<p>A few years ago NYU offered my kid an academic Likely Letter and a $7K Merit Scholarship just for high academic stats. We were “rich” but could not afford NYU so we passed. I have no idea where the money would come from but probably from other students with lower stats. NYU was willing to accept lower average tuition in exchange for better stats (and better ranking). GWU offered 20K off. Obviously if MSRP tuition is 45K and their average tuition is $40K then a kid who gets 10K scholarship will be subsidized 5K by full-pays.</p>
<p>If you have any need at all at NYU, they may offer a scholarship for academics and call it a Merit scholarship, but it is only available to those with some need (EFC’s even slightly below the cost of attendance.) Except for very specific merit awards (Women in Science or Sieman’s winner), currently NYU only offers MLK scholarships (near full tuition) for academics without need. (And there are maybe 20 offered.)</p>
<p>Years ago, if you were placed in any of their scholars programs (besides the MLK winners), you would get a merit scholarship with or without need. But that has been done away with. Both D’s were Dean’s scholars through Steinhardt, and neither got a penny from NYU for academics (older D got a talent scholarship for music.)</p>
<p>It’s very possible that that is the award they were giving your son ( @CCDD14 ) in the likely letter. (Never heard of likely letters in recent years either.)</p>
<p>I do not remember exactly but we probably had some small need and award came with LL. We have never heard about existence of LLs period and had to figure out what it was. This was RD to CAS and it came in February. It said something like do not make any rush decisions with any other colleges, your acceptance is on its way in March and here is some money for you. Quite a different wording comparing to Ivy LLs. Anyway, I do not know if they still exist.</p>
<p>“I have no idea where the money would come from but probably from other students with lower stats.”</p>
<p>I would think it comes from their endowment. As of 2013 it was $2.9 billion</p>
<p><a href=“List of colleges and universities in the United States by endowment - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment</a></p>
<p>and they had 44.5K enrolled students so their endowment per student was probably not that big and operating costs are probably enormous. It seems people on this forum are generally unhappy with their Finaid policies. Many young people feel entitled to spend college years in the liveliest part of Manhattan.</p>
<p>“It seems people on this forum are generally unhappy with their Finaid policies.”</p>
<p>Yes, I know that, but that has nothing to do with where the funds for the few merit scholarships (or need based FA - however small) at NYU come from. </p>
<p>Good that you know that all their scholarships come from endowment. I still believe that small discount offered to us looked like enrollment management trick funded by general tuition. Anyway, we can move on now.</p>