<p>Confirmed this with an admissions counselor: If you do not submit FASFA/apply for finaid, you are not eligible for MERIT scholarships regardless of other circumstances.</p>
<p>!!!
Can we submit a FASFA now (late), just for the purpose of getting merit scholarships? Would this exclude me from NMF scholarships?</p>
<p>everything is merit based at NYU, or almost everything.</p>
<p>@radbunny: While at NYU, I asked the same question. Answer is a flat out no. The only possible benefits for doing the FASFA right now is UNSUBSIDIZED loans. It’s really a pity.</p>
<p>@elan_xu: That’s a little misleading. Since eligibility for the scholarships require financial statements, it’s clear that they consider need in the process.</p>
<p>I would check that info again. D received merit aid 2 years ago without us filing the FAFSA. It was pure merit aid…no need (a talent schoalrship through Steinhardt.) NYU’s policy may have changed, though. We ended up filing a FAFSA in order for her to be awarded a merit scholarship from NY State and continue to do so. (Btw her FAFSA on file shows no need–high EFC.)</p>
<p>Well, I would agree with the info provided by uskoolfish. Sonny received the MLK scholarship. Our FAFSA determined EFC is $99,999 (max), unfortunately due to our pulling out most of our home equity temporarily (but the cash showed up in the FAFSA). Sonny got into USC but will not get aid from USC or any other college (that’s what it looks like). It is fortunate sonny got the merit scholarships from AU, GW, and NYU, the latter a school that is in the perfect location for him (NYC).</p>
<p>Our family had a major change in EFC. Yet, NYU scholarship amounts to be about the same before and after the change. So I said it was mainly based on my merit, not so much on the EFC. Filling out the FAFSA doesn’t mean they really use it much.</p>
<p>I think it’s a combination of merit and need. I got a pretty nice 20K scholarship, but the rest is basically loans…so ughhh.</p>
<p>Neclear, trust me i can almost guess your stats, haha. They wanted you pretty good. But I can’t figure out your family income.
I have a bit more scholarship and I have very good stats.
But if I were to go to Stern, I bet the aid would drop a bit since the kids are academically stronger there, on average. So no need to go to Stern now saves me money.</p>
<p>@uskoolfish: It’s possible that Steinhardt has different policies than the other schools, or that as you said, the policies have changed. </p>
<p>I asked the question DIRECTLY to a financial aid officer while I was at NYU Stern admitted students weekend. This seems to be the most reliable source of information. </p>
<p>To clarify: APPLYING for financial aid (including FASFA) IS a prerequisite to receiving any aid. I was even told that students who did not apply should not expect the “awards package” that shows ALL aid. Low EFC is NOT a requirement, although I think it is considered in the process. I can also confirm that one of my friends with high EFC received a scholarship.</p>
<p>Here’s the general process that I was told: the admissions office, not Fin-Aid office, determines the merit scholarships, but only students who first pass through the Fin-Aid process even get passed into the pool.</p>
<p>If your EFC is above the cost of NYU, then the only thing you will get is pure merit aid, which is very limited…talent (art/music), MLK, and a few other categories.</p>
<p>If you qualify for financial aid, then you are in a need-based category that is different than pure merit aid. Your actual award will be determined by your need and how close to that number NYU wants to come by giving you money that doesn’t need to be re-paid (scholarships/ grants).</p>
<p>But both of these forms of grants/ scholarships are different (need/non-need_ and come from different sources.</p>
<p>To be more specific, there are very few university-wide merit scholarships (non-need) and therefore not dependent on FAFSA. They are MLK scholars, national merit and Intel winners. There may be a few others, but not many and they are for prestigious achievements.</p>
<p>Additionally, there are some school specfic awards from Tisch and Steinhardt for talent ie: music, art, film and theatre.</p>
<p>In the past, some scholars programs (from CAS, Steinhardt, Gallatin) awarded non-need based academic merit aid, but that is being phased out, I believe. I know D is in Steinhardt scholars and got her acceptance to scholars after she recieved her finaid package and she never received any additional merit aid.</p>
<p>So a student in Stern will not be getting any merit aid (non-need) unless they have won a university -wide merit scholarship. There are no other Stern merit aid scholarships.</p>
<p>As for whether a FAFSA needs to be filed to be awarded non-need based merit aid, I don’t know if the policy has changed in the last 2 years, but we did not file it for D and she was awarded talent merit aid.</p>
<p>^^ You don’t seem to get it dude. Lol.</p>
<p>The head of the particular music program my son applied to at Steinhardt told us that, yes, we DID have to file the FAFSA this year to be considered even for a purely talent music scholarship. It may have been different in the past, but this year… FAFSA was required. And by the way, my son got no merit aid in the end anyway. So who knows, maybe they saw our EFC and said “let’s give the money to someone with need.” We’ll never know. But like others whose EFC doen’t tell the whole story, we could’ve used some help.</p>
<p>And we did have to file the dang FAFSA to be eligible for merit aid. Exactly what the OP was told.</p>
<p>Brandeis was the same way…made us file for financail aid even though we had a high EFC. And I was suspicious that they would just not award us any money after they saw how “rich” we were.</p>
<p>But Brandeis did give D a merit scholarship. Just don’t love having to disclose financial info that can be used against us. I still think it can go either way.</p>
<p>Elan_xu–What do you think I don’t get? I said that the FAFSA might need to be filed this year, but it wasn’t necessary in the past. However, I do think I understand the way merit aid works at NYU. And there is a big distinction between what you may qualify for based on whether there is any need or not. So they certainly use the FAFSA to determine whether they can give you any aid at all. </p>
<p>Not sure what changed for your family, but part of the issue is that NYU doesn’t agree to meet full need. If they did, then if your income need changes, then you will get more aid. But since NYU doesn’t guarantee to meet full need, they can just let the gap become larger if your income goes down. That has nothing to do with merit aid.</p>
<p>I am going to try to explain my point one more time. </p>
<p>NYU does have some merit scholarships. But the ones that we are talking about here are those suppose to be need based are more like merit based too. </p>
<p>Our family had very good income but I still got $20K in CAS scholarship money from them (not the officially merit based). I was very surprised to see that. But we still had to petition because our family income recently dropped by $150K (job loss) which was not reflected in my fafsa. With the petition, they did give me a bit more money. But very small amount comparatively and most were in the form of federal grants. The NYU scholarship part was not much changed. So I believe whether they labeled these scholarships merit based (like MLK or president, etc) or FAFSA based (given to me by the FA office), they are largely merit based anyway. The amount given depends on how much (or little) they want me, not my change in needs. This last part you didn’t get lol…</p>
<p>elan_xu :)</p>
<p>I do get what you are saying, but what I am adding is that even though they give out financial aid based on both merit and how much they want a particular student…if your EFC is above the cost of NYU, you will never qualify for most grants/scholarships with out need.</p>
<p>A lot of people get confused by this and think that NYU gives out more pure merit aid than they really do. They speak to their friends who are in Stern, for example, who are getting a Stern Scholarship (based on need and merit) and therefore assume that it is pure merit aid and that they might qualify despite a $55K plus EFC. And then they are surprised that they did not get a merit scholarship through Stern. My point is that it just doesn’t exist without need.</p>
<p>So, yes, I do think we both understand each other!</p>
<p>Does anyone know the amount of scholarship awarded to those invited to the CAS Presidential Honors Scholars program if any. Is it strictly merit or also need based?</p>
<p>
That’s not true, NYU does have scholarships that are purely merit - not many, but they do exist. It’s unfair to say NYU doesn’t give out non-need scholarships when they do.</p>
<p>For example, my scholarship was specifically created for women who were Intel Siemens semi-finalists or finalists and plan to get a science degree at NYU. Most of these women come from middle class to upper class families, because it’s not like there’s an abundance of low-income women from the inner city who participate in this competition for obvious reasons - my EFC is fairly high, for example. I know Steinhardt and Tisch also have talent scholarships, as well as other programs.</p>
<p>Alix… you are absolutely right…and in a previous post i said the same thing! </p>
<p>"…there are very few university-wide merit scholarships (non-need) and therefore not dependent on FAFSA. They are MLK scholars, national merit and Intel winners. There may be a few others, but not many and they are for prestigious achievements.</p>
<p>Additionally, there are some school specfic awards from Tisch and Steinhardt for talent ie: music, art, film and theatre."</p>
<p>This info is from NYU’s web site. NYU has phased out many non-need based merit scholarships…as a parent of an NYU student, I have rec’d many e-mails and newsletters from NYU to that effect.</p>
<p>It is not an unfair statement…it is a statement of their policy. </p>
<p>We do not have need (well, according to the FAFSA!) and D is getting a music scholarship. However, she is also in Steinhardt Scholars and does not get academic merit aid (it was discontinued a few years ago.)</p>
<p>However, if she had decided to go to Stern or CAS, she would not be getting merit aid, since it is only need based.</p>