<p>Their website says 9K is the average merit award. I'm hoping this is at least per year. Has anyone received more merit money? Did you visit the college before applying? Our visit will require a plane flight. We're unsure if waiting to see if accepted and amount of merit money, if any, before visiting is the best plan. Also don't want to spend 1K flying when there's no chance of enough merit for attendance.</p>
<p>Yes, that figure is per year. I know as part of my package I recieved 18k/year in RHIT gift aid, which is how the institute handles need and merit based financial aid.</p>
<p>I would strongly encourage you to visit, as that will help your son/daughter in making what is probably one of the most important decisions of their life thus far. You'll get a great tour and one of the admissions counselors will sit down with you personally and answer your questions. But like you said it's a lot of money to spend for naught. The online application will be up in a few weeks (no later than August if what I'm told is correct), is free and requires no essay. Rose has a rolling admissions policy, so if all your son/daughter's materials are in by mid-September, the decision should be sent out October 1 or shortly thereafter. There's no ED/EA program here because the school wants you to be able to make the most informed decision possible and how can you do that without financial aid info or a campus visit. So you find out as early as October and have til May 1st to decide. Financial aid info comes out mid-March or so.</p>
<p>My suggestion is two-fold: look for a sale. Airline tickets are expensive, but I'll pull a Clark Howard and tell you that you're a ways out, so sometime between now and December I guarantee there will be a sale from NYC to Indianapolis for a much more reasonable price. Of course if you live in upstate NY, it might be a little trickier, I don't know if there are direct flights from Buffalo or Albany to Indy.</p>
<p>Also, consider arranging your visit over your kid's spring break, so you should already have financial aid info and check the refund policy of your tickets. See if you can get a refund if it should turn out that you won't be making that visit.</p>
<p>And one last general piece of advice: you can haggle. My parents called Rose when I got my financial info and got an extra 2k/year in gift aid. Just be a good salesman for your kid and somebody will listen to you.</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>I have heard that Operation Catapult participants who apply to R-H receive a merit award. Is this true?</p>
<p>Yes, I've heard that also...something like 5k/year. Not sure how exactly that works, <a href="mailto:lisa.norton@rose-hulman.edu">lisa.norton@rose-hulman.edu</a> could answer that with a more authoritative answer.</p>
<p>Yes, it is 5k/year - at least that is what they gave us last year.</p>