<p>I just got accepted to U of M today, and i was wondering about financial aid and scholarships. Michigan's website is unclear about when they will disperse info. about a person's aid. They say it could be anywhere from february to may, but I have also heard that they sometimes tell you within a month of your acceptance. I was wondering if anyone had any concrete knowledge on when they give out aid info.</p>
<p>In our case, we heard about merit awards within two weeks of my s’s acceptance. Financial aid info depends on FAFSA and CSS, which in the case of FAFSA, can’t even be submitted until your folks file taxes after end of the year. We submitted in January and had our financial package determined in late March/early April. I would not count on hearing anything that is need-based until after March 15, IF your paperwork is in order. So you will not truly be able to compare packages until April, prior to the May 1 deadline. This is one reason you do not necessarily want to pay your deposit until you’ve had a package to review unless you have enough merit to make it do-able.</p>
<p>Ok so what your saying is that merit based awards come out relatively soon after you get your acceptance. I already filed the CSS because i figured the less I have at this point would look better on that, and I plan to do the FAFSA as soon as possible after it comes out.</p>
<p>Dang, this stinks, i won’t be able to fill out the FAFSA until February (when my parents get their W-2 form). I hope this won’t lower my chances of getting some good aid…</p>
<p>No, that’s when most people do it – because they have to wait (unless you own your own business and can have them ready earlier, like I do : ). Just try to do it as early as possible, not for the AMOUNT (won’t make a diff) but so you have TIME to evaluate and compare your packages from different schools.</p>
<p>Just wondering if there is any benefit of sending in the CSS now (before 2009 taxes are completed). Or, would it be best to file the CSS and FAFSA at the same time. UM website says to file the CSS as soon as possible after October 1st. Obviously the CSS would have to be filled out now with estimates for 2009. Anyone have any experience with this. Does waiting to file CSS lower your chances of aid? Thanks!</p>
<p>^ U of M might award some merit scholarships early that are partially based on need. That’s all I can think of. </p>
<p>kmccrindle, thanks for the info again! Do you have an idea of how much total aid I’d receive from U of M and the government if my parents make a total of 30,000/yr and have around $40,000 in savings?</p>
<p>Mich doesn’t give out a lot of merit aid, do they?</p>
<p>its a public school and the michigan economy is in the crapper. Not a ton of merit aid</p>
<p>Yosup, take anything I say with a grain of salt because I don’t know the EXACT formulas for savings (eg. if it’s a retirement plan and registered, don’t think they include more than 5%; if it’s cash savings for college, think it’s more like 20 -25%…also depends on number of students in your family.
Your best bet is to use the Michigan online calculator that gives you an average range of your expected family contribution (EFC) - here’s the link to it – Note, it will tell you how much your family will be expected to contribute, not what you can count on getting (if you get the difference…for example, without the Michigan State promise money I’m not sure if U of M will be replacing that next year…also, if you win private scholarships, the U. LEGALLY has to count that money as an available asset so your package changes, etc.):
[Financial</a> Aid Calculator for the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor](<a href=“http://www.finaid.umich.edu/mcalc/mcalc.asp]Financial”>http://www.finaid.umich.edu/mcalc/mcalc.asp)</p>
<p>I emailed the Office of Admission. They sent this in response:
“Students are notified of merit scholarships on a rolling basis, but there is a final deadline of April 15, 2010.”</p>
<p>Really ambiguous, so I guess we’ll find out between now and April lol. If anyone gets a scholarship here, though, they should post on CC so we all know :)</p>
<p>I can share the experience my kids and their friends had with merit aid in the past, may or may not be the same this year. Within a week or two of notification of admission the U sends out letters awarding some of its merit scholarships, I don’t recall what they are called but something like Michigan Scholar Award usually based on diversity (now it is geographic and economic not ethnic) they cover tuition; they also notify in that time frame of the Regent’s award which is a one time $1500 award for top 10% of admittees. The Engin school and Art also send out letters within a month of admission to those getting talent awards. In December the big LS&A scholarships are notified, these are usually between full tuition and full ride, in January to February the Shipman invitations go out to about 50 top kids, which is an interview process ending in March with 15 of them getting full rides, others getting about half that. Along the way they send out the other scholar groups, Bentley, Stamps, a few others to a very small group, but I don’t know the timing. I think the most likely timing is between January and March for those. This is my recollection of the ones I heard about, no guarantee of accuracy.</p>
<p>Has anyone heard back yet? Because it’s been over two weeks since the first round of acceptances and based on the stats of many of the applicants I would think that at least one person would be scholarship eligible. </p>
<p>If no one has heard back, perhaps they won’t be releasing scholarships until Dec?</p>
<p>Nothing here.</p>
<p>Hey all, I just ran a search on the forum to see if I could help you identify dates. There seem to be a lot of references to the Michigan Experience and Tradition scholarships ($40k over 4 years) around mid December last year. Don’t know of any earlier letters.</p>
<p>Came home early and found a fancy, embossed envelope from LSA in the mailbox. Tore it open hoping it was scholarship info.
Just a “Welcome to LSA” letter. Nice watermarked paper though.</p>
<p>Weird, you’d think they would send that with your acceptance letter o_O</p>
<p>This one was from the office of the LSA Dean. So that explains the cotton linen fiber paper.
I like nice stationary.</p>
<p>Dang, I wanna get nice paper from CoE o_O</p>
<p>Curious as to whether consideration for these merit based awards is automatic, or does it require more forms and/or essays?</p>