Im a high school senior who was recently awarded semi finalist status, and am shooting for national merit finalist as well. Assuming that I can achieve finalist, how does the scholarship process work at northeastern? They have no set scholarship for finalists, but I have heard of people getting full rides based on national merit. How common is that/what would the average finalist get in terms of a scholarship?
http://catalog.northeastern.edu/undergraduate/admission/merit-scholarships/
Looks like they are competitive.
Most receive the full 30K award - full tuition was offered in the past but is not anymore. It is not clear what makes the difference between a 30K offer and not, but you will receive significant merit money likely as a finalist. It does not appear to be about competitive so much as other financial factors - since FA scales with tuition increases but NMF does not, they may opt to offer financial aid over a scholarship to some low-income students.
The award does not stack with FA. So if your EFC is 30K, cost of attendance is 60K, and NEU was awarding you 30K of Financial Aid, you will still only get 30K. You won’t get both the National Merit and FA.
Northeastern has never given full rides except to certain graduates of Boston public schools.