<p>Hello all, sorry if this has been addressed before, but I've been looking at a lot of small LACs that offer merit scholarships, several of which I feel like I am a strong candidate for, but am slightly dismayed to hear that winning a merit scholarship can merely decrease the amount of grant aid a school gives you. In other words, the price my family would have to pay does not change, assuming they give me need-based aid. Is this correct? </p>
<p>I am wondering if there are schools where this is not the case, where merit aid decreases your EFC, not your need-based aid. Thanks!</p>
<p>We have noticed this trend with our D as well. That said I think there is a bit of a silver lining to the story. The schools that will offer you merit aid are likely very interested in your attendance and their overall packages reflect that. </p>
<p>Our D received sizable merit scholarship offers from a number of very good schools, but in the end the best package was from a top 10 LAC that offers no merit aid and only need based aid.</p>
<p>Well, just for perspective, the merit schools I’m looking at are Beloit, Grinnell, Rhodes, Whitman, Willamette, Colorado College, Lewis & Clark, Oberlin, and Kenyon. Not saying that I’m a shoo-in, but I think I have a fairly good shot at merit from at least a few of these. However, I want to know if there’s a way to obtain merit aid that directly detracts from my family’s out-of-pocket expenses. Otherwise, there’s no reason for me to attend any of these instituions over a need-only school like Carleton or Pomona since the package would probably be similar.</p>
<p>I do know that Colorado College will allow outside merit scholarships to directly reduce your EFC. Also, I believe their aid packages are still locked in for the 4 years. Sorry, dont know anything about the others. My suggestion might be to apply and see what you get, then compare. Just remember to have a financial safety that you love.</p>
<p>I was sort of hoping that Beloit could be that safety. CC would be a great school for me, but I’m worried about 1) getting merit aid and 2) how that merit aid will affect my EFC. Thanks for the reply.</p>
<p>I really think a lot of this depends on what your EFC is. With us, for example, our EFC is more than the COA of any college. So merit scholarships directly reduce our EFC/cost. For someone with a lot of need, that is not so much the case. You have to figure out where you stand.</p>
<p>what is your situation?</p>
<p>If the merit scholarship is big enough, then it reduces EFC.</p>
<p>Obviously, in Sylvan’s case, when EFC exceeds cost, then any merit reduces what the family pays. However, when EFC is less than COA, then a lot depends on what your need is and the amount of COA.</p>
<p>Examples…</p>
<p>COA = 60k
EFC = 25k
need = 35k</p>
<p>To reduce EFC in the above scenario is difficult since that would require a huge merit scholarship that is larger than $35k. Those are rare.</p>
<p>COA = $40k (tuition is $23k)
EFC = $30k
need = $10k</p>
<p>In the above scenario, if the student were to receive a full tuition scholarship ($23k), then his “new EFC” would be $17k. He would have nearly cut his EFC is half! :)</p>
<p>COA = $50k
EFC = $20k
need = $30k</p>
<p>If the student gets a typical $10k-15k merit scholarship, then it won’t make any difference in his EFC. The school will FIRST apply the merit, then (maybe) apply some grant money, then apply loans and work study.</p>
<p>The only way I know this can happen is if a college gives you a scholarship big enough that it covers the need and then some. Though most schools have outside scholarship decrease loans and work study first, if a student does get enough that it starts affecting the need based grant money, yes, it too is reduced. The only reason a student gets the need grant at all is because s/he has demonstrated need. It is not a scholarship, not based on merit, and any number of kids might have gotten that money before you had they had need, so there is no entitlement to those grants other than the need. So take away that need, and why should you get that money? Pell is an exception to this as it is a federal entitlement grant based solely on EFC though most college integrate this into their need packages as well.</p>
<p>When i spoke to an administrator at a local university that does give out nice merit awards, he told me that those awards are given totally without any regard to need. All students are awarded completely based on what the rating is from admissions which operates on a need blind basis.</p>
<p>It’s when financial aid gets those students that have applied, and packages are put together, that the need has to be adjusted for those who have received those merit awards, ROTC scholarships and outside awards. Though need blind in admissions and merit awards, the school does not meet 100% of need, so it falls short each year in the money it has to meet their pool of accepted students who have applied for financial aid. So if your son has a need figure of $20K, and gets an ROTC full scholarship or a $30K merit award, then his need is reduced accordingly. It stretches the aid money so that more kids get more of their need met, but even then, they fall short each year.</p>
<p>That’s kind of a drag! I think my federal EFC is around 16k but institutional could be over 30k, not that my family can afford to pay 30k a year…</p>
<p>SgtDonut - keep in mind that if a school is awarding Federal financial aid - Pell grants, subsidized Stafford Loans, or Federal Work Study - they are required to adjust your need down by the amount of your outside scholarships, otherwise they will be giving you an “over-award”, which is not allowed. As others have indicated, many schools will reduce your Stafford loans and work study before reducing their grants. </p>
<p>Here’s something else to consider though, and perhaps ask about in your situation, since you have a federal EFC that is significantly lower than your institutional EFC. Some schools will adjust your EFC down to the federally computed level in order to let you apply your outside scholarships without reducing their grants. Dartmouth does this - here is the wording from their website:</p>
<p>“How will my financial aid award be adjusted if I receive an outside award/scholarship?
Students who receive scholarships from external sources can use funds to reduce the loan and/or job portions of their financial aid packages. If the outside scholarship is greater than the self-help level, the family responsibility can be reduced to the federal level. Dartmouth scholarship is reduced as the last resort.”</p>
<p>[Frequently</a> Asked Questions](<a href=“http://www.dartmouth.edu/~finaid/fao/faqs/#O/S]Frequently”>http://www.dartmouth.edu/~finaid/fao/faqs/#O/S)</p>
<p>I would bet that there are some small LAC’s that might do this for you if you ask them. It’s certainly worth a shot.</p>
<p>That’s kind of a drag! I think my federal EFC is around 16k but institutional could be over 30k, not that my family can afford to pay 30k a year…</p>
<p>Are you a senior? If not, then you need to apply to schools that give very large merit. If your family can pay about $15k then you need a full tuition scholarship. Then your family’s $15k can cover room, board, books, and misc. If they can’t pay $15k, then you could reduce that by taking out a $5500 student loan.</p>
<p>Thankfully, no, I’m not yet a senior, just a very concerned junior… I’ve been looking for large merit scholarships from the college itself, and so far, the University of Alabama looks like a decent option. But I’m wondering if there are any better schools (not to sound snobby) that give full tuition scholarships?</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Frankly, Alabama is the highest ranked school that gives scholarships like they do. You’d have to look at lower ranked schools to find similar scholarships.</p>
<p>Bama is ranked #75. What ranking are you looking at? </p>
<p>To give you an idea…with the same stats at Purdue, you’d get about $9k per year…that’s not even half tuition. And, as an OOS student, you would not get any other money…so you’d have to pay about $30k per year. </p>
<p>It sounds like you’d qualify for full tuition scholarship at Bama. That means that your remaining costs would be about $12k or so ( depending on dorm selection). You’re not going to find a deal like that at a higher ranking school.</p>
<p>Bama is also unusual because at least 10% of the frosh get these full tuition scholarships. That’s very unusual for a school to do. </p>
<p>Look at it this way…the higher ranking schools have too many high stats kids…why would they give them merit or much merit? </p>
<p>You should visit Bama…I think you’d be surprised…many kids from your state go to Bama.</p>
<p>Yeah, it’s definitely starting to look like a good option. Thank you for answering my questions. Last two: is there any reason to apply for lots of outside scholarships if the award amounts are relatively small, like a few thousand or so? Wouldn’t this only reduce my grant aid?</p>
<p>I can give you specifics from Grinnell and Willamette as I have actual numbers in front of me:</p>
<p>First off, Willamette does not meet need so don’t even worry about that. My D received 21k in merit from Willamette and 15k merit from Grinnell. Both schools have billable costs (tuition, fees, room, board) of 50.5k +/- $100. After her merit award Willamette had billable costs of $29,594 and Grinnell had billable costs of $35,618 - quite a big difference in favor of Willamette at this point. If you were a “full pay” student at this point you would save money attending Willamette (travel, etc. aside). However, the difference comes in need based grants. Total billable cost for our family after grants are Willamette $19,944 and Grinnell $12,718.
To give you another example, my D has an academic safety FAFSA only private option that does not provide any need based grants. She received 27k in scholarships and another 3k will come after IB diploma completion bringing total billable cost after scholarships to $15,252. For a no need student this would be the least expensive option by far (other than state schools - see mom2 and BAMA).</p>
<p>In most cases scholarships will reduce loans first (a good thing) before cutting into grants if included in package or efc. They never cut into merit scholarships that I am aware of.</p>
<p>I don’t think I have no need whatsoever, but basically full-need schools in the end are cheaper unless you receive an enormous merit scholarship from other schools?</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Not sure what you’re saying. How much will your parents pay?</p>
<p>Frankly, outside scholarships are often for small amounts, have a “need” component, AND are only good for frosh year…so won’t help for soph, jr, and senior years. If you want merit, apply to the SCHOOLs that give it…those are usually for all 4 years.</p>
<p>In most cases scholarships will reduce loans first (a good thing) before cutting into grants if included in package or efc. They never cut into merit scholarships that I am aware of.</p>
<p>Actually there are some privates that will reduce an institutional merit if outside merit is given. These schools generally state this on their websites…they may say something like, “a student may only receive merit scholarships UP to the cost of tuition.” in those cases, if tuition costs $30k and the student was given a full a full tuition scholarship and then received $5k in outside scholarships, the institutional one would be reduced. These seem to be schools that have very limited funds and want to give as much as possible to as many kids as possible…and adjusting (reducing merit) after outside merit helps them to that.</p>
<p>My parents are somewhat unclear/unwilling to take about finances with me, which is particularly frustrating at this stage in the game. Around 20k is somewhat reasonable, they’ve said, as I’m trying to avoid taking out loans, if possible. Several colleges give estimates on their NPCs in this range, so that’s good. I’m looking at (mostly) schools that give merit aid so that maybe there will be one that is significantly more affordable. However, it’s disheartening to learn that merit doesn’t really do anything if they’re full-need, it just makes them pay less for you in need-based. And outside scholarships are the same thing… So unless you get a huge scholarship you basically have to take what you get.</p>
<p>I’m not really clear on what you would expect to happen, SgtDonut, in an ideal scenario. The “schools known for good merit aid” thread is helpful. There is also a thread somewhere on automatic scholarships. (I think both are in the Parents forum.) But what mom2collegekids posted way upthread (post #7) sums up the methods of getting costs below EFC. Basically you either need to go to a school where the costs are already below EFC or you have to get a merit award that dips into EFC. </p>
<p>If your parents have told you they’re willing to pay around $20K, that’s data you can use! Some of the LACs in the Midwest are fairly generous, though the level of generosity is going to depend a lot on how strong a student you are. In addition to the schools you mentioned in post #3, I’d suggest looking at Denison University, Kalamazoo College, College of Wooster, Earlham College and Cornell College; these schools all give merit aid. In most of these cases, the websites spell out the opportunities pretty clearly. Amounts in the range of $15K to $20K are not out of the question; it’s possible to get more, though, by applying to special scholarships or if you are especially well qualified. But you probably shouldn’t expect these LACs to do much better than meet your EFC unless, say, you’re lucky enough to get one of the full-ride deals at Rhodes (maybe one a year?) or something similar at Denison (which has a few $40K scholarships but count on those to be offered to a small number of the best candidates). </p>
<p>There are lesser-known and lower-ranked LACs that may give more. If I were you, I’d look for some of those schools. These would be schools that fit into that sweet spot of being strong enough academically strong and having an applicant pool where you are in the top 10 percent.</p>