Discount amount for those who did not apply or ineligible for FA

<p>My daughter received a merit scholarship from her college. Our income is over $100k, so we did not think we would qualify for any other financial aid (other than Stafford loans), so we have been pleasantly surprised to also receive a “university grant” each year (she is currently a sophomore) of something around $1500.</p>

<p>Kmr, except for the small list of colleges that give NO merit aid, almost EVERY other college has some awards that students receive which reduce their cost of attendance. Some of these are not guaranteed awards, some are. Some are only given to a small number of students. </p>

<p>But really, even the community colleges in this area have merit awards that are not need based and do not require a separate application.</p>

<p>The important thing to note is that unless these are guaranteed awards based on something, YOUR kid might not receive the award.</p>

<p>One school…is it Washington College…gives money to anyone who is a member of NHS. There are other schools that give scholarships to kids who live in certain towns endowed, clearly), there are schools that give awards to all NMS finalists…the list goes on and on.</p>

<p>@MyLB - Yes I have. But I am only interested about actual results from others for the type of applicant described in the OP.</p>

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<p>At some schools, some merit scholarships (i.e. the discounts you are looking for that are not based on financial need) are automatically applied for when you apply to the school (i.e. there is no specific scholarship application).</p>

<p>For example, for many of the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-17.html#post15743177[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-17.html#post15743177&lt;/a&gt; , if you apply to the school with the needed stats, it will offer admission with the specific scholarship – no additional application needed.</p>

<p>Thanks UCBA, that is the link I was looking for!</p>

<p>Those are the guarantees, regardless of income. However, in addition you will find awards that are not guaranteed but are awarded to SOME students. The McKissick I described from U of South Carolina is NOT awarded to every student with certain stats. </p>

<p>DS received a Presidential Scholarship from Duquesne in 2003 based on his academic application for admission. Again…not a guaranteed award, but one that considers students in a certain range who are accepted.</p>

<p>“My daughter received a merit scholarship from her college. Our income is over $100k, so we did not think we would qualify for any other financial aid (other than Stafford loans), so we have been pleasantly surprised to also receive a “university grant” each year (she is currently a sophomore) of something around $1500.”</p>

<p>Our income is also over $100K and my son received a lot of FA from his school (his school gives no merit aid.) I only mention this because I hope people don’t assume because their income is over $100K they will not get FA.</p>

<p>Thanks for the replies so far. I am not looking for links to other CC threads (already read them) but only actual results from this years applicant pool for those applicants described in the OP.</p>

<p>Perhaps a better title would be along the lines of “did your kid get surprise un-advertised merit aid?”</p>

<p>But truth be told, many places do this, and unless you are on the committe that decides, the process will remain opaque. This is closely related to yield management, so you may want to read up on that issue as well. Even if kid A is a clone if kid B, nothing guarantees that A will get the money that B got unless it is a strictly numbers-based merit system. And those still will change from one year to the next.</p>

<p>That list is for merit aid only. Kids who apply for financial aid are also entitled to merit aid. Pure merit aid is given out for those that the admissions office wants the most. It’s usually admissions that gives out that award. Then the info is sent on to fin aid for those who have applied for it and the fin aid office will take any merit awards into consideration when they put together the financial aid packages. That’ the usual way it works though there are schools where one office or staff handle the whole thing. </p>

<p>The Common Data Sets do break down what percent of the freshmen and students in general get merit aid only and those who get merit aid in their financial aid packages. So if you see a school you like, you can see the breakdown. But you will notice in that NYT list that schools that give out financial aid only are not included as well as those that give out merit to less than 1% of their freshman. BC barely squeaks in there and does so only because of the half tuition Presidental Scholarships that they award, and yes, those are given out on a pure merit basis. You can be a Trump and still get one. You can also get one if you have financial need, but then when your app goes on to the fin aid office, the bean counters will reduce you need by that award before giving out financial aid. </p>

<p>US News and World Report has a Big book that lists schools in order of their pure merit awards given, as one of the preludes to their individual school info. You can pick that up at a Barnes & Noble or subscibe to it on line. But the NYT list is pretty good, IMO. </p>

<p>None of these “discounts” is guaranteed, by the way, and, yes, some of the merit awards are those for which a student may have to apply by separate app and deadline even. But the vast majority of them are simply distributed by the admissions office are are what you refer to as “discounts”. Most of the Catholic schools give them out. But again, they are packaged as awards.</p>

<p>@happymomof1 - Funny and truthful at the same time. :)</p>

<p>@cptofthehouse - You would only know that list is for merit aid only if the website stated explicitly the recipients of that aid were not eligible for need-based aid. That list only states the amount of discount off list that the school labeled “merit aid”.</p>

<p>You can also go to specific college threads here and see who reported merit aid with their acceptances. I’m not sure how useful it would be to you to hear that a school, for example Oberlin College, offered my D a merit scholarship if your student is not interested in Oberlin. Agree with happymom - U of Chicago gives out quite a few merit scholarships, for as little as $2000/year, but my D accepted EA was not offered one. You just never know! However, my son’s U lists scholarship requirements on their website - for this ACT/SAT score and class rank percentile, you can get this range of scholarship dollars.</p>

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<p>Both needy and non-needy students may receive merit scholarships / non-need-based discounts.</p>

<p>It’s pointless to list schools that do this, as I also belive MOST schools will give you something. I think the OP is aware of this or wouldn’t be using the term “discount”. Colleges would be offended if they heard us referring to “discounts”. </p>

<p>As a general reference, the disounts my kids received were 5% to the one who had lower statistics for the school, was deferred and later accepted, and 33% to the one who had above average statistics for that school (GPA and ACT).</p>

<p>The colleges that do discounting know full well what it is and they do acknowledge it as a discount. See this report from Noel-Levitz, one of the largest higher ed consulting firms for helping colleges 'strategically manage … institutional gift aid."…essentially, how to use discounts to maximize revenue.</p>

<p>For example, Noel-Levitz does this…“Price sensitivity survey
Armed with the market position data, we then design a customized telephone survey for your prospective students and/or their parents. With this data, you can develop an effective pricing strategy for your institution based on market research.”</p>

<p>An effective pricing strategy basically means discounts.</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.noellevitz.com/papers-research-higher-education/2012/2012-discounting-report[/url]”>https://www.noellevitz.com/papers-research-higher-education/2012/2012-discounting-report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I’m still confused as to what the OP wants when she uses the word “discounts”. </p>

<p>“Discounts” are nearly always related to test scores - and the awards are merit scholarships. Usually the student’s test scores have to be well-within the top 25% of the frosh class. A good GPA usually has to back up the high test scores.</p>

<p>Exceptions might be “merit awards” that help a school’s ethnic and regional diversity numbers.</p>

<p>the point is that the schools that give these discounts do not give them to everyone. The student must be wanted for high test scores, talent, or diversity.</p>

<p>There are a few less-popular privates that hand out a LOT of $5k-10k tuition discounts. It could be argued that they’ve raised the tuition and then hand out pretend discounts.</p>

<p>My kids were given merit awards at nearly every school they applied to. The amounts ranged from half-tuition to tuition plus housing.</p>

<p>@toledo - The list might be pointless but at least it will be my list. :)</p>

<p>@mom2collegekids - I use the term “discount” to mean anyone who has not paid list as displayed on the college website. Perhaps “merit aid” may be more descriptive but that term also includes applicants who applied to and received college sponsored competitive scholarships.</p>

<p>I want to hear from non-FA applicants who did not explicitly apply for “merit aid” and were pleasantly surprised they did not have to pay list. </p>

<p>As an example the posts from @toledo and @emilybee are what I expected.
If they listed the colleges I would be happy as a clam. :)</p>

<p>Discounts and merit awards are essentially the same thing. For private schools it is all about maximizing revenue, plain and simple. Call it merit to make parents and kids feel better. And most private schools do give them to almost everyone. </p>

<p>We have about 25 private schools in Iowa. Everyone one of them (except for Grinnell)discounts pretty heavily (avg is about 55% off list price). </p>

<p>Look at the list of schools in the Loel-Levitz link I provided. All of them discount. Run their NPCs and you will see. For example, Transylvania U.</p>

<p>OP- I think what you are asking is to see which colleges our kids got into and how much we got in scholarship dollars. Is that correct?</p>

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<p>As noted before, at many colleges, applying to the college automatically applies for many of the merit scholarships / non-need-based discounts without needing a separate application. So an admission offer may come with a merit scholarship / non-need-based discount that is a “pleasant surprise” to the student.</p>