@pauler80020 In most cases, when people refer to Smith being “generous” with financial aid they are usually referring to need-based aid, where Smith is amongst the best. They do meet the full demonstrated need of all admitted students. As far as merit aid goes, I have noticed in the past couple years that as Smith has endeavoured to continue meeting the full need of FA candidates, they seem to be reducing their funding for merit awards (except for certain endowed scholarships). Or at least those awards aren’t as large as in the past.
I know how frustrating it can be to have a child’s top choice offer little to no aid. We are dealing with the fallout also. It is hard for the child to process even if you talked to them ahead of time and let them know that they will need to get X amt from the school in order to make it work.
All you can do is call the Fin Aid office and see what they can do. Getting another $80K out of them does not seem realistic. I say go to the school that showed you the love and really wants your child to attend. Schools that give very little aid imo are sending you a polite reject. “You can come if you full pay but we are not going to offer you much of anything”.
What information do you have that led you to your assumption?
Also, merit aid replaces need-based aid dollar for dollar. Often, merits awards do not affect the net aid awarded.
Like @CrewDad, I question the comment about the reduction of merit aid. Smith offers up to 10 Zollman scholarships ($25,000 per year) as well as enough STRIDES ($20,000 per year) so that about 50 STRIDE students choose to attend Smith (so more than 50 STRIDE awards are offered). Plus they give Presidential scholarships ($10,000) and some other specific scholarships for locals. For being such a high ranking liberal arts college, they offer significant merit aid which is especially wonderful for families who make too much to get much need based aid but could not realistically pay full tuition.
In fact, last year Smith actually increased the Zollman and STRIDE awards by $5,000 each in order to keep pace with tuition increases (they used to be for $20,000 and $15,000, respectively).
@exlibris97 it would appear that Mt Holyoke calculated our need before they figured in the scholarship, so that need and merit aid “stacked,” whereas Smith applied the scholarship first and then calculated our need. It’s a perfectly reasonable practice, but it puts us in a donut hole where the scholarship saves us roughly $0 over what we would have received in need-based aid. It’s not them, it’s us 
but we are still going to ask for a review because of a drop in our income and see what they say.
I know for a fact that Holyoke doesn’t stack merit on top of need-based aid. If they did, Smith and other cross admit colleges could not be competitive wtr to aid. It might appear the merit was stacked because Holyoke awarded you more need-based aid than Smith. That’s not unusual. Sometimes Smith’s need-based aid is substantially more than Holyoke. Merit awards replace need-based aid dollar for dollar. It can be frustrating.
Springbird was spot on when she said merit aid most benefited full-pay, or close to full-pay, parents.
CrewDad is correct. We are full-pay parents, but are older (54 and 61) and have a ninth grade son and retirement in the mix. Our daughter’s STRIDE offer makes Smith very attractive when compared to Wake Forest where no merit aid was offered.
@CrewDad I can do math, and I have worked in a university FA department. The Smith aid calculates as I would expect, according to their policies, although they don’t actually disclose what they calculated as the EFC. The MHC award has both need aid and merit aid, and the bottom line bears no relationship to their estimate of our resources and need, which they printed on the same page as the award info. Sarah Lawrence did something similar to MHC. I’m not complaining just making a note of it. You really don’t know what you are getting until the letter arrives; the NPCs did not predict any of them accurately.
@pauler We’re both correct. I had a very nice chat with a MH FA officer. When asked if they stack merit aid the answer is yes and no. As an example, we discussed a student who received 30k of need-based aid and a 20k merit award.
In that scenario, the total aid award would be 30k. The merit award replaces the need-based aid dollar for dollar. No stacking.
The FA officer’s example of merit being stacked was a student who received 15k in need-based aid and 20k in merit. The total aid award might be~ 25k. So in that example, yes, there is small amount stacked. The FA officer also made the point that the college can’t afford to stack merit beyond the aforementioned example.
Best of luck to your daughter. She has great colleges to choose from.
@CrewDad thanks for asking! I sort of did not want to bring it up with them, seeing as how it’s a pretty nice offer and I would hate to learn that it was a mistake.
So we are off to Massachusetts in a bit, after D finishes her last musical, and we will see what we we learn and where she ends up. And thanks for the best wishes as well. I agree that she is in a good spot either way!
@CrewDad Having worked in admissions and FA, that’s the way it works at most universities where the student has ‘demonstrated financial need’. In those cases, the total award (merit + need) cannot exceed documented need. The upside is, of course, that you have your full need met.
For students with demonstrated need, Smith meets 100%, which puts them in a very select group of colleges. Good luck! I’m sure they will be helpful.
That’s always been my understanding. Thank you for confirming.
In case anyone is still following this thread, I thought I would update it. We sent an email to Smith financial aid to clarify changes in our situation since 2015, and they responded promptly with a form for us to fill our to request a review. We sent them the form and a small wadge of paperwork. They answered in about a week, and made an adjustment to our aid that adds grant money. So, they do appear to take 100% of need seriously – and they are prompt and cordial about it. It still isn’t D’s cheapest option, but Smith is strongly in the running at this point.
@pauler80020 Glad to hear it. Smith has the reputation of being fairly generous. I hope it works out for you!