You have to look at it like this: Merit money is meant to convince you to come to a particular school rather than the other amazing schools an amazing student is admitted to. The best schools in the nation don’t particularly have to lure anyone-- people tend to jump at the chance to go, and if they don’t there’s someone else right behind them who will. So no need for merit.
Yes, getting merit at Vanderbilt, Duke, Hopkins, UChicago, Rice and whatever I left out is very very rare. Gaining admissions to HPY very rare. But if you have an affordable school that can fit what you want to do all set to go , why not give it a go if you have the academic profile? Go through the motions, know the procedures, pay the app fees if you can afford the time and money. Some Easter eggs in there; UChicago and Vandy don’t ask for NCP info. That opens up things a bit. Rice and Hopkins have come up with substantial financial aid possibilities for families making under $200k. You get into Harvard, just maybe Stepgrandpa or great Aunt will come up with a hunk—sorry, but Ive seen that happen way too often. It’s like the lottery, you gotta play to win. Just don’t start getting the idea that you are entitled to get accepted and get the money. These are private schools.
Rice considers all applicants for merit scholarships and gives some merit aid. However, most admitted students do not get any merit. It seems merit is used to attract extremely high stat people away from HYPSM, underrepresented minorities, or foreign students from countries not already overrepresented at Rice. One of my daughter’s friends got a merit scholarship to Rice, but she was also admitted to Stanford and several Ivys, was a triple Rice legacy, and has a parent on the alumni governing board. She is very happy at Rice.
Rice also gives out a good amount of $ in athletic scholarships given its size. Rice focuses on meeting financial need. Most kids that enroll in Rice qualify for/turn down merit at other lower ranked schools.
If you’re looking for merit you’ll need to go beyond this list. Any of the T20s that offer merit do so sparingly. Emory offers merit also but to maybe the top 7% (and it’s not just based on stats).
Here are the numbers from the latest CDS that I could find. The data is number of merit awards (H2G+ H2An)and the average award (H2Ao). This data is for enrolled students.
Vandy. 214; 19,977
Rice 109; 21,740
JHU 238; 30,263 14-15 data
NWU 82; 4,964
Duke 70; 70,212
Pomona 0; 0
UCHICAGO No CDS
The other thing that you have to consider is that merit may first replace any FA award. If your award without merit would look like $20k FA + $50k net price and you get a merit award of $10k, your new results may be $10k FA + $10k merit + $50k net price.
@3scoutsmom you can’t just “go to USC” if you are a NMF. You have to get accepted and many NMFs do not get in.
Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Yale, Princeton, Amherst, Columbia, Williams, Northwestern Brown, Dartmouth, UPenn and Cornell give zero ZERO dollars in merit aid. They give need based aid only.
Rice, Hopkins, Chicago, Duke, Vandy and Pomona give very very very limited and highly highly competitive merit awards…they give mostly need based aid as well.
Beware of those VAndy numbers. 214 kids got merit but many of those are NMF who got $5000/year. The big scholarships go to a much smaller subset of that 214. Our S19 applied for one of the Vandy scholarships and did not get it. In fact, he was waitlisted with a 1540 SAT, all 5s on his APs, almost perfect GPA with high rigor and sports/art/volunteering with awards in all categories. When we were watching the results come in for the Vandy scholarships on the CC threads, it was evident that those kids were getting into multiple Ivies and many were URMs even though Vandy does not call out being a URM as a plus for these scholarships.
I have a similar question. My son is interested in a few selective admission colleges – not Ivies. We are trying to weigh the likelihood of merit based aid and the risks of ED. His ACT is 35, he has a few subject tests above 750 and his GPA is about 4.1 (his freshman year was lower and the trend skyrocketed up), his EC are good depth and leadership in sports and deep interest shown in environmental issues with internships, etc.
Question: If there is a good chance of real money from a second choice school like U of Richmond, Wake or W&L, he will likely forego his reach, Vanderbilt. What kind of money is given? Any?
@middling You might start your own thread with your question. Include your S’s unweighted GPA. Gaining admission to Richmond, Wake and W&L is not a given either, even though their acceptance rates are higher than Vandy’s. Layering in the desire/need for merit makes them definite reaches. If you need merit to afford a school, do not apply ED.
@middling Look at those school’s financial aid websites. Info directly from the schools is better than what you’ll get here. All three of those schools give some merit but it is competitive and not just set on certain scores, etc. I’m sure your S will be competitive for those merit scholarships but there are no guarantees and you’d have to wait until he’s accepted and you see if he gets any merit. All of those schools’ merit scholarships have been getting harder to get each year. Wake gives the fewest merit scholarships of the three.
Depends on the school. I know for sure that Ivy Leagues do not give out merit scholarships due to the majority of accepted students having very competitive stats. I know Emory gives out merit scholarships through their Scholars Program such as their Woodruff Scholarship which offers students full tuition and the Liberal Arts Scholarship which is $20K but these are very difficult to get. Good luck!
@Homerdog you have to actually get into all the schools that give merit to get that merit. The OP asked about which T20 schools give merit so of course you have to get into any of those schools T20 school before you get merit their - really, I thought that was understood.
@3scoutsmom ok I apologize. Your comment said she should just have her child go to USC. While many of the big NMF scholarship schools are much easier to get into - U Alabama, UT Dallas, etc - USC is a much harder admit and there’s even talk that being a NMF could be a disadvantage since they then need to give you the half tuition scholarship.
“there’s even talk that being a NMF could be a disadvantage since they then need to give you the half tuition scholarship.”
@homerdog
^^that is just idle talk, and is not based on fact. so please dont help spread false rumors.
USC accepts almost 50% of NMF’s because they are, in most cases, extremely qualified students.
that figure comes directly from the Dean of Admissions at USC.
@menloparkmom ok. Im going to try to find that info. From our highly ranked high school in suburban Chicago, with 30 NMF, we bat zero at USC. They take our athletes. Not our NMFs.
@jhomerdog
USC applicants need to show they are GENUINELY interested in attending USC in order to have a chance of acceptance.
Simply submitting an application does not cut it. That is the mistake that top stats kids, who are applying to T20 U’s and are not really interested in attending USC, often make.
This has been stated on the USC thread time and time again.
My DD did not find being NMF a disadvantage at USC–she was accepted and got the 1/2 tuition NMF scholarship, plus a small university scholarship add-on that was like 2 or 3 thousand dollars per year (I forget which). She also was awarded merit from Rice ($15K/year Trustee Scholarship) and was awarded the Cornelius Vanderbilt full tuition scholarship from Vandy. She is not a URM or a recruited athlete–though she is female and going to study engineering, so I would imagine that helped.
Vandy was the highest ranking college that offered DD merit. I know Hopkins offers very limited merit aid and much to DD’s dismay, she did not receive any merit from them–though she was happy to have been admitted for sure.
Our goal here is to get acceptance letter and 20-30k merit from one T20 school to cover the gap between realistic EFC and on paper EFC. Financial aid eligibility is $0.