My D as well… only a very, very small amount so we are basically full pay. Not affordable for us. I’m not really sure whether it is worth it to send a letter, or just move on.
DD was accepted but no merit. Similar and even more competitive schools have given her merit, even just a token amount. We were surprised, and not in a good way.
ugh im so frustrated
@leafraindcollege D is same. 
Loves the school, so excited to get in, and then crushed and sad about the lack of financial aid. We have two younger children so pulling out most of our home equity to pay full tuition is just not an option.
I think Smith doesn’t give out a lot of merit aid in general. I got a quite generous need based financial aid package, where apart for a few thousand in loans they mostly met my need in grants. My family doesn’t own any property or even a car and while we saved quite a lot given our income level they didn’t expect us to pay more than what we said we could pay. So I think perhaps Smith just takes assets very seriously?
Late but accepted!! International student
Did not apply for financial aid and didn’t receive merit-based scholarships either
Should’ve done my research properly and applied for aid, wasn’t aware Smith was so expensive :(((
Hope we all end up where we are meant to be in the end!
@thepipersson Smith does have a good amount of merit scholarships. They give out ~8 Zollman scholars, ~35 Stride $25k, ~50-70 Presidential $10k scholarships.
do you think i should reappeal? I am middle class and the only “asset” I have is our house discussed above which is only high value because of where I live, I couldnt really afford to move anywhere else
So basically Smith punishes your family for being smart and purchasing a home before the housing boom, saving your money (but not even close to being able to pay 15k a year without having over 55,000 a year in debt. To me it seems like you either have to be really poor or upper middle class/ wealthy to afford smith
And there are plenty of other people I know who applied to different colleges but because their parents rent (they spend their money on lots of other unnecessary things like status symbols) they dont have an “asset”
Smiths kind of the worst tbh, i expected harvey mudd to be a lot worse but it was so much better
I thought Smith recently had a fund raising effort and raised over $500 Million dollars and some was supposed to go towards scholarships. Just think of that, Syracuse had a fund raising effort and raised like $40 million. Smith has a ton of money. Mount Holyoke is creeping up on them with regard to SAT and ACT, and wouldn’t be surprised if they tie them in the near future, as they give a lot more Merit to top students. With Smith’s endowment, they really should be need blind by now. Seems like money is king over there.
@odannyboySF whoa, did not know they had that much, that’s pretty generous!
Is anyone else going to both the Discovery Weekend and MHC’s program that weekend and has to find a place to stay on April 14?
Joining in late here. My D got in with the Presidential scholarship. I want to tell you that it isn’t just Smith that punishes you for making smart financial choices. It’s higher education in general. We are solidly middle class, earn less than 100k/yr, a tiny home, used cars, live frugally…but we saved saved saved for our D’s education. But not nearly enough for 4 years at any of the private schools she was accepted to. Not even close. And we were completely ineligible for financial aid at every school. The Presidential scholarship is nice, but ugh, not enough! My D got accepted to Oberlin with a 128K math/science scholarship and I’m making her go to accepted students day (they are also paying to fly her out), but she has her heart set on Smith, Barnard, or Tufts - and of those only Smith gave any merit aid.
Just to help with the continuity:
I was accepted to Smith and really loved everything about it when I visited it through WOD. It truly is one of my DREAM schools. Besides that, everyone I have ever met connected with Smith has always been incredibly nice to me. Finally, they were extremely generous with my FA. I am middle class ($68K California). Unfortunately, my family is “nouveau” middle class and haven’t had the chance to build assets yet.
All that said, I was accepted to Stanford (I have no idea how or why, but I feel blessed) on Friday and will in all likelihood accept their offer. So, I have officially declined Smith’s offer. It feels horrible.
I wish you all luck and hopefully, this will open up a spot for one of the other amazing women on this thread.
Congrats on Stanford! I agree, Smith looks like an amazing school, but it’s focus is very different than that of Stanford. If you are looking at engineering/computer-science and have an opportunity to attend Stanford, do not feel bad. You’ll have an amazing time and never regret. Any aspects of Smith that you feel are missing, go make them yourself!
@Happytoapply My D got 10K in merit and was an early write. She got the full tuition ride at Mt Holyoke and same Oberlin scholarship as yours. She got a ton of merit at other schools as well. Fordham and Case came in at 35K. Grinnell Kenyon, Whitman and Macalester came in with big awards. She really likes Smith (was in her top 3) but one year would cost what 4 years will cost now at Mount Holyoke. Of her list of schools Smith gave her the least amount of merit aid unfortunately. It is hard to fathom Smith at this point. I have wondered whether to call and see if there is any wiggle room on the merit but we are really feeling the love from Mt Holyoke. Love the school that loves you back.
@Happytoapply Sounds like your D has a great offer from Oberlin, congrats! I’m curious, did you actually apply for Financial Aid and get turned down? Smith gives need-based aid to many families making more than $100K, as do many of the schools in that league.
go to stanford omgggggg thats amazing! stanford and smith are both big deals