<p>Yohoyoho: You do not need to apply separately for Merit aid from Chapman (or most other colleges). They consider it with the application. My daughter also rec’d a generous scholarship from Occidental which is where she most likely will go. However for financial aid you must fill out the FAFSA financial aid application. [Home</a> - FAFSA on the Web-Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/]Home”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/)</p>
<p>Schools will tell you how to do the financial aid. We don’t qualify for any financial aid as we are in the ‘middle-class’ area where we make too much for financial aid yet aren’t nearly well-off enough to swallow a $50K+ college bill a year. </p>
<p>We had our fingers crossed for merit awards and our D followed through on her end of the bargain by maintaining straight A’s through-out high school. We also sought out schools that offer generous merit aid - Chapman and Occidental being two of those. It is mainly why we decided against the Claremont schools as they have very limited merit aid.
My D has also applied to Stanford which we will hear from next week. No idea if she will get in because as everyone knows it’s a complete crapshoot even for 4.0UW students, but even if she does we will be torn because they offer very little merit aid there. </p>
<p>She would love either Occidental or Chapman with Occidental being her #1 choice. This has been a very happy week for her as all her hard work has paid off. She also rec’d the Regent’s award to UCSB which is also a very generous scholarship ($6K a year plus several perks like early registration). We didn’t even know the UC’s had something like that until she rec’d the envelope in the mail!</p>