Anonymous wrote:If you google "Harvard & merit scholarship" they've had some below-the-radar merit money since the 1930s. I wonder if this is true of other ivies.

Yes, there are ways around the "we do not give out merit scholarships". If it is a student they really really want and money is in the way, they have been known to find it.

Anonymous wrote:If you google "Harvard & merit scholarship" they've had some below-the-radar merit money since the 1930s. I wonder if this is true of other ivies.

Most of these are small scholarships that have very restrictive language in their founding documents that prevents the school from changing the terms to fit the college's new policies about no non-financial need based awards. I know someone at Harvard who got a scholarship only for people of Finnish descent. They are usually very small amounts. No one is going to Harvard for free on these awards.

Anonymous wrote:We've received the same $68,000 to each school that DD has applied to. Is that common? Is there a formula used, I find it interesting she's received $17k per year from 4 different schools.

A lot of merit scholarships take financial need into account. So, two kids could win the same named merit scholarship, but be offered different $ amounts as an award. $17,000 could be the amount that your FAFSA says is reasonable, so every school is coming up with the same award $ amount for your DD.

I remember when I was applying to schools I won a big name scholarship to a certain college, one that they publicize heavily, and when we got the paperwork the fine print said "up to X amount" that would have been a full scholarship. It turned out I actually got almost nothing and was only offered what I would have gotten in aid without the scholarship. A boy at my school also won the same scholarship and he got nearly a full ride, but his family had a much more significant need than mine.

If you google "Harvard & merit scholarship" they've had some below-the-radar merit money since the 1930s. I wonder if this is true of other ivies.

If your parents work at an university, usually a benefit is the discounted or free tuition.

Ivy's, MIT, CMU do not give merit scholarships. They are need-based scholarships only. They tell you they do not give merit scholarships and they are pretty proud of it.

Anonymous wrote:No such thing as "merit scholarships" at Ivys or Stanford, PP is not correct. All need-based aid, albeit generous and 100% grants not loans for families below a middle-class income cut off

This was Harvard. Parents were profs, so doubt it was need-based.

No such thing as "merit scholarships" at Ivys or Stanford, PP is not correct. All need-based aid, albeit generous and 100% grants not loans for families below a middle-class income cut off

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is $17,000 a year a good merit scholarship for a $48,000 school?

We have some limited experience with this (so not wide experience) and it sounds fairly standard. Some if it depends on the school. If it's a really competitive school, $17K is a great award because most of the applicants are so qualified that the school just can't offer this much to everyone. FWIW, one school offered roughly this amount to both DC and DC's friend, the only difference being the name of the award - DC's award was supposedly more prestigious (something like "president's award" vs. "dean's award"). But since the dollar amount was exactly the same we didn't really see the prestige....

DC also got an unsolicited offer of $14K - wonder if it's the same school in Philly!

Really competitive schools don't tend to offer merit scholarships.

You're right, I think this is generally true. Certainly my DC got offered $17K (that number again!) by the less competitive school and zip by the extremely competitive school. However, I do know of a superstar who got full merit scholarship at HYP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is $17,000 a year a good merit scholarship for a $48,000 school?

We have some limited experience with this (so not wide experience) and it sounds fairly standard. Some if it depends on the school. If it's a really competitive school, $17K is a great award because most of the applicants are so qualified that the school just can't offer this much to everyone. FWIW, one school offered roughly this amount to both DC and DC's friend, the only difference being the name of the award - DC's award was supposedly more prestigious (something like "president's award" vs. "dean's award"). But since the dollar amount was exactly the same we didn't really see the prestige....

DC also got an unsolicited offer of $14K - wonder if it's the same school in Philly!

Really competitive schools don't tend to offer merit scholarships.

Depends OP. Some lower tiered schools need to give more in order to attract quality students.

That's 35 percent, which isn't bad. When I got mine in the dark ages, we got 12.5 percent. Of course different schools have different tuitions but that's a ballpark feel.

We've received the same $68,000 to each school that DD has applied to. Is that common? Is there a formula used, I find it interesting she's received $17k per year from 4 different schools.

Anonymous wrote:Is $17,000 a year a good merit scholarship for a $48,000 school?

We have some limited experience with this (so not wide experience) and it sounds fairly standard. Some if it depends on the school. If it's a really competitive school, $17K is a great award because most of the applicants are so qualified that the school just can't offer this much to everyone. FWIW, one school offered roughly this amount to both DC and DC's friend, the only difference being the name of the award - DC's award was supposedly more prestigious (something like "president's award" vs. "dean's award"). But since the dollar amount was exactly the same we didn't really see the prestige....

DC also got an unsolicited offer of $14K - wonder if it's the same school in Philly!

Isn't anything over $0 a good merit scholarship? If you don't have financial need (in which case you would have gotten finanical aid), it seems like a nice offer, especially when multiplied by 4 (assuming it covers all 4 years).

My DC got a $14,000 merit offer from one school - unsolicited - but decided to go to a full pay school.

Is $17,000 a year a good merit scholarship for a $48,000 school?