<p>The “in flux” part is quite true. But unfortunately it seems to be going away from true merit aid and towards those with financial need only.</p>
<p>To further define this “hybrid” form of merit aid, you have to begin by defining two separate categories of students: those who have need and those who don’t. You don’t have need if your EFC is above the cost of attendance. If your EFC falls below the cost of attending, then you show financial need. It is very black and white.</p>
<p>So as a starting point, if you don’t have any need, very few forms of merit aid is available (as I have previously stated.) Only talent and the Intel awards are of any substance. As you stated, awards for NMF for merit only are token awards.</p>
<p>If you do fall into the financial need category, then many more forms of “merit” scholarships are available. The one thing you can count on is that is extremely unlikely that they will meet your full need. But one can be hopeful. And here I think it comes into play as to how much they really want you to attend. They may meet full need for someone with very high stats, leadership or whatever makes them stand out.</p>
<p>I think my daughter’s case proves the point about how things work. Although she was recommended for academic merit aid, she was not given any of it because of our lack of need (on paper.) The director of her dep’t knew her from a summer program she attended and knew our financial situation (too “rich” to receive aid, too “poor” to attend without some help.) He had believed the merit aid he was awarding was not need based, but the policy changed without his knowledge. No amount of fighting on his part could get her the money from that award. So he needed to file for a talent award instead and got permission from the provost because he had already awarded all the money he had available for talent.</p>
<p>We were lucky that he really wanted our D to attend and fought for what he had hoped she would get.</p>
<p>But overall, I would say that NYU’s yield is still high. There seems to be a lot of parents and students who either have the money or are willing to take out loans to pay.</p>
<p>We have a younger D who may apply in 2 years. I know from the start that her only chance to get $ is for her to apply as a music or art major!</p>