Is there any correlation between income and merit aid?

[Anonymous]

I understand the basic difference between need-based aid and merit aid. So let's assume there are two families, neither of which qualifies for need-based aid. But one family's HHI is $250k, while the other's is $500k, would the kid from the family with $250k be a better candidate for merit aid (assuming the kids' stats, etc., were equivalent)? Does income truly play no role in merit aid, or will colleges still look at HHI because they make the assumption that a very high income family can attend without depending on merit?

[Anonymous]

We have a HHI of $900K. DC gets $24K a year merit aid from his college. It’s nice to get but didn’t influence him to attend said school. It had the program he wanted.

[Anonymous]

It plays no role. Schools dont even have any financial info from most full pay families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It plays no role. Schools dont even have any financial info from most full pay families.

+1. This. Merit aid is offered by the lower tier colleges to attract a certain student who usually but not always has something the college wants like a top ACT score, SAT, GPA, geographical representation, UMC, first generation and so on.

[Anonymous]

A wealthy family can send their kid anywhere.
The college must figure out whether they want this applicant badly enough to entice him or her, and whether the applicant is likely to go elsewhere. Sometimes a college has a good idea of who its rivals are, and knows how much aid to offer to make them think twice.

This happened for my kid. He declared an international affairs interest, and applied to Georgetown SFS and GWU Elliott, among others. There are few good programs for that major in the USA, so they all know each other. GW offered just enough merit aid to get costs down to Georgetown, to make themselves a little more appealing. They figured from his profile that he had a chance at being accepted there, and elsewhere in the 65K range, and it was worth it to make an effort. Kid was rejected from SFS, accepted at a bunch of others, but GW merit made it the logical choice. So their strategy worked for my kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I understand the basic difference between need-based aid and merit aid. So let's assume there are two families, neither of which qualifies for need-based aid. But one family's HHI is $250k, while the other's is $500k, would the kid from the family with $250k be a better candidate for merit aid (assuming the kids' stats, etc., were equivalent)? Does income truly play no role in merit aid, or will colleges still look at HHI because they make the assumption that a very high income family can attend without depending on merit?

The two families are in the exact same station for merit aid since the college does not know either families HHI.

[Anonymous]

No correlation. There was a story a while back about a pro-basketball player who got a full ride (merit). Absolutely didn't need it, but merit is based on merit, not need

[Anonymous]

Perhaps among families who submit the FAFSA *AND* CSS profile, but many high-income families will decline to provide that information.

[Anonymous]

Merit is just that. Soley based on a kid's merit. Fafsa/family income has no input or part in determining that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a HHI of $900K. DC gets $24K a year merit aid from his college. It’s nice to get but didn’t influence him to attend said school. It had the program he wanted.

+1. We have a similar HHI and networth in the 8 figures. Our kid got merit worth 1/3 of tuition yearly. It was actually a higher award than most kids with their "GPA/SATs" received, because the school also uses recommendation/volutneering/ECs to help determine merit and my kid was very active in the community with volunteering (not just a one time thing) and their school values that alot. Translated to a higher merit award than we expected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps among families who submit the FAFSA *AND* CSS profile, but many high-income families will decline to provide that information.

+1

We have 3 kids and I've yet to fill out a FAFSA or CSS profile. We are HNW/close to UHNW with a HHI. No chance even a "job loss" or life circumstance would change for kids to get FA. None of the schools they applied to required FAFSA/CSS for merit, so we never filled it out. Had one required it for merit, I suppose I'd have filled it out the first year to see if they'd get any merit.

[Anonymous]

Blame the USNWR rankings and how schools feel the need to chase rankings. I've worked at two area universities (no, won't say which ones). Both use/used merit aid to entice students whose stats would help elevate numbers used in rankings. It frustrates students who are too "rich" (mc) to afford need-based aid but too poor to be able to fully pay--hence, lots of loans or strategic selection based on cost. I'm so tired of seeing the internal acrobatics. It could be a sliding scale based on ability to pay or schools could adopt true-cost tuition rates instead of inflating tuition to be able to offer seductive discounts/scholarships.

Please do not get me started on how one guy basically started the USNWR rankings to sell magazines but now has a thumb firmly controlling this rat race, which values and prioritizes a lot of things that have nothing to do--see "yield protect"--with the quality of education, faculty, or students and changes criteria on whims.

[Anonymous]

I did not fill out FAFSA last year and my DD received merit from her 3 safety schools and a Regents from a UC.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did not fill out FAFSA last year and my DD received merit from her 3 safety schools and a Regents from a UC.

Good luck!

This is good to know. I don’t want to fill out a Fafsa and I especially don’t want to fill out CSS! But I was under the impression that some schools require it. Have a junior so we aren’t there yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blame the USNWR rankings and how schools feel the need to chase rankings. I've worked at two area universities (no, won't say which ones). Both use/used merit aid to entice students whose stats would help elevate numbers used in rankings. It frustrates students who are too "rich" (mc) to afford need-based aid but too poor to be able to fully pay--hence, lots of loans or strategic selection based on cost. I'm so tired of seeing the internal acrobatics. It could be a sliding scale based on ability to pay or schools could adopt true-cost tuition rates instead of inflating tuition to be able to offer seductive discounts/scholarships.

Please do not get me started on how one guy basically started the USNWR rankings to sell magazines but now has a thumb firmly controlling this rat race, which values and prioritizes a lot of things that have nothing to do--see "yield protect"--with the quality of education, faculty, or students and changes criteria on whims.

Same with diamond rings. All you need is a person who creates a need and then humans flock around whatever it is.

Diamonds are rocks. There is no reason they should be important, except that a company wanted to sell diamonds and changed everyone’s mind about them. And that thinking is used to this day…

Same with USWNR.