Which top school stack Merit Aid and need based Aid for kids who have necessary stats. I understand that it is very competitive. But please suggest.
1 Duke
2. University of North Carolina - Chapel hill
3. USC
4. Chicago
5. Rice
6. Virginia
7. WUSTL
8. Michigan
9. Caltech
How about Amherst or Williams? Any other school, no single sex school.
Amherst and Williams don’t give a nickel of merit aid…so don’t count on stacking merit with need based aid there.
In fact…the schools on your list give highly competitive merit aid…not something to be counted on…at all.
You can check their financial aid web sites, but many schools do not state anything specific. So you may need to ask them specifically.
Some schools have limited stacking, where scholarships replace student loans and student work expectation or work-study first, but then reduce FA grants. For example:
https://financialaid.stanford.edu/aid/outside/
https://students.ucsd.edu/finances/financial-aid/types/scholarships/
https://financialaid.usc.edu/undergraduates/admitted/scholarships.html
Maryland residents should know that Maryland prohibits its public universities from reducing FA grants when the student earns scholarships, except to limit the total amount of aid to no more than the cost of attendance.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/higher-ed/bs-md-scholarship-displacement-20170704-story.html
However, their policies on merit scholarships may be relevant if a student has outside merit scholarships.
@thumper1, I understand that. That is why I put a q? mark on those two schools. Without naming our high school, just going to say that our school matriculates many kids each year in these scholarships as well as other top schools including many at ivies. High school is very famous for college placements. I am just doing a research on colleges where I need to run an NPC.
My older daughter got the Williams’ most prestigious award for incoming students Stephen H. Tyng Scholarship, but she chose other school which was cheaper located in Boston.
You want to know which colleges to run a net price calculator on?
Do it on the whole list. Running a NPC is free. And it will give you a sense of affordability.
Yes if college offers a merit based award like stamp scholarship etc. for the top student.
You need to contact the colleges and ask them.
I will tell you…that in MOST cases, you will be expected to pay your family contribution. Schools can’t give need based aid to cover that.
It sounds like you are counting on your kiddo getting a very substantial and highly competitive scholarship…someplace. That’s great…as long as she has some less challenging schools on her list also…that will be affordable.
On your other thread…you mention that you are from NY…and it looked like your income was below the amount to qualify for the Excelsior Scholarship…or maybe the STEM one.
I would use the NPC’s… and I would not count on merit to the schools on this list. Make sure your child also has affordable options.
UMich does stack merit with need based aids, however, merit aid may offset the loan and work study, and then the grant before it can reduce your EFC. Anyway, it is nice to reduce loan and work study as those are still your out of pocket cost otherwise.
Nevertheless, it is very competitive for merit scholarship at UMich. The 75th percentile for admission was 34/1530 last year and over 20% of admitted students have GPA 4.0 (or nothing below A-). You must be within the top few percent with perfect or near perfect scores and GPA to get one.
USC (if Southern Cal) does not stack. They will subtract merit from need based aid and expect the full EFC.
https://financialaid.usc.edu/undergraduates/admitted/scholarships.html says that “In most cases, we allow outside scholarships to reduce the student loans or Federal Work-Study in your financial aid package.” (i.e. limited stacking of outside scholarships)
@ucbalumnus Yes that is true for outside scholarships. I meant for their own scholarships (Presidential, Trustee, etc). I should have clarified.
@thumper1 and @ucbalumnus From last many many years, daughter’s school has placed kids each year in the top full tuition+room+board+stipend scholarship program. GC has asked if she is interested in being nominated for one. I am seriously consdering it, but let my kid make her own decision. I understand that there are no guarantees. But high school’s track record is awesome. I need to understand if it has any downside. Daughter is still not sure.
If she does get a “full tuition+room+board+stipend”, then all or nearly all of her college costs are covered, right? So then there is no concern about stacking or not (note that FA + scholarships cannot exceed the college’s cost of attendance anyway).
Obviously, the effective value of this scholarship depends on how much FA she would get otherwise. If she would otherwise be no-FA at an expensive college, it is worth quite a bit. But if she would get maximum FA at a generous college, then this scholarship would effectively be the value of direct loans and work earnings expectation that is replaced.
Is this a college-specific scholarship, or an outside scholarship, and how much effort would it be for her to apply for it?
@ucbalumnus it is college specific scholarship. I do not think it is much more work. She is an accomplished writer who has won many scholarships essay competition.
If it is not much more work, and it is at a college that she is interested in, then why not try for the scholarship?