Schools known for good merit aid

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Ditto Ohio_Mom - a vote for Kalamazoo

Zvidacs and Kff1994, Thanks for the info about the scholarships. My D has similar stats and will be applying to many of the same schools and looking for substantial merit aid. Please update us as you get more information. If you don’t mind sharing, I would be interested in hearing more about ECs, honors, etc. Do you think those variable made a big difference in the merit award?

20k a year @ St Kates, for starters.

waiting on the nail biting schools.

How do Drexel Athletes do their co-op and participate in their training and athletic events?

Pitt offered a “full-ride” with study abroad stipend. Through NMS, Arizona State offered full tuition. University of Arizona would throw in an Ipad with ASU offer. University of Texas, Dallas offers full tuition as well. USC will provide 1/4 tuition however also has need-based tuition for low and moderate income folks like ourselves. UMD will decide if full tuition will be offered or a partial including books.

Most exciting is an early action acceptance to MIT. We will find out 3/14 as to financial aid amount.

I am oh so very proud of my daughter…preparation preparation preparation. It certainly paid off.

jsmathwiz, congratulations! Looks like you will have a lot of great options to choose from.

congrats on the early action at MIT jsmathwiz!

was reading earlier posts on this thread about Brandeis, my s also got a Presidential scholarship 5 yrs ago, and at that time it was 27K, seems merit awards have gone down significantly there.

Washington and Lee has the Johnson scholarship program, full rides to approx 44 students per year. W&L seeking to increase diversity on their campus.

Also New College of Florida gives scholarships to large number of accepted students.

Brandeis is still worth applying to with super high stats becasue it appears that they awarded some merit aid last year despite telling people at info sessions that they were not awarding merit aid any more.

They had done a study which had basically said that merit aid was not bringing top candidates to the school, and that those awarded aid were not inticed to attend despite their offer of aid. So they re-vamped their financial aid program to give most of their $ to those with need. And they made it clear at info sessions that they changed their policy and that people should not expect merit aid like in the past. That all but a few very specific awards were no longer available.

However, Presidential awards were awarded to some last year. I guess they felt that these kids applied even though they were not expecting merit aid and that they would therefore attend.

This is such a valuable thread! I hope we keep hearing of the merit awards as all the acceptances come in over the next month!

<a href=“http://www.iit.edu/undergrad-admission/cost/scholarships-university.shtml[/url]”>http://www.iit.edu/undergrad-admission/cost/scholarships-university.shtml&lt;/a&gt;

[New</a> College of Florida - Scholarships - New College of Florida](<a href=“http://www.ncf.edu/scholarships]New”>Financial Aid - New College of Florida)

[Scholarships</a> | Knox College](<a href=“http://www.knox.edu/admission-and-financial-aid/scholarships.html]Scholarships”>http://www.knox.edu/admission-and-financial-aid/scholarships.html)

Not to discount any of the merit aid people have reported - but some of the scholarships are driven by being in certain underrepresented groups.

amandakayak–can you be more specific as to which ones you saw are for URM only? That could be helpful information for a lot of people.

My friend got a full ride at Clark University, and I got about 20k a year fin aid.
Friend is an international student, so I’m assuming they give more finaid to nationals.
I also know Muhlenberg gives a lot of financial aid and so does U Miami as far as I know.

I trust this has been noted on this thread somewhere in the previous 77 pages of suggestions, but GWU provides substantial aid, or apparently so. Until one gets to the bottomline, net cost.

And that’s really the only number that really counts. How much outta Dad’s pocket and/or yours via student loans.

So GW’s got this mammoth price tag and mammoth FA for those who cannot afford $60K or whatever/year.

And the same principle can apply on “blue light specials” i.e. those places with low sticker tags.

For example, I know numerous payers who had a student at Grove City, long known for the cheapie sticker price. And long known for poor FA, with the philosophy being, “Hey, we give alot of aid to EVERY student.”

But when a sibling attends a much higher sticker-priced place, often the “net” or bottomline trumps that of the sibling at GC.

Doesn’t always work this way, but often. And most notably, it works this way for those families with genuine need.

S received admission offer from SUNY Geneseo a few days ago, and an offer to apply to their Edgar Fellows program (special courses and $2000 scholarship). This is his first acceptance Still waiting on all the other schools - Princeton (RD - got deferred from ED), Duke, Emory, Brown, Dartmouth, U of Rochester, and College of Wooster.

^^^^^ congrats.

Does anyone when you receive financial aid from a university if its the same amount each year or does it solely depend on your income. My D received a significant amount of aid and I’m curious if its every year. Thanks!

Good question that most would not pursue. None knows the answer but remember a couple things …

<ol>
<li>
Parents must file FAFSA EVERY year … not just one.
</li>
<li>
Institutions are far more generous in RECRUITING students than in RETAINING them.
</li>
<li>
They know the law of physics … things have a tendency to remain in their current state … in motion when students matriculate and in place when they get over the freshman jitters.
</li>
</ol>

hmmm, thanks Whistle Pig…#2 is funny because it was like that when we applied to a one of the top private schools in NYC.

another question: can you negoitate? in particular, if another institution offers a better financial aid package?