<p>I attend a not-particularly-selective flagship state university as the recipient of the university's highest merit scholarship (full ride plus for in-staters, near full ride for out-of-staters). I had pretty good HS stats (4.0 UW GPA/top 2% weighted rank/33 ACT/interesting and committed [but not outstanding] ECs/strong LORs/etc). My cohort had a mean 3.98 UW GPA and 31 ACT/2180 SAT scores , and, from the one's I've met, are genuinely smart, interesting, committed students who have interesting backgrounds [as do I, I guess]. So, the people being picked for this scholarship are, on the whole, very strong applicants. </p>
<p>However, one of my volunteer jobs puts me in contact with a lot of brilliant, motivated high school seniors and college freshmen who had great grades, great scores, winning personalities, outstanding ECs (doing funded, sometimes published, science research in high school, for example), and I have yet to meet one who has been offered this merit scholarship. These are outstanding students, and yet they aren't being offered or even short-listed for this scholarship. </p>
<p>Recipients of this scholarship definitely go on to do impressive things (winning Rhodes/Marshall/Udall/Goldwater scholarships, getting into med school, helping found international service organizations, publishing, etc), so the university must have a good idea of who they're picking and why. I just can't believe that there are that many brilliant, impressive applicants to my never-mentioned-on-CC-and-if-you-did-people-would-laugh university that these excellent students I know are NOT at the top of that heap.</p>
<p>Is merit aid really THAT competitive at 3rd tier state schools?</p>
<p>Colleges use merit aid to lure students whom they really want, and who are unlikely to attend the college unless offered that merit aid. If the top students in your high school tend to go to that public anyway, there’s probably no reason for it to offer the scholarship to those students. If your h.s. is filled with very well off students for whom merit aid wouldn’t be a lure, the college also probably won’t bother to offer the scholarship to them.</p>
<p>^Northstarmom’s post. Exactly what I was thinking. We have two very large State U’s and one of them is more highly ranked than the other. That school tends to get a lot more of the ‘better’ students applying, so they rarely offer merit money and their honors program is ultra-selective and doesn’t guarantee much merit. Evidently they don’t believe they need to compete for students. The other State U has much lower criteria to get in and does offer a lot of merit money for top students. The honors program is top notch, very competitive but if you get in, you get a full ride.</p>
<p>A colleague of mine’s daughter was an outstanding HS student and was offered merit money from a bunch of schools around the country. Well, she really wanted to go to the state flagship, which didn’t offer her merit aid, so her father called and said 'If the goal is to keep top students in the state, why aren’t you offering my daughter $$ like these other schools?" They were offered a substantial merit package within 24 hours and that is where she is currently attending. </p>
<p>Another neighbor’s daughter got into Emory but wasn’t offered merit aid. They inquired and were subsequently offered a small merit aid package. Never hurts to ask once all the offers are in. I don’t think all schools automatically offer merit aid.</p>
<p>Also - I think sometimes people who can afford the college tuition, don’t think to ask about merit aid. We don’t qualify for financial aid but depending upon where son gets in, he might qualify for merit aid. We will definitely be asking before he makes a decision.</p>
<p>That all these high stats kids are at your college, yet only a few were selected for merit scholarships? Merit schools, depending on their funding, either offer automatic scholarships (give to all that qualify) or give competitive ones (given to a few from a pool of qualified - and may also consider “need.”).</p>
<p>Remember, all those merit scholarships have to be paid for somehow. If there isn’t adequate funding, then the school can’t offer many. I would guess that few 3rd tier schools have that deep of funding to offer huge merits to all that qualify.</p>
<p>If getting merit is a must, then students should always apply to at least one school where merit awards are assured because of stats.</p>
<p>“However, half of the scholarships have to go (by state law) to IS students and a good chunk of those are from the town/surrounding towns.”</p>
<p>Colleges tend to feel a special responsibility to students from their area. This may be due in part to the fact that people in the area are likely to know decision makers at the college, and those decision makers also may be more aware of the accomplishments of local students than of students who live far away.</p>
<p>I applied to UAlabama and was awarded a full tution scholarship automatically. I know that i am seriously considering going there over my flagship, Penn State becuase PSU won’t give me a DIME…and UA is willing to foot the bill</p>
<p>sometimes they dont apply for them, sometimes they miss a deadline for consideration. or they dont follow through on all the steps required .</p>
<p>with the very selective scholarships offered, often the pool of applicants is 500 to 1000 kids for 10 spots…they are all qualified for it, all top students but most of them wont get it.</p>
<p>Why?? Because the number of those selective scholarships is LIMITED and the school can’t award them to everyone who seems to present the credentials to receive them.</p>
<p>It’s like asking why so many well qualified kids don’t get accepted to some of the top schools…there are only a certain number of “spots” and after that…full.</p>
<p>I’m wagering to bet that not all of these students either know a lot about different colleges or are applying to schools that have tons of smart applicants and don’t need to give enticing merit aid.</p>
<p>Psych_, I’m guessing the number of scholarships at your school is limited and many kids who apply will not get them. You’re lucky that your state and college even offer merit scholarships. In my home state (WA), financial aid is limited and mostly need based. From the flagship, I got loans and from another IS public, $2k a year for 2 years because I was one of the top applicants. Yet, Alabama offered me full tuition like it did rocket6louise and I jumped on it. If states what to prevent students from moving OOS, then thy should make it so we don’t have to just because we can’t afford college in our own states. WA’s flagship said that students on financial aid wouldn’t feel tuition increases because their aid would be increased. I called and asked how this is possible, they said that they would make an extra $1,000 of my unsubsidized loan subsidized, I hung up.</p>
<p>" If states what to prevent students from moving OOS, then thy should make it so we don’t have to just because we can’t afford college in our own states. "</p>
<p>I think that with the bad economy, many states are reducing merit aid to OOS students, and are increasing need-based aid to in-state students. That will be what keeps more students going to college in state.</p>
<p>I have a friend and his son went with OOS Honors with an okay package over a second-tier but very good engineering school with a similar package. The OOS school effectively raised OOS rates this year and he is somewhat regretting the decision now. There have been department and course cuts too. I think that cuts to universities is an overall trend in the country.</p>
<p>Merit aid is something a student earns by virtue of achievement. Schools use it as a way to entice top students to their school - it has nothing to do with whether a student needs FA or not. It’s a lot like recruiting athletes. A school wants a certain #of top performers and if they can’t attract them because of the school’s reputation, they basically bribe them with merit aid to attend. It may not seem fair but that’s life. </p>
<p>I would say the OP either offered something unique or the school only offered a certain # of merit scholarships or the non-scholarship students weren’t looking for a financial incentive to go there. I suspect a lot of schools don’t just offer up merit aid to everyone who qualifies - only to those who ask for it.</p>
<p>The OOS school effectively raised OOS rates this year and he is somewhat regretting the decision now.</p>
<p>Well, since virtually every college is raising rates each and every year, looking at a “set amount” annual scholarship can be deceiving. A $10k per year scholarship given to a HS senior to a school whose CURRENT tuition is $30k, may think that he’ll only be paying $20k in tuition. However, by the time he starts in the fall, that $30k tuition might now be $32k, and sophomore year may be $35k, and junior year may be $38k, and senior year may be $41k.</p>
<p>Scholarships that are for a “set amount” - like $10k or $15k - don’t increase as tuition increases. And, more to the point, the tuition, room, and board costs that students and parents are looking at RIGHT NOW on schools’ webpages, are not the prices that will charged next fall - everything goes up. Typically, the COA pages reflect what the costs are for current students, not future students.</p>
<p>In this particular case, the state school lost a lot of state funding so their approach was a big fee hike with a rebate of most of the amount for in-state students. It was pretty clear that a good chunk of the increased OOS revenue would go to financial aid for instate students. I expect this dynamic to continue in many states as states get stingier with higher education.</p>
<p>^^^I also expect that. OOS tuition can be more affordable when it’s a set percentage above the IS rates or when a state decides to better fund education than another state. There are still states with an IS tuition rate of $5k-$7k per year, others have IS rates that rival the OOS rates of the less expensive state schools.</p>
<p>To clarify, I AM a (very lucky) OOS student and was apparently at the “top of the heap” both pre and post interview (based on comments made to me at the interview and the fact that I was quickly offered the scholarship). My stats were/are impressive, but not Ivy League caliber. </p>
<p>I know we have about 250 completed applications per year, 50 or so are offered interviews, and 24 scholarships are awarded. Applications require an essay, LORs, and an interview by invitation only. </p>
<p>I know many of these students have financial need that would have driven them to apply for this scholarship (need-based FA here isn’t great) and need isn’t considered for this particular scholarship. I also know a good many who have said that the applied and didn’t get an interview but have really strong profiles. </p>
<p>I guess I’m having difficulty believing that there were that many applicants to this school that could beat out these non-recipients I know. My school has done very well for me and (I hope) I have done well for it–that is, I hope I was a “good choice,” and it was a good choice for me–but this isn’t a CC choice school or “even choice safety.”</p>
<p>OTOH, many, many of the applicants they’ve selected (and probably many that they’ve rejected) have done really impressive things as undergraduates (and beyond), so they must have some sense of who they’re picking–I just can’t figure out what that is, exactly, and how they can be so selective.</p>
<p>Perhaps the college wants to offer merit aid to a wide variety of academic interests in order to spread the scholars around the campus–i.e. a few merit scholarships to math, musically talented, history, engineering, business, etc.</p>