<p>Hello all, we’re still waiting on several schools that she applied to by regular decision. I tried to talk her into Univ. of Alabama but it was too far away. </p>
<p>D Got a $20K merit scholarship from one (safety) school she liked, where I hoped she might do well, but it’s still nice for her to know she received their highest listed merit award. After her deferral from another “safety” where we’d actually hoped for a nice merit scholarship, I will never take anything for granted again! Our state U. offered her something; they don’t give huge merit awards, but hers was good, relatively speaking.</p>
<p>Another question - is it ever Ok to ask a Financial aid or admissions office what the criteria is for the highest award, if it’s not stated? In one case, she received the highest award in the highest listed merit scholarship category, but the school web site says they do pull out the strongest students from THAT level and offer them a bump up to a full scholarship. No specifics, though. She was well above the stats for the category she got, though. And this school was definitely, a safety school for her. We will visit it soon and see what she thinks, since it was still a nice award.</p>