Merit Award Amount

Congratulations to all that have been accepted. Now sitting down with parents and trying to figure out how to pay for school. Would be interested to hear what levels of Merit Awards were made available in the packets.

My daughter received a $12,000 grant. I am a bit worried that this is just for one year. I have heard rumors that USD doesn’t renew grants the next year. We’ll be asking about it on Saturday. The grant is the only thing that makes it somewhat affordable.

As far as my experience (two students currently attending) - merit awards are automatically renewed each year. Grants (which are different from the merit awards) are also
renewed as long as you still have ‘need’ (based on the FAFSA and cost of attendance). So
if you have a big income jump or a 2nd child is no longer in college and your need goes below the grant amount,
the grant will go down. The grant paperwork also states emphatically that the grant
amount will not be increased in subsequent years - so basically what you see is what you get.
Even if you have increased need the following years, the grant won’t go up. The merit awards
do not go up either even if tuition rises, etc.