<p>I can only go to Northwestern if they accept me and I get aid. However, my family makes way too much to recieve need based aid. Can I get 10,000 + in merit aid with a 34 ACT, 4.2 GPA, 6 AP's (all 5's), nothing special for extra-curricular.</p>
<ol>
<li>Does Northwestern offer merit aid?
Northwestern is an institutional sponsor of National Merit Scholarships. In addition, the School of Music awards a number of talent scholarships to incoming students with outstanding performance in auditions. The remainder of the Northwestern scholarship funds are awarded in accordance with our need-based financial aid policy which allows our uniformly high quality students to attend regardless of their ability to cover the cost.</li>
</ol>
<p>It’s unclear what your plan is, but I would DEFINITELY apply anyway. Even if you don’t think you’ll get aid, NU has put quite a bit of funding into bolstering its financial aid program. If you want to go to NU, I think its worth the application to find out if it is financial feasible. </p>
<p>The other cool trick is to wait until your admissions cycle has ended. If you got in to NU but also got into another school w some merit money, you can let NU know that you got merit money elsewhere and that could be a deciding factor for you. NU might give you a bit more merit money bc it knows that those dollars are fulfilling the truest intent of financial aid - getting kids who want to come to NU and NU wants to come to be able to attend. (I got an extra $3k/yr from Emory by letting them know that I had basically a full-ride @ GW, so it can be done).</p>
<p>In the meantime, focus on those applications and SAT/ACT if you are retaking! None of this matters unless you get accepted!</p>
<p>Yeah, one person in my school didn’t go to Northwestern because of the cost. Northwestern called and asked why, and they then offered her a scholarship.</p>
<p>It’s worth applying and seeing what kind of package they give you. Other than National Merit, Northwestern does have a semi-merit-based/semi-need-based scholarship called the Founders Scholarship (see this page [Scholarships</a> & Grants: Undergraduate Financial Aid: Northwestern University](<a href=“http://ug-finaid.northwestern.edu/topics/prospective/scholarships_grants.html]Scholarships”>http://ug-finaid.northwestern.edu/topics/prospective/scholarships_grants.html) about halfway down). It says it’s for students from middle income families, but my family would probably be considered upper-middle class, i.e. my dad makes enough money that our EFC is like $50-60k, but realistically we’d never be able to afford full tuition. My Founders Scholarship is for $7500/year.</p>
<p>They might also give you a work-study allowance.</p>
<p>Who did you contact to be eligible for the founders scholarship? We are ok with son this year at NU (freshman) because he received $7k in outside scholarships that got rid of WS and loan - but 4 of that is for one year only and next year it is going to be tough without the 4k. Our EFC is in 25k range so we should qualify.</p>
<p>Everyone who applies for financial aid is automatically considered for the Founders Scholarship. I believe it’s only given to incoming freshmen for all 4 years so I don’t know that your son would be able to get it for next year and beyond.</p>
<p>My family’s EFC is like 80k because my parents have a lot of assets. Does this make merit aid even less likely? This is all assuming I get in of course.</p>