RD merit aid

[pearl2017]

Does anyone know if merit aid is given out to rd admits? Maybe presidential scholarships?

[skycry]

Yes, it’s possible to get merit aid as a RD admit. A lot of STRIDE and Zollman recipients apply RD.

[CrewDad]

Very few merit awards aren’t awarded to RD applicants.

Excerpts from an article published in The Sophian.

The STRIDE [merit award] program is an admission incentive program," said Dean of
Enrollment Audrey Smith. STRIDE is designed to
increase the yield of high-achieving students, or the percentage of
these students accepted to Smith that choose to enroll, Smith said.

Peter de Villiers, the faculty coordinator of the STRIDE program, says
the research scholarships have doubled the acceptance rate for
high-performing students since the program was instituted.
It is an important part of our admissions strategies for attracting
the academically strongest or best prepared students to come to the
college, de Villiers said.

We were concerned with the range of students we were losing," Smith
said, explaining why the STRIDE award amount was increased. The
college was losing academically promising students to Ivy League
schools, state universities and other liberal arts colleges such as
Mount Holyoke.

[pearl2017]

Thank you. I should have asked if rd students that do not receive early writes get merit aid. D received nice merit offer from MOHO but wondering if there is a possibility at Smith since she did not get an early write.

[skycry]

@pearl2017 I don’t know about the presidential scholarship, but it’s possible to not get one of the late February/early-mid March early writes with a personalized letter and t-shirt and still get STRIDE. However, I believe STRIDE and Zollman recipients should be hearing about merit aid offers in an additional mailed letter around today/tomorrow if they haven’t already.