48%; $8,443 (226/466) 
Maryand…30%; $5,441 (695 / 2298)
Muhlenberg…41%; $10,585 (171/418)
Northeastern…72%; $13,970 (876/1224) 
NYU…9%; $7,250 (327/3456)
Pitt…18%; $13,504 (294 / 16544)
Princeton…0%; $0 (0/559)
Rhodes…75%; $13,060 (200 / 265) 
Rice…35%; $15,912 (176/508) 
Richmond…11%; $29,539 (61/571)
Rochester…73%; $9,620 (388/529) 
RPI…94%; $14,085 (436 / 464) 
Smith…13%; $8,973 (35 / 272)
St. Joseph…28%; $9,885 (13/46)
Syracuse…27%; $9,440 (390/688)
TCNJ…47%; $6,386 (320/688)
UNC-CH…31%;$4,646 (820/2634)
Ursinus…36%; $12,381 (60/169) 
USC…30%; $13,757 (706/2381)
UVA…15%; $7,403 (411/2658)
Vandy…23%; $12,879 (223/982)
Villanova…10%; $8,972 (96/991)
Wake…8%; $12,427 (66/815)
Washington Co…49%; $12,211 (94/190) 
WashU…25%; $9,460 (242/969)
William & Mary…3%; $7,396 (32/993)
WPI…87%; $12,288 (158 / 181) </p>

<p>How about - Loyola Marymount; Occidental, Chapman, University of Miami (FL), Univ of Connecticut?
Tx in advance</p>

<p>Here’s UCONN (using 2009 CDS data):</p>

<p>Legend:
School…
non-need kids with awards %;
$ average non-need award
(# non-need awards / # non-need freshman)</p>

<p>American…36%; $16,086 (367/1027) 
Brandeis…25%; $17,940 (128/513)
Brown…0%; $0 (0 / 863)
Bucknell…6%; $11,126 (30 / 465)
Carleton…12%; $2,990 (33/265)
Case Western…71%; $20,329 (189 / 265) 
Colo College…7%; $10,961 (26/391)
Dartmouth…1%; $450 (4 / 562) 
Davidson…21%;$19,079 (57/269)
Delaware…28%; $6,073 (654 / 2342)
Dickinson…9%; $10,571 (31/331)
Duke…3%; $36,009 (30/1025)
Elon…34%; $5,670 (282/835)
F&M…39%; $12,844 (129/335) 
Fairfield…11%; $18,232 (43/401)
Fordham…47%; $9,259 (489/1032) 
Furman…50%;$16,230 (154/307)
Gettysburg…30%; $10,665 (103/346)
Goucher…40%; $13,951 (117/294) 
GW…27%; $22,632 (441/1624)
JHU…2%; $27,471 (14/621)
Lafayette…24%; $12,894 (56/229)
Manhannan…48%; $8,443 (226/466) 
Maryand…30%; $5,441 (695 / 2298)
Muhlenberg…41%; $10,585 (171/418)
Northeastern…72%; $13,970 (876/1224) 
NYU…9%; $7,250 (327/3456)
Pitt…18%; $13,504 (294 / 16544)
Princeton…0%; $0 (0/559)
Rhodes…75%; $13,060 (200 / 265) 
Rice…35%; $15,912 (176/508) 
Richmond…11%; $29,539 (61/571)
Rochester…73%; $9,620 (388/529) 
RPI…94%; $14,085 (436 / 464) 
Smith…13%; $8,973 (35 / 272)
St. Joseph…28%; $9,885 (13/46)
Syracuse…27%; $9,440 (390/688)
TCNJ…47%; $6,386 (320/688)
UCONN…22%; $6,866 (322/1448)
UNC-CH…31%;$4,646 (820/2634)
Ursinus…36%; $12,381 (60/169) 
USC…30%; $13,757 (706/2381)
UVA…15%; $7,403 (411/2658)
Vandy…23%; $12,879 (223/982)
Villanova…10%; $8,972 (96/991)
Wake…8%; $12,427 (66/815)
Washington Co…49%; $12,211 (94/190) 
WashU…25%; $9,460 (242/969)
William & Mary…3%; $7,396 (32/993)
WPI…87%; $12,288 (158 / 181) </p>

<p>lnguye02, congrats to your student. Brown is a wonderful school, even full pay.</p>

<p>I was confused by your comments on USC’s Trustee scholarship, though. The requirement to keep the full tuition merit award is maintaining a 3.0 GPA–which is not a burdon to most of the academically strong students who would qualify for this award in the first place (USC hands out over 100 4-year (5 years for BArch) full-tuition merit awards to new admits each year). In addition, USC gives students one year probation (with full scholarship) if they fall below the 3.0 in order to pull it up.</p>

<p>Still looking for: Loyola Marymount; Occidental, Chapman, University of Miami (FL),
thanks for UCONN though.</p>

<p>Adding Grinnell:</p>

<p>Legend:
School…
non-need kids with awards %;
$ average non-need award
(# non-need awards / # non-need freshman)</p>

<p>American…36%; $16,086 (367/1027)
Brandeis…25%; $17,940 (128/513)
Brown…0%; $0 (0 / 863)
Bucknell…6%; $11,126 (30 / 465)
Carleton…12%; $2,990 (33/265)
Case Western…71%; $20,329 (189 / 265)
Colo College…7%; $10,961 (26/391)
Dartmouth…1%; $450 (4 / 562)
Davidson…21%;$19,079 (57/269)
Delaware…28%; $6,073 (654 / 2342)
Dickinson…9%; $10,571 (31/331)
Duke…3%; $36,009 (30/1025)
Elon…34%; $5,670 (282/835)
F&M…39%; $12,844 (129/335)
Fairfield…11%; $18,232 (43/401)
Fordham…47%; $9,259 (489/1032)
Furman…50%;$16,230 (154/307)
Gettysburg…30%; $10,665 (103/346)
Goucher…40%; $13,951 (117/294)
Grinnell …46%; $9,269 (50/108)
GW…27%; $22,632 (441/1624)
JHU…2%; $27,471 (14/621)
Lafayette…24%; $12,894 (56/229)
Manhannan…48%; $8,443 (226/466)
Maryand…30%; $5,441 (695 / 2298)
Muhlenberg…41%; $10,585 (171/418)
Northeastern…72%; $13,970 (876/1224)
NYU…9%; $7,250 (327/3456)
Pitt…18%; $13,504 (294 / 16544)
Princeton…0%; $0 (0/559)
Rhodes…75%; $13,060 (200 / 265)
Rice…35%; $15,912 (176/508)
Richmond…11%; $29,539 (61/571)
Rochester…73%; $9,620 (388/529)
RPI…94%; $14,085 (436 / 464)
Smith…13%; $8,973 (35 / 272)
St. Joseph…28%; $9,885 (13/46)
Syracuse…27%; $9,440 (390/688)
TCNJ…47%; $6,386 (320/688)
UCONN…22%; $6,866 (322/1448)
UNC-CH…31%;$4,646 (820/2634)
Ursinus…36%; $12,381 (60/169)
USC…30%; $13,757 (706/2381)
UVA…15%; $7,403 (411/2658)
Vandy…23%; $12,879 (223/982)
Villanova…10%; $8,972 (96/991)
Wake…8%; $12,427 (66/815)
Washington Co…49%; $12,211 (94/190)
WashU…25%; $9,460 (242/969)
William & Mary…3%; $7,396 (32/993)
WPI…87%; $12,288 (158 / 181)</p>

<p>I am very grateful to the OP for posting this information and getting me starting thinking about this. To help others, I’m posting the following description of how to figure this out for colleges in which you’re interested: </p>

<ol>
<li> Find the Common Data Set for the college. There is a stickied thread on CC with links, or you can do an internet search.</li>
<li> Go to section H. Figure the number of students without need; H2a) minus H2c). For Grinnell, it was 378 - 270 = 108.</li>
<li> Go to H2An) to find the number awarded merit aid. For Grinnell, it was 50.</li>
<li> Result 3 divided by Result 2 = percentage awarded merit aid. 50/108 = 46%.</li>
<li> See H2Ao) for average non-need award. For Grinnell, it was $9,269.</li>
</ol>

<p>If you figure these stats out for another college, please add it to the list!</p>

<p>Added Sewanee - University of the South. Note: it seems a shame that because the dollar totals include grant and scholarship money (although grant money is non-applicable for full-pay students) does not permit us to determine what the average scholarship money given to need-based students. That might be very interesting to compare the differences. </p>

<p>Legend:
School…
non-need kids with awards %;
$ average non-need award
(# non-need awards / # non-need freshman)</p>

<p>American…36%; $16,086 (367/1027)
Brandeis…25%; $17,940 (128/513)
Brown…0%; $0 (0 / 863)
Bucknell…6%; $11,126 (30 / 465)
Carleton…12%; $2,990 (33/265)
Case Western…71%; $20,329 (189 / 265)
Colo College…7%; $10,961 (26/391)
Dartmouth…1%; $450 (4 / 562)
Davidson…21%;$19,079 (57/269)
Delaware…28%; $6,073 (654 / 2342)
Dickinson…9%; $10,571 (31/331)
Duke…3%; $36,009 (30/1025)
Elon…34%; $5,670 (282/835)
F&M…39%; $12,844 (129/335)
Fairfield…11%; $18,232 (43/401)
Fordham…47%; $9,259 (489/1032)
Furman…50%;$16,230 (154/307)
Gettysburg…30%; $10,665 (103/346)
Goucher…40%; $13,951 (117/294)
Grinnell …46%; $9,269 (50/108)
GW…27%; $22,632 (441/1624)
JHU…2%; $27,471 (14/621)
Lafayette…24%; $12,894 (56/229)
Manhannan…48%; $8,443 (226/466)
Maryand…30%; $5,441 (695 / 2298)
Muhlenberg…41%; $10,585 (171/418)
Northeastern…72%; $13,970 (876/1224)
NYU…9%; $7,250 (327/3456)
Pitt…18%; $13,504 (294 / 16544)
Princeton…0%; $0 (0/559)
Rhodes…75%; $13,060 (200 / 265)
Rice…35%; $15,912 (176/508)
Richmond…11%; $29,539 (61/571)
Rochester…73%; $9,620 (388/529)
RPI…94%; $14,085 (436 / 464)
Sewanee-UotS 53%; $13,735 (117/220)
Smith…13%; $8,973 (35 / 272)
St. Joseph…28%; $9,885 (13/46)
Syracuse…27%; $9,440 (390/688)
TCNJ…47%; $6,386 (320/688)
UCONN…22%; $6,866 (322/1448)
UNC-CH…31%;$4,646 (820/2634)
Ursinus…36%; $12,381 (60/169)
USC…30%; $13,757 (706/2381)
UVA…15%; $7,403 (411/2658)
Vandy…23%; $12,879 (223/982)
Villanova…10%; $8,972 (96/991)
Wake…8%; $12,427 (66/815)
Washington Co…49%; $12,211 (94/190)
WashU…25%; $9,460 (242/969)
William & Mary…3%; $7,396 (32/993)
WPI…87%; $12,288 (158 / 181)</p>

<p>6 more are easy … the IVYies do not give merit aid … Brown and Princeton are already on the list at 0% … you can add Columbia, Cornell, Darmtouth, Yale, Penn, and Harvard at 0% also.</p>

<p>I also believe most of the NESCAC schools (Amherst, Williams, etc) do not give merit aid either … so these are some other high profile schools that might be easy to add</p>