Merit Scholarships

intparent
Sat, 26 Oct 2013 17:19:09 +0000

OP, last year my D had slightly better test scores, but a lower GPA and class rank. And was local, not from South Dakota. She got $13,000 in merit from Mac and would have had $2,000 for NMF as well. Our EFC is similar, and she did not get any need based aid. She was offered $2,000 in work study and loans. I’d be surprised if you could get more than a total of $20K in merit aid from them; I PMed with some NMF applicants the year before about their merit awards to see what the range was, and I think the highest I heard was not more than 20K total (sorry, don’t have the exact figures, had to clear out my mailbox and those PMs are gone).

Just FYI, her best financial deal from an LAC came from Lawrence. She got a total of $23K/year plus work study, and their cost of attendance is lower to start with. Another school she considered and did not apply to, but that would have been pretty reasonable was St. Mary’s College of Maryland (the public honors college of Maryland). It is very “LAC-like”. It is quite rural (VERY rural), but on the St. Mary’s River and is almost summer-campish in the campus feeling. They have some merit awards, too, which could bring the cost down. Maybe not all the way down to $30K, but closer than some other schools.