Merit-like Scholarships in the Ivy League?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>I just saw in another thread in this forum </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=335722%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=335722&lt;/a> </p>

<p>some statements about scholarship awards at Ivy League universities that are somewhat of the nature of "merit" scholarships. Rather than hijack that thread, let me ask about this issue here. I know nothing about the programs mentioned in that thread. I have read that the general Ivy League rule is no merit scholarships, but scholarships based on financial need, so exactly how do the programs work that appear to be merit scholarships from Ivy League colleges? Any and all information would be much appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Duke is not Ivy league... of course it is an extremely high caliber school, and thus they offer veryyy few scholarships... AB and Robertson are the ones I know of... and they are extreeemely competitive.</p>

3

<p>I think some Ivies have special programs for their top admits where they take the need based aid and change the loans to 100% grants. I also heard that Princeton gives some "merit" aid (I think mini brought it up) to the top students in the form of need based grants. I'm sure they all do random crap to lure the top kids.</p>

4

<p>As I said in the other forum, all the scholarships that Ivies give are need-based. I haven't heard of anyone ever getting a merit scholarship from an Ivy and I have seen anyone on CC say that they got a merit scholarship from an Ivy either. If they wanted to give a merit scholarship then it would probably be disguised in a need-based grant, in which case you will not know if it was a merit scholarship, and it will just seem like a generous financial aid offer.</p>

5

<p>I've heard parents tell me that their son/nephew got a "full scholarship" to this or that Ivy League school, sometimes with the implication that the family couldn't possibly have had demonstrated financial need, but I haven't ever seen the award letters in those cases so I don't know what was actually done.</p>

6

<p>DH received merit money (a named scholar program) from an Ivy back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. The program still exists, but there's no $$ attached to it any more.</p>

7

<p>What I have heard is that some colleges will try to match the finaid offered to their highly prized applicants by "peer institutions." To the extent that the original finaid package was need-based, any increase over it should thus be regarded as merit aid. I know of one case where that was so.</p>

8

<p>I'm struggling to remember all of the details, but I received <em>something</em> special along with my Cornell acceptance two years ago.</p>

<p>I think it was something like being a "Dean's Scholar" which meant I had money for books (perhaps $500/semester), and some summer opportunity.</p>

<p>Sorry I don't remember more details. If people are interested, I can look for the letter next time I'm home.</p>

<p>Oh, and this was most definitely <em>not</em> financial aid (I don't believe I applied for aid at Cornell).</p>

9

<p>Penn gave me the Trustee Scholarship, but it is need-based. If you add that with the other need-based grants I got from Penn, I had a full-ride to Penn, but it was all need-based money. I think the topic pertains to people getting a significant amount of merit money($10k+) and the only people who can really determine it are people who had very little or no financial need and ended up getting money from the school to go there.</p>

10

<p>I wrote in the other thread that my sister in law got what was described to her as "Harvard's only merit scholarship". What did they give her? Nothing. Not a single penny.</p>

11

<p>there's no such thing as a merit scholarship at any ivy league school</p>