<p>Has anyone received a merit award letter yet? We've gotten our need award, but the decision letter said to wait for both parts before making a choice.</p>
<p>yea i was curious about this too.. i have heard that merit award is given to those receiving a certain score or higher on SAT/ACT. i scored a 31, which qualifies for merit, but it didnt mention it in my acceptance. do you know anything about this?</p>
<p>No, I don't know much. I think I read somewhere that they give some money to Commended Merit Scholars too; I hope they pay a bit for ACT as my D got a 32! Good luck to both you and I!</p>
<p>Feeling bold, I sent an email to the finaid people to see if the merit letters "had been previously sent out". Which is not quite a bold as saying "so did we get any?", I guess. lol.</p>
<p>My son's merit award came with the acceptance package, but the financial aid form also included both merit and need-based aid. He received the Trustee's Scholarship, worth $10,000 a year, as well as an extra $1000 a year for being a National Merit Commended Student. (He has to send a copy of his letter from National Merit to get that.)</p>
<p>Hmm. Interesting. I'll look forward to hearing back from the financial aid department. Optimistically, my daughter may still get some merit aid, but not to the level of a named award? She was Commended, but there was no mention of that in the award letter we received (which I assumed to be only need-based). </p>
<p>On a general note, as a first-time college parent, this whole process is making me feel a little sick. I'm finding myself to be really resentful of all of the love letters we received ("personal" ones, from the deans of various departments) from schools that ultimately rejected my daughter.</p>
<p>Back in my day, I applied to one school, got in, and that was that. No deluge of endless mail from Wash St. Louis, etc. No school (e.g., Oberlin (rejected), Smith (waitlisted)), sending promo mail well after the apps were in. </p>
<p>Sorry, I'm venting. My D has some pretty good choices, Lawrence being one of her tops of those left standing. She's looking forward to visiting there in a couple of weeks.</p>
<p>I think the Commended Student award was mentioned in a PS in a letter in the admissions packet--probably the one offering the Trustee's scholarship. My son almost missed seeing it.</p>
<p>Yes, the college application process can be frustrating. I have been quite pleasantly surprised by my son's good attitude. Today he got waitlisted by Oberlin and received his financial aid offer from Indiana, which was pretty much nothing, and his attitude was that at least it made his decision easier, because he now had fewer to decide among. I'm sure I would not have had that attitude if our positions were reversed.</p>