If you are on a college waitlist does that mean no merit aid should you get a spot?
Second question - if offered mid year spot and a fall waitlist does that usually mean no merit as well
This would be school specific.
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Most colleges tell you what your merit is with an acceptance, so if they didn’t offer you any for a Jan start, there’s no reason to believe you will get any if you come off the fall WL. You should confirm with the school if you have reason to believe this is a mistake.
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Merit aid is offered to students who are of special interest to a school as an incentive to get them to enroll. If a student is waitlisted, they are highly unlikely to receive merit aid, as the merit money is typically fully allocated by that point.
It’s possible that some schools might provide some merit money to those who come off of a WL, although I personally don’t know of any that do.
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Actually, Denison told students on the WL what their merit award would be if accepted. This was brilliant as students didn’t need to go through the whole WL process to see if Denison was a financial contender or not And for Denison, it was equally brilliant as WL students who had better options at that price point removed themselves from the list.
You are right that not all schools do this though, and it encourages students to go through the whole WL process, often to find out that the school is unaffordable.
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My child was offered merit aid at a college when she was accepted from the waitlist. I don’t think it’s very common, but it wasn’t a huge merit award either. I think substantial merit aid is very unlikely.
Merit is not at all likely in your other scenarios.
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