We don’t have to guess which schools give merit aid, to how many students, and on average how much.
U Michigan, per their 2021-22 CDS, gave merit aid to 1,779 first years who had financial need (Section H2-G). UMich also gave merit aid to 885 first years who did not have financial need (Section H2A-N), and the average amount was $4,480 (H2A-O). So, about 39% of U MIch’s Class of 2025 (first years in Fall 2021) received merit aid.
885 is way less than 39% of Michigan’s freshman class. It’s probably just over 10%. The first figures you gave aren’t typically considered to be merit. It’s institutional financial aid.
Both need based and merit aid are considered institutional financial aid. That’s the beauty of the CDS, it breaks out all the pieces for you.
So those 1,779 first years did receive merit in addition to need based aid. H2-E shows the number of students with need (1,985) who received need based aid from the school.
They can both be considered to be institutional financial aid, but they are not both considered to be merit aid.
In ordinary terms, an applicant without financial need does not have a 39% chance of receiving aid from Michigan. That applicant has closer to a 10% probability.
At the end of the day UMich is not a school that someone who is hunting merit would be focused on. It might be a school you do an app and see what happens, but you need other options.
You are correct, UMich doesn’t give out “no merit” but certainly they are not known for non need based scholarship money, which is fine! I wouldn’t expect merit $$ at UMich. I don’t believe the CDS breaks down OOS vs IS non need based merit $ though and I would guess that most of those relatively small dollar scholarships go to OOS to try to lure the extra special kids to come. Anecdotally, which isn’t worth much I realize, even the pretty amazing IS kids we know who have gone in the past few years (1550+ SAT, 4++ GPA, all the ECs) were all full pay families and got $0 scholarship for first year at least. I actually think it’s great that UMich saves their funds for those who really need them, in-state at least, but we chased merit in other states as a result because we are donut hole middle class with 3 college bound kids in a handful of years and can’t easily afford 35k/yr per kid.
This whole discussion about UMich just hi-lights that there are some State flagships that are able to get by fine without giving out much merit. The school has a strong enough reputation and the population of the state can support their enrollment. Another similar school is UIUC. They don’t give out much merit either. Then on the other side of the coin there is Bama that gives out plenty.
So some of the high stats kids end up going out of state. They can find schools that are $10-15K cheaper per year. I really don’t blame the school or the students for doing either. It makes sense for both.
It is just odd that what state you live in can affect whether you go out of state.
When you are parent and new to the game it can take some time to understand the whole situation. It took me around 3-4 months to truly understand what was going on for my first student.
I feel bad for some students that don’t understand or have parents to guide them through the process and really explore all the options. Those are some of the kids that graduate with $40-60K in loans when some of it could have been easily avoided.
Speaking from an OOS perspective, my D really liked UMich when she visited.
We would be thrilled to pay $35k for Michigan if she was accepted to Ross. Even at $53k full pay, UMich would still be near the top of the list which is still almost $10k less than many schools that arent as good as UMIch.
It may sound odd, but $53k UMich Ross could be a relative bargain vs other similar caliber schools if you dont qualify for aid.
Agree! This is our first and last go at it. I didn’t discover this group until recently and after applications but it would have changed the game for sure. Thankfully he applied to a variety of schools and got lucky with a couple for merit. DS would have preferred to go OOS but didn’t apply to some that could have got him there. DS is likely going in state now due to full ride offer and we are extremely thankful it worked out. DS is excited about his opportunities and will get a chance to get OOS with co-op, grad school or career after college. But it could have easily not worked in his favor so agree with you on feelings about those not knowing/having good guidance/information.
I guess it’s all relative and individual perspective.
For sure! Definite advantages in some states. So much for the “United” States!
Wish I knew what my son wanted to be when he grew up and what college he wanted to go to when he was 10…could have relocated!
We are in Michigan. Last year, my son got the $1500 for in-state, plus $5000 for honors and was offered the assistantship wich was $3600/year for 2 years. He would have gotten more for NMF, but didn’t put them, so I’m not sure how much. Overall, it was a great deal, but he had no interest in going. We know others that have the same offers this year as well. He also got a one-time scholarship to UMich for $1500. Better than zero, but didn’t make a dent. He’s at Alabama with the near full-ride.
My son is Bama bound! He got into his choice program and that was #1 for him even if he gets into UMich, in fact the UMich app was sort of an afterthought so I doubt his essay is great.
Even the NRP package is so much better than anything he can get in state, although of course we wish he hadn’t missed the NMSF cutoff by 1 index point!
Great! My son is enjoying it a lot. He’s in the marching band and loves that. He’s very happy with his choice!
Roll Tide!
Congratulations! My S23 decided not to apply to Blount but he loved all the Honors College opportunities at Bama so he’s heading there, too. There’s going to be quite a few bright northern kids heading South on I-65 come August. I mentioned to someone today that my son was going to Alabama this fall, and of course the guy said, “Does he like football?”. Well, uh. . . yes, but that’s not the reason he’s going. 
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I’m assuming you also qualify for some amount of financial need aid as well. Could you break out the amount of merit and the amount of need based for each school?
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No institutional grants? I’m wondering how places like Wooster or Lawrence U get to $12-15k without institutional grants if Pell is the only other money? When we were researching schools - Wooster only gave merit money for up to like 40k per year? Lawrence around the same? Has that massively changed?