How common is it to lose merit aid?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid lost his merit aid but wasn’t a great student. If your kid is a good student and mostly got As in high school hopefully he should be fine. Talk to him about it.

My kid got nearly all As in high school.

She is now in a big ten engineering program where she is above average according to the admission stats. Her merit aid continuation requirement is fairly low (good standing).

She is currently a B+ student (thank you, humanities elective!) with mostly Bs in her technical classes. Statistically she is well into the top half of the class but not in the top quarter -- she and I looked carefully at the distribution statistics for each class.

I'm telling you this detail because although I would like my kid to have done better, she is proud of her effort and her grades. I would not be confident that a freshman engineering student would do much better after watching my child this past fall. Maybe your kid will, but you aren't worried about that here.

She will get into her major, and she will keep her merit aid. We turned down other schools where these kind of grades might not have resulted in that outcome.

May I ask which Big 10 Engineering gives merit aid, please? And did that bring your out of state tuition to your state flagship? Thank you.

This is probably the Purdue poster

Not the Purdue poster, but they give very little merit aid to OOS engineering students. I think the most that has ever been posted is $8K and you have to have absolutely top scores, and it is still rare. Purdue is pretty cheap without the merit, they have had a 6 year tuition freeze, and they know the OOS kids will come regardless. My child is looking there and I have done a lot of research on it. Most OOS merit packages are given to non engineering students.

NP here. My ds just got merit offer from Purdue engineering for $10k. He has top test scores but far from perfect gpa. Purdue's tuition & room is $42k for OOS so with merit, it would only be $32k.

I hope he is going. You won't get a better deal than that. Their engineering program is incredible, even compared to UMD. We loved the campus and everything about the program when we went to visit. A friend of the family had a job for 87K for Exxon Mobile 3 months before graduation. They are paying for her masters.

Purdue tends to get a lot of inflated GPA's they can work with on fudging their average GPA numbers. They do not get many ACT 35 and 36. The ones that do are usually CS and FYE. If he had that, it increases their 50% median by a lot. So they want him there. Congrats!

PP here. Hmm, you are making me rethink. Actually Purdue is not high on ds' list. At #9 in US News, it is certainly the highest ranked engineering program he has applied to but being from DMV, I don't think he has much interest in being in midwest. My concern with Purdue is the fear that it weeds out a large number of kids. I haven't necessarily heard of Purdue as weeding out a lot of kids but assume it since it is so highly ranked but relatively easier to get into compared to similarly ranked engineering schools. Do you know?

This is a short-sighted, provincial view.

My DC is in school in the Midwest and loves it. He loves the more relaxed atmosphere, he loves how friendly people are, and he loves that his school has people from all over the country.

There is more to life than the I-95 corridor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid lost his merit aid but wasn’t a great student. If your kid is a good student and mostly got As in high school hopefully he should be fine. Talk to him about it.

My kid got nearly all As in high school.

She is now in a big ten engineering program where she is above average according to the admission stats. Her merit aid continuation requirement is fairly low (good standing).

She is currently a B+ student (thank you, humanities elective!) with mostly Bs in her technical classes. Statistically she is well into the top half of the class but not in the top quarter -- she and I looked carefully at the distribution statistics for each class.

I'm telling you this detail because although I would like my kid to have done better, she is proud of her effort and her grades. I would not be confident that a freshman engineering student would do much better after watching my child this past fall. Maybe your kid will, but you aren't worried about that here.

She will get into her major, and she will keep her merit aid. We turned down other schools where these kind of grades might not have resulted in that outcome.

May I ask which Big 10 Engineering gives merit aid, please? And did that bring your out of state tuition to your state flagship? Thank you.

This is probably the Purdue poster

Not the Purdue poster, but they give very little merit aid to OOS engineering students. I think the most that has ever been posted is $8K and you have to have absolutely top scores, and it is still rare. Purdue is pretty cheap without the merit, they have had a 6 year tuition freeze, and they know the OOS kids will come regardless. My child is looking there and I have done a lot of research on it. Most OOS merit packages are given to non engineering students.

NP here. My ds just got merit offer from Purdue engineering for $10k. He has top test scores but far from perfect gpa. Purdue's tuition & room is $42k for OOS so with merit, it would only be $32k.

I hope he is going. You won't get a better deal than that. Their engineering program is incredible, even compared to UMD. We loved the campus and everything about the program when we went to visit. A friend of the family had a job for 87K for Exxon Mobile 3 months before graduation. They are paying for her masters.

Purdue tends to get a lot of inflated GPA's they can work with on fudging their average GPA numbers. They do not get many ACT 35 and 36. The ones that do are usually CS and FYE. If he had that, it increases their 50% median by a lot. So they want him there. Congrats!

PP here. Hmm, you are making me rethink. Actually Purdue is not high on ds' list. At #9 in US News, it is certainly the highest ranked engineering program he has applied to but being from DMV, I don't think he has much interest in being in midwest. My concern with Purdue is the fear that it weeds out a large number of kids. I haven't necessarily heard of Purdue as weeding out a lot of kids but assume it since it is so highly ranked but relatively easier to get into compared to similarly ranked engineering schools. Do you know?

80% of FYE go on to 2nd year. If you have a 3.0 or higher, you are guaranteed placement in whichever speciality you want. If you are below there are a few that you have a 90% chance of getting into.

Of the 20% that do not go on to 2nd year, 10% change majors but stay at Purdue and the other 10% either leave the school or didn't make the cut to continue.

I thought those numbers were great and one of the only schools who were transparent about it. We really liked the friendly and inclusive vibe at the school. Only engineering school we visited that the kids in the student panels did anything outside of STEM at school. It was refreshing. EPICS sounded awesome. Have him look that up. The labs were top notch. The school had a much more urban feel.
If you haven't gone, I would. You can fly into Indianapolis and it is 50min away. We drove out in October. Stopped at Ohio State on the way and hit Pitt/CMU on the way back. Very easy drive. Out of all of those schools, Purdue ranked the best for my daughter. Higher than UMD too, which was at the top of her list. Personally I really liked it too. Much more than I thought.

My only concern is that small percent you don't get the discipline you want in 2nd year. A lot of schools, you get right into the discipline 1st year.

[Anonymous]

I’ve seen scholarships lost for2/1000s of a grade point.

[Anonymous]

Do read the fine print on the offer, including how they calculate the GPA, whether there is a semester to bring it up.

My child's CTCL (no engineering there, mind you) is very generous with regard to maintaining the merit aid. Even though she is doing fine so far, that is a relief, given the fact that organic chem lies ahead of her.

[Anonymous]

This is one of the most interesting and informative threads on college & university forum. i'm serious.

[Anonymous]

I had this type of scholarship back in the day (graduated in 2004). I had full in-state tuition, and there was also a lower one for about half tuition, based on HS grades/class rank/test scores. We had to maintain a 3.3 at the end of each year with a certain amount of credit hours every quarter. It was very hard, and a lot of the STEM kids lost their aid. I honestly feel like the school depended on kids eventually losing their aid as they were so generous with aid to incoming freshmen. Sounds like some schools are a little more generous which is great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid lost his merit aid but wasn’t a great student. If your kid is a good student and mostly got As in high school hopefully he should be fine. Talk to him about it.

My kid got nearly all As in high school.

She is now in a big ten engineering program where she is above average according to the admission stats. Her merit aid continuation requirement is fairly low (good standing).

She is currently a B+ student (thank you, humanities elective!) with mostly Bs in her technical classes. Statistically she is well into the top half of the class but not in the top quarter -- she and I looked carefully at the distribution statistics for each class.

I'm telling you this detail because although I would like my kid to have done better, she is proud of her effort and her grades. I would not be confident that a freshman engineering student would do much better after watching my child this past fall. Maybe your kid will, but you aren't worried about that here.

She will get into her major, and she will keep her merit aid. We turned down other schools where these kind of grades might not have resulted in that outcome.

May I ask which Big 10 Engineering gives merit aid, please? And did that bring your out of state tuition to your state flagship? Thank you.

This is probably the Purdue poster

Not the Purdue poster, but they give very little merit aid to OOS engineering students. I think the most that has ever been posted is $8K and you have to have absolutely top scores, and it is still rare. Purdue is pretty cheap without the merit, they have had a 6 year tuition freeze, and they know the OOS kids will come regardless. My child is looking there and I have done a lot of research on it. Most OOS merit packages are given to non engineering students.

NP here. My ds just got merit offer from Purdue engineering for $10k. He has top test scores but far from perfect gpa. Purdue's tuition & room is $42k for OOS so with merit, it would only be $32k.

I hope he is going. You won't get a better deal than that. Their engineering program is incredible, even compared to UMD. We loved the campus and everything about the program when we went to visit. A friend of the family had a job for 87K for Exxon Mobile 3 months before graduation. They are paying for her masters.

Purdue tends to get a lot of inflated GPA's they can work with on fudging their average GPA numbers. They do not get many ACT 35 and 36. The ones that do are usually CS and FYE. If he had that, it increases their 50% median by a lot. So they want him there. Congrats!

PP here. Hmm, you are making me rethink. Actually Purdue is not high on ds' list. At #9 in US News, it is certainly the highest ranked engineering program he has applied to but being from DMV, I don't think he has much interest in being in midwest. My concern with Purdue is the fear that it weeds out a large number of kids. I haven't necessarily heard of Purdue as weeding out a lot of kids but assume it since it is so highly ranked but relatively easier to get into compared to similarly ranked engineering schools. Do you know?

My DC is in his fourth year at Purdue. He graduated from one of the top DCUM high schools in FCPS. He was about at the 80th percentile for his class (we know this because he missed graduating with Honors by .003 and we know the number of Honors grads. He did take AP BC Calc, AP Physics C and AP Chem and did well enough. WIth those and all his other APs he received almost enough credit for him to start as a sophomore which had made things easier. He found himself incredibley well prepared for the classes he has had. His GPA is higher than it was in HS (unweighted). He is majoring in Computer Engineering which is part of the EE department. He is a co-op student and will graduate in Dec. His internship co-op this summer will pay him more than $30 per hour.

Plus as the PP has said, the tuition has been the same since he started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the most interesting and informative threads on college & university forum. i'm serious.

This is OP. I didn't write the above comment but totally agree. Very thankful to everyone posting on this thread. Many stories of losing merit I didn't want to hear but I'm glad I asked. Comparing merit including how it can be lost will definitely be a big part of our selection process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the most interesting and informative threads on college & university forum. i'm serious.

This is OP. I didn't write the above comment but totally agree. Very thankful to everyone posting on this thread. Many stories of losing merit I didn't want to hear but I'm glad I asked. Comparing merit including how it can be lost will definitely be a big part of our selection process.

Good luck to you, OP, and to everyone else who added information.

The other thing you all need to look closely at as you choose among engineering schools is WHAT DOES DIRECT ADMIT REALLY MEAN?

The questions you need to ask and possibly help your kid with are ones like these:

a) Is there a GPA requirement to continue in the major? And what is it? What percentage of the kids will who want MechEng/ChemEng or whatever will meet this requirement?
b) What happens if my kid doesn't meet that requirement? At some schools, the answer is "see ya" at other schools the answer is "that's the GPA for guaranteed access, after that we fill in based on GPA - most/some/nearly none manage to get in."
c) Do you have statistics to share about continuation probabilities?
d) What if my kid gets mono?

You need to spend a ton of time on the part of the engineering school website that is for continuing students, rather than the portion that is about selling you on their program.

It really doesn't matter if school X has a highly ranked engineering school if your kid never gets beyond Freshman year. As you can see from the responses to this thread, it isn't always easy to make it.

For those not applying to engineering, this matters less. Also matters less for those going private.

Good luck and congrats to your kids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid lost his merit aid but wasn’t a great student. If your kid is a good student and mostly got As in high school hopefully he should be fine. Talk to him about it.

My kid got nearly all As in high school.

She is now in a big ten engineering program where she is above average according to the admission stats. Her merit aid continuation requirement is fairly low (good standing).

She is currently a B+ student (thank you, humanities elective!) with mostly Bs in her technical classes. Statistically she is well into the top half of the class but not in the top quarter -- she and I looked carefully at the distribution statistics for each class.

I'm telling you this detail because although I would like my kid to have done better, she is proud of her effort and her grades. I would not be confident that a freshman engineering student would do much better after watching my child this past fall. Maybe your kid will, but you aren't worried about that here.

She will get into her major, and she will keep her merit aid. We turned down other schools where these kind of grades might not have resulted in that outcome.

May I ask which Big 10 Engineering gives merit aid, please? And did that bring your out of state tuition to your state flagship? Thank you.

This is probably the Purdue poster

Not the Purdue poster, but they give very little merit aid to OOS engineering students. I think the most that has ever been posted is $8K and you have to have absolutely top scores, and it is still rare. Purdue is pretty cheap without the merit, they have had a 6 year tuition freeze, and they know the OOS kids will come regardless. My child is looking there and I have done a lot of research on it. Most OOS merit packages are given to non engineering students.

NP here. My ds just got merit offer from Purdue engineering for $10k. He has top test scores but far from perfect gpa. Purdue's tuition & room is $42k for OOS so with merit, it would only be $32k.

I hope he is going. You won't get a better deal than that. Their engineering program is incredible, even compared to UMD. We loved the campus and everything about the program when we went to visit. A friend of the family had a job for 87K for Exxon Mobile 3 months before graduation. They are paying for her masters.

Purdue tends to get a lot of inflated GPA's they can work with on fudging their average GPA numbers. They do not get many ACT 35 and 36. The ones that do are usually CS and FYE. If he had that, it increases their 50% median by a lot. So they want him there. Congrats!

PP here. Hmm, you are making me rethink. Actually Purdue is not high on ds' list. At #9 in US News, it is certainly the highest ranked engineering program he has applied to but being from DMV, I don't think he has much interest in being in midwest. My concern with Purdue is the fear that it weeds out a large number of kids. I haven't necessarily heard of Purdue as weeding out a lot of kids but assume it since it is so highly ranked but relatively easier to get into compared to similarly ranked engineering schools. Do you know?

Call the department she is interested in and ask. Seriously. You are looking to spend $200k and therefore they should talk to you. Email the head of department and ask for an appointment to talk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid lost his merit aid but wasn’t a great student. If your kid is a good student and mostly got As in high school hopefully he should be fine. Talk to him about it.

My kid got nearly all As in high school.

She is now in a big ten engineering program where she is above average according to the admission stats. Her merit aid continuation requirement is fairly low (good standing).

She is currently a B+ student (thank you, humanities elective!) with mostly Bs in her technical classes. Statistically she is well into the top half of the class but not in the top quarter -- she and I looked carefully at the distribution statistics for each class.

I'm telling you this detail because although I would like my kid to have done better, she is proud of her effort and her grades. I would not be confident that a freshman engineering student would do much better after watching my child this past fall. Maybe your kid will, but you aren't worried about that here.

She will get into her major, and she will keep her merit aid. We turned down other schools where these kind of grades might not have resulted in that outcome.

May I ask which Big 10 Engineering gives merit aid, please? And did that bring your out of state tuition to your state flagship? Thank you.

This is probably the Purdue poster

Not the Purdue poster, but they give very little merit aid to OOS engineering students. I think the most that has ever been posted is $8K and you have to have absolutely top scores, and it is still rare. Purdue is pretty cheap without the merit, they have had a 6 year tuition freeze, and they know the OOS kids will come regardless. My child is looking there and I have done a lot of research on it. Most OOS merit packages are given to non engineering students.

NP here. My ds just got merit offer from Purdue engineering for $10k. He has top test scores but far from perfect gpa. Purdue's tuition & room is $42k for OOS so with merit, it would only be $32k.

I hope he is going. You won't get a better deal than that. Their engineering program is incredible, even compared to UMD. We loved the campus and everything about the program when we went to visit. A friend of the family had a job for 87K for Exxon Mobile 3 months before graduation. They are paying for her masters.

Purdue tends to get a lot of inflated GPA's they can work with on fudging their average GPA numbers. They do not get many ACT 35 and 36. The ones that do are usually CS and FYE. If he had that, it increases their 50% median by a lot. So they want him there. Congrats!

PP here. Hmm, you are making me rethink. Actually Purdue is not high on ds' list. At #9 in US News, it is certainly the highest ranked engineering program he has applied to but being from DMV, I don't think he has much interest in being in midwest. My concern with Purdue is the fear that it weeds out a large number of kids. I haven't necessarily heard of Purdue as weeding out a lot of kids but assume it since it is so highly ranked but relatively easier to get into compared to similarly ranked engineering schools. Do you know?

80% of FYE go on to 2nd year. If you have a 3.0 or higher, you are guaranteed placement in whichever speciality you want. If you are below there are a few that you have a 90% chance of getting into.

Of the 20% that do not go on to 2nd year, 10% change majors but stay at Purdue and the other 10% either leave the school or didn't make the cut to continue.

I thought those numbers were great and one of the only schools who were transparent about it. We really liked the friendly and inclusive vibe at the school. Only engineering school we visited that the kids in the student panels did anything outside of STEM at school. It was refreshing. EPICS sounded awesome. Have him look that up. The labs were top notch. The school had a much more urban feel.
If you haven't gone, I would. You can fly into Indianapolis and it is 50min away. We drove out in October. Stopped at Ohio State on the way and hit Pitt/CMU on the way back. Very easy drive. Out of all of those schools, Purdue ranked the best for my daughter. Higher than UMD too, which was at the top of her list. Personally I really liked it too. Much more than I thought.

My only concern is that small percent you don't get the discipline you want in 2nd year. A lot of schools, you get right into the discipline 1st year.

some of those schools are lying, though. At least one of my son's schools had a "direct admit" but it was really just direct admit to the first-year pre-studies class in that field. If you didn't maintain a 3.5, you don't get in to the major and have to move on. Other schools were more straightforward - including Purdue.

[Anonymous]

I posted up- thread. The what happens if you get mono question is actually worth asking. How will they work with you? It can be devastating.

In one case I know,the gpa for merit aid fell tiny bit short in physics. It was absolutely clear those were the requirements, she just missed it. The choices the college have were:family could pay full tuition and keep her there. If gpa went up, aid would be reinstated. If student left, took courses at another college to prove themselves, it didn’t count. The improved GPA had to be earned there. Family said not paying and sent girl to state school. They said they felt like college was surprised daughter left and was expecting them to throw in another 20,000.

[Anonymous]

When my son was selecting schools it came down to two schools. One’s merit award required a 2.0 and one a 3.0. I explained to my son that things happen in life and whether it was because he got sick or distracted as one can easily do in college esp. being away from home for the first time that he should take into account the gpa requirement for merit because if he lost it I wouldn’t be able to afford the school. My son selected the “2.0” school and has done very well but it’s nice knowing he has some wiggle room as he grows into a young man.

[Anonymous]

DD has a 25K merit scholarship to a small private college and needs a 3.3 to keep it. So far so good 2 years in and she knows if she loses it she will need to transfer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted up- thread. The what happens if you get mono question is actually worth asking. How will they work with you? It can be devastating.

In one case I know,the gpa for merit aid fell tiny bit short in physics. It was absolutely clear those were the requirements, she just missed it. The choices the college have were:family could pay full tuition and keep her there. If gpa went up, aid would be reinstated. If student left, took courses at another college to prove themselves, it didn’t count. The improved GPA had to be earned there. Family said not paying and sent girl to state school. They said they felt like college was surprised daughter left and was expecting them to throw in another 20,000.

I posted earlier. For ASU, there is appeal for extenuating circumstances, stating medical emergency. I would have to think mono is that type of circumstance, but that is a good point to ask about.

For others with questions, this is a really good page about ASU maintenence plan and FAQ’s. It is good to compare all merit packages with info like this.
I like that they allow the first summer session to count as part of your GPA. So there is a way to fix it without losing it. And also only losing a percentage of you still fall behind.

https://students.asu.edu/scholarships/renewal/maintenance

Also, another to look for is to make sure it is for 8 full semesters and not 4 years straight. So you can leave for co-ops if needed.