Also a question about merit $$

[TimeFlies2]

S20’s acceptance letter had no mention of merit $$. Does that mean there is none, or do some students hear about it later? He has a message on his Acorn account that says,
“ACTION REQUIRED
A valid Social Security Number (SSN) is required for financial aid processing.
Please call to provide this information: (336) 278-3566.”
We did not complete FAFSA as we would not qualify for need-based aid. But I wonder if it’s possible there will be any merit scholarship updates in the future.

I know, I know, we need to call them. I’m just really curious.

[princessli]

Usually any merit aid would be mentioned in the acceptance letter, however calling would be a good idea.

[izrk02]

My friend had merit in his letter. Call up and ask.

[TimeFlies2]

Yeah, sadly, they said any merit would be mentioned in the acceptance letter so nothing to look forward to. They said the reason they request social security # is simply to match application to FAFSA’s.

[onemoremom12]

@TimeFlies2 That’s a bummer, but very helpful to get a direct answer rather than all of us just guessing. Thanks for making the call and sharing the info!

[izrk02]

That sucks. Did S apply ED or EA? ED applicants aren’t likely to get merit aid since they are bound to attend. For EA it’s weird that a private school like Elon wouldn’t give merit aid. What are his stats?

[TimeFlies2]

He applied EA. His stats are good but not outstanding. We’ll see what happens with Fellows and Scholars.

It is true that Elon’s COA is lower than many other private schools. It’s also true that a little merit would be nice, and make us feel “wanted.” His twin sister has had some merit offers at other schools and it does make you feel warmer and fuzzier about the school.

[izrk02]

Dang that really sucks. If Elon is his number 1 school, he should consider writing a letter to the adcom saying that he would love to attend Elon, if he could afford it. (I’m in the same boat, can’t get financial aid but not rich enough to afford full price)

[onemoremom12]

@izrk02 I’m not so sure that’s true about ED. Elon states pretty clearly they give merit to top 15% of entering first year students. I personally suspect that the ED cohort this year had a lot high stat kids which is why it was more competitive for the EA group. I don’t know this to be true, but schools generally dont punish students for applying ED.

[izrk02]

@onemoremom12 Actually, you can look on pretty much any ED thread on this website and see that students who apply ED do not get as much merit aid since they are bound to go. It’s one of the main warnings of applying ED, do not sign that agreement unless you can pay full-price. It’s not a punishment, ED applicants are expected to be able to attend no matter what.

[cptofthehouse]

Though not considered a punishment, there are schools that use merit money offers as inducements to commit, which means applying ED is not conducive to getting such an award.

I think OP is in a good position to appeal for some money. My son got extra merit money upon such an appeal and Ice known others who have too. Not a tremendous amount, just a bit.

[onemoremom12]

Good points, all. I’m not a big participant here, so it sounds like you’ve seen a lot that I haven’t. I can say that elon has stated that they would not give less merit money to an ED applicant and that they use a specific percentage to determine recipients.

I certainly believe that non merit (ie need based) is unlikely for Ed unless the family resources are extremely limited.

Final thought… Elons popularity is soaring and I think it will unfortunately be hard to use past year’s stats to predict this year. Reading the EA thread, both acceptance and merit seemed tougher than in past years. What an eye opening experience!

[izrk02]

@onemoremom12 Schools won’t typically say that ED applicants get less, it’s more of just a horribly kept secret. ED is less likely for need based mostly just because the applicant pool is typically wealthy, but there are tons of ED acceptances that got need met (Boston U has a 100% need-meeting program they rolled out this year. My friend got a full ride, mostly from need-based). Elon is definitely trying to become more exclusive. My GC joked that it was the “Duke Safety” (private, southern, pwi).

[homerdog]

@izrk02 what does pwi mean?

[izrk02]

@homerdog Predominately white institution. Typically a school with more than 70% of the UG population being white. Elon is around 80%.

[cptofthehouse]

I disagree that schools are less generous with ED financial aid. There is an incentive to get 100% yield with ED, close the deal and move on. Some schools like CMU that do not guarantee to meet full need flat out say they will do so for ED. The fin aid office is not swamped as it will later in the season, particularly at RD acceptance time, and the coffers are full.

In my experience, families that got terribly disappointing ED fin aid packages found that they served as early warning that the NPCs and expectations for aid were not realistic and less expensive schools and merit possibility needed to be added to the list.

However, I think that merit possibilities are lowered when you apply ED. No reason to pay for someone to attend when they have already committed to do so

[TimeFlies2]

@cptofthehouse

I think OP is in a good position to appeal for some money. My son got extra merit money upon such an appeal and Ice known others who have too. Not a tremendous amount, just a bit.

Your S appealed at Elon? Or somewhere else?

I have no qualms about comparing offers and asking a school for merit $, once S20 knows where he wants to go. Worst they can say is no. But he isn’t even close to figuring out his #1 choice yet. He’s got a bunch of RD applications out there. It’s been a little tough to figure out how he will do with admissions and most of his outstanding schools feel like 50/50. We are going to have a busy April re-visiting his top choices, including Elon, if he gets in to more!

[TS0104]

Students accepted to Fellows programs do get a $6000 scholarship, I believe. Also, if it makes your DS feel any better, compared to his sister, my DS’ merit offer from Elon was about 2/3 less than all of his other merit offers, which were all in the same range except for Elon’s…I am quite sure this is because Elons COA was also quite a bit lower than those other schools. So comparing to his sister’s offers is like comparing apples to oranges. I believe that due to the lower COA, Elon has a higher bar for merit aid upon acceptance, and then further by the later-coming Fellows program.

[sunsweet]

My dd got into Elon EA and received the presidential scholarship merit award–it was around $6000 or $6500–outside of the fellows scholarships, it is their highest level of merit aid. We also do not qualify for financial aid, so this is purely merit based. It was in her acceptance letter and email which was received around the 20th of Dec. If you think his lack of merit was in error, I would call them. From what I understand and have seen, they are incredibly responsive and helpful. I think they do not typically give large sums of merit aid (ie. my dd received $16K/year from Baylor) compared to other private schools but they cost about $10K-$15K less.