<p>Is it fair to say that these two are usually mutually exclusive? i.e. if you get fin aid, you will not get merit aid and vice versa?</p>
<p>No, not at all. My D received a merit scholarship and need based grant and loans + work study. Many students I know receive a bit of both kinds of help, merit and need based.</p>
<p>You can get both. Within a school itself, it is often integrated so that if you win a scholarship, your aid is reduced accordingly since you no longer have that need.</p>
<p>Well generally you’ll get fin. aid at good schools, and merit aid at bad ones.
Most schools that offer you significant merit aid, don’t offer much need based aid.</p>
<p>
So untrue.</p>
<p>And so offensive.</p>
<p>Hopefully that’s not what you will be learning at your “good” school.</p>
<p>I don’t think that its untrue, depending on your line between good and bad schools. Schools that give significant merit aid are generally tier 2/3 public schools like UA and LSU. Of course there are merit scholarships almost everywhere, but I’m generalizing here. I won’t include the like 50 merit scholarships that places like Rice, WashU and the like give out. Schools that give significant need-based aid are generally top 35 schools and top LACs.</p>
<p>“and merit aid at bad ones”</p>
<p>lol…as if you’re in any position to judge what a “bad” school is. What are you, 18/19? And since when are mid-tier schools “bad”? </p>
<p>Gee, how did my older son manage to get into a PhD school at an elite university after graduating from a “bad school”??? (and how did he get accepted to EVERY PhD program he applied to…no rejections at all…and all with full tuition and large stipends…hmmm)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And that’s the problem. Your generalization is so broad that it can’t possibly be true. And so elitist that it really didn’t reflect well on you.</p>
<p>As well as disproven by 30 years of research studies showing essentially no difference in educational merit attributable to any of the factors that make up the phony “tiering.”</p>
<p>Not to mention that my daughter was offered $12,000 in institutional need-based aid at a LAC that wouldn’t come close to anybody’s top 35 list. </p>
<p>Sorry, but you simply do know what you’re talking about.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Annasdad…lol…I think you meant to write:</p>
<p>Sorry, but you simply do NOT know what you’re talking about. </p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>^yup…</p>
<p>Why are the responses on this thread so typical of CC?*</p>
<p>Sure, wavylays94 might come off as insensitive and ignorant, but he/she is speaking an opinion that I’d guess quite a few people have. Maybe instead of everyone jumping on him/her and attacking her statement, just show her why you disagree?*</p>
<p>There’s no need for responses like: </p>
<p>“lol…as if you’re in any position to judge what a’bad school is. What are you, 18/19?”</p>
<p>Or “And so elitist that it really didn’t reflect well on you.”</p>
<p>Or “Sorry, but you simply do [not] know what you’re talking about.”</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is just me or what, but these type of responses make CC seem like a really unwelcoming place.</p>
<p>How about…</p>
<p>posts like Wavy’s make CC seem like an unwelcoming place? put the blame where it’s due.</p>
<p>Calling schools that give merit “bad schools” was throwing the insult.<br>
We just corrected it.</p>
<p>Does he really think he knows more than the people who accept grads from these “bad schools” into their PhD programs, med schools, law schools, etc…or hire these grads into well-paid professional positions?</p>
<p>
Well, you know how those elitists are - they have to go slumming now and then to make themselves feel superior ;). Why, they just accepted my niece at Penn for a grad program after she just graduated from one of the “bad” schools, where she had merit aid all 4 years.</p>
<p>
Whether or not people get need-based aid at “bad” schools is not an “opinion”.
Also untrue. Many privates give more aid than publics, especially vs. OOS tuitions.</p>
<p>Care to keep digging?</p>
<p>Yes, wavylays was wrong in the first place. But people are more likely to be offensive after reading your responses then if you had just given your examples of how he/she is wrong.</p>
<p>I actually rewrote my post to make it less inflammatory.</p>
<p>Well, you know how those elitists are - they have to go slumming now and then to make themselves feel superior . Why, they just accepted my niece at Penn for a grad program after she just graduated from one of the “bad” schools, where she had merit aid all 4 years.</p>
<p>The week before my son started his program, all the incoming students had dinner with the grad profs. Everyone went around the table introducing themselves, where they were from, etc. Yes, there were the typical students from ivies/elites and tippy top LACs, but there were also students from flagships and even a couple from unranked schools. </p>
<p>To state that these non top tier schools are “bad” just doesnt’ hold water. if they were “bad”, no reputable med/grad/law school would accept their grads and no reputable company would hire their grads.</p>
<p>And…wavy…you’re going to USC, a very fine school. But as a Southern Cal native who easily remembers when virtually anyone with a checkbook could get into that school, be careful about what you call good and bad schools.</p>
<p>^I thought wavy was going to Middlebury?</p>
<p>Yes, you’re right. .I was confusing him with another student.</p>