Hey there - I am a little frustrated that nobody has called me back from the school, but my daughter was accepted for the Class of 2027 with a merit scholarship. My question is - as long as she stays in good academic standing and takes enough (full-time) credits, that merit scholarship is renewed for 4 years. Right?
That should be easily viewable someplace in your award letter/terms & conditions. It was merit-based, not need-based?
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We did not apply to Franklin and Marshall. However, both daughters attended other universities with merit aid. Also, both were offered merit aid at some additional universities that they did not attend.
In all cases that we were aware of, the original financial aid letter specified what was necessary to continue to get the same merit aid after the first year. Good academic standing was one thing (I think there were probably some minimum number of credits required). However both daughters were also required to maintain a specified GPA. One had to maintain at least a 3.0 GPA. The other needed to maintain at least a 3.5 GPA.
You should take a close look at the letter that you got describing the merit aid.
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@bebopdeluxe I believe you are referring to need-based financial aid. As far as I know, F&M does not offer any merit scholarships.
Need-aid must be applied for each year and may change if your income fluctuates.
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Correct - F&M did away with merit scholarships a few years ago.
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That’s what I thought - so I checked the CDS before replying.
Here’s what it has; am I reading something wrong?
H2A (N)
Number of students in line a who had no financial need and who were
awarded institutional non-need-based scholarship or grant aid
(exclude those who were awarded athletic awards and tuition
benefits)
48 (fulltime)
79 (undergrad)
H2A (O) Average dollar amount of institutional non-need-based scholarship $ 10,671 (fulltime) $ 11,547 (undergrad)
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That is what I thought, too. However, I was following the F&M thread closely this year because my son is thinking about applying next year and there were definitely people who said they were awarded merit scholarships (and were surprised about it). Also, when I ran the NPC, it included a merit award.
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My daughter was definitely offered merit aid at F&M this year.
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Thanks for that. Good info! I know many people on a merit hunt that ruled out F&M only for that reason. I’ll have to check out that forum. I actually did do a quick search before posting above and the first site that popped up indicated only need aid was offered… I should have gone to the source because I bet that pulled from a third party site.
ETA: I just found this. Franklin & Marshall - Our Aid Philosophy
F&M remains committed to meeting the institutionally determined financial need of all deserving students. It is also dedicated to recruiting talent regardless of background. To that end, F&M now offers merit aid on a limited basis.
So, back to @bebopdeluxe, I don’t have experience with F&M, but all merit offers my D received stated the amount was for four-years as long as GPA and credit requirements were met. Sometimes the “fine print” was not obvious and took a bit of drilling down or scrolling down to get to those details. I hope you get an answer soon since May 1 is approaching. Congrats to your student as it sounds like F&M awards limited merit scholarships!
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I wonder if that changed this year? When my dd was being recruited by them a couple of years ago we were told - and it was stated on their Web site that there was no merit money.
it’s definitely a recent change; I know a kid from my D19’s year who got need-based only and she is doing nuclear fission in her basement or something so I think she would’ve qualified had there been merit 
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Yep - mine was a 2021 and it definitely was not offered then. Even when my DS 2023 was considering them this past summer, what is written in the post above was not on their Web site at that time. I wonder what spurred the change?
Agree it was not offered when my D21 was looking.
Finally looked at my daughter’s acceptance e-mail, and the Merit Scholarship she received was just started this year. It had the standard “8 semesters, full-time” qualifier, but it is a renewable, yearly scholarship.
Sorry for those who did not have that open to them. I know that Bard (another school where she was accepted) did not give non-need based scholarship money.
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So…I have been thinking about this a little more, and it sounds like my daughter - at least as it relates to F&M - caught a break here. She ran up against a buzzsaw of applications for her top choices (Vassar/Wesleyan) - she was a test optional kid (and don’t tell me that elite schools are REALLY “test optional”) with great, but not amazing (i.e. not 4.5 weighted) grades…no AP’s (her school doesn’t offer them), applying in a year where schools had a ridiculous amount of applicants and these schools were not going to over-admit this year. In retrospect, it was a long-shot to get into her target schools…and she didn’t.
But it looks like F&M may be making a strategic decision here that my daughter seems to be in the right place at the right time to benefit from.
They just finished a capital campaign that raised over $200 million dollars - over $70 million of it earmarked for financial aid.
I don’t think that their reinstatement of Merit Scholarships is pure coincidence. While I don’t know this for certain, the school must realize that there is an entire cohort of excellent students that come from families of reasonable means that look at “merit aid” as an important factor in where they are going to apply. In this thread, somebody said that there are families that may have taken F&M off of their list because they did not offer merit aid. Students that could afford to pay the entire cost of schools above F&M in the pecking order (or schools in F&M’s tier that did offer merit aid) were not going to pay sticker price for F&M.
But if the opportunity to get, say, $15,000 to $20,000 a year in “merit aid” was there, would they include F&M in the mix? Reading this thread, it sounds like once students/parents realize that F&M is back in the “merit” game, the school could see an uptick in applications - including applications from students who fit the “recruiting talent regardless of background” profile that is new to the F&M “Aid Philosophy” page.
I doubt that this will move F&M’s applicant pool and selectivity into that Vassar/Wesleyan tier…but could it separate F&M from the Dickinson/Oberlin/Lafayette tier and move them closer to the top 30 LAC tier? Maybe. I would guess that is why they are back in the “merit” game.
Alums want to see their school be more selective - I would not be surprised if that was part of the pitch for the capital campaign: more aid - especially “merit” aid - could move that admission rate below 30% (for what that is worth), with the bragging rights that come with that (for whatever that is actually worth).
To be honest, my daughter did not apply to F&M because they reinstated “merit aid”. We didn’t even know it existed. It is a school where she can do the specific double major she wants (Biology and Film), it has a solid rep in terms of grad school, and - candidly - she had a higher likelihood of getting in than at Vassar or Wesleyan.
The great thing is she really likes the school, the disappointment of not getting into her target schools has faded, the visit for Admitted Students Day went well (i.e. we bought her a sweatshirt), I think it really made her feel great that she is a recipient of these newly instituted "Merit Scholarships’ (they really geek it up in the e-mail to her), and it sounds like she is going to be a Diplomat. I am happy that she got a Merit Scholarship for sure, and it will be interesting to see how F&M being back in the “merit” game affects their applicant pool next year.
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