Good afternoon-- My d has been accepted into three state schools. Two of the state schools included merit $ with her acceptance information. UGA is probably the most competitive of the three and did not include any merit $ information. How and when does the school communicate any merit awards? Thanks!
They’ve awarded some, but they say they’ll keep releasing merit decisions through the end of March. I believe it will show up on the portal when/if awarded.
I do think this process UGA follows disadvantages them to top oos students. Knowing earlier re both honors and money (not one or the other) could draw greater interest.
@lulurat The top OOS students are awarded merit EA. They even sweeten the offer for some in the spring. The RD award process is a little slower.
@itsgettingreal17 I don’t ink it’s that straight forward. I wish it was. There are many posts of kids offered automatic honors no merit, others merit, no honors. If truly top iOS students, the 2 would match. Fun fun 
@lulurat Not every honors student receives a merit award. There just aren’t that many scholarships. I’m not sure they still have it up on the website, but there usually is a chart with the approximate number of scholarships of each type. There just aren’t enough for all the excellent students. Same goes for honors. The have to make judgment calls. Most merit is given out during EA.
I understand for sure. Maybe the rumors of kids getting merit and no honors are incorrect.
This was 6 years ago so not sure if it’s still relevent - son was admitted EA, honors, was in state so had Zell Miller to cover full tuition - however, sometime in the spring they added scholarship money he never applied for - it was something like $2500 either semester or year for “leadership”…he had some minor leadership roles in band and youth local government. I think it may have been after RD was awarded they go back add leftover merit money to the admitted students. He ended up going to Auburn, however, had he wanted to be anything but an engineer, he’d be at UGA. Great school.
During a recent visit with Admissions, we were told that approximately 40% of the merit aid was distributed already through EA and that the balance would be awarded to EA and RD students - including some students that had been accepted previously but hadn’t yet been awarded any merit $.
@threeofthree - not saying that your comments aren’t accurate in terms of how it was managed in the past, but I read on the admissions blog recently that if merit $ are offered to admitted students who ultimately choose not to enroll, that they do not reallocate those $ to other students that year and that their methodology accounts for this variability from year to year. Maybe it’s changed since your son went through the process?
Well that was a guess on my part because of when it showed up on his account - in the spring after RD and without applying for it.
Totally possible!
@itsgettingreal17, I saw from one of your posts your D is in the Honors Program. I was wondering if you could let me know your daughters experiences. Feel free to post here or pm. Thanks in advance.
@Smyhre I will PM you.
Our D was admitted RD in late Feb, one of the first RD decisions back, We are OOS so Georgia gave merit equal to half the difference between in and out of state tuition. Was not accepted into Honors. UGA seems to definitely the best value of all colleges she was accepted, U-Michigan, U-Miami, Bucknell, Boston College. We are from northeast, oldest D at Clemson and this youngest D is concerned about going to southern school and bias against those from northeast as she has been to visit Clemson numerous times. Even so, oldest D has had great experience at Clemson but this one is more liberal thinking.
@Smyhre You don’t have enough posts for me to PM you. Sorry.
@itsgettingreal17 Thanks for communication. I knew I couldn’t pm you due to posts, but I didn’t know you couldn’t due to me not having enough posts…I will work on 
Has anyone received an email from Admissions regarding merit aid? According to the Admissions Office, they are working to complete the merit scholarship awarding process and will be sending out email in “early April”. Not sure if the email has been sent and the process is complete or if they are still finalizing decisions.
Per the UGA Admissions blog:
“I expect that all scholarships will be finished this week and an email will go out this week alerting people when we are done. Sorry for the delay.”
Thanks for the info. When checking the blog, I do not see this. When was this posted, and where do you see it. Thanks again.
http://ugaadmissions.blogspot.com/2019/03/2019-freshmen-final-admits.html?m=1
Last entry stamped “a day ago” before “two days ago”