<p>IU has changed its automatic merit scholarship program, and not for the better. We think they are simply trying to pump up the % of students offered "institutional aid" but offering much less. At the same time, costs for out-of-state for IU continue to go up. IU is now the 3rd highest cost school behind Northwestern and Michigan.</p>
<p>If you had a 28 previous years, you got $5k automatically. Now, a 28 gets you $1k/year. </p>
<p>A 31 last year got you $11k/year. We have multiple students in our area who had 31s (and rigorous classes in HS) and they got offered $3k/year. </p>
<p>Looks like they just want the rich kids at IU. If you're not a rich kid, good luck with that.</p>
<p>Oh, and their other scholarships mostly don't apply until/unless you've ALREADY committed to IU, and most of those are for 1 year, and the majority are for upperclassmen, not incoming freshmen.</p>
<p>If you are out-of-state, and a decent student, don't count on IU...check out about every other Big 10 school who have significantly better aid (OSU, MSU, etc) than Indiana.</p>
<p>I know the automatic merit scholarships have changed from last year but I am OOS and was awarded $11,000 with a 32 ACT for next year. I believe last year the cutoff for $11,000 was ACT of 32. I also think you might be mistaken about additional scholarships. My brother received the $11,000/year and an additional $6000/yr from the Honors college before he committed to IU. That is one of the reasons why he decided to go there.</p>
<p>Economic conditions are better now than 20010/2011. However, public schools have limited endowment. IU, like other school, would like to attract the best students while making sure that there are enough funds to support future aid programs in case of another financial crisis. </p>
<p>I doubt that U of M at Ann Arbor would give OOS students, for the same stat, better aid package than IU. I am not too familiar with U of Ohio’s (Columbus) aid package. But, I believe U. of Minnesota’s aid program is pretty good. </p>
<p>The “automatic” scholarship was $11,000 for OOS students and $9000 for IS students. The $6000 from Hutton is not easy to get if you are not a URM. The equivalent IS students only get $4000. IU is trying to bridge the gap between IS and OOS tuition. I think BBL’s brother was probably able to get into some good private schools with pretty decent aid. None of my boys applied for admissions to any OOS public schools. It is getting more difficult now. Again, apply broadly and compare the aid packages against your desired major.</p>
<p>My point was dont discount IU just because you think you will not get enough merit aid. Right now I am in same boat…waiting to see if I get additional scholarships from IU. Not that it matters but not URM and best scholarships for my brother were from IU.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the point of this post is. The change was made known in June. For what it is worth, in-state students also see tuition going up every year. This year the maximum merit scholarship for in-state students was reduced by $3000 for a maximum of $6000. </p>
<p>Show me that another Big Ten school that is not raising OOS tuition. Show me another Big Ten school (or any public school rated as highly as IU) that is as generous as IU with OOS merit awards. </p>
<p>The merit awards were intended to draw better students to IU. They’ve been successful in doing that. The number of applicants has grown since 2008 when it started. IU never intended the program to exist forever without changes. </p>
<p>My son got 11K for next years OOS with 1400 SAT score. We are hoping he will get more through the SSA also. Actually I think IU is on the generous side for OOS students.
It’s expensive OOS, no doubt about that, but I was impressed when he received 11K.</p>
<p>A local graduating senior with similar stats as 1214mom’s son got $6K and is working on his SSA. It seems to me that the OOS/IS gap is getting smaller.</p>
<p>For an OOS student, there should be minimal complaining about IU merit scholarships. Northwestern gives no merit scholarships. A few years ago my son was accepted into Honors College at U of Michigan. With a 4.0 GPA and over 1500 on SAT, he got zero merit scholarship. So no go to UM at $50K per year. We are happy with my D’s IU Achievement Scholarship and the potential to get more via the SSA. With the IU scholarship, it brings the cost real close to the cost of our in state flagship public school.</p>
<p>IU Distinction – $36,000 ($9,000 per year) The IU Distinction Scholarship is awarded to out-of-state students who meet each of the following criteria: out-of-state student (domestic and international); minimum SAT score of 1330 (up from 1310) or minimum ACT score of 30; minimum GPA of 3.80 on a 4.0 scale. </p>
<p>The above was what we were told last spring when we visited. We were told it was automatic. The folks leading the visit should have said there were changes coming. They had to have known in April that changes were coming in June. It is frustrating because we loved the school and would love our daughter to go there, but it is just too far out of our financial reality.</p>
<p>jmmmom–I’m sorry IU didn’t work out for your son financially. </p>
<p>The admissions office, which gives the tours, is distinct from the office of Scholarships and Financial aid. Given the history of IU publishing new scholarship criteria in June, it’s very likely that the office of Admissions (and the tour guides) did not know the new criteria. It remains very “hush, hush” until it is officially released. </p>
<p>The tour should have emphasized that this was the current criteria. I’m guessing they did having done the tour before. More importantly, they should have indicated that the criteria was subject to change and that new criteria is released in June.</p>
<p>Having been on a number of college tours though, I know that most tours use the most current data for information. I’ve never heard a mention of possible changes. This includes tours at schools large and small, more and less competitive than IU.</p>
<p>Also… Kelley used to have at least one out of state Full Scholarship… all in state now.
Wells Scholars are available to OOS BUT only select HS and due Sept. 20th.
grrrr everything is SO different than last year.</p>
<p>In defense of the Wells Scholars program, the deadline was the same last year as well for OOS students-- late September. Students from most high schools outside of Indidana (schools that don’t already nominate) are eligible. The Wells program selects their scholars by mid-late December, which is why the entire timeline is pushed up.</p>
<p>The non-automatic scholarships are frustrating, I agree.</p>