If a student doesn’t get a merit scholarship from the school they want to attend, how do they find out? Are they told? Or do they just wait for the time when they think the awards are given and then…I don’t know…keep checking their mail and eventually give up until they hear the total tuition at some point?
Admission counselor told us awards would be shared throughout this month but we know (by the board) that some students have already been told about their merit.
Thanks!
You need to wait and see what the school gives. There is no other way to know.
If they told you awards would go out throughout April I would wait a couple of weeks and see if the student is contacted. If you’re waiting to see if there’s a merit scholarship as it will tip the decision to attend that particular school - and you need to know that by 5/1 - I would call the school on ~4/22 or so.
FWIW - my son was accepted to a school last year, applied for a music scholarship and their website never actually sent out anything to people that didn’t get anything. We had to contact them directly and were told “we would have reached out if there was an award”. Not overly helpful of them but sometimes it is going to take action on the part of the applicant.
Thanks! We’ll wait until later in April then…but it does seem odd that it would take a month to share about awards (since I know some have gone out)… so I wonder if the admissions counselor was just telling me this information to be nice and avoid confrontation.
It is possible that the school would offer merit scholarship to more students as the top candidates decline their offers. This would take a while. The top candidates are likely making comparisons and negotiating this week. That was what one of my son’s close friends did last year. It took him almost two weeks to choose between Curtis, Julliard, and Colburn.
Depending on your feelings towards the studio professor, it may be helpful to tell them that “I really want to commit if only the cost could be a little lower”.
Every school seems to be different. I called USC today and found out that my D specifically did not get a merit award nor can we appeal for one. So I guess that’s out! 
Edited to add: At another school it appeared in her portal that she did not get merit.
Luckily she got merit at a different school where she is likely to accept.
yeah… my kid visited USC and the professor basically flat out said not to expect a merit award as an undergrad no matter how good you are. He implied that only grad students get “jobs”, which is totally untrue since several of the recent audition winners are undergrads. Living in a big city, our income is too high for much “need” aid but too low to afford USC or even anything close to that, so we’re not even applying there. My kid didn’t care for the campus much or the distance to the music practice building anyway, so we didn’t feel too bad about it! Colburn was a good experience, so the visit across the country was worth it anyhow for that. I’m hoping Juilliard or Rice gives merit…
We did get merit from Juilliard. Appealing for a bit more to see if they can, but we can make it work luckily.
For the past three years Rice Shepherd did offer merit scholarship to undergrad students, at least string studios did. I heard (from students and one professor) that Shepherd is very demanding. Their students are a little detached from the overall Rice student population but not as much as Peabody students to JHU.