<p>My understanding is that Chicago factors in a yield of how many students will accept with merit aid, but that whoever they are giving merit money to, it happened at the beginning of April. Libby said on the 3/19 blog post when they released RD decisions that all merit money awards had been determined.</p>
<p>UChicago is not alone in this; our in-state flagship also says explicitly “We give out XXX full rides, and expect about YY% will take them.” The state U figures about 50% will take the ride and budgets for that amount. Last year, the flagship was surprised – more kids accepted than expected, putting a crunch on their budget, honors housing, etc. That isn’t unusual among well-reputed state schools these days, either. </p>
<p>In fact, UMD is having such a housing crunch that a lot of juniors and seniors who applied for housing are getting tossed from the dorms. (A new dorm is set for construction, but I think it’s two years away.) Starting this fall, they are offering all Banneker-Key scholarship students get four years guaranteed housing as additional incentive.</p>
<p>Others on CC have reported that their students were offered more merit $$/added to the merit $$ list after others had turned down the offer. It’s a good question to research when looking at schools.</p>