Schools known for good merit aid

[northeastmom]

How did you find out the qualifications for a particular award? Most schools do not have set criteria that they publish, although some do. They have a chart and it lists gpa and sat/act scores and an amount of money. This leaves out other factors. Interestingly, my son did not meet the official published criteria for a certain award at a school, and he got the merit award anyway. He does offer other things that we know this school wants in some of their applicants.

[palermo]

The qualifications were listed on their website. The unfortunate part of this is that there were several other comparable colleges we considered, but my son loved this school when we visited, far more than the others. Since this school had what appeared to be the most generous merit aid, I discouraged my son from applying to the other schools. Lesson learned.

[jlauer95]

Palermo, thanks for sharing your "lesson learned". It will be a "wake up" call for the rest of us. At least your son loved the school he applied to the best and you did get some merit... (altho naturally you were hoping for more....)

[Chedva]

That's why I don't think it's a good idea to count on "merit money" to make a school affordable. "Financial safeties" should be ones you can afford if you assume that you will get no aid and/or will have to take out non-need based loans that are available to you.

[palermo]

But, my recommendation to other parents it to take the extra time and have your child apply to additional schools, even if they are similar, if you are looking for merit aid. We tried to simplify the process by eliminating some colleges which were comparable and where he might have received more aid, but he didn't like the school as much. We are fortunate in that even with the reduced aid we can afford the school, but since some of his other offers are far more generous, I am now trying to get him to look at some of those more seriously. One school in particular is far better academically than his first choice and would end up at the same cost for us.

[irishbird]

just a quick question re: palermo's sons situation. Were the qualifications a B+ with 1800 SAT just to be considered for scholarship, or was it more, if you have those stats you WILL be offered a scholarship??

Perhaps in the case of this particular school, they have a very strong group who have met the minimum criteria for scholarship (i.e. the B+ /1800) and then they consider other factors, like strength of curriculum, essay submitted (if requested by the college), maybe even financial need etc. and that other students looked stronger than he did upon evaluating those other factors. Just a thought.

[jlauer95]

palermo's recommendation is helpful. We all need to have our kids consider a cheaper, affordable safety in case needed level of merit doesn't happen. My son didn't want to go visit such a safety last week, but I insisted and now he's happy with the school as a possible option.

[palermo]

No, the scholarship is not a guarantee and my guess as well is that there were perhaps more qualified students or students they felt they needed to entice. The point that I wanted to make was that he should have applied to additional schools. Even though he is near the top of the applicant pool at this particular college (he was invited to join the honors program and that is limited to the top of the incoming class), has great ECs (Eagle scout, athlete, music) that wasn't enough. Merit aid is a gamble and luck plays a large role.

[lkf725]

Ditto, jlauer and palermo. We had that situation, and thankfully my son did explore a few financial safeties. Even though he had awesome credentials, he didn't get the amount of merit aid we expected or needed, and he ended up at one of those safety schools. (It's all good, though).

[irishbird]

Oh..okay i understand it now. Yes, it does pay to consider other merit schools that might give you more...but again, that will only work if the student really likes the school as much as the first choice.

I guess you could also inquire politely at the school about the strength of this year's scholarship recipients...sort of ask gee, we were hoping for the $12,500 award but perhaps you have a very strong group to consider? You don't know what they might say...maybe they will say they made a mistake, or try and add a little bit more to his offer.

[gemstar66]

i don't go there now, but i could have. when my acceptance letter came, a 15,000$ scholarship came along with it for four years. and a month later, without me even requesting or bargaining for it, that award was increased to 20,000$. Drexel is amazing with it's merit aid, and even though i ended up deciding to go elsewhere, their offer was very appetizing

[jlauer95]

irish: My friend's daughter was in a similar situation. D wanted to go to XU school but it only offered limited merit. She told the school that her parents wanted her to attend XXU because they offered more merit. XU came back with a better merit offer so she was able to go there. Don't know how common this is, but I know it worked in this case.

[northeastmom]

jlauer, I know someone else that worked for, but they made it inconvenient. The parents were asked to meet with financial aid (meant a taking a day off and going to the college-few hours drive). The scholarship was increased though.

[jlauer95]

north: I can see that a nearby college might require such, but in this case both colleges were far away so fin aid wasn't about to make such a request. there is no real reason why all of this couldn't be handled by phone with fax as "back up" for signatures.

[palermo]

Thanks for the encouraging stories. Good to hear that things worked out for everyone. I suggested to my son that he "sit" on the offer and see what unfolds. I am trying to convince my husband to talk with Financial Aid when they do another visit this spring, letting them know the school is his first choice and see what happens. I do wish I had my son apply to one of the comparable schools, however, because that would make "negotiating" easier.