Do colleges use CSS Profile or FAFSA for merit scholarships?
In case of ED, will the college mention about merit scholarship in their offer letter? (in case they accept me and I qualify for the merit scholarship).
OR will they wait till FAFSA is filed in January to make a decision?
Merit scholarships are usually based on the strength of you application, and sometimes an additional scholarship application. In addition, for,some of the more competitive, and generous ones, an interview is required.
Some schools require the filing of the FAFSA, and some also require the Profile, but they not used to determine your eligibility for merit aid…they are used to see if you are eligible for need based aid that might offset some of the merit they might award.
For example, if you are eligibility for a $5000 Pell Grant, some schools will include that first…and then give merit on top of that.
At other schools, you might get the merit aid plus the Pell.
In terms of ED, you might not know about merit scholarships because some of those aren’t awarded until after the deadline for ED notifications.
Merit is typically based on the relative strength of you versus the applicant pool. Some schools have automatic merit if you hit certain benchmarks, but most are administered competively. And the majority of the “prestigious” schools don’t give merit at all.
Are you planning to apply ED to Penn? If so, they give NO merit aid at Penn.
Are you planning to apply ED to NYU? If so, beware that NYU is notoriously stingy with all,kids of financial aid, need based and merit…unless you are in the very top %age of applicants. Are you?
Thanks for the tips. There are a few other schools like UWI, Madison and others where I plan to apply and they have merit scholarships that automatically evaluate the application, if it meets certain benchmarks.
I am aware that Penn does not offer any merit scholarship.
What I am trying find out is if I do an ED to Penn and by some luck (fingers-crossed) they choose to extend me an offer, will that include a financial package (as I might qualify) or it will only be after FAFSA is filed?
What are the merit scholarships at UW-Madison that are awarded based on what benchmarks without a separate scholarship application?
Not to get side-tracked into a different topic…
If I do an ED to Penn and by some luck (fingers-crossed) they choose to extend me an offer, will that include a financial package (as I might qualify) or it will only be after FAFSA is filed?
Would greatly appreciate your feedback.
They will need your Fafsa and CSS to give you FA.
How could Penn provide you a need based financial aid offer without seeing your FAFSA?
Very interesting. I have heard very different stories from people who at upenn. Can anyone with real experience put forth their feedback, please?
With the FA, how would one commit or not commit to an offer?
UPenn does not give merit, only FA. In the 2013 cycle, an applicant filed “projected” the FAFSA/CSS forms along with your ED Application. The acceptance came with a FA package. UPenn could alter the package if the final filing of the FAFSA/CSS significantly changed.
shivaya – Look here: http://www.sfs.upenn.edu/finaid-checklists/checklists-pro-us.htm
No. You are incorrect. ED applicants submit an early Profile for penn. if accepted ED, the student will receive a financial aid award in time to make an ED acceptance decision, very likely before FAFSA submission.
But the FAFSA will need to be filed after Jan 1, and the numbers need to be basically the same as the estimated Profile, or the aid can change.
Unless there has been a radical change since '12 when my son started at UW, UW does not offer automatic merit awards generally. There may be some separate programs for under represented minorities and special categories of instate students.
Indiana University does offer automatic merit awards based on stats as long as the application is complete by Nov 1, including for OOS students.
@thumper1 is right, the estimate comes first. Sorry.
@shivaya Midwestmomofboys is correct that UWI does not evaluate your application for merit aid automatically. You need to apply for merit aid separately. Anyway, they don’t have much to offer.
Maybe @shivaya knows something about UW-Madison that we don’t know…
Sorry. Not really.