<p>Do scholarships for merit exist at Pomona? I've looked at every part of the website and catalogues but can't seem to find any.</p>
<p>No. Money is doled out solely on need. Most top schools are like this because getting in is already such a challenge that to implement a polarizer like a merit scholarship program would cause more harm than good.</p>
<p>Nope...no merit schols as far as I know. I got accepted to Pomona with a 40K aid package solely on need. Well...I guess Pomona will be kicking themselves for offering all that money to an ungrateful wretch like me coz I refused the offer...and chose Middlebury instead. It's better for intl students (obviously I'm one) and closer to what little family I have in America.</p>
<p>So donmesw...thinking of applying to Pomona? It's a great school...from what I've heard and read... fantastic academics, great profs etc.
Good luck!</p>
<p>merit aid??? i <em>wish</em>. in fact, the office of financial aid has a little battle with me right now. i'm bringing in nineteen thousand in outside aid, so they simply reduced the aid they're giving me by nineteen thousand. "we don't give merit aid here" is the philosophy, to keep it equal, but if someone receives an outside scholarship for more than pomona is willing to give them, then the office of financial aid can't do anything... for instance, if i had managed to get a free ride or something by getting some kind of excellent scholarship or other, i'd get to keep it. in my opinion, pomona, and the other liberal arts colleges, in their attempts to enforce fairness are bringing about another kind of problem... i spent an awful long time applying to scholarships, and now i'm discovering that it makes no difference, and that i would've gotten the same aid either way. it seems as though financial aid offices should be more receptive to this kind of situation- if you think about it, it brings in more cash to the college if you allow students to have that incentive, but if you take the economic incentive away, and students get wind of it, the college will lose part of it's cash flow. also, most merit scholarships have the stipulation of "demonstrated need," so depending on who applies and what that means, bias is greatly shifted to people that could use the money, which isn't really a bad thing. by trying not to allow merit aid, but then having to allow it when more than the approved amount is received, a new kind of unfairness is built. people belonging to specific groups and especially specific companies within corporate america that can provide lavish full scholarships have a lot more access to these scholarships than others. my parents are deeply entrenched in academics, and there's no way on earth there's a full ride scholarship out there for someone whose mother works in the waterville public school system. ok, done whining. but, has any body else had a similar issue to this?</p>
<p>At very competitive schools, giving merit aid would be tough. Nearly everyone at P got straight As or something close in HS. Nearly everyone has stellar test scores. There are TONS of kids with amazing accomplishments. So to whom would you give the merit aid? It's not like a state U, where a straight-A, 1550 student really stands out.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks for clearing that up.</p>
<p>Yes oxymoron, I'll probably apply, but if I'm accepted I don't think my parents would be willing to spend (nor I willing to take out in loans) the entire cost of the Pomona education.</p>
<p>irene: just to explain what i meant, i was not implying that pomona should hand out merit aid- merely that it should not, for a variety of reasons, take away merit aid from outside sources. when pomona reduced the aid it was giving me by nineteen thou, it really stung. it eliminated the incentive for me and other students to apply for financial aid. so, in response to your question, to whom would i give the merit aid, i say this: i would not reccommend pomona to give out merit aid. but students that applied to outside merit scholarships at pomona and elsewhere are poorly treated by this system, because this aid is effectively eliminated.</p>
<p>Unfortunatly that is the norm for most school , Even schools that give both merit and finaid, you just get less finaid if you get the merit from them so infact you would have recieved the same amount regardless of grades. The upside however it that if you or/and your parents make more money the next year or have a banner year or sell a home and make a profit you will still have the same amount of merit aid but your finaid would be eliminated. I don't know of many schools that do it differently so it is not a Pomona issue really.</p>
<p>well, it would be economically optimal for the liberal arts schools to allow students to retain part of their outside aid. it leaves part of the incentive in place for us to actually apply to those sources of aid- otherwise, we stop applying, because it's no use, and the schools, which pocket the money that we get from outside grant aid, lose income. if students were allowed to partially retain outside aid, it would benefit the student and the school, and there would still be incentive in place.</p>
<p>I do see what you are saying, nextyearinca... 19K is a lot of money. From their point of view, they're trying to make it possible for every every student to be able to attend... so if you have your 19K from elsewhere you will be able to attend, so they don't "need" to give you more money. From YOUR point of view, though, I agree it is not fair, since you clearly worked hard to secure the outside $, while others perhaps didn't put in the effort. </p>
<p>It's similar to this-- some families scrimp and save from the time their child is born so that they will be able to afford college. When the time comes, they don't get much aid, since they have savings. Other families with similar incomes don't bother to save, and in the end they are rewarded with finaid. So, in this process, hard work is not always rewarded.</p>
<p>i lost a little money in outside scholarships when i went to pomona (not nearly 19k though)... but at least the outside scholarships made them turn some loans into grant money and removed my need for work study, which was definately nice as it allowed me more time for extracurriculars.</p>
<p>So should I still work hard finding and applying for scholarships?</p>
<p>if you think you can get more aid in outside scholarships than they'll say you "need," then definately apply... if not... i recommend you try to get about $10,000 ($2500 a year) to cancel out some loan money. or you could just not try and see what falls in your lap. that's kinda what i did. i won a piano competition, got national merit, and won some other scholarship my college counselor had me fill out a 1/2 page form for... i didn't even remember applying for it when i got a letter about it. anyway, if you do apply for a bunch of scholarships, try to get the ones that spread out the money over 4 years because if, for instance, you get $5000 for your first year and $1000 for each year after that, you will lose part of the $5000.</p>
<p>So, say my EFC is $30,000, I have $7000 in grant money from the school, and the rest (about $2000) is in loans. If I get $5000 in outside scholarships, will that come out of my EFC, loans, or school grants?</p>
<p>NM I figured it all out. It sucks though that it comes out of your grants before it comes out of your EFC. I guess all you need to do is get enough to erase the need for work-study and loans.</p>
<p>The no merit thing sucks though.........................what did you guys do in order to pay for everything?</p>
<p>I've got an idea.............they say that outside scholarships first eliminate loans/work study, and then comes out of financial aid. What if you first convinced the FAO to turn a fraction of the EFC into loans, more than they do usually, and then used outside scholarships to eliminate the extra loans?</p>
<p>NM I heard they won't let scholarships substitute extra loans. But thanks for your input, lol.</p>