<p>If one is on the cusp for need based aid, applies for need based aid, and does not receive, does that have a negative impact upon the prospect of merit aid? In other words, are need and merit scholarships evaluated and awarded independent of each other? I'm not sure if my daughter should have indicated on apps that she is applying for FA....if that is hurting her chance for merit.</p>
<p>I do not think it does make a difference in whether merit is considered. But at a school where she is on the cusp and they are not need-blind, it could make a difference in whether she gets admitted. We have discussed at some length out here whether the amount of FA needed makes a difference in that impact on admissions – assumption is that it probably does, but I don’t think we ever found any definitive evidence (info from a college admissions office) to confirm this. Just a lot of educated guesses.</p>
<p>However, quite a few colleges do reduce the need based grant aid if your kid has merit scholarships. So there is an offset there that can feel pretty unfair, since your EFC stays the same at those schools.</p>
<p>Often it works like this:</p>
<p>merit awards are given based on stats…often without ANY consideration of need, income, or assets. Usually just awarded based on high stats. Sometimes the dept that awards merit is different from the FA dept. </p>
<p>THEN…after merit is awarded, the FA app is looked at to determine if there still is any need. </p>
<p>For instance…if a student has only a small amount of need - say $10k - and the student is awarded a $6k merit scholarship, then the student has a remaining “need” of $4k. At that point, the FA office might award a $4k federal loan to fill the rest of the need.</p>
<p>Some schools have merit/need scholarships (Fordham is one). If you don’t have need, you might get, say, $12,500 as a merit scholarship. If you have some need you might get as much as $22,000, but they still call it a merit scholarship (i.e. you still need high grades, etc.)</p>
<p>This is so helpful. I am a new member with child receiving first acceptance last week – rest to go in spring. I guess we’ll submit the FA early 2013 as it sounds like merit and need are considered separately though a total aggregate could come into play. Thank you all.</p>
<p>Yes, aggregate comes into play as ‘mom2’ explained.
FinAid is based on so-called “need.”
If a student is receiving $X in merit aid, then obviously they have less “need.”</p>
<p>No matter how smart your child is, no school is going to pay them to have your student go there. ;)</p>
<p>bankermom…</p>
<p>Look at the scholarship webpages for your D’s schools and see what those say. Some will indicate that merit is very competitive, some may say that every student that has X stats will get Y in merit, some may be quite vague. Some schools don’t give any merit at all.</p>
<p>If your D’s schools give merit, then look at the middle quartile range for SAT and ACT scores. Often merit is awarded to students whose test scores are well-within the top 25%. The higher the scores, the more merit awarded. The biggest awards often go to those in the top 1-5% (depending on the school’s policy). </p>
<p>So, if on Collegeboard, a school posts that its middle quartile range for ACT is 25-30, and you know that the school does award merit scholarships, then if your D has an ACT 32, then she may get a nice award…maybe a partial tuition scholarship or whatever.</p>
<p>You all are fabulous for sharing your knowledge! Thanks again.</p>
<p>Schools do this differently, so one can’t tell you exactly how any given school will do this unless that person is in the know there. USUALLY, financial and merit aid are done separately. Admissions gives out merit money to the students that they want the most. They usually do not go through the financial aid papers and try to figure out who needs what, because they have enough to deal with in terms of picking the students they want the most for the next years’ class without having to go into that area. Many admissions offices code their accepted students as to who they want the most, and those are the kids they give merit awards to, and the financial aid office will see those codes in putting together a package for those kids if they are asking for aid. Also those “top picks” often get special invitiations, special acceptances, special events to entice them to go to the school. So, no, if your kid is one of the ones they want the most and get a merit award, it is NOT going to hurt them in financial aid directly.</p>
<p>The way the bean counters in financial aid work, they will see the merit award, or the code, and put the package together according. In most all schools you are not permitted to get more aid than you are entitled to get by your need numbers. When state and federal aid are in the picture, there are certain no budge rules about that, so yes, if you get merit money, you can “lose out” on some financial aid since you don’t qualify fothat aid anymore since the scholarship is filling thta need. That’s how it usually works. </p>
<p>There are some niche situations where a student getting merit money can get hurt–yes. Some merit awards have contingencies, so if a student gets a scholarship that has a certain GPA or departmental requirement and if that student does not keep to the terms of that award, s/he can lose it and then have to reapply for financial aid without the precedence of the prior year awards. In some cases, schools have merit in aid awards where the top kids WITH NEED are given these awards for need only and if a kid already got a pure merit award from admisision, it is possible s/he misses out on one of those that have less contingencies for future years. But these are all just possibilities and in some cases, and you never know or find out if that happens. As a general rule, the Merit money is a bird in hand. Financial aid in a lot of cases can be iffy, even at schools that guarantee to meet full need. It’s not just grant Fin Aid gives, but self help, so getting the money even with strings attached is usually preferable, most always so.</p>