I always wonder and maybe there are examples from some folks out there - but has anyone gotten merit and not met the GPA criteria?
My son’s school had a fantastic probation - so even if you didn’t make the grade (he did fortunately), there was like an entire year to fix it.
But that is always the worry (to me) when they do have a minimum. And if not, how is the probation to allow you to catch up - since many choose a school based on that merit aid.
For most it seems 3.0 but some are 2.0 and some higher than 3.0.
Then I wonder would schools purposely de-grade you to ultimately save - but I don’t think that happens.
My D’s merit is based on maintaining a 3.5, I believe. So fairly high, but it’s a full ride at a private so I get it.
She has a high school friend who was at risk of losing her merit at another school but was able to pull up her grades in the probation period. The family could afford it either way, but it would not have been ideal with the support they plan to provide for her post-grad plans.
My kids were offered a variety of awards and ultimately went with merit offers that weren’t their best offers (financially) because of the GPA requirements of better offers.
They all decided they would rather accept awards with GPA requirements of “being in good academic standing” (2.0) than ones which required a 3.5 (the largest of their awards required that). The possibility of being stressed about GPA wasn’t worth the additional money in their eyes, as all the schools under consideration were affordable with the merit offers received.
Each kid hopefully will make the best decision for them, in regards to the merit terms they’re offered. Having the substantially lower GPA requirement made my kids more confident to push themselves into challenging classes because they weren’t worried about what would happen to their scholarships if they did terribly in a class. Happily, they have had good to great experiences in all their classes thus far and are doing exceptionally well.
The other advantage of merit aid over financial aid is that (in many cases) it’s guaranteed for 4 years, whereas with financial aid you need to reapply each year. In our case, since our income fluctuates annually, it would an added stressor to have to worry about losing financial aid. Since my daughter got a merit package, we know that she is guaranteed at least a certain baseline tuition discount - and then we can ask the school for additional aid if needed annually.
Then there are places like Denver which has priority admissions for early decision full pay. Great experience with smaller classes and in growing, cool metro area. I knew a couple NYC I-bankers who sent kids to Denver.
D’s full ride required 3.5 (it had been 3.6 in prior years). But they also said no one had ever lost the scholarship. The grading was pretty generous, her honors classes got almost 100% A or A-. And she was never concerned (graduated with 3.94).
The average graduating GPA at her school was 3.6, and these were the top 1% of the freshman class (30 out of 4000) so it hardly seemed an unreasonable expectation.
Scholarships of any sort is an enticement to enroll. We can all agree on that. Some schools decide who to give it to based on ability to pay. Desirable candidates that can offset revenue targets get in. For some other schools, you get what you see. No smoke and mirrors.
At the end of the day, if the school is affordable and a good fit then everyone is happy. Where parents trip up is when they fill out the NPC calculator and come up with a number at the tuition discount schools that they are happy with and have their kids apply. Then when their kids do not get in, largely because that NPC number is too low to warrant acceptance, they are in shock. To put bluntly, $30K is a great NPC number for Clarkson, but will unlikely lead to acceptance for someone at Tufts or Lehigh unless an institutional priority is being met by offering admission, at least during the regular cycle. One could do a bit better during ED but the norm now is accepting even more full pay kids through that mechanism. Hope this makes sense to you.
There’s a lot of difference between the entering student profiles of Tufts, Lehigh and Clarkson. Does Tufts even give merit scholarships? Your reward is being admitted. What percentage of Clarkson students enroll from ED? I believe Tufts and Lehigh are over 50%.
In SC, they do cut the state merit aid for Life and Palmetto fellows if they do not maintain the GPA required. They can access those funds at private and public colleges. Many lose it at tge end of the first year. Others unfortunately swap out of STEM majors to try to keep the scholarships. They can take summer classes to bring it back up.
GA had the same problem and decided to give a bonus to students in STEM majors, something like automatic +.3 so strong students could keep their scholarships even if they chose a major with a harsher grading scale.
Indeed. In Tufts’ recent class of 1739 students, 49 states were represented. North Dakota applicants benefit.
Of the 60% of admitted students with test scores, the range was 1470-1560 and 34-35. Not too shabby.
So, Tufts isn’t known for good merit aid. Financial aid is likely since just 12% have Pell Grants and they state that in their profile.
Clarkson, Clark, Tulsa and many privates in the 80+ ranking range give generous merit to enhance their student profile and attract top scholars who would otherwise attend higher ranked schools.