Two points: 1. Merit aid is awarded with acceptance, as is the case with several who have posted above. Additional financial aid is sent later. 2. While PC does indicate that it is based on “academic” record it does not specifically state that test scores are excluded.
That’s why I am confused. She has 10 AP classes, ALL the rest are honors, other than 2 regular required elective classes the freshman year. 4.5 GPA and nothing listed in the letter about merit aid. She is on the the highest track in school with hardest classes (including an extra AP class this year that’s not even needed).
This is my second child going to PC. The financial package comes by the last week in January if you applied for financial aid. It says that right in the acceptance letter. I looked at my older daughter’s acceptance letter that I saved and there is no Merit mentioned in it and she was awarded 30k in the financial package that was mailed separately.
2 Likes
She won’t qualify for fininacial aid. We didn’t even fill out FAFSA. Was looking for strictly merit aid.
We don’t qualify either but always fill out the Fafsa. My oldest just graduated from PC and it’s not cheap so hopefully there’s some merit
PC makes is pretty clear that Merit would have been included in the acceptance letter. Need based aid will come in January. They also have a FAQ section about merit based aid and they state that it is extremely competitive and there is no appeals process.
2 Likes
They told us this face to face in information sessions and when the rep visited our son’s school virtually over Zoom. I heard the admissions office say exactly that at least three times - we do not use test scores to calculate merit.
Did anyone do the net price calculator before applying? It was off by $25,000 for us, what is the point if they are going to be so wrong?? My daughter would not have applied if we had known it was completely unaffordable.
Has anyone heard anything about admission to the Honors Program?
How do you know it was off? the financial aid packages have not come out yet. Only merit scholarships were included in admission offers.
My daughter got accepted with 45% merit scholarship. Not sure how much that is $ wise. She also got into the Honors college. This was all in the December letter, applied EA. She submitted test scores (33 ACT) and has a 4.0. We’re from Texas. Just thought I’d put her stats out there as it seems merit aid is all over the place at this university.
Both my husband and I are alumni and both my children accepted w/o merit. Older child 4.5 weighted GPA, 34 ACT and lots of honors chose not to attend. 2025 son same credentials but no test scores. Over $100k merit over 4 years from selective LAC’s. It is disheartening as I think PC would have been a great fit for him. Perhaps would have been advantageous to exclude legacy info on the common apps as admissions may assume a shoo-in…
Just received FA package. It was very generous. Case Western still has the best package thus far so that is likely still the leader. But rather impressive I must say.
was the FA on the portal or snail mail?
Portal
2 Likes
Just got my D aid package - looks like the aid I was expecting (37k based on Providence calculator) got reduced by her merit scholarship - she got (30,272 merit scholarship). I was expecting aid of 37k based on the Providence calculator but only got about 7k. This does not seem right - can anybody help explain? Do they really reduce need-based aid if you get a merit scholarship? It leaves the college WAY out of reach for my D - again, thanks for any help guys.
We received a large grant in addition to the scholarship. I’m not sure how they calculate it. They do use the CSS Profile and all schools are different in what they determine to be demonstrated need with CSS.
Yes, unfortunately, I do believe that is very common practice at most colleges - merit scholarships will reduce the amount of need based aid you will receive. For example if the total cost of attendance is 75k and the school determines the family can pay 25k a year, you need 50k in aid, if you get 25k in a scholarship, they reduce your need based aid by 25k so you would have 25k in merit based aid and 25k for need based aid.
My son received the financial aid package today. I’m pretty disappointed. The NPC had us anticipating a $20K grant. He received a $20K scholarship in his acceptance letter and today – $0 in grant money. Even if he had received the grant we still would have needed to take some loans. We are a Catholic family who have been dedicated to Catholic education. He was very interested in PC but it is obviously not God’s plan for him!
I’m not sure how many other Catholic universities you applied to and/or if your son was accepted or how far he’s willing to travel for college, but a few are still accepting applications including Marquette, Duquesne, St Bonaventure, Loyola Chicago, St Joseph’s ¶ and Dayton. I believe Catholic University (in DC) may still be accepting applications as well. It’s possible one of those may meet your financial requirements.
Best of luck!