My kid wants to ask for more Merit (not financial) aid. And also ask to reevaluate him for honors…
Does anyone know if these appeals go to the same office? He is not sure if he needs to word these two appeals differently… Basically it’s the same appeal - gpa went up, lot’s of school involvement etc.. School has two different forms to fill out, so he can’t just write one letter asking for both…
With deposits due next week it seems late in the game to ask. But if the directions are not clear, contact admissions at the college of interest. Hopefully the student already has some good, affordable options.
With all due respect.. my question was if anyone knows if honors and merit requests usually go to the same office/person… that’s all I was asking
I think it would depend on the college. I would maybe have your student call on Monday their self and ask what they would need to do for both situations. Hopefully they will get the answers/directions faster than waiting for an email back. Good luck with both issues!
To clarify, the answer will vary college by college which is why I suggested having the student start with their contact at admissions if the instructions are not clear.
And again, I would suggest the student also decide on a top choice option among their affordable acceptances.
Thank you. I thought maybe it’s the same structure in all colleges. He is committing to this college anyways, even if he doesn’t get more merit and/or honors.
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thank you. He has already sent in his request to reevaluate him for honors, but didn’t know if he can just copy/paste the same letter to appeal for more merit. I’ll advise him to call on Monday.
Ok, I know I’m a nit picker, but… merit aid is financial aid- generally, money from a source other than the student or the student’s family that helps offset educational expenses.
Haha you are right. But for merit you’d write about your successes and accomplishments (same as for honors), and for financial aid you’d write about your struggles and hardships… and merit you can keep if your financial situation gets better, while financial aid you can keep if you GPA is low..
Just substitute “need-based aid” for “financial aid” in your post and you’ve got it right.
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Yes, but…
Merit aid is typically controlled by the admissions office. It is money they are allocated as a yield-tool as it allows them to entice applicants they want regardless of need. In many cases, it is driven by stats so that they don’t have to worry about the fairness, as in not getting sued, of how it’s administered. So for the OP, your best bet in assking for more is to highlight a higher GPA, rank, test scores than were on the original application in that letter.
FA is administered by another office and is determined solely by need.
But it doesn’t hurt to ask. If the school isn’t yielding applicants as expected and can justify giving $ to your kid without violating their “rules” they’ve set, it could work.
OP should reach out to admissions to ask for more merit aid. They can use their grades or other achievements as support but can also use any merit aid they received from other peer schools. They can also say something as simple as ‘I need another $3K (or whatever) to make this school affordable for my family.‘ The student should be prepared to accept on the spot if offered the price they ask for. Merit aid is just a form of discounting so getting more can also depend on where the school is in enrolling their class. Merit aid is not always guaranteed for all 4 years or to keep pace with the increase in direct COA.
This is need based aid and another type of discounting, and yes, OP would contact the financial aid office to get more need based aid (which doesn’t sound like that’s an issue.)
To OP…When asking for more financial aid, whether merit or need based, it is ok for a parent to be on the calls/communications.
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Your letter asking for more merit aid probably needs to mention the money issue. I doubt that your letter for honors college did. If that is the case, I don’t think you can simply cut and paste the same letter.
Asking for honors college and asking for additional merit money are two different questions.
Call this college and ask..but usually both of these things are handled by the admissions folks.
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I’ve definitely witnessed students losing need based financial aid for poor grades.
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FA (Financial Aid) is generally composed of both need-based aid and merit aid. Technically, the sentence quoted above should read “Need-based aid is administered by another office and is determined solely by need.”
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In that case, it wasn’t strictly need-based aid. There is no grade/GPA component to pure need-based aid.
Unless they don’t meet Satisfactory Academic Progress. If that happens, their aid is suspended until they meet their college requirements for correcting this.
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Is this a school-specific policy? It’s kind of hard to show that you can meet college requirements if you can’t pay for classes.
Schools have requirements for meeting satisfactory academic progress…not dropping or failing a certain number of courses. So…this is for once you are already taking classes.
@kelsmom might better be able to explain.
The SAP guidelines for losing federally funded aid, I think are the same. But the criteria for rectifying this varies by college.
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Can we return to the OP please? An admitted student losing need-based aid for grades is irrelevant to the conversation. It may be a nice topic for another thread, since I personally have never heard of this.
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