Hi there,
Anyone willing to share the criteria for receiving merit funding?
For incoming Freshman who received merit funding:
ACT or SAT Score
GPA, weighted and unweighted
For second year students and beyond:
GPA?
Thank you so much!
Scholarships of any significant amount will only be awarded freshman year. There are no criteria beyond being at the top 10-15% of the applicant pool. You can look at the middle 50% numbers and use the high ends as a guide.
Special programs like national merit and the like are the only ones with strict criteria.
Any scholarships once in school will be rare, competitive, and holistic. They should not be considered for any affordability purposes.
My son received 28K per year, honors program, 6K honors dialogue of civilization stipend. 1560 SAT, 35 ACT, 4.0 UW GPA, 4.7 weighted, salutatorian.
They are awarded only freshmen year, but are for all 8 academic semesters (4 years). In most cases.
My child was awarded 20K per year scholarship. 34 ACT. 4.25 weighted gpa. Lots of diverse leadership and extracurricular activities.
My D was awarded 28k per year. 34 ACT, 14 APs, solid ec’s, 3.8 UW and 4.2 W
My S18 got 18K awarded, 3.73uw, 4.25w, 1540 SAT, 35 ACT, 10.5 APs. He went elsewhere for school.
My D16 got roughly 30K awarded (don’t know exactly, as she had other scholarships from 3rd parties mixed in as well that covers most of her tuition), 3.6-ish uw, ~4.15w, 34 ACT, 10 APs, lots of impressive ECs.
ACT: 35
GPA (UW): 3.96
GPA (W): 4.55
Merit Received: 33K per year (National Merit Scholar)
The Northeastern website says the National Merit Finalist award is “up to $30K”. I assume that means the amount they offer could be significantly less than that. The poster above mentions $33K per year. Can anyone else share their experience with the National Merit Award from Northeastern? thanks
@cobale Based on postings here on CC the past few years everyone who received the NMF merit award received the full $30,000/year with one exception. Also students who have received it generally also get an additional scholarship amount toward a period of international study or coop.
My D got a NMF Merit Award last year of 32,000. It was explained to us that Honors Program would allow up to 32,000. The other money toward international study ($3500 toward a 1st year Dialogue, and I think $6000 toward other International stuff) is from the Honors program and not NMF designation. Note however, that this year, the wording of “up to 30,000” has been removed from the description of the scholarships for NMF. Says instead “will receive a competitive merit-based award”. Her original merit award before NMF designation was 27,000 before being increased.
The new wording as of this year, for reference:
Sounds like as Northeastern rises, merit programs are being winded down. Looks like uncharted territory ahead for this upcoming cycle.
Thanks for the responses. The new wording is a little concerning.
I am reading into it that the school does not want to be committed to anything special for NMFs. This is a big change from 6 years ago when they gave them full tuition. My guess is that they think a larger percentage of their pool will be NMFs and they would like to use their money to attract a wider variety of types of candidates. Maybe use a more rounded measurement to give merit (more than just NMF) or a more narrow one (we need an good oboist this year for our band). NEU admissions is changing so quickly over the past few years - dropped NMF full tuition scholarship, eliminated scholars program, added ED (1 and 2), expanded NUin program, etc. There is no telling what will happen (forget trying to chance anybody for this year).