Can anyone give me an idea of how much a merit scholarship is worth? I understand it will be a huge range but has anyone received one for boarding school?
5 were offered out of 800 applicants and curious to see how much we will be awarded.
I can only speak from our own slightly dated experience. $3-15,000 seemed “normal”. But one poster here has been offered $40,000 at a girls school.
I think it really depends on the school and how they use FA and merit. There are definitely different philosophies around it and it really varies depending on what demographic the school hopes to yield as a result. Some try to boost stats by offering it to really high achieving students, some use it to improve their teams, and others do it with the hope of getting more families who can contribute to tuition but might not want to write a check for all of it. In each of those cases, who gets it (and the # of recipients) and how much differs.
I would guess if the school has only 5 (that’s really about 1 per grade), it should be on the high side.
It varies greatly by school. Most schools offer between $5-15,000. We have received higher offers at two all girls schools. Those only stated “partial scholarships available based on strength of application” and did not give information on amount before making the offer. And some schools have different categories, such as academics, arts, community service, etc. I suggest you look at information on schools’ admissions pages and call if the information is vague.
I submitted my FA application to George too late (my mistake), so I didn’t receive any, but I got a 15,000 scholarship. I think they’re pretty common at George, and can be for other schools. Still, the no FA is a dealbreaker for me…
Thanks everyone for your responses. Has anyone ever gone back and asked for more merit money/scholarship $? I’ve heard of asking for more FA so I’m curious if anyone one has done so and were they successful?
I recently submitted a request for more FA at a school DS was accepted to. We haven’t heard back yet as far aa a decision, but the AO conveyed optimism in the response email and thanked us for our transparency. Hopefully things work out so DS can attend in the fall.
@schoolmom8 Update: We asked and we recieved! (It was not a merit scholarship), but we asked for more FA and we got exactly what we asked for! I am ecstatic and so is DS. So I say go for it. Ask for more. They won’t rescind the previous scholarship so it can’t hurt. Stay positive and hopeful. Everything works out the way it’s supposed to.