No merit Aid from Ohio state

Hi everyone, I just logged on to my Ohio state portal page and found that I had received no merit scholarships. I am a white male from Ohio with a 34 on the ACT, 700 on the SAT MATH 2, a 4.41 weighted GPA, and have taken 11 AP classes in my highschool career. I’m currently ranked 25th in a graduating class of 428, and was 11th as a Junior until a really bad concussion messed up my grades for second semester of junior year. I am also a 4 sport lettermen. I qualify for 2 of the merit scholarships and I met one of the criteria for their top scholarship, which I was hoping they would take into account my circumstances, but unfortunately did not. So my question is why did I not receive any merit aid, even though I qualified for almost all of them, and the lower tier scholarships, I was well above the standards? Thanks everyone!

I also had a 690 on the SAT Biology test, and only took bio freshman year.

Because OSU is super stingy with merit aid, especially if you are outside the top 3% of your class (and even then it’s nothing special). In Ohio the big merit comes from Miami and sometimes OU.

I assume you applied for all of them, and honors, and all that? Even still, none of their awards are automatic, they’re all competitive. And limited.

OSU can be irregular with merit.

Do you need merit to afford college?

If so, did you apply to ANY schools that FOR SURE would give you large merit for your stats?

How much will your parents pay?

What is your major?

are you a NMF?

Did you apply before Nov 1? I don’t think the merit scholarships are guaranteed.

Did you apply to any other schools where you might have gotten merit?

Temple had automatic full tuition for ACT 32 and 3.8 GPA. Ohio university might also have given you merit.

I did not apply to OU, my parents would not let me. It has the reputation for being a party school and my parents didn’t want any part of that. I also applied to MIT, Harvard, Duke, Wooster, John Carroll, Vandy, Michigan, Bowdoin, Case and Miami. I have only been rejected by MIT and Vandy so far, but money is a huge factor for me and at this point both John Carroll and Wooster, 2 private schools none the less, are cheaper than a state school in Ohio state

I was a National Merit Semi finalist, Intend to go into Applied Mathematics/ Computer science

I’m not surprised.

…and I love Wooster :slight_smile:

How did Miami do?

All schools are party schools Have your parents seen this new list with Miami U and Ohio U in the top 10? https://colleges.niche.com/rankings/top-party-schools/

Virtually all the schools on your list are party schools…even MIT!!! Look up MIT parties on YouTube. When my nephew was at Tufts, he and his pals spent their weekend nights at the MIT parties because, according to him, MIT has the best parties.

OSU is no less a party school than OU.

You said that you were a NMSF…did you make NMF?? or did you get a rejection letter in January?

How much will your parents pay each year?

http://www.uah.edu/itsc/456-research/itsc/news/5642-cyber-security-concern

http://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/merit-tuition-scholarships

I thought there was lots of partying at OSU too.

UA Huntsville still accepts applications and you might get a full ride

I don’t really think it is fair to say that OSU is super stingy with merit aid - read the threads in the OSU forum to see how many kids are reporting receiving merit aid. I will agree with the poster that said they can be irregular with merit. Some view their scholarships as automatic if you meet their stats but thats not accurate as many kids have posted that they either received no merit or a lower scholarship than what their stats quality them for. And they do run out of money as I assume all schools with merit money do.

I suppose I mean relative to some other Ohio schools like Miami and OU. Especially outside the top 3% rank.

Neither of my kids bothered to apply mainly for that reason. It’s not good with need-based aid either.

How many kids that got merit at OSU were OOS? The Morrill is for diversity also I think.

But it seems it’s much harder for instate kids to get merit at OSU. The OP might have gotten the $5,700 Maximus save the class rank. OOS kids can get $11,000 for Buckeye plus merit on top of that.

This seems really strange. With your stats you should have gotten some sort of merit scholarship (genuinely not trying to make you feel bad or brag) but I received a merit scholarship with an ACT 5 points less than yours, so the fact that you have a 34 ACT and no merit scholarship is odd. Perhaps it was a mistake? Did you mention your concussion on the common app, or somewhere else where they could read about it? What is your EFC? They shouldn’t take that into account for giving a merit scholarship but maybe they did. Have you tried contacting them and asking them? Did you turn your application in before the November 1st deadline? I’m pretty sure they don’t award merit scholarships unless you hit that deadline. I hope this all works out for you.

I think OSU is sporadic at best with need-based aid. I believe I got a generous amount but it still baffles me when other people do not.

Nothing like our neighbor to the north, or NC, or VA.

http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1807

UNC-CH: Need Fully Met 1,418 (78.1%) of aid recipients
Average Percent of Need Met 100%

MI: Need Fully Met 1,841 (78.1%) of aid recipients
Average Percent of Need Met 85%

UVA: Need Fully Met 1,271 (100.0%) of aid recipients
Average Percent of Need Met 100%

@abbman21 The bottom line here is that for merit aid at OSU you need to apply before the November 1 deadline for Early Action. Otherwise, no matter how high your stats or class rank are, merit aid is not likely.

OSU has 3 levels of your typical merit scholarship available to out of state and in state applicants. These scholarships can be stacked onto the National Buckeye scholarship for out of state students. These 4 scholarships have specific stat requirements (although meeting the stats doesn’t guarantee receipt of the scholarship) and applications must be submitted by Nov 1 to be eligible. You are not required to specifically apply for these Scholarships as each application submitted by Nov 1 will be considered. OSU also has a limited number of other high $ value scholarships that do require separate essays/apps.

I applied on October 20th, and didn’t get a decision until February 24th, which I also found to be quite odd.