For good or bad, it appears that some schools offer aid based on how much they want to entice a student to accept admissions, not just on their stats. Maybe I’m stating the obvious, here. But this is my first time to this crazy rodeo, and I am learning as I go! @-)
The way I explained merit awards to my daughter is that it is the equivalent of both a game and a business transaction. Other than automatic merit, which is simply a game with openly listed rules, a school will look at each student, decide how much they want and need that student and then offer what they believe is enough to entice that student (and/or students like that student) to attend their school. At the auto merits it is all about the numbers, at the discretionary merits it is all about…well, it is all about things you will never really know. Demographics and diversity may play into it, propping up a weak class of applicants in a certain College that year, etc. Some criteria may be fairly constant, others will vary from year to year depending on the applicant pool and the school’s varying initiatives and objectives over time.
The label or ‘merit’ really makes these awards sound far more noble and grand than they are in truth. They surely are earned by all of the hard work the kids have done, but they are given not to reward the student, but to enhance the University/College giving the award as a recruiting tool. Is there still some nobility to it given that a school’s charter and mission is to educate and teach, which are meritorious things in themselves? Sure, but at its very core, and not talking about need based aid or some merits that are controlled by autonomous or semi-autonomous entities through a trust, etc, merit awards are payments offered to students made to induce their attendance based on what the school thinks the student can do for/add to the school.
@mrsquietstorm9 you are obviously not alone with the stalking. I am the one to find out all of the information first and I tell her when decisions come out etc etc. It’s almost disheartening that she isn’t as invested in the process like I am.
@“Queen’s Mom” you echoed my exact situation with my D. She is in 2 good schools (but they are at the bottom of her list) and she’s waiting till the end of the month for the 6 top choices (she’ll be happy at any of them) - she doesn’t think she will get in because she knows this process is so selective. I keep praying and hoping she gets into just one. March 31st can’t come soon enough!
Welcome @Sean67208 & congrats to your DC + @AnxietyAttack77 on RPI!
@palm715 - doggone it!! Hopefully things will work out.
Wait listed at Chicago. I don’t know how I feel about that.
grrrrrr- the dreaded wait list strikes again. Sorry @“Queen’s Mom” - she has other good choices- right?
whoa- just popped over there to look at results- tons & tons of WL!!
Seems like they wait-listed pretty much everyone.
They probably admitted too many in EA round.
I have posted here yet but I have been reading a number of old posts. Seems like this page exploded in the last week! Villanova releases results tomorrow. It’s my DD first choice. She did get accepted to Case Western over the weekend with a pretty good package.
Can’t wait to get home so I can go back and read a lot more of your posts!
Welcome aboard @Hope2achieve - this group is very knowledgeable, helpful & most of all supportive! Congrats on CW & good luck on Villanova.
@bookmom7 can’t agree more
Welcome @Sean67208 and @hope2achieve ! Great supportive group here.
@“Queen’s Mom” sorry to hear about the wait list. It’s an incredibly difficult to get into school. My best friend got in EA and she’s the first from our school to be accepted there
@CAMidwestMom @Ballerina016 My S was also sad to give up his SCU spot today, but he wants to give WL kids a chance. I will always treasure the memory of our visit there as a special mother-son senior year adventure.
@Ballerina016 He had trouble with CP Pomona’s portal, so we googled school name + “decline admission,” and it led us to the right portal.
@morningside95 Re: enticing students - we’ve heard reports that one of the schools on S’s list continues to add merit scholarships onto the FA package even into late April. Veteran parents are saying that even if you know you want to go to that school, to wait until just before May 1st to enroll. We have put a small non-refundable housing deposit there to get in line in case he goes there, but we wouldn’t be able to do that at schools which require enrolling before housing.
@AnxietyAttack77 Congratulations!
@“Queen’s Mom” I’m so sorry about the WL. Hoping for happier news ahead.
Welcome @Sean67208 and @hope2achieve.
@Queen’s Mom Sorry about the wait list. Hoping good news is coming soon.
Woo, after being deferred from Uchicago, I’ve been officially rejected. Closure, huh.
I don’t know, I’ve yet to get into anything other than my state schools and a local private. I’ve got the test scores and the extracurriculars, I just don’t know what else I can do. Still have two RD decisions yet to come, but I’ve got the suspicion that they’ll both go same way.
It just feels like after everything, I would have the same options as I do now if I put in half as much work and just didn’t care.
Perhaps I have the wrong perspective on this whole thing, but maybe someone else here has the same thoughts? I dunno.
I don’t understand why schools don’t have a button on their portal to decline like they do for accept? My son has tried to say good bye to all his OOS schools where he received merit aid that could go to someone else but none of them seem to acknowledge the email at all. He has left one in state safety option open as a just in case something weird happens and he needs to stay close to home. He has one application still theoretically pending though he sent an email to withdraw but we never heard anything back. It won’t change his mind and he deposited a few weeks ago anyway in part due to pressure on housing so I guess schools do that because it works at least at getting an earlier answer from kids. He was 99% sure though for a long time and the bad parents made him wait a few weeks 
Sorry to hear that @ProbDeferred. My D also went the deferred, rejected route with UChicago.
I wondered about schools asking for housing deposits. We have 3 acceptances that are a possibility and waiting on two. Villanova comes out tomorrow. Question is, when do they tell you about financial aid? That’s DD ideal school. Thanks
@ProbDeferred I think this is an exceptionally tough year with record numbers of apps at all the top schools and tons of highly qualified students have been waitlisted who in years past probably would have been admitted. For these schools that are pretty small like MIT, UChicago, CalTech, Stanford there are so many hurdles. At least half the kids are paying 100% so even though they are technically need blind there is some magic way they are accepting a lot of kids from expensive prep schools. For some of the schools there are athletes and kids of big donors and famous folks who are accepted. After that most schools give some preference to legacies and to specific groups including minorities of various groups and kids with interesting backgrounds/talents. Once you get to spaces left for the basic regular kids who are the majority of applicants there just aren’t very many spaces left. It’s hard not to take it personally but when you realize how few spots there really are available it’s amazing anyone “normal” gets in. The term lottery school really does seem appropriate. No matter how many of the tickets you have (great ECs, super GPA, perfect scores, amazing essays, etc) there just are not many winners in the equation.