Scholarship Money

My D was accepted on Friday and is beyond thrilled. However, we were really surprised she didn’t get any scholarship money. I ran the NPC using several factors and being the most conservative as possible (depending on how they look at GPA) and it was always coming out $20k per year scholarship. When I ran it again last week after the decision - there was $0 - like they changed their whole process in the last few months? We don’t qualify for financial aid.

So. she will apply to the Hunt Scholars, although I know that will be tough, although I think she at least has a decent shot. Do people go back and ask for money? Who do you ask? Her admissions counselor? Financial aid? Is it best to ask right away or wait? Should SHE ask, or should I, since I am the one paying the bills? We could pay, but it would be a humungous stretch for us, but possible. And advice would be great. Thanks.

Merit scholarships are usually awarded by admissions or a department (history, music, etc). Need based awards come from FA.

I’d call admissions and tell them what you said here, that you used the NPC and it showed about $20k and now you see nothing.

Thanks. Should I ask her specific admissions counselor - or just admissions in general?

For families with no financial aid or significant merit scholarship SMU is just not worth it. It’s not a good enough undergrad degree to pay almost 300K.

@3mamagirls hey ! youve commented on my posts before ! no youd have to actually go to the dean of admissions or of incoming students assuming its scholarships youre speaking of now to help you more id need to know youe EFC to try to get a pinpoint on how much you might get in the long run

My son got his acceptance from SMU, but he didn’t see any scholarship award. I assumed they’d send it separately until I saw comments on here and then went back to the school website. Both mentioned that students were awarded the scholarships with the acceptance letter. I had my son go back to check again, and he said there was no mention. Just a minute ago, I checked the folder that his letter came in and saw a small envelope inside. I opened it and found that he was awarded the Provost. Boys! :-/ All that to say, make sure you look back in the big envelope. There might be a smaller envelope that you missed with some type of award in it.

@gamom2023 Oh - I just looked! But didn’t see a little small envelope. Still deciding what to do. Congrats to your son!

@3mamagirls We have one in college already, and we were advised by our school counselor not to go into debt on undergrad with her if she had other good options, but to save it for post-grad since she will likely go to med or grad school. If your DD plans to continue beyond an undergrad degree, that post-grad matters more to future employers. Just some thoughts for budgeting. We’re in the same boat . . . don’t qualify for financial aid, but can’t really pay the tuition prices that colleges charge these days. Good luck on your decision!

@3mamagirls DD got in last year. Main Merit aid was included in acceptance letter, then she got another letter later on for BBA Scholar aid. We did not get Financial Aid based on EFC. I DID try to go back and forth with the FA office, they were quite polite in saying ‘no’ on negotiation FA. Fortunately, the 2 Merit awars brought us in line with some other colleges so she went to SMU.

@AnotherPassword Thanks. Did you talk to FA even though your question was a merit issue? Did you call? E-mail? Did you or your student do the negotiations? I would think I would have to talk to admissions related to the merit?

I talked to them about FA since we did not get FA and I wanted to know why. Merit was not discussed or negotiated.

My DD was thrilled to be admitted. We qualifed for FA but received no merit scholarship. She has a twin sister entering another college this fall, so without merit aid SMU will put us into significant debt.