<p>anyone who got half-tuition + through merit money, what were your SAT/ACT/GPA?? i want to know if i should get my hopes up or not. i also posted this for BU, another choice of mine, if you have any information about theirs, lemme know. thanks</p>
<p>My son got the largest merit money award, $16K. GPA 4.25 weighted, SAT 730/680/650.<br>
Last year merit money topped out at 16K which is not half tuition. I don't want to discourage you, but please apply to a range of schools in a range of prices. If you cannot attend NEU without the merit money, don't count on it.
As many have written on this board before, the merit money can seem somewhat random. Students with lower scores have received more than students with higher scores in the past. It seems to me that they take into account things like: your major, your geographic location, etc. They offer the largest merit awards to the students they really want to enroll for whatever reason. We are from California, which they wanted and he is a Criminal Justice major, which is a major where they would like to pull up their numbers in terms of quality of student/students stats.
Every spring there are posts from kids who can't go where they want because of money and are left with few options. Don't make yourself one of them.</p>
<p>Just a few comments on your post ebeee. You are correct that $16k is the largest "single" amount they give via the dean's scholarship which can vary in amount. However there are other additional merit scholarships that can be received in various amounts (i.e, my daughter received the engineering legacy scholarship for $6,250/yr in addition to the $16k). </p>
<p>Also in most schools, "half tuition" applies just to tuition, not room and board, so in the case of your son receiving $16k, he did in fact receive half tuition (tuition being $31,500 this school year). There are of course full tuition/room and board scholarships given as well. But I have a few friends whose child received "full tution" at their school, but are still paying room and board. Just semantics I guess.</p>
<p>I agree with everything else you say regarding the randomness of NEU's merit aid. And I'm sure it changes year to year.</p>
<p>RatedPG, thanks for clarifying. Since my son is a sophomore, not all of this is fresh in my mind. </p>
<p>I guess the point I was really trying to make was that the student should be careful to apply to a range of schools and not count on merit money to make NEU affordable/attainable. </p>
<p>I have also seen posts where students talk about being paid during coop and how that money will help pay for school. They forget that if they stay in Boston they have to pay room and board. This year my son's dorm is $3005. per semester and we are paying $1125. for 110 meals (this is an upperclassmen meal plan). So unless students live at home during coop they will need some of their earnings to pay their living expenses while they are working.</p>
<p>Our son's university-leased housing is $4365 per semester per student (shared bedroom) and he opted for $100 per week grocery money instead of a meal plan. The dorms obviously were a better deal if one of your roommates had a good lottery number!!!</p>