dntw8up

thumper1: I am not directing my remarks to you, so please don't construe this post as a personal attack.

The use of the term "merit aid" seems like an oxymoron. I object to calling an award that considers need a "merit" award. It seems to me that any award that considers need is need based financial aid. I think only those scholarships that you mentioned that don't require filing a FAFSA or Profile are merit awards. Everything else is need based financial aid.

I think schools couch need based aid as merit aid as a gimmick, to try to make kids and parents feel special, and more predisposed to chose that school. Clear terminology in the world of school costs and how to meet those costs would eliminate a lot of consumer confusion. I think the squishy terminology currently used makes understanding financial aid like understanding taxes -- people feel embarrassed by their ignorance, look to what the equally ignorant Jones' are doing, and then feel bamboozled into assuming massive debt because they foolishly assume that if "everyone" else is doing it must be the right thing to do.

Consumers deserve unequivocal terminology in large financial transactions that will affect family financial planning for many years. Merit money shouldn't consider need, and need based aid shouldn't be called merit money just to lure in customers.

zlc

Some grants and scholarships are based on BOTH need and merit. For instance, the SMART Grant is Need-based because recipients must be Pell eligible and also Merit-based because a student must be a junior or senior with at least a 3.0 gpa majoring in a math, science, or critical-need foreign language to qualify.

dntw8up

The SMART grant (Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent) was created to encourage more students to pursue degrees in high-demand areas, not to reward academic excellence. The SMART Grant is need based federal financial aid with eligibility requirements that include citizenship, major, college GPA, etc. This grant is an example of need based aid that is given a title that suggests to students and parents that it is a merit award for being especially smart, which makes poorer (Pell eligible) parents and students more willing to assume massive debt to educate the especially smart student.

zlc

A student will not have the SMART grant renewed if the gpa drops below 3.0, so there is a Merit component.

dntw8up

GPA is a condition of the grant, like low income, citizenship and major requirements. For the grant to be merit money, it would have to be a "reward" for ALL conditions: a B average, a low income family, citizenship and a qualifying major. Having a low family income or U.S. citizenship isn't meritorious, so a grant with those conditions isn't merit money.

oldfort

Based on what Thumper1 said, here is my question...If our income is 500,000, I fill out a FAFSA and apply for FA, my kid is denied FA freshman year. In year two, we lose our jobs, and our income drops below 100,000 with very little asset, would our kid be ahead of line of another family with similar situation, but didn't fill out a FAFSA the first year? I wouldn't see why, but maybe I am missing something.

DocT

Every school is different but one has to question how you would have had an income of 500k and have few assets.

mrsref

D1's college required us to fill out the FAFSA and PROFILE before she could be considered for any merit aid. Our EFC was 99,000...so I guarantee that we received no need-based aid. However, the school did give her a merit award of 16K/year.

So for us, it was worth filling out the FAFSA even though we knew we would not qualify for need-based aid. D2 is a rising senior. We will not fill out the FAFSA again, unless she applies to a school that requires it to be considered for merit aid.

oldfort

DocT - I was trying to make a point by giving an extreme situation where one could possibly be eligible for FA the second year, but not the first. You are right, under normal circumstance, if you were making 300-500 per year, as stated by OP, and your financial situation should change (lost of a job) you would still not be qualified for any FA, so why bother to fill out FAFSA (except in the case of possible "merit" scholarship).

hmom5

I'm with oldfort, would not want to file all of that info with no chance of getting aid. Most families making $400K have built up assets. They could lose income and still not qualify for many years or ever in many cases.

dntw8up

I have heard that some schools do this and I think it is wrong. Schools are just collecting financial information that is none of their business. If they want to offer merit awards, they should do so without first checking a family's finances. If they want to consider family finances, they should call awards financial aid. Involving family finances in merit awards confuses consumers, and having family financial details floating around at every school to which a student applies is dangerous, as all institutions are not equally diligent about protecting private information.

ReadyToRoll

The reason she doesn't want to actually fill out a FAFSA is because she thinks that some schools may base acceptance on whether you need money. On many applications, they do ask if you will be applying for need-based aid. So if you are planning on filing the FAFSA, I guess you have to check "yes" even though you know your EFC will be too high to qualify for need-based aid, right?

And if schools don't base your acceptance on whether you plan to file a FAFSA, then why do they ask on the application?

psych_

Couldn't your friend just file as FAFSA to the schools that require it for merit-aid/are need-blind as is and not the schools that ask that on the application/are stated as need-sensitive?

ReadyToRoll

psych,

The common app. asks...which covers a lot of schools. How does one know which schools consider it and which don't?

sk8rmom

That's exactly the way most people who want merit and won't qualify for need treat the filing, psych. I can understand the benefits of requiring a FAFSA filing before awarding merit. Why give a full tuition scholarship, paid with precious endowment funds, to a kid with a 0 EFC who qualifies for federal and state grants? I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect the lower income kid to take advantage of those grants first, coupled with a lower merit award, and save the university funds for those who will not be eligible for other aid. The schools that do this are often not the ones with the "instant merit" awards, but are generally the ones that do offer some very high value scholarships.