Dby2017. At some point soon call the financial aid office and discuss your situation. Try to get one person as your reference person so when you call back it is the same person. They can’t help you if they don’t know your story. Each family situation is different. We are oos and they will do their best to get you there and keep you there.
@DBY2017 Unfortunately, merit aid does not pay for your EFC. it will replace loans and work study first, then if there’s still more, it will replace need-based grants. Merit aid is not stacked on top of the need-based aid. Even if she gets an outside merit scholarship, it has to be reported and it will change the nature of her need-based aid.
Does UMich even have merit awards for OOS students?
@DBY2017 I think you misunderstood people said that UM is generous and takes care of people. It does, but only insofar as your “demonstrated need” is concerned. It’s generosity doesn’t extend to giving you money beyond what it calculates you require, i.e. your demonstrated need. You will still be expected to cover your EFC from your own resources.
@brantly UMich does offer merit scholarship to OOS. It is typically $10k-$20k per year in LSA and $20k in CoE. However, one has to be a tippy top student to receive it. Also, the merit aid does stack with need based aid. For in-state students that the needs are all met, the merit aid has to reduce loan and work study first and then grant. If it is large enough, it can reduce EFC too. For OOS students with unmet need gap, merit scholarships will also reduce their out of pocket cost without touching the EFC. Even reductions in loan and work study would also lower the out of pocket cost.
This is all new to us. I just can’t see how UM thinks we can afford 35K a year. We are OOS and my wife and I only made 3k over the 90K threshold for OOS matching. Or EFC for FAFSA was 15K a year, which is about all we can afford. My daughter has gotten full tuition from 2 other schools so far (one being the #2 Art school in the country which is also OOS), and not getting any type of merit from UM is a surprise. She got accepted in STAMPS Art where she wants a BFA in painting. Her GPA is 4.5 (4.0 unweighted) and 33 ACT. That is much higher than the typical Art student and higher than the STAMPS 3.7 gpa and 29 ACT average that they list for accepted students. UM was her top choice and ours and we are kind of devastated.
I am not sure the merit aid situation at STAMPS. I know Music school may offer merit scholarship at even lower stat to certain students. Anyhow, merit scholarships are very competitive at UMich in general as we are talking about the top 2% or less admitted students. Most students cannot afford an OOS college and most OOS colleges expect you to pay the full price.
@knowstuff Haha it’s after 5 PM (Friday).
Has anyone received their decision today?
Happygal2017… Wow great memory but I am on central time :>. It was only a guess anyway. I feel bad for you students.
Dby2017. This works for smaller colleges but usually not larger ones but… Email financial aid and the department head your two full rides. Be honest and let them know what you can spend. See if they can do anything. You have nothing to lose. If they say they are maxed out then ask about housing and if they can reduce that. We saved over $9,000 doing this and a friend’s son just saved about the same last week. Again smaller private schools though…
My daughter got into Emerson the number 1 program for her art field. We got very little money so she went where they gave her a large art scholarship and that year number 2. Not worth going into debt over especially if you have full ride offers.
For my son at Michigan we are oos and they gave more money then Purdue, Illinois (our home state), Wisconsin, Michigan State honors (close) and a small private school for engineering Rose Hulman. So I guess it’s all perspective.
It would be nice if the schools took your EFC and then deducted grants, scholarships, federal loans, work study from that. I could work with that. Meeting need by giving grants and loans till they reach your FASFA EFC isn’t very helpful. Unless you are rich, I guess. Is there even a point to trying to get outside scholarships at all?
@3js3ks Sure. My D got a couple of them. It is nice to have no loan and workstudy. It was actually excessive at the end that she lost around $1000 of grant too.
Does 3/2/18 look like a possible date for a big wave of decisions?
@NSaltzman no one can know for sure, but it will likely be on either March 2, 9, or 16
Is it too late to send my LOCI?
Has anyone heard of any news on Geisinger Scholarships yet this year?
@ballin2022 it is late but I would recommend sending the LOCI anyways
@DBY2017 Some students have received merit scholarships in STAMPS art. I don’t know when you would hear about it, but for examples see https://leadersandbest.umich.edu/stamps/class-of-2020#sthash.nM2ccEY2.dpbs
I agree with @Knowstuff that contacting the financial aid office before making a decision makes sense. It sounds like your daughter has some great options to choose from so congratulations to her on that recognition!
The merit scholarships are not offered by the FA office. So it may not help by contacting them. You may want to contact STAMPS instead.
Thanks everyone- funny thing is after I posted about my daughter she got a notice she received a scholarship from Stamps Art and got invited for a Stamps scholarship weekend to celebrate in a few weeks. She ended up getting $12,500 a year, $50,000 total. Very excited, not sure how common it is to get a Stamps scholarship for Art or not. Still leaves us with a potential of $17K a year in loans (that’s after the money we can contribute). An Art student to have almost 70K in loans after graduation may be a challenge and we are kind of uncertain is this is a good idea. For those who don’t know, OOS tuition for UM is $67K a year. I grew up 45 minutes south of Ann Arbor and it has such a rich art culture there. We would go to Ann Arbor all the time for the art festivals and just to eat and walk downtown. It would be such a great environment for my daughter to be in, just not sure we will be able to make it work.
Just for clarification, the STAMPS Leadership Scholars Program and the Stamps School of Art and Design are two separate entities. The former, https://leadersandbest.umich.edu/stamps/the-scholarship#sthash.0ps9lQ1x.dpbs and the latter, https://stamps.umich.edu/undergraduate-admissions/finances