What is a "Good" Merit Scholarship?

Paying for College
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<p>Was hoping for some nice merit $$$ for my daughter, who has done everything we could ask - she's self-motivated, well-rounded, good character, good recs, challenging curriculum, valedictorian of her public high school class of 250 or so, 2120 SATs, worked part-time, some community service. She scored lower than she'd hoped for/expected (in the 600s) on the one set of SAT Subject tests she took this fall, but honestly, she did not prepare for them and only took them this fall after realizing a few of the schools wanted them. </p>

<p>As far as admissions/scholarships, all bets are off after she was deferred from a "Safety" school (which she did not consider a safety, in fact, was hoping for the Honors program and a nice merit scholarship). Can some of you share with me what types of merit offers your HS Class of 2012 children have received so far? She's done some EA apps, as well as some regular. I know merit is all relative to the cost of the school....but still...</p>

<p>The only offer she has so far is 17K, from a "Safety" school where she had no real contact with admissions other than the free app. they sent her because she'd said she was interested in music on the PSAT. That is no longer her intended major, though, and the college was aware. </p>

<p>I don't expect anyone to offer a full tuition scholarship, but she has been a great student and I'm curious what's out there. My older daughter, well rounded with slightly less impressive academic stats, received offers from $13,000 to $22K. I thought D#2 would do better, but not so far, and in one case, it's the same college.</p>

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<p>what kind of schools is she applying to? My son applied to a school with guaranteed aid based on stats that he knew would make a school affordable, and still had the academics he wanted through an honors college. He would have been competitive at higher ranked schools, but felt that the amount of merit aid he “might” get would not come close to the school he is going to, so did not feel the need to shop around too much. </p>

<p>award: Full OOS tuition + 2,500/year for 4 years.</p>

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<p>Rather than looking at how much merit money she might get, you should look at what the net price of the schools are. For example:
School A has a COA of $55,000 and gives your daughter a $15,000 scholarship. Your net cost is $35,000 (not including whatever need-based aid you might get).
School B has a COA of $30,000 and gives your daughter a $10,000 scholarship. Your net price is $20,000.</p>

<p>In that case, School B may be the better choice, even if the scholarship isn’t as high.
In the end you will need to look at what you can afford to spend.</p>

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<p>^^Absolutely, with S2 the very best award was much higher than another college he liked equally but the other college had a lower overall cost. BTW I think $17,000 in merit money (as long as it’s not financially tied merit money) is pretty darn good these days and if it gets you close to your EFC that’s even better in my opinion. Both my kids got merit scholarships that discounted their costs close to our EFC and these were colleges that do not meet need so that’s a factor also. I was pleased considering the economic times so take your EFC into consideration when you evaluate whether an award is “good” or not.</p>

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<p>Though this was 5 years ago, here is a small sample of my D’s awards.
School A $15,000, B $15,000, C, $22,000, D $14,500. One school East, two in Midwest, one Southwest. School in SW was least known, but at least $10,000 cheaper than all the others, and let her take the money on Study Abroad, which some schools won’t. She took the $14,500 and had a wonderful 4 years. She considered that $10,000 she saved each year as a $40,000 scholarship she gave to herself.</p>

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<p>D2012 applied to 2 LACs, got accepted to both with $17,500/yr at each. School 1 costs about $4000 more than School 2. We do not qualify for FA, but she can choose either after she visits next month. (D2005 received $11K/yr at same School 2 with better stats, but DD is a good D3 athlete).</p>

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<p>Reports from a few years ago may not be reliable–my D’s university recently reduced its best merit award from $27K to $20K, and its next best from $20K to $15K.</p>

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<p>My daughter’s school gave her an automatic 80% tuition discount based upon her GPA and SAT score. Renewable for 4 years if she maintained a 3.5 GPA while in college.</p>

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<p>My merit aid scholarships have been 17.5k, 15k, 15k which brings the costs down to 34k, 32k, 20k. I think tuition rates have been going up alot faster than aid awards. R&B is also skyrocketing.</p>

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<p>*What is a “Good” Merit Scholarship?
*</p>

<p>Everyone will have their own opinion of what a “good merit scholarship” constitutes.</p>

<p>Some will think a $5k merit is “good” for a school that costs $55k, and others will only consider one “good” if it’s at least for 1/3 or 1/2 tuition. Some expect full tuition or more.</p>

<p>Merit scholarships at schools that offer competitive merit can be a mystery, especially as some schools have cut back due to the economy…or have gone to a more “need-based” strategy. It’s risky to just depend on what someone got in a previous year without knowing whether the school is still as generous. </p>

<p>But there are plenty of schools that give ASSURED merit for stats. If you apply with the required stats, by the deadline, then you get the listed scholarship.</p>

<p>I don’t expect anyone to offer a full tuition scholarship, but she has been a great student and I’m curious what’s out there.</p>

<p>If your D’s M+CR is a 1400+ and she had applied to my kids’ flagship U, she would have been **ASSURED of a full tuition scholarship. **ASSURED…all she would have had to have done is fill out the apps. Done deal. She wouldn’t have been deferred or denied or what-have-you. If her M+CR is less than a 1400, but at least a 1330, she would have been given a 2/3 tuition scholarship.</p>

<p>There are other schools like this as well. </p>

<p>There is a thread that lists ASSURED Scholarships from various schools, but some of those deadlines have passed. I know that this isn’t what you want to hear, but it doesn’t sound like your D included schools where she would be assured of any particular scholarships. </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships-7.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships-7.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Hopefully, some people here can list some schools that would still give assured large merit for your D’s stats whose deadlines have not passed…maybe UAz, ASU, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, UTexas-dallas, LSU, Miss State, DePauw, UNewMexico,…</p>

<p>Maybe some of the Catholics would still give large merit…Spring Hill, Xavier, **UDayton (has ASSURED!), **SLU, Fairfield, St. John’s, LMU, **Seattle University (has ASSURED), **UPortland, USan Diego…</p>

<p>You might look at Seattle’s and Dayton’s ASSURED scholarships to see if any deadlines have passed. If not, quickly apply.</p>

<p>What is your D’s M+CR SAT score? Is she a NMSF? </p>

<p>Another option is that she should make sure that her safety-deferred school knows that she’s really interested. Hopefully, the school still has merit to hand out.</p>

<p>If your D ends up without affordable schools, then she may want to take a gap year and apply to some schools that will give her large merit for her stats.</p>

<p>Vlines quote about her child’s award this year: *award: Full OOS tuition + 2,500/year for 4 years. *</p>

<p>Yes, Vlines’ child got a full tuition scholarship + 2500 per year from my kids’ flagship U. I don’t know if the student has made a final decision, but if he accepts, his out of pocket costs will be about $10k per year or less depending on dorm/meal plan choice.</p>

<p>It may not be too late to snag a large scholarship. Good luck! :)</p>

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<p>a good merit scholarship is when the award is more than what was expected…</p>

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<p>^^^ So true!</p>

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<p>Mom2CollegeKids - There are some very helpful ideas, thank you. I actually did not know of the “Assured” scholarships - I wish we had approached this search a different way, but with my older daughter (HS 2010) things just worked out well without a particular strategy for merit $$$. She ended up with $22K from her top choice college, although it was not highly selective. I thought this girl would be easier, because her stats were better. Now I’m feeling really guilty that she’s worked so hard and we haven’t planned very well.</p>

<p>FYI My daughter’s GC is not helpful; they rarely encourage students to go far from our area. Actually, my daughter would not go very far, either - we are in New England and Washington DC is her limit; she would prefer a school that is not rural. She has received a lot of info. from Elmira College but they don’t have her preferred major, anyway. They do mention full scholarships for valedictorians. Anyone know anything about Elmira, and what that area is like?</p>

<p>She is not a NMS Finalist. Her SATs were better than her PSATs. Her unweighted GPA is 3.84; her CR and Math was 1390. We have applied to our state flagship but the merit scholarships are not that high, as they spread them out over several students. Of course, I don’t know what it is yet, either; we will be notified later.</p>

<p>I’m sure we can pull something together, somewhere, as a gap year would be a bad move for her. I guess I have learned soome valuable lessons; good thing, because I have another one just like her coming up in 2016, and then a younger daughter.</p>

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<p>Her unweighted GPA is 3.84; her CR and Math was 1390.</p>

<p>she should look at:</p>

<p>UDayton (assured) [url=&lt;a href=“http://www2.udayton.edu/admission/affordability.php]Affordability[/url”&gt;http://www2.udayton.edu/admission/affordability.php]Affordability[/url</a>]
Fairview
St John’s
Xavier
Duquesne
Marist</p>

<p>Hopefully, others can mention some schools (maybe some LACs) that are in the NE quadrant of the country that would give her a large merit scholarship. :)</p>

<p>What is her major?</p>

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<p>M6 - She’ll get $13,000 a year from Arizona State, $11,000 a year from Ole Miss and 2/3 out-of-state tuition from Alabama. All are reasonably priced for OOS students and feature excellent Honors Colleges / Programs.</p>

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<p>Major: Engineering (civil, probably) - Elmira only has chemical, I think. Would do Math as a major if there is no engineering.
St. John’s did give my older daughter decent merit aid, too.
Will look at some of those other schools that are nearby.</p>

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<p>*and 2/3 out-of-state tuition from Alabama. *</p>

<p>The deadline was Dec 1st. And, actually, she would have gotten full tuition plus 2500 per year since she’s an eng’g major…the CoE would have bumped her scholarship to full tuition plus the 2500. :frowning: Her remaining costs would have been about $10k or less. </p>

<p>However, if she didn’t have the geographical restriction, I would contact Bama and the CoE to see if the scholarships could still be had since she’d be a female engineer…which are highly prized. Dean Karr has told me that he wants more female engineers and he’s found that they are often the most imaginitive and award-winning students. </p>

<p>From the CoE
Students who have a 30-31 ACT or 1330-1390 SAT (math and verbal scores only) and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will receive a tuition supplement to bring their University-level scholarship offer up to the value of tuition. In addition, they will receive $2,500 per year for four years.</p>

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<p>MomSix, I’m an Elmira alum so I can give you a little bit of info. The Val/Sal scholarship is extremely generous, but you have to maintain a very high GPA to keep it. As for engineering, there really isn’t an engineering program/major. They offer a partnership with Clarkson University, but I’ didn’t know anyone who pursued that program. If she really wants engineering, she would be best served going to a school that specializes in it.</p>

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<p>Miami University (Ohio) has automatic merit scholarships and a beautiful engineering building that is only a couple years old. You can still apply since the application deadline is February 1. If you are OOS with an SAT of 1330+ and 3.70 GPA you will get $10,000 a year.</p>

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<p>Hello all, we’re still waiting on several schools that she applied to by regular decision. I tried to talk her into Univ. of Alabama but it was too far away. </p>

<p>D Got a $20K merit scholarship from one (safety) school she liked, where I hoped she might do well, but it’s still nice for her to know she received their highest listed merit award. After her deferral from another “safety” where we’d actually hoped for a nice merit scholarship, I will never take anything for granted again! Our state U. offered her something; they don’t give huge merit awards, but hers was good, relatively speaking.</p>

<p>Another question - is it ever Ok to ask a Financial aid or admissions office what the criteria is for the highest award, if it’s not stated? In one case, she received the highest award in the highest listed merit scholarship category, but the school web site says they do pull out the strongest students from THAT level and offer them a bump up to a full scholarship. No specifics, though. She was well above the stats for the category she got, though. And this school was definitely, a safety school for her. We will visit it soon and see what she thinks, since it was still a nice award.</p>