<p>Reading this forum, it sounds like students are receiving merit offers prior to applying. Unfortunately, while my S has received some offers from schools he's not interested in, we haven't seen anything like that from the schools he's really interested in.</p>
<p>We're probably not going to qualify for FA (I WILL do the paperwork). </p>
<p>My question is how you know whether a school is going to provide a merit offer. After he receives an acceptance, do we need to contact the school? Or do they send these unsolicited, so if we don't see one within 'x' period, there is not anything available?</p>
<p>We've focused on picking realistic schools, in the hopes that they would offer some merit $$ (this was the strategy that others had suggested), but we don't know exactly how this occurs.</p>
<p>My son's merit offer from the school he chose ( he did get a couple unsolicited from schools not at all of interest without even applying) came a few days after acceptance. We hadn't expected it, but it was clear from application materials that certain offers were made based on the regular applicatioin itself. Others required a special app and had clear announcement schedules.</p>
<p>He received another good merit offer way after the acceptance. Acceptance came early in response to one of those "streamlined" apps (no essay, no fee...). Merit award came in April at the same time as RD acceptances and Financial Aid awards came out.</p>
<p>You may be able to find out announcement schedules by looking at the Financial Aid or Admissions website for each school of interest. DS' school had that all spelled out there. If you do not hear within a couple weeks of acceptance, and cannot find the answers on their site, I think it would be fine to call Admissions and ask how and when merit awards are announced.</p>
<p>Son received most offers along with acceptance. Some he applied for and others were unsolicited. Some came as a separate mailing for the specific merit award. It varies and he applied for everything possible.</p>
<p>Your child will receive some merit offers with acceptances, some before the acceptances, and probably some after.
Some merit aid is an "automatic" application, child is under consideration just by having applied to the school.
Some schools have special scholarships that require separate applications and have separate deadlines, often nominations from an alum or the child's high school - you need to learn about these. Often there will be an element of "contest" involved in these, if the child is picked as a finalist, they will visit the school and have an interview. However, they may be eligible for significant money even if they do not make finalist in these programs. These schools know exactly what they are looking for in terms of recipients of these scholarships, and have strategies for how they will be used. Your child just puts their best foot forward, and hopes for the best.
My DD was nominated for one of these special awards. At the beginning of the process, I naively thought they picked the 20ish finalists they wanted, gave the big prize to 2-3, then the next tier of money (which was still quite generous) went to the runners-up of the 20ish finalists. Not so! The process is much more subtle and strategic than that. Think about it, these top students may be deciding between different merit offers, free rides, and paying full fare at a "more desireable" school. The school may offer the same "chunk" of merit money to a couple of prospectives before thay get a taker. I think they size up these top students individually, including perhaps making a guess as to financial status/need and definitely interest in the school and likelihood of coming.
My daughter was admitted to her ED school, and rescinded her applications, but she received her merit award letter from this school by mistake, because they had not processed her rescinding letter (she had sent it in 2 months earlier - but hey, whatever, I think they were acting in good faith). Remember that she had not been officially "accepted" at this school. She was not going to be a finalist for the big prize, but she was offered the second place award, despite not being one of the 20ish finalists. This school was her "real" safety, she had definitely demonstrated interest with 2 visits, and had she not had the ED admission, would have definitely been considering this school in April. I interpret this as they felt like she had visited, was truly interested in attending, and made her their best offer, without going through the rigamarole of interviews and another set of visits.</p>
<p>Merit aid doesn't follow any rules that are standard to all schools - so you have to pick your schools first, then learn about the merit aid programs.</p>
<p>One college called us and told us what son would qualify for his stats. We received other literature in the mail and when I called the admission office they explained receiving the awards are very cut and dry, depending upon rank, gpa and SAT's. I think this kind of literature depends upon how the college is doing with number of applications they are receiving for the year. You basicly have to do your homework and find out what colleges have printed policies on merit aid.Also, received other offers with admission offer and some come later after they have in the entire pool of applicants.</p>
<p>What great info. So it sounds like I need to explore the strategies of each of the schools in which my S is truly interested. He's not of the caliber of most of the students that seem to be represented here, but he isn't pushing for 'super-reach' schools. I'll start digging into the financial side now that he's got the schools selected and the applications just about done.</p>
<p>apple - I wouldn't be so sure he's "not of the caliber", especially if he isn't aiming at super-reach. DS was 1320/122w/94.~uw. Like your S, he wasn't focused on the super-reach. He received $22K/yr. from Tulane and $11K/yr. from Santa Clara. Both for Engineering. I recently say info on Tulane's game development program - don't know much about it. Don't know about SCU in that arena, but smack in the middle of Silicon Valley doesn't hurt if that's the interest.</p>
<p>Did you and S take likely good merit schools into account when he selected his schools? If not, there's still time for him to apply to some. At the "less than super reach" level, many are simply the Common App, maybe with a supplement and likely not any burdensome extra essays. (I am not talking about special scholarships here, as the ones cangel mentioned, but merit $ which comes just from the basic app).</p>
<p>Yes, apple, merit is not just for the top - I was more describing how you have to learn about each school and just give it a try, because the system works very differently at different places.
A friend's D with stats in the ballpark of Jmmom's son got merit aid at her first choice just for turning up - granted it is an art school, and there is a wide variety of SAT scores represented - but they also awarded aid for creative achievements, and things like portfolios, CDs and collections of creative writing could be submitted for possible merit money as late as the day school started in the fall - my friend's daughter procrastinated (;) she is, artistic) to this point, and she wasn't the only student turning in a portfolio of work on move-in day.
Merit aid land is very variable.</p>
<p>check the websites for the schools you are interestd in. many say that students are automatically considered for merit awards. some will specifiy sat/gpa criteria that may be thresholds for consideration for the awards. some will require that students apply by a certain date in order to be considered for merit aid. and some will require separate applications for certain merit awards.</p>
<p>And some, as I understand it (DS did not apply to these) are "automatic" based on stats. Some are not automatic but largely stats-based. And some are based on intangibles to varying degrees - even if no special app. DS didn't meet the threshhold "typical" for the main award he got wrt SATs. He is just one of those kids who never performed on SATs at the expected level, but this must have come through via grades at a strong hs/essays/recs.</p>
<p>My d. received four merit offers without any special application whatsoever. In several cases, the offers came before the admission letter, and then we received follow-up phonecalls, including one from the college prez. For the most part, for us, the monetary awards were pretty irrelevant, as we would have received need-based aid anyway (these were all 100% of need schools), though some of the offers turned would-be loans into grants. The biggest difference (in the school she ended up attending) was in opportunities - paid research position guaranteed in the first two years, and the position built specifically around her needs and interests.</p>