<p>We got a letter from CMU telling us that our son is the recipient of an Andrew Carnegie Scholarship. It is a merit award of half tuition over four years (still no fat envelope, though - we are assuming the scholarship award means he was accepted).</p>
<p>While half tuition is nice, this is still going to be a stretch without need based aid</p>
<p>Are we eligible for need based financial aid above and beyond the merit scholarship? Are we going to be awarded less need based aid because of the merit scholarship?</p>
<p>Its around 15-20K. But my son will be my second child in college. We're already paying around 15-20K for his older sibling. His older sibling also has some loans. Its never easy.</p>
<p>You might not get any more need based, or it might be loans/workstudy; the odds of them giving you 20k in need based aid plus the scholarship are low. But the good news is that when the older kid graduates and your efc goes up you will still have the half tuition scholarship. We were in a similar position and all the need based went away and the remaining scholarship was not very large, so I know what you mean it is never easy.</p>