Are they selected for Merit Scholarships or is this something they apply for?
@MagnoliaMom Congratulations to your son!
@PopUpZone1921 At ND, you have to be nominated in order to apply for merit scholarships. At WashU, it’s a separate application
@MagnoliaMom Thank you for sharing, very clear and understandable from the pov of your student and your family.
Nevertheless, the merit aid route into Notre Dame is pretty much at the end of its lifecycle, I believe. Historically, the university utilized limited merit aid funds to pull a few admits from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford etc., who offer no merit aid at all. Yet even this limited endeavor becomes less and less relevant, while Notre Dame continues to attract more of the highest academic performing applicants year over year, as evidenced by news announcements by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and other sources.
At the same time, the merit aid route comes for universities with the strong inherent risk of perpetuating the issues raised by the NYT and other publications:
“Some Colleges Have More Students From the Top 1 Percent Than the Bottom 60. Students at elite colleges are even richer than experts realized, according to a new study based on millions of anonymous tax filings and tuition records.”
Students from …
________________The top 1% ($630k+)Bottom 60% (<$65k)
-
Washington University in St. Louis21.7______________________________6.1
…
- Notre Dame____________________15.4____________________________10.0
Notre Dame is undoubtedly in the process of moving away from this admission model, as it is clearly in conflict with the university mission for its undergraduate education.
Thanks for the info, @hpcsa
Maybe ND has already pulled the plug on merit which is why they haven’t released finalist decisions yet! LOL!
LOL @MagnoliaMom
Has anyone been notified? It’s getting pretty late, and I haven’t gotten anything 
Nothing here. Looks like it will be next week.
@P2S20209 Thank you for your response! I was just thinking about that because I am international student applying for FA, and ND is need-aware for international students, so I thought that in case I don’t get this scholarship I might get rejected since I would need a bigger amount of need-based aid.
Just got the email, not a finalist. Congrats and good luck to all who are!!
^ same here. Congrats to all the finalists!
Also not a finalist, but I got invited to an all-expenses paid visit! Did everyone who didn’t make finalist get this too?
Just got the notification saying I’m a finalist!
Finalist as well. @therealonessa Did the email specify the scholarship for which you are being considered? Mine did, but I was wondering if that’s universal.
My S19 is a finalist as well! He just got home from a full day of rehearsal and opened the email. @JustLetMeInPlz His email indicated a specific scholarship.
@JustLetMeInPlz They also specified for which scholarship I am being considered. Oh, and congrats!
Congratulations to the finalists! Our D didn’t make it to the next round. Good luck to all!
S19 also was did not get the news he hoped, but still thrilled to be heading to ND this fall. Congrats to the finalists!!
@therealonessa @MagnoliaMom Congratulations and thanks for the information!
Congrats to all the finalists! Sadly my daughter didn’t make it to the next round. So doesn’t look like she’ll be going to ND as we’ll not be getting any financial aid either.
For those who made it to the next round (specifically @MagnoliaMum, @JustLetMeInPlz, @therealonessa) why do you think you were successful? Any advice for future applications? I’ll (hopefully) be going through this again in a few years.