<p>Picking up on a earlier thread about mixing and matching of merit scholarships vs. need. </p>
<p>"Most schools will reduce need by any scholarship money. If this is true, we are not going to be happy with our financial aid packages. We assumed the scholarship was in addition to financial aid."</p>
<p>Don't feel alone here. I too thought that merit scholarships were supplemental to need rather than included in the need based package. I had no idea a merit scholarship was subtracted from, or reduced in any way; the amount of FA a kid would receive. I mean if a kid is bright enough to earn a scholarship why then should he/she be penalized by having the merit scholarship subtracted from whatever FA he might have otherwise received. Would a school withdraw a merit scholarship from a kid if they learned his/her parents were multi-millionaires and could pay for a full ride... I doubt it. So why does the working class kid take a hit by having his FA package reduced because he got a merit scholarship? Moreover by tying these merit scholarship to high GPAs occasionally higher GPAs than the student had in high school, there is probably an expectation on the part of the institution that many kids will lose these scholarships. Does the school step in at that point and replace the lost scholarship with a need based award or do they count on the kids parents taking on greater debt rather than removing their child from a campus environment he/she has grown accustomed to. I guess my point is if a merit scholarship is truly based on a students merit it should not detrimentally impact the amount of need based FA the kid receives. When this happens the institution has basically given the kid need based aid with a GPA attached. Am I wrong?</p>
<p>Just checked with older D’s school. Her merit award is indeed subtracted from her financial need as is her Stafford loan. These two total $18,500. So despite the fact that my EFC will be cut in half next fall, (down to 19K) with S entering college, about all I should expect is the previously unsubsidized Stafford to be subsidized. I’m sure glad I don’t have a one year old because there seems to be no light at the end of the FA tunnel.</p>
<p>And the other side of the coin (not being argumentative, just pointing out that in fact there are two sides) why shouldn’t the colleges try to maximize the number of kids who can attend their college by being prudent with their scholarship dollars? Once they’ve determined “need”, they can help more families by meeting that need and then moving on to the next family, vs. giving one family more than their need by letting them “double dip”.</p>
<p>Obviously, if their calculation of your need is inadequate then you need to move on to another college which is affordable. But if you can attend with their definition of need and they’ve met that need- where’s the quarrel? And some other family gets to benefit as well.</p>
<p>It must be irritating for a family struggling to meet their EFC to learn that there are kids at their child’s campus who are buying laptops, heading off to London for the summer for an all expense paid experience interning at Parliament, all courtesy of their very generous merit scholarship on top of their need based aid. Obviously, if I were the parents whose kid was the beneficiary of merit on top of need I’d be thrilled.</p>
<p>Need based aid is a function of how much the college thinks a family can pay toward the cost of attendance. Merit aid makes the COA go down, so it makes sense that the college’s “contribution” would also go down. It’s not as if the family has handed the college the merit scholarship money - that either comes from the college itself, or some outside source (even though the student legitimately feels that she has earned the money in some sense). What should happen with the scholarship money is a reduction in loans and student work study money, before taking away grants. I believe the most financially sound colleges do it that way. </p>
<p>I’m a huge fan - and beneficiary of - merit aid. But I can’t reasonably expect my son’s school to give him a financial aid package, and then add on the half-tuition merit scholarship as a little bonus! Sure, he’s stuck with a GPA requirement. I guess if that bothers someone, they could opt for just the no-strings need based aid instead. But that’s a poor strategy if there’s any fluctuation in income, or if the college revises the way it determines need.</p>
<p>I don’t think they should reduce need based aid because of a merit scholarship. It’s not much of a reward for merit if they take away your need based aid for it. I suppose their idea is that if you get the scholarship you obviously have less need-- and technically in theory you do, so the lower class students with more need than you can get more aid. If they found out the students parents were millionaires or whatever it was you said, they would not withdraw a merit scholarship but WOULD withdraw FA, the purpose is to meet “need.” I suppose that makes sense but it doesn’t take much of the sting out, does it.</p>
<p>Coming from someone with no “demonstrated” need or enough merit for a merit award anyway. I have no stake in this game whatsoever.</p>
<p>As a lower-middle-class parent whose kid is likely to be affected by this, I feel your pain. But it really does make sense if you think about what need-based aid is. It’s not something our kids have earned, it’s a charitable response to our financial situation. And merit aid changes our financial situation. If our computed need is $20K, and we get a $10K scholarship, then how can we possibly still need $20K? (I mean, aside from the fact that most of us can’t really afford to pay our EFC…) </p>
<p>Yes, it’s true that full-pay families don’t deal with this problem, and merit aid really does improve their bottom line. But in the meantime, they’re jealous of us for getting what they see as an unmerited free ride (just look at the “Ability to pay” thread). The grass is always greener.</p>
<p>Also, don’t forget that at most schools (I think; anyway, at most of the ones we’re applying to) merit aid will only reduce FA after any gap between FA and need is filled. And at some–I know Wheaton (MA) is one, but I’m sure there are others–the loan and work-study portions of need-based aid are reduced first, before grants are touched.</p>
<p>Nightingale, it is a difficult question. But the fact is that there are probably a lot more kids out there who really need the money in order to be able to attend. </p>
<p>Certainly, if the merit money is coming from the college, then it doesn’t make sense for them to pretend it isn’t there. (I remember that at the U of C, for example, my kid’s National Merit money would have been subtracted from his need-based award–in other words, not given at all!-- rather than applied to our part of the equation, because the U of C would be the entity awarding it. A kid who didn’t require FA at all would actually get the $$ and therefore the family would pay less.) If it is coming from an outside source, the situation is less clear, but it still comes down to the fact that if they give your kid more than they “need” according to their formulas then some other kid with need is not getting that money.</p>
<p>On the other hand, there is the very good question of whether they will revisit your kid’s award if the circumstances change: loss of merit scholarship, additional kids in college, etc.</p>
<p>I think what it boils down to at merit-aid schools is that they are primarily using that money as a “discount” to buy students with high stats or other things they want. Merit aid is only secondarily a means to help deserving students go to college. And I have the perhaps-incorrect impression that they are also likely to use available need-based aid to assist students who have something they want: URM status to improve their diversity figures, some kind of talent that will bring attention to the school or please the alumni, high stats, etc.</p>
<p>I think it helps immensely to stop thinking of merit aid as “earned”. Merit aid is awarded. Merit aid offered by a college is a marketing tool to get a higher stat student, or otherwise desirable kid, in the door. If you think of merit aid as “earned”, you might think of it as ‘your money’. It is not only not your money, it is not even real money. It is a discount on the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>If the above is true, then there is still a meaningful impact of having a merit-based award that does not cover the entire gap of COA. My question is how true is the above quote? Do most 100% need-blind schools follow this?</p>
<p>Merit aid is actually a great tactic for schools to use. It is working really well for Northeastern. Many times I see top students turning down a school because they don’t qualify for financial aid and the families can’t afford the cost, while the college pays the bulk of the cost for average students because they do qualify for FA.</p>
<p>By definition, merit aid would reduce need-based aid. Why? Because once one receives the merit aid, one no longer “needs” that amount. As far as the school is concerned, the family’s ability to pay hasn’t changed; the only thing that has changed is the amount of unmet need. The merit aid meets that amount of need.</p>
<p>In addition to reducing the amount of need-based loans & work-study (which also don’t go to meet the family’s contribution), the other benefit of merit aid is that it does not change if the financial situation changes. Let’s say that a currently unemployed parent gets a job. The need-based aid for the following year may go down, but assuming the student meets the requirements to retain the merit aid, the student gets to keep it.</p>
Well, it’s true for Wheaton, unless they’re big fat liars. I have no idea how widely applicable it is, though, because they are the only school that I can recall addressing that specific issue in their info session. I assume that they’re not the only ones who do it this way, but I could be wrong. </p>
<p>
Yes, and in the context of the original post, it’s important to emphasize that it’s a discount on the full cost of attendance, not the FA-adjusted cost of attendance.</p>
<p>Well, sort of. Some merit scholarships require submission of the FAFSA or CSS profile. Obviously, some of the “merit” aid is a relabelling of need-based aid. “Leadership Scholarship” sounds better than “institutional grant.” Sadly, it sometimes appears that kids with no demonstrated financial need have no “merit”…</p>
<p>And to those who think that their kids “earned” their merit money, so we shouldn’t penalize them? Please. I earn my paycheck and I earned the money I poured into my kids’ college fund since before they were born, but it would be twisted logic to think that I’m being penalized when those prevent me from getting need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>In reality, the people being penalized by the college financial aid system are the higher-income folks who don’t get a dime of aid. I’m OK with all of this, as the well-to-do get plenty of other benefits from our economy. But it is interesting to me how many parents at all income levels feel that a private-school education without financial sacrifice is an entitlement because their precious progeny got a 1300 or a 3.5.</p>
<p>College tuition and healthcare costs have skyrocketed faster than inflation over the last decade or two. Not-so-coincidentally, these are two systems where the consumer is generally shielded from the actual costs, providing no incentive to economize. How many other things in our capitalist society are charged on a sliding scale based on how much you make? (I can think of only one: income taxes.) If the automobile industry worked this way, we could all be driving a Lexus.</p>
<p>My oldest got a “small” scholarship from his high school at the end of the year and yes, his out of state public had granted him an equal amount of work/study which they removed. The scholarship was a one time one year sort of thing and the work/study was added back in sophomore year. Whether removing work/study is what all schools do first I do not know, in our case it was what they removed. Worked well for us as it decreased the check we wrote since work/study doesn’t generally go right to tuition, it is given as a check to the student at my son’s school and fortunately my son had a part-time job already lined up that was not work/study so it all worked out fine.</p>
<p>See…I disagree with having merit take away from need. If I’m going to get basically the same aid package with or without merit, then what’s my incentive to apply for merit?</p>
<p>I know that my top two schools give merit IN ADDITION to need based aid. So, if my efc is like 10k and I get a 15k scholarship, they take away my Loans and then use the rest of it towards my EFC…</p>
<p>I guess as a kid paying for everything, I really need every penny and don’t appreciate this sort of “double dealing”</p>
<p>EDIT: I realized that post sounded really snobby. I specifically looked for schools with merit money to cover my EFC so I could attend. It just would bum me out if all my research and careful planning was for naught</p>
<p>PaperChaser, no they did not during that school year and although of course he reported it on the next year’s FAFSA. Ironically the business belly-upped the summer between freshman and sophomore year when the economy tanked and jobs became scare for college students in “his” town, so since sophomore year he has accepted the work/study.</p>
I have no idea how widely applicable it is, though, because they are the only school that I can recall addressing that specific issue in their info session. I assume that they’re not the only ones who do it this way, but I could be wrong. </p>