Venting - Merit Scholarships have no effect on net price unless you are near full pay

My D has pretty good stats, and can receive pretty decent merit aid at schools known for “generous merit aid”. But the merit aid makes NO difference to our net price. She would have the same price if she had a 3.0 gpa and a 24 ACT. Our EFC is 34K. It seems like any EFC between 1K and ~40K would be the same. Merit up to ~20K = no impact on your net.

This just seems wrong. Are merit awards only meant to benefit those who are near full pay?

(Yes, we are looking at the relatively rare full tuition scholarships, and I am sure we will find a situation that we can afford. I am just venting.)

It all depends on the college. Some schools will allow you to stack financial aid awards up to the cost of attendance. Guess yours don’t allow that.

I think you are wrong. Very likely, the schools that would give your DD a big merit scholarship, are also schools that do not meet need.

The student who has a 3.0 GPA and ACT 24, would likely get nothing but a $5500 student loan…and maybe a pell grant if low income.

What are your DD’s stats? If you’re looking for full tuition awards, then your net cost would be about $15k per year…much lower than your high EFC.

What schools are you talking about?

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The Stony Brook website does not include amounts (or number of years) for Presidential, Provost, or Valedictorian/Salutatorian scholarships. When I run the NPC, it includes an “Insitutional Merit Scholarship” of $24,550. Is this likely to be fairly correct? And will be this for one year or four?

Stats: ACT 34, Class rank 1 of 600, GPA 3.9 UW, 4.5 weighted, intended major: Mathematics, gender: female


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and you’re oos for NY

What do you think an OOS student with modest stats would get from Stony Brook? Likely nothing but a $5500 student loan.

While your DD would have a net cost far below your EFC

You are way better off than full pay where full aid is given. Be grateful. Full pay gets no aid anywhere. There is nothing else for them but merit.

But yes, where it does not stack, it’s only benefit is that it will not change with your income. If it suddenly doubles, the merit stays in place. Your FA could disappear.

Mom of is right. Even instate might only get the 5500.

Are these this student’s stats? If so, she could have received significant merit aid guaranteed at a number of colleges.

My D’s merit scholarships replaced all loan and work study in freshmen year although we are still paying EFC in a need met school.

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But the merit aid makes NO difference to our net price. She would have the same price if she had a 3.0 gpa and a 24 ACT. Our EFC is 34K.

It seems like any EFC between 1K and ~40K would be the same. Merit up to ~20K = no impact on your net.


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I’m not understanding what you’re saying.

If a school has a COA of $48k and your DD gets a $25k merit award…then your net cost is $23k.

Your EFC is $34k…so…can you understand that a net cost of $23k is LESS THAN your EFC of $34k?

so, why do you think merit aid makes no difference???

certainly you understand that the ACT 24 student won’t be getting that merit award…right?

If you receive a merit award from a school, you are usually allowed to stack as many outside awards as you can (up to COA). With grants, not so much.

If the merit eliminated your loan FA, (like @billcsho) then it totality is worth it bc you DON’T have to pay it back! If it just eliminated a grant, then I could see your point.

@kittencrash Most NPCs will not include all of the possible merit scholarships available. Your D will surely have great options for merit aid that will bring the COA below your EFC.

I get what you mean. I had relatively high stats, but an EFC of roughly ~22k. I was awarded a nice merit scholarship that ultimately meant very little, as my school meets full need anyways. There are the benefits of being able to take out less loans and the lower probability of being “gapped”, but it was a little frustrating after working my butt off in HS only to find out I could’ve worked much less hard and paid close to a similar price.

(All that being said, I’m now an RA and the bill for the year is less than 1/4 of that original EFC, so it all turned out pretty well)

At a school the meets full need, a merit scholarship is going to be used to meet some of that need. Makes sense, right? If COA is $50k and your EFC is $25k, you need $25k. That $20k merit scholarship is going to meet most of the need, and then the school only needs to give $5k in need based financial aid. I get that you are saying either way you pay $25k. However, if you get a $30k scholarship, you pay less and you need has still been met. Even at an Ivy in this example, you’d pay $25k. If it is an outside scholarship, they will let it replace some of your need, but that’s limited too to usually a computer, some books, transportation. If you get a $25k outside scholarship to Harvard, they are going to apply it to meet your need, and you’ll still pay about $25k because that’s what they have determined you can pay. If you get a $50k scholarship, then you pay $0 (assuming COA of $50k)

But, most schools don’t meet full need, and those that do don’t have a lot of merit scholarships. Most school have a COA, you have an EFC, and it doesn’t matter, they aren’t going to give you need based aid. There is a gap. Most public schools have only a little need based aid. Lower income students rely on Pell grant, SEOG, state grants, merit scholarships and then loans.

Where are you instate? What is her math and English ACT score?

Thank you, novafan1225 and others, for understanding what I mean. I mean that when you have a school that meets “need” (their definition of need), or comes close to it, the merit award does not affect the net price.

We are running NPC on many, many, MANY schools… trying to find the best fit that is within our budget. I know we will find one. There are some great options out there, especially with the NMF.

But I still find it disheartening when I run the calculations on a school where earning a large merit scholarship doesn’t affect our bottom line. If our net price is $34K before merit, and still $34K after a $20K merit scholarship… well, I guess I don’t see the point of the scholarship.

As nova1fan said: “it was a little frustrating after working my butt off in HS only to find out I could’ve worked much less hard and paid close to a similar price.” We are finding that frustration now, just running the numbers.

For those who asked:
EFC approx $34K, can afford approx $20K (or $25K with loan)
ACT 34, Class rank 1 of 600, GPA 3.9 UW, 4.5 weighted, intended major: Mathematics, gender: female

@MidwestMom67 - I see that most schools do not include their scholarships in the NPC. So we are looking at their scholarship pages, and finding scholarships of $10K-$20K. But from my understanding, these scholarships will likely reduce any need-based aid. So again, getting the scholarship doesn’t affect the net price.

@Lilliana330 - Thank you for the info on stacking outside scholarships. That makes sense… an outside scholarship would reduce “need” and therefore reduce need-based aid, but would not reduce merit aid.

I’m a bit confused about the schools OP is considering. Hoping that the OP is considering schools aside from those mentioned in post number 3. Those stats (Stats: ACT 34, Class rank 1 of 600, GPA 3.9 UW, 4.5 weighted, intended major: Mathematics, gender: female) should get the student admitted to some of the top schools in the country. And should also get great merit aid if applying to schools that give merit based aid. Would seem unfortunate if her selection was limited to the schools in post 3.

@lostaccount - We are looking any school that does not have a religious affiliation, and that has a reasonably high ACT range. We run the NPC and look at scholarships before looking at anything else about a school. The vast majority have been ruled out, because we simply cannot afford them. With an EFC of 34K and actual budget of 20K-25K, most are out of reach.

What we think we can maybe afford:
SUNY Stony Brook
Truman State
Oregon State
University of Oregon
University of Alabama
University of Kentucky
University of Central Florida
University of Idaho
University of New Mexico
Miami (OH)*
Boston University*
Lehigh*
Vanderbilt*
Wake Forest*
Harvard***
Princeton***

  • = only if she wins a competitive award, so can't count on them. *** = like winning the lottery.

I’d love to hear more suggestions! I have a pretty long list of schools, with NPC’s. But if there one I haven’t thought of, or an angle that I may have overlooked, I’d appreciate any tips.

Which schools are you finding that would give you a big need based scholarship to meet full need that also offer merit scholarships? The schools that give need based aid to EFCs of $34k (Harvard, Yale) don’t usually have a lot of merit scholarships. Schools that give big merit scholarships (Alabama, Temple) don’t usually meet full need.

There just aren’t that many schools that meet full need and also offer merit scholarships. If your daughter is interested in one, then yes, you aren’t going to benefit from the merit scholarship (if the need based FA really would cover it all).

I suspect that if your daughter knew this as a high school freshman, she would not have worked one bit less, would not have slacked off and gotten a B in bio or skipped a few math quizzes. I suspect she’d still want to be first in her class whether she was getting a merit scholarship to BU or a financial need based award at Yale, even if she could have received the same offers as the person who is ranked #3, or #15.

Sorry, post #18 written before yours posted.

At almost all of the public schools listed, you won’t be getting any need based financial aid. None. You will be grateful for the merit scholarships because they will NOT be replacing need based aid, they will be the entirety of your award.

So say UCF is $30k for an OOS student. You get a merit award of $10k, now your cost is $20k. That’s all you are going to get. Even if your EFC was $15k, you still wouldn’t get more. Need based aid at a state school almost always goes to low income state students. Merit goes to attract OOS students.