In our case, we did not qualify for financial aid…and my kid wasn’t at the top (or even the upper 50%) of accepted students so we didn’t receive merit aid either.
I heard them tell on the webcast today that ten percent receive merit aid
Meaning no disrespect, that’s the university’s stance for public consumption, and not necessarily the unadulterated truth (I say this as a recipient of a $10k award). My feeling, based partly on my interaction with the university, is that admissions has the larger voice; a “faculty committee” is deliberately vague language, which can mean anything from half a dozen tenured professors who vigorously debate each case to three new hires who pulled the short straw and rubber-stamp 150 offers a year.
I wasn’t offered any merit aid when admitted, or shortly thereafter. Just before the cascade of RD decisions began, I still hadn’t committed and Chicago upped its offer. That doesn’t seem like a coincidence, and anecdotally everyone I’ve spoken to who committed soon after being admitted received no merit aid (some had ample need-based aid, allowing them to enroll right away).
*Some of the full scholarships are a different beast, but those account for a small share of merit aid recipients.
Interesting perspective, NotVerySmart. My son received his merit award at the same time as his (EA) admission. The few other merit aid cases I’ve heard of (mostly on CC) did too. But your experience and that of others does suggest that admissions is using merit aid to boost yield. Though a significant admissions influence is not incompatible with a significant faculty influence either: it’s quite possible (and even likely) that admissions first filters applicants in terms of both merit and yield protection potential, and then a faculty committee makes the final cut on the basis of merit.
As for the “public consumption” part of the faculty committee involvement, I’m not sure they really stand to gain much PR-wise by that. Few of their peer schools still offer merit aid, let alone claim that faculty are involved in merit aid decisions, which suggests it’s not particularly effective as mere “window-dressing.” At Chicago, it seems to be a kind of long-standing tradition and part of the ethos, as well as a more pragmatic means of competing with peer schools. Yes, the amount of influence the faculty have here could be somewhat limited, but if so, why bother making the claim at all? Most peer schools seem to think the bigger PR payoff lies in offering only need-based aid.
Giving only need-based aid makes sense when you can rely on prestige to seal the deal in cases where full pay is a stretch but do-able. Chicago doesn’t have that kind of prestige for many parents. But offering what appears to be a purely financial inducement/discount to attend U of C would just reinforce the perception that U of C isn’t quite an HYPS peer. “Merit Aid,” on the other hand, suggests that your kid will be top of the class at U of C vs. who knows where at HYPS. It’s a more persuasive framing (and there’s still the financial inducement). So it makes sense to give it to kids who are likely to be hot commodities on the admissions market (could be for a variety of different reasons) and/or to kids whose mixed signals (EA but slow to sign but willing to commit before RD results) suggest that such an inducement will clinch the deal (for a variety of different reasons).
This interpretation envisions a faculty committee dominated by economists, LOL!
@OHToCollege I think that the amount given varies a whole lot. If I were to guess I’d say from ~5k - ~50k. With new donations they’re able to offer more merit aid so the merit aid will probably get better with time. Here’s an example of a somewhat new donation that has been used to give some new merit scholarships awards: https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/costs/neubauer
Merit aid stacks with financial aid.
@NotVerySmart has it on the (merit) money.
I personally know no less than five (!) people who called in to tell the admissions office that they really wanted to commit but had a tempting, cheaper offer from a lower ranked school, and subsequently the university decided they deserved a merit award.
It’s used very, very strategically to protect yield, and they are good at it. They give out the ones at admission to people who they think will get into schools that are arguably more prestigious and reserve many for people on the edge.
I know a guy who was offered 20k a year with his admission.
He thought Honors Analysis was too easy. We’re talking future Putnam fellows, not “average” (what a ridiculous world we live in) 4.0/34 applicants.
According to College Data, 30.8 percent of all undergraduates received merit aid.
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=327
UChicago gives auto-merit in the form of $4,000 per annum for National Merit Scholars. I would wager NMS awards make up a large percentage of the merit aid recipients.