I noticed that there wasn’t a thread for seniors to list where they were accepted with merit scholarships.
I was accepted to:
Providence College (30K scholarship)
University of Hartford (full tuition scholarship)
Albany (5k scholarship-in state)
Binghamton (2k scholarship-in state)
Villanova (waiting for aid letter)
Lehigh (waiting for aid letter)
Really…how much help is this information without knowing your GPA, SAT or ACT scores, and other pertinent information relative to the scholarships you received?
@thumper1 I think it can be helpful to see what people are getting in merit money for certain schools so that you can know what is possible for each school
I’m only going to respond this ONE more time. Merit money is based on the strength of your application. Without knowing THAT, it is not helpful at all to know the awards…because a student would have NO IDEA whether they are in the ballpark or not…for these merit awards.
@thumper is 100% right!!! Students need to know the strength of your application so that they know if they are in the range.
@coll5678 it is only helpful to know what scholarships you got if you say what your stats are. That way others can gauge the likelihood that they could replicate your results. Otherwise some might get the impression that you are showing off.
@Coll5678 my D received half tuition from Lehigh. Can you see how it means very little unless I provide further details?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20474266/#Comment_20474266
Post 2151 gives the OPs stats. They are quite good. For others reading…if yours aren’t where his are, you might not have the same success.
And if you are applying for 2018-2019, you really have no way of knowing…as the applicant pool next year could,be very different, and stronger. In other words…YMMV.
Plus some of that merit money may be for particular majors, experiences, or talents. Some, at some colleges, are designed to prioritize kids also with need. Just showing you award doesn’t inform the next kid of his shot.
And to understand what merit opportunities those colleges do offer, they are generally on the college web pages. So more info is often more helpful. But, congrats.
What you got in merit scholarship does not matter if ** what you/your family have to pay ( the net price) is unaffordable**
the direct cost of U of Hartford is $49,996. your full tuition scholarship is 35k, which leaves 14k for your family to pay not counting books, transportation, etc. You are most likely not getting an need based aid other than a $5500 loan. This means your parents will pay ~8.5k for direct costs after you take out the loan.
Don’t get caught up in “private is better” in this case, UAlbany is a stronger school (Bing is a stronger school).
THe COA at UAlbany is 22k/year (direct costs)
What is your intended major (ETA - you are looking to be a Math major)?
If you are a STEM major, you will be eligible for the STEM incentive, which is stackable with your 5k (11,670). Add to that the $500/year AIMS scholarship (top 15% of the class can be applied to any major).
AIMS scholarship
Add your $5500 loan then your parents net price is ~$4500 for direct costs. Your parents getting an ATOC credit will bring their out of pocket cost down to approx $2500/year.
GET a part time job/summer job o cover your incidental costs: books/pocket $$ etc).
If you are ranked in the top 4 in your class, you may be eligible for an academic excellence scholarship, which will knock of another $500-1500 (if you are #1) per year.
Note, you cannot use AIMS, STEM(CUNY/SUNY only) or Academic excellence scholarship outside of NYS
@Coll5678 1410 SAT and 4.0 GPA. That’s what you had to get those awards.
Your OP is only helpful if it includes the stats needed. The same with any subsequent student posts of their awards.
It’s NOT helpful to an ACT 25-29 student to see that XUniv gives $25k per year if they’re only giving it to those with an ACT 30+. Why would you want them to waste their time and money applying to schools where they’ll get little/nothing???
My DS didn’t receive any merit based aid from Lehigh, but he got 1/2 scholarships to RPI and UConn Honors College. He’s dying to go to Lehigh (accepted to Mechanical Engineering), so we are considering appealing. Has anyone else done this and succeeded? What was your experience appealing Merit aid and did you succeed?
ACT 33, GPA 4.04, SAT Subj 780 Physics, 800 Math. Internship with congressman in Spring, Ran the tech help desk for 3 years, president of a popular club, amaeteur astro-photographer.
Merit aid is typically based on hard and fast stats like GPA and SAT, so unless those have changed in a positive way I have not heard of appeals for more merit aid being successful
@CourtneyThurston That is actually not accurate at all. At many private school merit scholarships are much easier to appeal on than need based aid. To get more need based aid you need to have a change in family circumstances. To get more merit you could ask for an award match, or show more interest, or any number of other things that amount to “negotiation” . Need based aid is very black and white either we can change it or we can’t. Merit is much more subjective especially at the type of schools OP listed. We try to get a student as cheap as we can and if they threaten not to come we give them more money. In fact, at two schools I have worked at almost everyone that appealed their merit aid got an increase basically just for appealing. At my current school (a school that meets need with purely need based aid) and our peers even if we really want you (URM, etc) we cannot give out more aid unless we can change a number in your aid application.
I have not heard of
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I said my data is anecdotal. In my experience, friends that have tried this have not been successful. But of course you are welcome to go try yourself
DD’s were fortunate to receive two merit scholarships:
Kenyon - $15k/yr each
Oberlin - DD1 received a Frederick Oberlin Scholarship of $23k/yr, DD2 received a John N. Stern Scholarship of $30k/yr for excellence in science and math.
Grateful for both.
@NailBiter11 I didn’t receive any merit aid from Lehigh but I did get a lot of financial aid so I am hoping to go there in the fall, although I am still weighing my options. I am not going to appeal anything about the merit aid however because I believe that the merit scholarships were only awarded to those with crazy high stats this year, and the financial money was enough for me to afford the school.
@bschooltotech for post #13, can you give suggestion on how people negotiate for more merit aid besides providing peer college’s offer?