My twin daughters both applied and were accepted to MU. During both the visit from the admissions representative to their HS in California and our visit to the school (and the schools marketing info), the school emphasized (and frankly bragged about) the scholarship awards that they were giving out to eligible students. My daughters both well surpassed the gpa and test score requirements of the award level that they were eligible for yet did not receive any award. This leaves a very poor impression of a school that they were both very interested in. Did anyone else experience this? Seriously, the school should not publish/emphasize this if they can’t stand behind it. Disappointing to say the least.
Did you contact them and ask about this?
I don’t know about Miami but some schools have competitive scholarships for which you need minimum GPA/test scores. SOME people get these scholarships. Other schools (like UA) give scholarships to ALL kids with certain stats.
The website says that these are competitive scholarships:
http://miamioh.edu/admission/merit-grid/index.html
Miami University does not have guaranteed scholarships. Your students might have been eligible for scholarships…but didn’t receive them because this year’s applicant pool was a stronger one.
You can call and inquire.
As noted, for competitive,scholarships…having the GPA or above does not guarantee receipt of an award.
The people doing the roadshows are marketing the college. They are going to tell you all kinds of wonderful things about the school but I’m sure they didn’t say that EVERY applicant gets a scholarship.
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visit to the school (and the schools marketing info), the school emphasized (and frankly bragged about) the scholarship awards that they were giving out to eligible students. My daughters both well surpassed the gpa and test score requirements of the award level that they were eligible for yet did not receive any award.
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This sort of thing happens all the time… they use careful language which “sounds” like every one gets the award, but they’re really not saying that (unless someone really screwed up).
Same goes for need-based aid claims. Schools will tell people, “don’t worry about cost…financial aid will help. 90% of our students have received financial aid.” So, people think that they will get FA. A couple years ago a student posted here on CC, very upset, that he’d been accepted to Harvey Mudd with no aid. He couldn’t believe that he would be one of the 10%. His family earned over $350k per year.
Think I will side with the OP on this - if your daughters truly “well surpassed” the stated GPA and test score requirements I would not be delighted to get zero merit dollars and would not pay $32,500 OOS tuition to go there. I get that the merit awards are competitive but update the scholarship grid to more accurately reflect reality vs. drive better admission stats. @ld1999 what were their GPA and test scores?
But the school doesn’t guarantee everyone at a certain gpa/stat combo to get a merit award. Some schools do, but at other schools they are competitive. Maybe those who received scholarships at Miami did have lower stats than OP’s daughters, maybe there are other factors that go into the decision too, like essays and community service or being an eagle scout. OP should let her guidance counselor know that the presenter wasn’t clear about the merit awards being competitive and limited.
At my daughter’s school there is merit scholarships and they do not release the exact gpa/scores required because it varies a little every year, so a 32/3.5 might get the top award one year and only the second level the next year. Other daughter is at a school that publishes a grid and if you have a 3.2 and a 25 ACT, you get $X. Everyone gets what the grid promises.
The OP assumed that her kiddo would get some merit aid at this school. The kiddo did not get any. Not a dime.
To be honest, this is NOT a “bait and switch”. This is an assumption gone bad.
These are OOS twins. We don’t know their stats. We also don’t know the strength of the applicatioool this year at Miami.
With strong stats, these twins hopefully have affordable acceptances on the table.
I think a call to MU is in order. (edited to state that the students should make this call, not the parent)
A quick look at the ‘money matters’ on collegedata.com for MU shows that a pretty high percentage of kids get merit awards, 42%. Typically when you talk about ‘competitive scholarships’ the percentage is much lower, maybe single digits. Now it might be that they reserve these awards for in-state kids, but it’s definitely worth a call to find out what happened, esp if OP is correct that the scores are significantly above the published averages.
This is not a “bait and switch.” This is an assumption. The students can call and ask.
Marketing is marketing. You bought into it. But no harm done if there are other financial options.
Remember too…those published stats are from previous years. For all we know…the applicants this year had HYPSM stats and THEY got the merit awards.
Tuition for Miami OH is $35,000 for next year I believe. But then the tuition and room and board rates are supposed to stay at the same cost level for the year you start, with the Miami Promise.
I would see if they could offer some merit, but if not, did the twins apply to Duquesne? Depending on major the costs might be similar or less, and depending on their stats they could get up to $24,000 of merit.
Allegheny is a good school too and gives some good merit, I think some posters here said their kids got $28,000 merit.
You might qualify for some need based aid with two in college, and the twins could take their $5,500 student loan and work in summers and part time in college. You might qualify for American Opportunity Tax credit of up to $2,500 fir each twin next year.
What is your budget? I don’t know about Allegheny, but they might still be able to apply to Duquesne.
When did OP’s daughters apply to Miami U. The application deadline for priority consideration for merit aid was December 1st. For all other applications, it was February 1. My daughter did get $12,000 tuition discount, which brings the total cost of attendance in line with our in-state options that did not admit her.
I was wondering the same thing as @jrduck - did the twins apply by the deadline for merit aid?
I think Miami’s use of a grid with test scores and GPA is a little misleading. Other universities that use a grid are guaranteeing the merit money, and if you just looked at the grid and the headings on Miami’s website, you could easily think that getting money is a given. But if you read past the grid, you’ll see the line that says awards aren’t guaranteed, applicants not meeting the grade and test score criteria may still receive scholarshps and that they also take into account diversity, athletic ability and other factors when awarding scholarships. Based on what I’ve read here, people are disappointed every year.