Merit Aid replacing Need Aid?

Paying for College
21

There just aren’t that many schools that offer merit and meet full need, so this situation doesn’t happen as often as a student benefiting from getting a merit scholarship and some need based aid. The local scholarships usually do help the student and don’t just reduce the aid a school would otherwise give since most schools are not meeting full need. The outside awards my kids received benefited them directly and didn’t reduce any school awards.

The most elite schools don’t offer merit, so it is not an issue. Some of the schools that do meet full need don’t offer a lot of merit or it is very competitive. I see where the OP was confused by Northeastern combining merit and need on the NPC, but some NPCs are just not that accurate.

22

I’ll take another tack : clearly Northeastern wants your son due to his high stats. He should email admissions and explain that you’re 5k short compared to your EFC, and you thought that you could use either the merit scholarship or the federal loans to bridge the difference. Unfortunately your current financial aid package makes his attending impossible because the loans are already packaged in. Calling on professional judgement, is there a way to review the financial aid application, considering … expenses are mandatory and. … (there’s another child in college/a parent will have to retire soon and needs to think of that)?

At worst, nothing will change, but you could get the 5k ‘missing’ (from your message above it sounds like that’s what takes the school from 'a stretch ’ to ‘impossible’).

23

Yes, we struggled with this realization a few years back – the key thing is, EFC is the EFC – merit etc does not hit that side of the equation.

24

Full rides don’t really exist.
Yes, our kids work their butts off, but the costs of colleges have increased significantly, and the grant money has decreased significantly.

High school counselors are aware and try to guide students to “non-ivy league” schools, where there is some funding, but the families want prestige and still believe that “my honor student” will get money from everywhere.

So, if you really want your kid to go to the schools they want, you budget, belt-tighten, have had a 529 since early on and apply to schools you can afford. My kids intentionally didn’t apply for outside scholarships for URM’s because they couldn’t commit the time on 20-page applications that would garner only $200.

25

At the end of the day, you must remember that parents are first in line to pay for their kids to attend to college .
Any merit or need based aid that your child receives is provided by the generosity or other people’s parents who are full freight payers, alumni and other who so generously give to the endowment, so that there can be financial aid and merit $ to give. No one is entitled to other people’s money.

ETA:

Actually, this is Northeastern’s policy on outside scholarships

Northeastern now meets 100% demonstrated need. Even if your son had not gotten a merit scholarship, he would have just gotten the amount as a need based grant leaving your EFC the same.

26

@ucbalumnus I think you have a typo in your final sentence. The schools tend NOT to apply merit scholarships,against the family contribution.

The only exception would be when a student gets a full ride merit award…or in some cases a full tuition merit award. Sometimes these do reduce the family contribution.

That is NOT the case with this OP’s son.

27

“Last” meant after reducing financial aid grants. Obviously, if there is scholarship remaining after reducing student contribution and all financial aid grants (and unmet need, if any) to zero, it reduces the family contribution.

28

It’s not a valid analogy.

A Merit award is an ** inducement to sign a contract.** A school’s merit award is not fungible. It’s a discount that is applicable only at THAT school-- much like a manufacturer’s coupon for a box of dishwasher detergent. The school has calculated that the student’s SAT/ACT scores are worth X amount to it, to enable the school to climb the rankings. A Merit award is not Santa’s reward for being nice.

A Christmas gift is an end in itself. Receipt of a gift is not conditional upon the recipient spending money. Plus, gift money is fungible. It can be spent on ANYTHING.

29

Northeastern doesn’t seem to have been subtle about buying high stats to play the ratings game, it is hard to imagine how it becomes a top pick for any kid who needs to manage college costs, it is a tippy top priced school without being a tippy top school with the endowment. I suspect many kids with good stats have schools like NE in the wild card basket that wouldn’t even get a look in if top state schools gave out merit or FA.

30

Northeastern has co-ops, and a lot of kids pay for a semester, work for a semester.

31

Lots of schools have optional co-ops, but Northeastern is one of the few schools (along with Drexel and Cincinnati) that make co-ops a centerpiece of the curriculum and sell themselves with that.

32

Odd man out here. NEU sounds like itmmet the family need as NEU calculated it to be. The family hoped that their family contribution Would also be able to be covered. That is seldom the case. Colleges expect the familynto pay the calculated family contribution.

33

I think there is definitely a level of prestige associated with your child’s merit scholarship. It is something that can be put on a resume someday and may help land a first job or even internship while in school. It is disappointing that it appears it won’t help your pocketbook at all for the next 4 years, but maybe it will help get your child’s post-college career going. Very impressive accomplishment.

34

My kids got scholarships,at their undergrad and grad schools. Neither ever put it on a resume.

I just think having aid NOT tied to income is a plus.

35

Current freshman at Northeastern here. I was in this exact same surprised situation at this time last year.
I’ve actually decided to transfer to another school because of the lack of aid. And I regret not taking advantage of those NMF scholarships, too.

Obviously, I’m biased, so please take what I’m saying with lots of grains of salt.

Northeastern is very good at admissions - getting the high stats kids with honors, and scholarships. The honors program (as it is now, it’s undergoing some changes) is definitely a perk and will make your kid’s first year easier for sure.

But the financial aid department is a nightmare to work with. It’s a big school, so it’s a big bureaucracy, which is completely understandable. But, overall, it’s very difficult to negotiate for any more grant aid. I’ve spent the last 9 months trying to do so, with the paperwork to prove a ~$20k loss in income, and I still wasn’t given any more aid. In fact, my aid decreased, because I was told that “the increased Pell Grant will cover it.” They seemed unaware that Pell Grants won’t change this year with the prior-prior info.

Another big thing to consider - merit money doesn’t increase with tuition/COA. Need-based aid is supposed to increase each year for inflating costs, but I don’t have any experience with that. But by replacing your need-based aid with merit money, they’re putting those inflation costs on you.

Finally, the MOST important thing I’ve found about NEU’s aid: They don’t re-up your package after those small, one-time scholarships are gone. I had a couple thousand $ in scholarships for my first semester, and they simply took away all of that amount in need-based aid. You would think it would come back the next semester (when I didn’t have those outside scholarships), right? But no. There was just a gap left there.

One bright spot - you’re always given work-study money if you originally qualify for it, no matter the scholarships/need-based aid you get. There’s too much work-study money for everyone, so they don’t usually take it away. And there are plenty of jobs.

A last thing to consider - you’ll end up paying more than your financial aid package says you will. My package mysteriously added about $2000/semester in EFC by the time April rolled around. This happened to every single other person I’ve met here that has need-based aid. It’s kind of a shady practice, if you ask me.

Other than the financial aid aspects of things, I really have had a great first semester here. If I could afford it (and they had the program I’d like to switch to) I would stay. But I’ve exhausted pretty much every avenue there is, and the financial aid just wasn’t there.

I will say that NEU is a great school academically, and there are many opportunities in research, activities, even sports if you want it. But it just didn’t work out in my experience. Please feel free to message me if you have any specific questions or even just about the honors/freshmen experience in general.

And again, I’m just a freshman trying to navigate this situation, so there are so many more people on CC that know a lot more about this than I do. Just thought I’d chime in because I have a little bit of experience in this one area.

36

<<<
Tribruin wrote:
But, I still feel that scholarships (specific merit/talent/athletic, where the student had to earn it) should be used to reduced the students/family cost of attendance FRIST.


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You seem to be assuming that colleges have unlimited aid to give out. NEU isn’t HYPS with a massive endowment.

Once your child has merit in hand, your child has “less need”.

If you want to reduce your EFC, then the student needs to apply to schools where the merit is so HUGE that the remaining costs are what you’d like to pay.

Remember, parents are “first in line” to pay for their child’s college…NOT THE COLLEGE. Colleges that give need-based aid are simply doing that…looking at the “need” (after merit and federal grant, if present), and then helping with that need.

37

Think of the college like your Uncle Jack who you’ve asked to help with your child’s college costs. Your calculated contribution is - say - $15,000. Uncle Jack says he’ll help with the rest…which is $45,000. Then your child is given a $10k merit scholarship.

Don’t you think Uncle Jack, who is just helping you with YOUR child’s education, should have his “help” reduced instead of you? Would you tell your child “not to bother” because why should you help out Uncle Jack?

38

Northeastern is a school very much on the radar of high stats kids with high EFCs because it pays for those stats. As a result, the school is filled with very smart kids, which brings in even more very smart kids. For a full pay family like ours, the merit definitely means merit - we have a big discount off the $65k price tag that we would not get from an Ivy. There aren’t very many high caliber schools out there that help families who can’t afford the $65K that FAFSA and the profile say they can afford. So yes, NU definitely rewards kids who work hard - maybe it’s easier to see when you contemplate having to pay the full COA.

NMF kids get a $30K merit scholarship once they list NU as their #1 school. Also, depending on your student’s major, the amount of money (let alone the learning and life experience) that can be earned from prestigious co-ops at top companies is jaw dropping. Good luck to your son, OP. If it works for your family, NU is a fabulous choice.

39

As a few other posters have mentioned in one way or another, a college is a business. Non-profit, sure, but still a business. Merit money is a marketing tool to entice the family to attend.

The college has two main goals for freshman admissions: 1) make enough money through tuition/fees/room/board to meet the overall budget threshold; 2) formulate a freshman class with the highest statistics (GPA and test scores) so students will succeed and be more likely to return in subsequent years and graduate. High stats also make the college more attractive to future applicants because the college is viewed as more prestigious.

How does a college meet their budget for the freshman class? They entice students to sign a contract that makes the student/family pay the most possible. The financial aid award has to be attractive enough for the student/family to sign but also maximize the amount that student/family will pay. The process is much like a house purchase transaction… the college is the house seller and the student/family is the house purchaser.

If a given student/family decides the value of signing the contract isn’t there, the student/family can sign a contract with another college. However, the college knows there are plenty of other applicants in the “negotiation” (i.e. admissions) stage. If a particular family doesn’t sign a contract, the college has plenty of other offers on the table with other families to meet the budget.

For the OP, NEU has decided that the value of your son attending is X dollar amount. The negotiation ball is now in your court.

40

We all recognize and appreciate the enormous expense involved.
Merit Aid is most beneficial for full pay families. The Uncle Jack example is spot on. Students and Families need to realize that what is wanted has no bearing on what will be. Ideally being aware of these particulars before applying would save all involved the emotional pain.
Take those great stats to Alabama or another college with full or nearly full scholarship opportunities. Look at Honors programs with your in state public schools.
Paying for college is difficult for all but a very small percentage of the population.
Understanding how the financial elements work before applying is so critical.