<p>I just got my presidential scholarship ($15,000 per year) letter in the mail yesterday and was very surprised as I was under the impression that Brandeis did not offer merit aid; there is nothing about these scholarships on the website. I also did not apply for financial aid. I am shocked but thrilled; my mom and I will try to change our flight to be able to attend the scholars day.</p>
<p>We received the blue folder in the mail yesterday, filled with a confirmation letter and a nice window sticker for our minivan.</p>
<p>However, no letter informing us of merit aid
(which by the way, I would have gladly put in my van’s rear window, rather than the Brandeis sticker!)</p>
<p>Oh, well. I guess this means we would be paying retail.</p>
<p>D would like to visit again before she decides, (no problem since flights/hotels are free all the time, I will just go to the magical $ printer and print more. sigh…)</p>
<p>@Darthdad, I am still not clear on whether these letters come in the packet or not. Some of the posts seem to imply they come separately, and no one has clarified either way. So maybe don’t give up hope quite yet…?</p>
<p>Jandjdad indicated (post #10) that “the return address was Scholarship Office Brandeis University in bolded letters to avoid being lumped in with the junk mail…” That’s not the return address of the admissions packet. I am therefore assuming that some of these letters are being sent out separately. [Not that that means my D is still going to get one, of course.]</p>
<p>Okay, I can answer some questions because my daughter also received a letter by snail mail offering her the $15,000/yr Presidential Scholarship and we did not apply for FA. We also assumed that no merit aid would be offered. She intially got an e-mail stating to log onto her account regarding acceptance, and then the letter came in the mail afterwards. Regarding her stats, she has an unweighted GPA of 3.96, and a weighted GPA of 4.66 She had a 34 on the ACT. She is very active in community service activities. Muhlenberg at 5 p.m. yesterday posted instructions to log on to the student’s financial aid account and merit awards were listed there.</p>
<p>So to clarify, did the merit scholarship info come separately from the admissions packet or together? Also, how far from Brandeis do you guys live, my son is waiting for a scholarship letter (hopefully!) and we haven’t gotten it yet. The admissions office said they were sent out wednesday night.</p>
<p>My D got the merit scholarship information after she learned she was accepted and it was postmarked 3/19/2013. She actually was sent an e-mail to log onto her account a day or two before to see the admissions decision. We live in Maryland.</p>
<p>So for those of you who have received Merit Awards, do they show up online anywhere also? We’re not counting on any money from Brandeis, but at this point it is the only school my son has been accepted to that has not given any merit aid. And of course – it is his first choice school. Argh!!!</p>
<p>For my son it does not show up online. He was invited to join the Leader-Scholar Program via email (there is another thread about that), and award of the Presidential Scholarship came about 6 days later via snail mail after he heard he was accepted (and we live in MA). So, consider all of these extra perks ‘by invitation only’, and if you/your child was invited, it’s extra special. If no invitation appears, it probably means it wasn’t meant to be. Even so, congratulations on getting into an extremely high caliber university where many others only dream of attending.</p>
<p>Are we supposed to get an acceptance letter in the mail, even if we don’t get financial aid?</p>
<p>I think so, StaticRoar. We did not get Financial Aid, but my son got an Admissions Packet in the mail a few days after the acceptances went up on the Portal. However, the Scholarship information was sent separately by mail, and the invitation to join a Leader-Scholar Community of Living was sent separately by email.</p>
<p>Following up: Dean’s Scholar letter was separate from admit letter. D’s stats were 3.9 UW GPA, 2220 SATs.</p>
<p>My older d rec’d a deans scholarship in 2008. It totalled $15k a year. Although we took the offer quite seriously and Brandeis was a top consideration, it seems that the school was well known for their merit aid and many ivy candidates applied, got accepted, but were not enticed by the merit aid to enroll.</p>
<p>So Brandeis changed their policy focusing on financial aid. When my younger d was going o apply last year, they made it very clear at their info session not to expect merit aid except or very specific awards. </p>
<p>D ended up going ED to NYU, but I followed the threads last year to see what actually happened, since there were some people in our community who spoke to admissions and were told conflicting stories. </p>
<p>In the end, merit was awarded to top candidates. The amounts were lower, and I’m sure the candidates who got the awards were more likely to enroll because they weren’t expecting $.</p>
<p>This new policy must be successful since they seem to have repeated it for 2013.</p>
<p>DD received snail mail letter awarding Dean’s Scholarship of $10k, still haven’t received admissions packet. Didn’t apply for FA, so pleased to get merit.</p>
<p>Congratulations pkdof13!!</p>
<p>Small letter came today with no merit. Ah well, cross Brandeis off the list.</p>
<p>Why didn’t you apply for FA?</p>
<p>Is the Alumni and Friends Scholarship per year or one time only?</p>
<p><a href=“Merit Scholarship from Brandeis - Brandeis University - College Confidential Forums”>Merit Scholarship from Brandeis - Brandeis University - College Confidential Forums;
<p>We live in California. Is there still hope since it takes the mail longer to get here?</p>