Hi, I am entering my senior year of high school. Looking seriously into UMass. Financial aid is the biggest issue. 1460 SAT, 30 ACT, 5/320 class rank, 4.2 GPA, all AP/honors classes, National Honor Society. Being recruited (Division 1) so there should be some athletic aid involved, but would be a partial scholarship which won’t be enough on its own. What are the highest in state merit awards given? Anyone know if those stats are competitive for the honors college?
Your stats are competitive for the Honors College, yes, but it somewhat depends on your intended major as well. There is very little merit aid given to in-state students. It is a FAFSA only school but even then it can be quite expensive compared to other state schools. If memory serves me, even income at the $45K level left COA over $20K at the Honors College. You might get another $1800 (free tuition) for MCAS scores.
Thank you very much! Looking to do chemical engineering. I do get the $1800 for MCAS scores which does help. Thanks again!
@NEPatsGirl
You said “There is very little merit aid given to in-state students”
Do they give merit aid to out of state students?
I would assume they don’t, but I wanted to ask “for a friend” 
@hswimb99 If you’re playing competitively for the school, I’m actually surprised they aren’t covering at least 80% of your COA. I know a couple of people who play for the school (albeit all different sports) and they’re all pretty much going for free.
@NJRoadie Yeah, they do give merit for OOS students. Actually, that’s where nearly all their merit scholarships go to. I don’t think in-state students have been given merit scholarships for over 5-6 years now. And even then, they were very few and far between. A friend of mine who’s from Connecticut is actually getting a $20k/year scholarship just for attending. He’s a Sport Management major. I’m pretty sure they do this because COA for OOS students are so much higher than instates, so UMass give all their merit scholarships to them to kinda even out the costs.
My daughter is in the Honors college. She gets a $2k per year scholarship (I believe it is the Dean’s scholarship and every kid in the Honors college gets that? maybe different amount for instate vs OOS?) and the $1800 per tuition credit. Also look into local scholarships for your freshman year. She got $5k in local scholarships for her freshman year in addition to the ones from UMass.