<p>These 20 schools offer zero merit aid for academics alone. (Bryn Mawr and MHC offer a leadership scholarship to some 6% of their students -defined by some nebulous parameters). </p>
<p>Carleton has tiny NMF scholarships only. I'd call it need only*.</p>
<p>Several other schools have severely limited aid in either amounts or numbers. I will try to flesh those out over the next day or so. </p>
<p>I'd put </p>
<p>32 Holy Cross,
49 Sarah Lawrence
55 Wheaton (Il) </p>
<p>on the list right now just from memory of them being weak. Again, I'll try to flesh those out.</p>
<p>100 Bennington should be on the tiny merit aid list - 1%. </p>
<p>So the next question , who is any good at merit aid? </p>
<p>This my list. I will admit it is biased towards what I found important, sizable awards available of at least half tuition, to more than a handful of kids . The * are my top twenty merit schools in the LAC category. (Gee, alot of them are southern and the rest are pretty midwestern. Imagine that. LOL.) </p>
<p>sigh
the people online listen to me about as good as my family does-
At least I can't see you guys roll your eyes ;)
BUt as I mentioned before- Holyoke offers very good merit aid.
It might not be widely distributed, but the only girls that I knew were even looking at Holyoke, received packages that they were thrilled with- ( both incomes well over 6 figures)
<a href="http://www.mtholyoke.edu/adm/center/faqs.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.mtholyoke.edu/adm/center/faqs.shtml</a> -scroll down to Does Mt Holyoke offer merit ascholarships?
[quote]
Merit Scholarships:
Mount Holyoke College Leadership Awards</p>
<p>As an institution that values the highest levels of academic excellence and the cultivation of women leaders, Mount Holyoke is pleased to offer a limited number of merit scholarships - awarded competitively - to first-year candidates who have an outstanding record of scholarship and extracurricular achievement in high school. These scholarships - Mount Holyoke College Leadership Awards - will be renewed annually, up to a maximum of eight semesters for as long as a student is enrolled full-time and remains in good academic standing. There is no separate application for the Mount Holyoke College Leadership Award; applicants will be considered during the admission process. This awards is non transferable for study at another institution; however, students who are eligible to study abroad and who need financial assistance are encouraged to apply for the Laurel Fellowship. Please note that, for matriculated students, credits transferred to the College due to a semester or year of study or academic leave will count toward the eight-semester limit, whether or not financial aid from the College was provided for those credits.
[/quote]
now since this is not a Holyoke thread- I wont add that one girl, mostly stayed for the equestrian program and to attend St Andrews & another girl is trying to transfer to Stanford</p>
<p>ek4, I mentioned the leadership awards, didn't I? <a href="Bryn%20Mawr%20and%20MHC%20offer%20a%20leadership%20scholarship%20to%20some%206%%20of%20their%20students%20-defined%20by%20some%20nebulous%20parameters">quote=me</a>.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It was the "Leadership" nomenclature part that was throwing me off (although I know as well as anybody that many of the best awards are not solely based on academics.;)) I was just trying to put them in a Leadership Merit category.</p>
<p>I'd like to add University of Richmond, with US News rank of 34, to the list of "good LACs for merit aid." Sure, the tuition has increased tremendously recently, but at least when I was applying in 2003-2004, there seemed to be really good merit aid possibilities. I would expect that they may have grown since that point.</p>
<p>Yeah, I tussled with that one, too, Jenskate. Richmond is a quality school. When we get to top schools, we put a qualitative, almost personal measure in there. Like for instance, for a high stat kid like you, that Rice/Baylor deal is cooking. One of the top opps in whole world, but not broad enough for this list.</p>
<p>When you are applying for merit aid at some of our finest academic schools (top 100 LAC's and Uni's) , you have to really know not just your finances but where you stand in the admit pool . It's kind of like doing a ballet, while on a tightrope. :eek: Sometimes we are willing to pay more for a Rice than we are for a TCU, and in my opinion - that's just common sense. But sometimes TCU is willing to pay more for you, and that's common sense , too. LOL. </p>
<p>You can't have too many WashU's and not enough Denison's. Nobody should count on Emory scholars but you can pretty much calculate that you'll get something from Case AT CERTAIN STAT LEVELS. The breadth of the merit program at a Rhodes or a Centre make some merit a given at certain standards. That can't be said as clearly at Davidson or certainly not at Johns Hopkins. But yes at UMiami. </p>
<p>For a high stat kid , it's not a question of "can she get merit aid ?" But really , how much merit does she have to have to be able to attend? The strange concepts of "merit match" and "merit safety" and "merit reach" come into play. For us we calculated that as follows: find a school she'd like to attend that offered sufficient merit to attend to X %-age of their kids, where she was in the top X %. In other words, if Centre gave out 50 awards that would make attendance possible for her, was she likely to be one of those 50 kids? If so, it was a merit match. But if Hanover gave her a guaranteed $16K for being a val or sal with certain other requirements - that was a merit safety. It would have also been a safety because of her place in the overall pool of applicants and the fact that Hanover was $15K less than some other schools from the start. </p>
<p>So, just like with admission's, you need merit safeties, matches, and reaches. Maybe some of you are seeing now how we ended up with 11 apps to merit schools, and 3 to need only schools. Overkill? Well, yeah. Probably so, but my kid was going to have an affordable chair when the music stopped. We were just a wee little bit conservative and ended up with 10 merit chairs (one waitlist that she didn't stay on). We had too many merit safeties and matches. We needed maybe 5. We had 8. LOL. We should have had 6 merit reaches on the list. We had 3. Hey, like I said - she was going to have an affordable chair that she liked. I had promised her. ;)</p>
<p>One small correction - Macalester falls into the same category as Carleton - they offer a small National Merit scholarship ($2000), which they generally augment with a Dewitt Wallace scholarship (additional $3000 per year). But given their overall COA, it amounts to "drop in a bucket".</p>
<p>Noted, FF. If that $5K was the $5K mom and pop needed to say yes to a great school like Mac, that is a significant find. When we update, I'll shift it. (See? I told you I didn't know diddly about NMF's. I was skimming when I got to that part. LOL. )</p>
<p>Bowdoin falls into this Carleton category as well, unless they've changed things since I started attending. I get a <em>tiny</em> bit of money from them each year for National Merit even though I don't qualify for fin. aid. People who do qualify get a much better deal (they not only get more money, they also have all of their loans converted to grants, or something along those lines...), though.</p>
<p>i agree with allison about Bowdoin being in the Carleton catagory. D was offered 5k merit scholarship. I also think I would * Grinnell on your top list - they offer quite a few 1/2 tuition merit scholarships, and with their tuition being a bit lower to begin with, it makes for a substantial reduction when comparing to a full price
Pomona or Williams.</p>
<p>Financial aid at Connecticut College provides access to a quality educational experience for students who could not otherwise afford the full cost of tuition. As a highly selective institution, all of our students bring special talents and abilities that enhance the quality of our community. While some colleges and universities offer financial assistance to students based on these academic, athletic, musical, or artistic abilities, Connecticut College determines a student's eligibility for financial aid based on a detailed assessment of the income, assets, and special circumstances presented by his or her family. It is not our intent to reward a student's meritorious performance through the distribution of financial aid. Rather it is our desire to open the doors of the College to highly qualified students from all economic backgrounds. </p>
<p>Conn Coll says no merit aid. I don't know what to tell you. I've seen inconsistencies before. </p>
<p>The following is a discussion of preferential packaging of need aid - or FA Voodoo for Vals take your pick. LOL. It happens at need only and at schools that have some merit awards. Like the small awards at some of the schools mentioned. </p>
<p>Allison brings up a wonderful if further confusing point at need based aid only schools. It sounds as if Bowdoin has what some other schools have - hidden merit within need for special kids , whether that be NMF or otherwise. Sometimes it plays this way-You get our Blank Scholarship for a research project or summer study and we are need only , but because you got this award you will be treated differently than other students by FA. Sometimes it is what Allison says-no loans, sometimes it's no work study, too. Colgate Alumni, Penn Vagelos, Scripps JES, Hamilton Schambach all work this way. Plus some schools go further and ignore the CSS Profile EFC for award winners and use Fed methodology only. Are we listening big equity homeowners and divorced parents? That can be a monster difference in need based aid. Read that again. Your EFC can be cut in half, literally by winning a supposedly small scholarship at a primarily need based school.Also some schools award a travel scholarship to get back and forth to school. Still others will add in books, a computer, travel, and spending money in arriving at your COA. That in and of itself can mean a $7K swing in need aid for the right kid. This is why the pros on this board insist (over great objections) that unless you have absolutely zero chance of need based aid, like a Fafsa of $50K, and a Profile even higher - take a shot at the most generous need based schools. Do the math , folks. There money to be made with some good research. ;)</p>
<p>y'all are welcome to reconcile the following from Bowdoin. My head hurts from trying.LOL. </p>
<p>Steve Joyce, Director of Student Aid
"...at Bowdoin we will meet your full calculated need for all four years... all aid at Bowdoin is need-based." </p>
<p>With the exception of some $1,000 scholarships associated with the National Merit Scholarship Program, Bowdoin does not offer merit money of any kind. Although merit plays a significant part in the decision to admit an applicant, it plays no part in the decision to aid an applicant. Consistent with this commitment to need-based aid, Bowdoin does not "negotiate" financial aid awards or attempt to match first-year aid awards offered by other colleges.</p>
<p>huskern, things have changed radically in 6 months. 1/4 of what I "knew" is wrong already, and getting wronger. Everybody has to do there own due diligence right now, not based on something some yahoo did last season.</p>
<p>Job Opening: Proofreader. Crap pay and horrible working conditions. Apply by PM. Jeez. I'm getting worse. Sorry. Here for hear. There for their. Now I'm stupid and I can't see. Not a good combo. Try to wade through it , folks. There is some wheat amongst all that illiterate chaff.</p>