<p>Could someone explain simply (for a slow learner--me) what it means when someone says a college is "merit-based" or "need only." Thanks much.</p>
<p>Some schools do not offer any merit scholarships, only need-based aid. These tend to be the very most selective schools. That is their policy.</p>
<p>Now, they may offer "nicer" packages of need-based aid to those they really want (based on academics or whatever): eg, smaller loans, more grants. But if you don't qualify for need-based aid, you won't get any aid at all from these schools.</p>
<p>To add to jmmmom:</p>
<p>Need-based financial aid is given to students who demonstrate financial need (as determined by the college, not the student!). To find out whether your student would qualify for financial aid, check out financial aid calculators. The College Board has one, I believe. To request finaid, families must fill out FAFSA. Some colleges also use another form.
Some colleges are need-blind and some are need-aware. By need-blind it is meant that the admissions committee decides whether to admit or not without regard to financial need. Need-aware colleges take the financial need of the applicant into consideration, especially in the case of a borderline applicant, as the funds available for financial aid are distributed.</p>
<p>The financial aid available usually takes the form of a combination of outright grants and loans. Students are usually required to work a certain number of hours during the academic year and also in the summer to repay the loans. This is separate from the loans that parents may take out (PLUS).
Merit based aid is, as the name implies, based on the merits of the applicants. Often, colleges which want to attract applicants with higher stats will offer merit aid. For example, some colleges will offer scholarships to students who have SATs above a certain level. The merit aid can range from a few thousand dollars to a full ride. </p>
<p>Incidentally, the Sunday NYT magazine is devoted to DEBT, including student debt. Another bit of information is that over the last decades, the balance between loans and grants has shifted towards more loans and less in grants.</p>
<p>"Need-based" schools offer "merit aid" through their admissions process, and it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with academic stats. That is, they'll offer 8 kids coming from families with $120k incomes $5k off the list price (they call it a "scholarship"), rather than one kid from a family with a $30k income a $40k scholarship. That way they can be sure (in the first case), of realizing $1,280,000 in income from these 8 families over four years, whereas in the later case, they realize none. Besides, why give "merit aid" to families who are perfectly happy to pay the full freight, and if a couple aren't, there are plenty more fish in the sea?</p>
<p>If this sounds like I'm cynical, it's because I am. I also read the data.</p>
<p>(There are quite a few schools that offer almost all "need-based" aid, and claim to meet 100% of need as they define, but will also admit to being "need-aware". They actually all are - the question is the extent to which they take account of it in the admissions process.)</p>
<p>A lot of top colleges are "need only" because if they gave out merit aid, the vast majority of their students would receive it.</p>
<p>"merit aid" is one of the better word fabrications (up there with "death tax"!)</p>
<p>Find last fall's Atlantic Monthly college issue. It had a great discussion of what "merit" aid is really about. As mini mentioned, it is much more about revenue maximization, much less about merit.</p>
<p>To put the OP's question another way, colleges can be:</p>
<p>-Need blind or need aware, meaning that the college does not or does consider need in making admissions decisions. These are mutually exclusive, of course, unless the school is need blind for most of the class but need aware for the last few, as some claim.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>meet all demonstrated need or gap. Gapping is admitting someone you know can't afford without more aid than the college offers.</p></li>
<li><p>offer merit scholarships or not.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>So, you can have a need aware college that meets all need and offers merit scholarships, for example.</p>
<p>Or, you could have need blind admissions with gapping and no merit, I suppose.</p>
<p>"As mini mentioned, it is much more about revenue maximization, much less about merit."</p>
<p>My reference was in fact to colleges who claim that all their aid is "need-based", but manage to find find so many "needy" students among families with incomes between $100k-$160k rather than in any other income cohort. </p>
<p>What the Atlantic Monthly article missed is that "need-based/need-blind" is as much a fabrication as "merit aid".</p>
<p>There are some exceptions to the cynical view of merit scholarships. Music conservatories typically provide merit scholarships based solely on performance during auditions. These can be fairly substantial - up to about 1/3 or 1/2 of tuition costs. Lesser merit scholarships of a few thousand dollars might be awarded to a number of students. It is not clear what happens when merit is awarded and there is also need. I suspect some of the merit money may reduce the need-based aid.</p>
<p>While it is true that awarding merit aid can be just one cog in the wheel of a college's Enrollment Management strategy (see post #6), the way the college uses merit aid can either feel like "bait and switch" or true financial relief in reward for a kid's achievements, if you are on the receiving end.</p>
<p>I have heard of, but have no direct experience with, the bait and switch approach. This is where the college offers $5K scholarship "merit award", which is a nice savings - let's face it. But if it is the deciding factor in choosing a particular school and that school then raises the next year's tuition by that amount or more, some families feel scammed.</p>
<p>I do have direct experience with receipt of substantial merit aid; $22K/year renewable on realistic terms, offered due to S's merit. It may have been Enrollment Management for the school, but I can tell you it was real financial "aid" for us and recognition for the kid.</p>
<p>"I have heard of, but have no direct experience with, the bait and switch approach. This is where the college offers $5K scholarship "merit award", which is a nice savings - let's face it."</p>
<p>Again, I think this is more common with "need-based" aid. Princeton does it by turning loans for those between $120k-$160k into grants, thinking it will help convince folks NOT to act a "merit" award elsewhere.</p>
<p>I am much less cynical about the "merit" awards.</p>