Okay…would anyone like to answer the gist of my question ? Thank you.
Maybe shelling out more financial aid grants instead of merit scholarships is the strategy. If you want to provide better financial aid grants, the money has to come from somewhere.
My daughter did not get any merit from NU, but the COA is very similar to schools where she only got merit aid (Case Western) or a combination of financial and merit aid (U of Rochester, Stevens, Union). So for dollars out the door at our house, merit is just vanity money. I don’t think my daughter cares what NU calls it, she’s just thrilled to be able to attend.
@palm715. Thank you.
Hopefully the changes will be improvements but they need to put it out there soon.
One of the benefits of merit aid over only need-based aid is for those of us whose real-world finances don’t match the FAFSA EFC; I couldn’t afford to attend need-only schools because FAFSA expected an incredibly unrealistic contribution from us (for various complicated reasons). Having merit-based aid fills that gap for some students.
That’s very true. I also really think that good grades should be rewarded, and that studying hard should make attendance possible. Just getting in isn’t going to help when the price tag is $60,000, so in effect it is still unattainable without merit aid.
I do think there’s a sense of entitlement to a high quality private education for high-performing high school students here, though. Like yes, good grades should be rewarded, but students with good grades do have access to education for low cost-- just at schools of potentially lower caliber. Almost any admitted student at NU in the modern era could’ve gotten a competitive merit offer at a less competitive school. I think private school is absurdly overpriced, yeah, but I’m not sure why high schoolers nationwide believe private schools owe them the cost of their education just for meeting their standards.
I think in a lot of cases it’s not a sense of entitlement so much as a sense of feeling that it’s unfair; a student with the same achievements but more money can attend where they cannot. As everyone’s parents will say, “life’s not fair,” and we youngsters tend to idealistic visions of how things “should be.” But when education at a “top” university is so often put on a pedestal as the path to future success (something I think CC also pushes), it can feel incredibly unjust.
Plus universities have no problem giving freely to athletes (who have their athletic abilities to exchange for a top education). Top students often have academic abilities to give to schools and add value.
In the past, could NU students reapply for the Scholars program if they were not admitted freshman year?
Honors yes, scholars no. Honors did not necessarily come with merit aid, Scholars was full tuition merit.
As an update, i was able to receive a much better package due to a reevaluation 
Very happy!!
I read that as a ‘promise’, NEU will never lower your financial aid throughout your course of education. Is that true?
Correct! It’s the Northeastern Promise: http://www.northeastern.edu/financialaid/aid/thenortheasternpromise/
It also means your aid will increase at the same percentage as tuition rises.
@PengsPhils Ah thanks for the info! that sounds great