My daughter received $29k in grants, all (I think) renewable: Muhlenberg College Community Grant ($2k), Presidential Merit ($18,500), RJ Fellows Merit ($5k), and Theatre Talent ($3,500). I appreciate that she got these, but I’m not sure it’s going to be enough to make it affordable for us. She was also offered loans, but our goal is to avoid loans altogether.
That said, our FAFSA EFC was about $46,000, and this leaves us with just under that amount, so it does look like they were aiming to meet the FAFSA-calculated need. (Of course, what the government says we can afford and what is actually realistic for us are two different things.)
With what people received looks like Muhlenberg exactly went just a bit over Fafsa even with loans. So “merit” was stretched in whatever direction they wanted… I am not impressed with school when “merit” depends on FAFSA…
Do you have acceptances to “free” schools? With your EFC I would think twice before jumping to loans. Remember parents need to sign them. Are they comfortable to do it? Over 4 years with increase of tuition loans can become equivalent to the cost of a car.
One of the scholarships my daughter received was the RJ Fellows, which was nice—but there’s no mention of it in her acceptance letter or anywhere else. I’d expect a letter or paragraph somewhere telling her she’d been selected for that program and giving more info about it. (She didn’t have to apply for the program—I think at most she might’ve checked a checkbox on the application to be considered for honors programs.) Did anyone else get this scholarship, and if so, did you get any other welcome or notification about it?
My son was awarded a Dana Scholars scholarship and it’s the same for him–no info in the acceptance letter, just in the financial aid materials. We heard a little bit about it when we visited campus, but not much. I assume more will be revealed. Congratulations to your daughter!
Read the above. Click on links on the website. There is not much info but when you are selected for one of these programs you are automatically get 5K scholarship
I get your point, and loans should not be taken lightly. To the OP, I would consider the amount you will pay for years down the road before taking loans. The car cost made me smile, though, because I think getting a BA for the equivalent of a car loan might be worth it. Everyone has different needs, and I’d definitely be careful with both kinds of debt!
My daughter got it, but no mention in the acceptance letter. In our experience so far, the “honors” letter comes some time later (and financial aid letter with honors scholarships comes after that, but in this case, the financial aid letter came first). Parents who went to the Academic Impact day were given some information about these programs during Q & A. There are 4 honors programs. I think they said the pre-med track honors gets about 30 students, and the other three honors gets about 15 students each. I don’t know if these are numbers enrolled vs. offered (like, is that 15 per honors program yielded at the end, with having made more offers at acceptance?) They did say that $5K scholarship goes with any of the honors program and declining the honors program releases that scholarship amount from financial aid.
Your stats are similar to my daughters… we got slightly less in merit and no honors either.
Just curious if you were invited to the Academic Impact Program event in February. We were, but couldn’t attend. Just curious why we would be invited to a program to go through all the honors opportunities and then not get accepted to the honors program.
Yes, my D was invited to that event. I had a feeling that it was for students they were considering for honors but she just could not make it. I would hate to think that not attending had any impact on the selection. We had actually just returned from a visit for talent merit auditions (12 hour round trip for us) when she received the invite, and my D was already committed to another activity that day. I did have her send an email to express her regret that she could not attend. Oh well. There are so many variables that go into these decisions, who knows.
I’m more concerned about how far off our NPC results were. We were expecting a total cost about 13K less based on those results. My D has had 3 other acceptances so far and all have come in fairly close to the NPC from those schools (and actually all of the others have been under by $3-9K, which has been nice). This is the first school that came out higher.
My son is thrilled to have gotten into Muhlenberg. He is still waiting to hear from two other schools before making a final decision. He received $54,000 in scholarships & grants from Muhlenberg. $23,000 is the Muhlenberg College Grant, so not guaranteed. The description says:
The amount of Muhlenberg College Grant a recipient may receive is based on:
The student’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC) determined by the FAFSA
Muhlenberg College’s cost of attendance
A student’s enrollment status as a full-time or part-time student
A student’s plans to attend school for a full academic year or less
To me this means that as long as our EFC/finances remain the same, these funds will be awarded. I think this is true for most institutions. I have another kid at Bard College with a $54,000 presidential scholarship and even though it is merit and “guaranteed for four years”, the college states that they will change the amount of the award based on changes in the FAFSA in order to allow access to students who would not otherwise be able to afford to attend. A family friend attends Smith College, which “meets full need”. Her mother’s salary increased and the kid’s aid decreased for this year.
I appreciate this conversation as I am looking more closely at the scholarships at all of the schools and will reach out to the Financial Aid offices with questions.
$31,000 in merit and talent scholarships for 4 years. The other school he is considering gave him full tuition for first year but is all based on need as they are a “meets need” school. That school’s website says annual amount of aid is based on both FAFSA and availability of funds. A little nervous about that.