<p>I'm someone who goes to a very prestigious prep school, performs very well academically, has good extracurriculars, and am going into sophomore year in high school. I anticipate via practice tests that I will score at least a 2200 on my first SAT attempt, most likely more.</p>
<p>My question is what top schools offer merit scholarships. I want to set a goal for myself to not only get into a good school but go on a substantial discount, and I plan on majoring in economics or business. My father is retired and only taking in his pension and social security and my mother makes $70,000 a year, though including the pension and everything our income is over $180,000, so I don't know where that leaves me with financial aid. I'd also like a school with a good social/academics mix (i.e. not anti-intellectual).</p>
<p>So far I've heard that Vanderbilt offers generous aid...any other suggestions? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Bear in mind that merit aid is to attract the type of student that a school wouldn’t otherwise hope to get. As you get nearer the top, there’s not many students that schools couldn’t hope to get. For instance, the Ivies offer no merit aid at all - why would they need to? Vandy’s a good suggestion.</p>
<p>Wash U definitely, and Swarthmore. Princeton just gives you money, they have a calculator on their website for financial aid, might help you out. </p>
<p>It’s a testament to the PR skill of the Ivies that they get away with claiming that “merit” aid is not part of their appeal for drawing in both huge numbers of applicants and maintaining high yields. Instead, they employ financial aid policies with generous boundaries for qualification. And doesn’t Harvard limit COA to 10 percent of family income? That policy is
“merit aid” in disguise, imo, and there is no doubt that it spurs applications and influences decisions on acceptance. </p>
<p>Why do they need to be so generous? For the same reasons that other colleges offer a financial incentive to attend — to attract the most talented student body they can.</p>
<p>They needed to be so generous because congress was considering taking away their non profit status if they did not spend a larger portion of their once bloated endowments. This is not merit aid, it’s need based.</p>
<p>With an income of $180K, the OP may indeed aid if he gets into HYPS, but unlikely at the other 5 ivies. And that’s only if they have what the schools deem “typical” assets for a family of this income. Given his father’s age they may well have a paid off house and considerable portfolio in which case all bets would be off.</p>
<p>The ivies wanted to stop being for the very rich and the very poor, good use of money IMO.</p>
<p>This question has been answered a lot of times already on CC. We don’t mind helping you out, but it is always best to do some of your own research before creating a thread. Next time, be sure to search the forum to see if similar threads already exist.</p>
<p>Anyway, I believe that Rice, Emory, and Vanderbilt are all generous with their merit aid, especially Rice. For the incoming class of 2013, Rice gave 30 percent of the freshmen some sort of merit aid (and this is without any additional application). For Emory and Vanderbilt, you have to fill out separate applications and you have to be nominated for the Emory Scholar scholarship by your counselor (they can nominate up to 4 seniors).</p>
<p>I agree with many posters who state that some schools (UVA, Duke, etc) may be generous with merit aid to a select number of applicants only . It is a total misconception to think that some of these select schools are “generous” or “excellent” with merit aid to the general high achieving applicant. For the very select few who get the aid, it is great. </p>
<p>However, if you look at the % of those who receive merit aid compared to the number of applicants, the merit aid available is fractional, not “generous”. :rolleyes: </p>
<p>It would be interesting to compare the % of those receiving merit aid to the number of applicants at a particular institution. It would also be interesting to see the stats and other information (demographics) of those receiving aid, in order to better evaluate how a “typical” high achieving applicant (for example: a caucasian male with good GPA, high SAT, good EC’s) would fare.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, “merit aid” may also be tied in to financial aid. This may not really be fair to the high achieving middle class (to upper middle class) applicant. The financial need component of alleged “merit” aid is often not completely disclosed as some schools. Even some “scholarships” that claim to be based on merit often have some fine print that states that financial need will be considered as well.</p>
<p>“It’s a testament to the PR skill of the Ivies that they get away with claiming that “merit” aid is not part of their appeal for drawing in both huge numbers of applicants and maintaining high yields. Instead, they employ financial aid policies with generous boundaries for qualification. And doesn’t Harvard limit COA to 10 percent of family income? That policy is
“merit aid” in disguise, imo, and there is no doubt that it spurs applications and influences decisions on acceptance.”</p>
<p>You should ask yourself why certain non-Ivy schools <em>wink, wink</em> prioritize merit aid over (need-based) financial aid instead.</p>