<p>I am wondering to what extent merit aid awards are influenced by factors other than academic achievement.</p>
<p>For example, if a student from Utah applies to a school in Pennsylvania, wouldn’t this student be more apt to be awarded merit aid than a student from Pennsylvania with the same credentials?</p>
<p>The school needs a student from Utah, they already have plenty from Pennsylvania… </p>
<p>I am asking because if I tell someone our (extremely limited) experience with merit aid, it seems like it needs to be put into context.</p>
<p>The merit aid S has been offered so far is exactly as was spelled out in the college websites. 5 schools, 5 offers, no surprises. That’s not to say that it won’t change later on, if some schools decide to cough up a little more. In addition most schools have endowments with very specific scholarship recipient requirements (“To a poor student of german ancestry who attended BlahBlah high school and intends to major in accounting. And who has a limp.”)</p>
<p>I agree that academic factors (grades, test scores) are the major factors that influence merit aid awards.</p>
<p>Geography does seem to be a slight plus factor. If a (private) Pennsylvania school had to choose between a Pennsylvanian and a Utahan for a merit award, it seems obvious that they would choose the Utahan for the geographic diversity.</p>
<p>Public shools are governed by formulae, but they too might give merit awards (tuition discounts) to out-of-state state students, figuring that revenue lost by the discount would be more than offset by the increased tuition paid by the OOS student.</p>
<p>Our experience has been the same as Sylvans. DS got the top merit aid at a school in our state and there are definitely more students from instate than probably all the other states combined. </p>
<p>Where it might make a difference in simply in acceptance. All things being equal a school might accept the kid from Utah for diversity and reject the student from PA.</p>
<p>Not necessarily. You’re assuming, first, that all schools want geographic diversity. Not so sure that’s always (or even often) the case. Regional LACs could acutally have a bias toward the local. </p>
<p>Here’s the logic: I attended college at a regional LAC which pulled the majority of its students from a three state area (and currently work at a similar institution). Now, there were a smattering of students from all over the US. Many of them transferred out PDQ. Why? Cold, nasty Northern Plains winters. A very different “culture” than one finds on the left or right coasts, and a disdain for that culture. So, I think one could make the argument that, in the case of a regional school, merit aid would go to the closer student because that student would be more likely to stay and graduate. </p>
<p>Schools look at more than who they can get. They look at who they can keep.</p>
<p>IMO, you need to understand that merit aid is used to benefit the institution, not as a reward for a great high school career. It is not the prize at the end of a contest. At its most basic, it is a lure. An inducement to attend X school over all others. </p>
<p>Look at the the institutions goals. Are they trying to raise their profile nationally? Then geographic diversity will be a plus. Are they trying to raise their stats? Are they trying to increase (specific sub-group) enrollment? They will spend their money to get what they want. </p>
<p>Now, at the highest level of merit aid, for the largest awards that are usually “named” and high profile, they are looking for the kids who will “leave a mark”. In our experience, those kids may be expected/encouraged to meet with the trustees, go to dinner parties, make the newspaper, and compete for prestigious national awards. In effect, to be impact players. In a very real sense, they are encouraged/expected to be the face of the school. They should know and be comfortable with that going in. It was described to me this way (paraphrased): the 30 Blank and Blank scholarships are (primarily) for the academic stars, while the 3 Blank scholarships are for the “gamechangers”. </p>
<p>There are other awards that are more purely academic but not the Belk or the Lay or the Bellingrath or the Danforth or the…they will have the stats but they will bring something else, too.</p>
<p>My D received merit aid above what the website indicated she might expect at an LAC (ranked around 50th). We are somewhat geographically diverse for the school, so I think this did help. Her ECs were also quite good, and she is a great interview, so those could also have been contributing factors. Of course, it does cost more to go to school farther away (somewhat podunk location for D’s school, resulting in more expensive flights). And I have had to take time off work a couple of times to do major ferrying of her/her stuff. That costs me money, too.</p>
<p>And don’t be surprised if some “merit” awards are only available to students with financial need. Or only to those without financial need. Or athletes. Or diversity applicants. </p>
<p>It’s their money (the schools’), they will spend it to their benefit.</p>
<p>I agree with curmudgeon. It’s a lure for the school to attract the students they want.</p>
<p>My son got more merit aid than we expected at a few schools. At one, his stats were barely above the mid-point, but he got the highest award. (ETA: Great school, but he enrolled elsewhere.)</p>
<p>There are some transparent merit awards done by online calculator (Baylor, Southwestern, and some state schools come to mind) or published benchmarks - hit or exceed the mark, get the money (like Alabama and Texas Tech), but when the scholarship criteria are intentionally “fuzzy”, that fuzziness signals that these other factors (sometimes disclosed, sometimes not) are in play.</p>
<p>Actually I was thinking exactly about merit aid as a carrot to attract students who would not otherwise attend.</p>
<p>My d just got a nice merit offer from a school (early action). Virtually no one from her HS applies to this school, much less attends, so I could see how she would be an attractive applicant to them as they very likely would like to get the “word out” on their college to my d’s HS.</p>
<p>But then I looked up the scholarship (as prompted by sylvan’s post) and sure enough, she qualifies for it based on her stats.</p>
<p>So maybe I was wrong to think that they offered it to her (in part) as part of a marketing campaign. Maybe everyone with her stats gets this scholarship offer.</p>
<p>(D was accepted early decision elsewhere so she will not be attending in any case.)</p>
<p>Another way to look at merit money, is that it really isn’t “money” at all.
The school is not really paying itself so your child can attend.
Professors are not paid by the student, so having your child attend a class costs the institution nothing. It really is more of a “Discount”.
So XYZ institution might be discounting your childs education as a means to fill the dorms, to become more desireable to other applicants, and to the ultimate benefit of the school.</p>
<p>Sometimes the merit money does come from the school’s own “money” but at other times it comes from specific earmarked funds from individuals/Foundations that the school either has posession of or other control over. In those latter instances, it is not in any way “discounting”. The student’s tuition bill is still getting paid, just not by the student or the student’s family. ;)</p>
<p>Sometimes merit money will be used to match other merit offer the student has received if the U is very interested in that student and the school feels that the other school is a “peer.” This happened with our S & several friends kids to help make the kids choose the U w/o extra significant financial sacrifice.</p>