Does Brandeis offer merit awards to incoming freshmen? They mention upperclass merit awards, just wondering if anyone ED or RD has recently received a merit award.
I know that they have offered them in the past. Take a look at the Brandeis class of 2018 posts from March of last year for example. I know that they offer merit aid to incoming freshmen (I verified this at the Fall Preview day my son and I attended), but I don’t know if the amounts are similar to last year. I certainly hope so. It looked like the merit letters came a few days after the RD acceptance letters last year, so we will need to wait until March.
My daughter just started at Brandeis in January (she was accepted as a mid-year student for the class of 2018). As far as I know the merit scholarships at Brandeis are very limited. I think the majority of scholarships that are offered are financial based. I think that Brandeis is very generous in their financial aid. Out of all the schools my daughter applied to, Brandeis came out as one of the least expensive. Have you tried the net price calculator for Brandeis. With my daughter it was accurate within $1-2K.
Just received one today for $3000 for Freshman year.
@themom12, you posted earlier “We didn’t get merit from Brandeis, but received $23K per year for 4 years from Clark.” You applied to Brandeis ED1, right? And today received a merit award from Brandeis?
Yes @sjillian, just last week my daughter received notification of $3000 merit
@themom12, I do not know why Brandeis would give merit to someone who applied and got accepted ED1 (let alone months after acceptance)…But it gives me hope that I may receive merit (I applied and got accepted ED2 with stronger stats). Financial aid is a different story than merit ofc.
Bless your heart @sjillian15 (there is a lot more to the application process than 2 numbers.)
I have no idea what this means ^, @themom12, but thank you for the blessing. How merit is awarded is a bit of a mystery when it comes to ED (I assume your daughter accepted the binding ED1 way before this latest merit notification, which again, is a tad surprising to be offered unless there is more to the story, i.e. you/she did not accept the ED1 offer for financial reasons?).
Nothing unusual except that she is a well-rounded 18 year old who accepted and sent her enrollment deposit in Dec. Your comments implying that you are a better student and that we played unfairly on the rules of ED are beginning to wear on me. Perhaps she is just that good of a catch.
Bless your heart @themom12, your entire thread is sketchy so yes, she is just that good of a catch. Yup. You posted her scores and so, yes, I am quite a bit better in fact.
Whoa @sjillian15 stop munching those sour grapes
Haha @gradready2015, just making sure the grapes are real. You know sometimes people come on with a single post…
What I assume @sjillian15 is questioning is why they would award your daughter merit aid this late in the game. Generally, merit aid is given as an incentive for students to come to a school, and schools such as Brandeis have limited amounts to give out, allocating most of their funds to need based aid.
If your daughter was accepted ED, and committed to the school, they don’t need to give her incentive. She’s going to Brandeis, that $3,000 isn’t pushing her decision. Generally it would be believed that the school would allocate the $3,000 to an RD applicant who doesn’t have a contract forcing them to attend.
Thank you, @jamesjunkers, you said what I was trying to so very eloquently.
Actually this does not look like a single post by @themom12 as she is a junior member. Plus $3000 is nice but hardly worthy to lie about especially when she said her D was offered more to go to other schools. Also she said they hadn’t been offered money previously so why lie now? @sjillian15 sounds a bit like she wants to spoil others achievements bc she did not get offered anything. @sjillian15 asked if anyone got merit $ and got an answer she didn’t like so accuses the person of lying. Sounds a bit ugly to me. BTW SCHOOLS OFTEN reward EDs with small amounts of merit money when no financial aid is offered and the candidate is a high achieving student. I know as I received some too years ago.
@gradready2015, I was referring to you…and your single post. Now this makes two posts for you.
I remain cautiously optimist that Brandeis does like to award “EDs with small amounts of merit money when no financial aid is offered and the candidate is a high achieving student” because that is actually music to my ears. As @jamesjunkers stated above, given limited resources, I’d have thought the dollars would be given only to RDs not two months after an ED1 individual signed a contract. I am a National Merit Finalist who applied ED2, so I think I actually have demonstrated my achievement (and will get at least a minor merit aid from that). If Brandeis wants to give us ED2ers some money, no problem here, I can wait the two months.
And since you have only posted twice, you may not realize @GRADREADY2015 that what actually sounds “a bit ugly to me” is typing in UPPER CASE LETTERS. “BTW”
D was named a Justice Brandeis Scholar and awarded a total of $70,000.00. She did not apply for this merit aid.
@stresseddad. Congratulations to her! I, too, was named a Justice Brandeis Scholar. I don’t think one applies for a merit scholarship at Brandeis (I did not apply for financial aid so I know it is pure merit). I think they are not likely given to applicants that applied as binding ED candidates (there is no risk of them going to a different school as others have said in this thread).
Although this merit award is really generous, I am very fortunate to have also been accepted elsewhere and the scholarship did not change my mind.