Hello,
I received a 14k merit scholarship from VCU, but have not received any aid or scholarships from W&M. W&M stated that they are still processing financial aid for me at least. Will W&M match the scholarship that I received from VCU? I am not particularly sure how that works.
Thanks in advance
William and Mary does not offer merit scholarships, so no, they will not match any merit from those institutions. In general, highly selective institutions don’t offer merit scholarships or if they do in very limited amounts such as 1693 Scholars program or WM SURE Scholars. In general, when people refer to matching aid, it tends to refer to need-based aid in which people may use to compare offers from different institutions and possibly may have some leverage that way. However, given that they are both public institutions there is likely a very limited amount of adjusting you could do.
I know of several people who received merit based aid from W&M but it’s highly competitive. Everyone who gets into W&M is a top student. VCU by contrast, is much less competitive & their FA is generous in comparison. I know at least six students (we live in Williamsburg) who were offered full rides at VCU & not a single penny from UVA or W&M. I think that $14,000 aid package from VCU went to pretty much everyone with GPAs in the above 4.0 range. My S also received it from VCU & he didn’t get into W&M (going to VT instead, also without any merit aid)
Back in 2008 DD#1 got accepted to WM. she really wanted to go but they wouldn’t budge on aid. She got nothing. She went to UNC as at OOS who offered her $$. It worked out perfectly for her.