<p>I got the $10,000 scholarship. Interesting. I didn't even apply for any scholarship. I'm guessing you get automatically qualified.</p>
<p>Anyways, so do I have to do anything? I got the letter that I got the scholarship, but now what?</p>
<p>Congratulations. Watch for more mail from the Financial Aid Office. There’s an acceptance letter you’ll need to sign and return… and within the first week or so of classes, you need to visit the Registrar and FinAid to fill out some more paperwork. Even if you’re full pay aside from the merit money, you still have to fill out the FinAid paperwork. Most important thing – when you’re on campus, check your email regularly. They’ll tell you everything you need to know.</p>
<p>I thought they weren’t going to announce the recipients of the $10,000 merit awards until April. I thought that’s what the admissions person told me.</p>
<p>I’m not sure either but the EDers receive their FA awards now, and merit s-ships are a part of FA, so wouldn’t an EDer know now whether s/he got the s-ship? Just curious. Maybe previous EDers can tell us if they’d received the 10k merit award for their FA award?</p>
<p>Well, I guess my kid didn’t get one of the Merit awards then, because he didn’t get a letter. Oh, well. We’re still very, very happy at our house.</p>
<p>OP’s from socal so you never know with the mail espesh with it being holiday peak. Anyway I read somewhere that they had wanted to decrease the # of merit awards from previous years 
but I dont know if that’s reliable</p>
<p>I’ve heard they changed some things about the $10k merit award this year. Qualifying used to be formulaic; don’t know whether it still is. Last year the merit notice came out to EDers with their FA package, which was mailed separately about a week after the acceptance letter.</p>
<p>Yes, there was a big change this year. Last year, it was a set forumla based on test scores and class rank. This year it was changed to be more subjective. Partly, perhaps, to reduce the numbers, but more importantly, I think, to change some of the unfairness of the previous system (e.g. class rank absoutlutley had to be top 10% and did not differentiate betwen weighted and unweigted rank, so kids from schools that did not weight AP classes or kids from highly competitive schools were at a huge dissadvantage). This gives them a chance to evaluate who they feel are the top applicants, but there is a lot less certainty. The official notice should come with FA packages as previously noted.</p>
<p>Hmm… I suppose there is probably still some possibility of other EDers to receive the merit award after the RD accepted pool is known, since the award is based on how you compare to others in the admitted class as I understand it?</p>
<p>And clearly not all financial aid awards are known at this time - national merit doesn’t happen until February…</p>
<p>I got it with the packet about financial aid, just for those who are wondering</p>
<p>and I probably got it because of the different system because I’m not in the top 10% (phew), but my school is pretty hard and my class is doing exceptionally well.</p>
<p>Congratulations, maruhan2.</p>
<p>Although I like the old formula based scholarship criteria for planning purposes, I do see how it is more fair to take school rigor into account instead of using the rigid top-10% rule. I’m hoping that they have not reduced the qty of scholarships by much. Good luck to all!</p>
<p>What I was lead to believe was that the $10,000 aid was this year being awarded by the Admissions Committee. Once they had made an admission decision, they would themselves decide if they were going to offer the scholarship to that student, rather than use a formula or have financial aid do it.</p>