Merit Aid

What sort of students does Rochester award scholarships to? I understand the variety of merit aid that is offered, so it obviously differs from case to case, but do students have to be out of this world good, or just talented and committed to one thing? Do tippy top grades and test scores guarantee anything in terms of scholarships? What sort of EC’s do students who get full tuition for, say, a science focus?
Any info on this would be great

If you fill out the NPC at Rochester’s FA page, after you get your need-based estimate, you can click on link that will bring up typical merit award profiles.

Here’s the link to the profiles:

enrollment.rochester.edu/afa/html/estimator/merit.aspx

Tippy top grade grades/scores will not guarantee a merit award at UR unless you’re a NMF who designates UR as their first choice school before the deadline. NMF winners get a guaranteed $17,000/year merit award for 4 years from UR plus the NMF award itself.

Dean Burdick also posted about the kinds of things that are associated with merit awards at UR here:

http://blog.enrollment.rochester.edu/blog/blog-admin/quotwhat-kind-of-scholarship-can-i-getquot-v1

The only full tuition merit scholarship offered by UR is the Renaissance & Global Scholarship. There are 20 per year awarded. Winners are exceptional individuals.

Here’s a list of UR’s merit scholarships:

http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial-aid/undergrads/#tab3

Are there scholarships for around 40k? I didn’t notice a particular amount on that list

I don’t think there’s a $40K scholarship other than the Renaissance & Global which is worth about $47K.

What is an average amount of the most awarded merit? Trying to see if it will bring us to number we are looking for. If not, we’ll cross Rochester off right away even before a decision. Are they comparable to Case Western’s merit awards? Need about 20K.

I would say that UR awards are pretty comparable to those given by Case. The 2 schools tend to compete for the many of the same students.

When D2 was a student (a few years ago) most merit seemed to be in the $18-$22K range.

Be aware that:

^^ is from 2011 so the stats may have changed since then.

Wanted to add this link–which list the ranges of all of UR’s merit awards;

https://www.■■■■■■■■■■/page/meritAid/programList.jsp;jsessionid=0E0BA28F485C87844A1A6229D71CA9E1.tomcat-main08?id=195030&collegeID=195030

I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the site, but the amounts look about right to me based on D2’s experiences.

(I guess I should mention that D2 had some pretty high-achieving friends [BS/MD admits and Ren scholars] and was a high achiever herself who received one of UR’s larger merit awards.

IPEDS lists the average grant awards for UR students as ~$26K, but that amount includes a combination of merit plus need-based grant aid.

D’s UR merit award was generous, but not full tuition or even the $40,000 @TexasTeen99 mentioned. It did make the total package roughly equivalent to our (admittedly very expensive for STEM students) state flagship…for Freshman year, at least. So even without additional grant awards, it would still have been (barely) within our predetermined budget. I think the comparison to Case that @WayOutWestMom suggested makes sense based on our experience. There used to be a widely disseminated set of “profiles” attached to merit award amounts that seemed pretty true to our experience as well, but I’ve noticed that that particular presentation seems to have disappeared this year, so it may not be as on-the-mark as it used to be.

I think it plays differently from Case because there is no EA at Rochester. There is a higher probability of getting an award or higher award at Case because they don’t see the entire applicant pool and must guess where the EA applicants would land and how many total applicants they will end up with.

@WayOutWestMom‌

Hi, can you help me with my situation?

I received a Dean’s Scholarship of $19,000.

This combined with listing UR as my top choice on the national merit finalist website on March 2nd (I can’t find where the deadline was), will I get $22,000 + $19,000 = $41,000 in merit aid? Did I miss the deadline for NMF? I’m very confused by this whole thing lol. If I didn’t miss the deadline and the scholarship is guaranteed, the 2 scholarship can sum, right?

Were we supposed to have received notification of the national merit finalist scholarship by now?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Son was awarded $60,000 ($15000 per year) FIRST Robotics Scholarship. He qualifies for the Xerox Scholarship and the Meliora scholarship so will wait

Daughter just got her email…checked MyRoc and received 14k merit. Full financial information will come soon.

Son awarded $18k/year for Deans scholarship. Nice but Still waiting to see if any further aid comes along, as price tag for URoch still very high.

@singermom4 - My daughter applied to Case EA and received a merit award that was a more generous than Rochester’s (which she received yesterday). She was awarded about what I expected from Rochester based on information they have published and what I have heard from other similar students.

@VMT - thanks - that’s kind of what we’re expecting. Although Rochester is higher ranked in the programs he is interested in, cost to get to and from Rochester would be more too - as well as time. Have to say it’s slipping down the ranks. And with no EA and lower acceptance rate than Case we’re expecting a smaller award (if at all) - we were pleasantly surprised by the amount from Case.

@takanuva - what do you have to do to qualify for xerox and meliora scholarships?

@takanuva and @theanaconda‌

It’s UR’s stated policy to only award ONE merit scholarship per student.

If you/your student have/has already received one merit award, you will not receive another.

From UR’s financial aid page:

http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial-aid/undergrads/#tab3

Thanks @WayOutWestMom‌

@eth0up‌
Not that it matters since it seems students are awarded only one Merit scholarship.
My son was a Xerox Award for Innovation and Technology winner from high school and that qualified him for that scholarship and both me and my husband are U of Rochester alumni and that qualifies him for the Meliora scholarship (he had to write an additional essay for that one). Interestingly, I don’t think he ever submitted his FIRST Robotics scholarship application but his team mentor must have submitted the letter of recommendation.

it seems for those who qualify for financial aid merit based scholarship doesn’t matter much. It cancels out and the total amount of scholarship stays pretty much the same. I kinda understand when two merit based scholarships can’t be added, but merit based and need based? Most likely this would be the reason my son is’t going to this school.