<p>Our package was relatively good, but still a stretch for us financially, and loans and work study for the student. I am hearing and reading lots of different things that either leave me frustrated, or grateful, or both. It makes me wonder how it is going for you all.</p>
<p>Be grateful, we are full pay and an ND education and another student at Wake Forest puts next year’s tuition bill over $100,000. Funny, I don’t feel rich. Frustrating is ND’s lack of merit aid for a good student.</p>
<p>I have to agree with IrishMary. We too are full pay and what is truly frustrating is that our son, aNational Merit Finalist, had full ride offers from at least 20 schools and received no financial recognition of his academic hard work from Notre Dame. But, ND doesn’t have to…they have enough people who will pay.</p>
<p>@irishmary203 - Wow, two students and still no merit? Did any schools offer merit?</p>
<p>Schools give merit scholarships to entice smart students to enroll, which elevates the school’s academic profile and arguably benefits the other students by increasing academic competition. It’s a mistake to view these kinds of awards as some sort of “reward” or “recognition” for academic hard work. It’s a purely business decision by which the school buys students it would not otherwise be able to attract. A school like Notre Dame can fill its class three times with well-qualified applicants, and therefore has no need to buy smart kids. Most super-smart kids have plenty of good options, and paying full freight at Notre Dame is just one of them.</p>
<p>TresHijas, yes, both of my kids received merit money just not, unfortunately, for the universities that they both wanted to attend.</p>
<p>My D is on the waitlist but we would be full pay. She received $12000/year merit at Marquette and $7500/year at U of C Irvine. She received nothing at UCSD, U of IL and USC (spring admit) where she will likely attend. USC has a number of merit scholarships but I think you have to be a “rock star”. My D has a solid record (Sal of her classs) and is well rounded but doesn’t have a perfect score on her ACT or a “hook”. If my D wanted to go to mediocre school, she could probably get a full ride. She can get some money from a competitive school. She gets nothing from the top tier schools - just lucky to get an acceptance. I agree with a poster above, if the student is better than the school, they will get some merit money because their presence their improves the schools numbers.</p>
<p>Well put claremarie. It’s not a reward or recognition or validation, it’s a recruitment enticement. If this were not true, they would offer fabulous awards to transfer students who have excellent HS records and have proven themselves at other perhaps more prestigious schools. It seems like the top schools barely let transfer students in, let alone try to entice them with scholarships.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments. I will go with the grateful feeling and not look back. My best to all of you!</p>
<p>We too are full pay. But next year we will have another D in college and our EFC finally dropped below the ND tuition cost. I’m hoping ND will meet our EFC, but who knows.</p>