Anonymous wrote:Depends on the school, but for the ones that promise to meet full need, merit tends to be limited to small numbers of students and is highly competitive. These would be specific scholarships that you can find on the school's website.

Sometimes schools that meet full need will call a need-based financial grant as a "scholarship" in the estimate, though that makes things confusing, as it doesn't mean the scholarship is merit-based.

Most schools that offer merit on top of need-based aid are not meet-full-need schools.

It is also not unusual for merit, say outside scholarships, to reduce the calculated need.

My opinion, if you're using the Net Price Calculator at meet-need schools (which is imperative if you need aid), don't expect more than the estimate you get from the NPC.

I agree; this can be confusing. I work at a need-blind/meet-full-need school that refers to a subset of financial aid awards as “scholarships,” and often those scholarships have preferences attached to them (student is from New Jersey, student wants to pursue a philosophy degree, student plays the tuba). But students who are matched to these scholarships first demonstrated need; students who don’t have financial need are not considered for them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. There are schools that meet need and offer merit scholarships, and a student can receive both. Then a given merit scholarship might bring cost of attendance bellow the level of need. If financial need changes of the course of four years, the portion that is merit aid is unaffected. If the student looses the merit aid (without actually flunking out))financial aid might pick up the slack.

. Which ones?

cricket...

Anonymous wrote:I have been playing around at schools DS will apply to in the fall. Are those calculators pretty accurate? I haven't filled out FAFSA yet but will when it opens up. Two questions, if anyone knows. Do they take into consideration your home equity? It is the ONLY asset I have and owned my DC home since 1992 and never taped into any equity and not sure I should for college. Second, how does it work when their is NO other parent? Like Dad doesn't exist. Will they assume he has a dad and that dad can contribute? We haven't been in touch with him since birth (no child support, etc). Child has my last name. Is this something I have to prove during he FAFSA (not sure I'm spelling it right)? Thank you for anyone who can help!

Many privates will require the CSS Profile in addition to the FAFSA. Some schools count home equity, some don't. Some schools, usually those that require the CSS Profile, will require a waiver to avoid providing financial info from noncustodial parent (if the dad is alive, then the dad exists). Look into whatever is involved with the noncustodial parent waiver - I'd start by googling, because there may be various helpful internet articles on this topic.

I have been playing around at schools DS will apply to in the fall. Are those calculators pretty accurate? I haven't filled out FAFSA yet but will when it opens up. Two questions, if anyone knows. Do they take into consideration your home equity? It is the ONLY asset I have and owned my DC home since 1992 and never taped into any equity and not sure I should for college. Second, how does it work when their is NO other parent? Like Dad doesn't exist. Will they assume he has a dad and that dad can contribute? We haven't been in touch with him since birth (no child support, etc). Child has my last name. Is this something I have to prove during he FAFSA (not sure I'm spelling it right)? Thank you for anyone who can help!

Anonymous wrote:NPC wasn’t accurate at all for this here donut-hole class of 2025 family

The NPC was accurate. Your expectations were inaccurate.

NPC wasn’t accurate at all for this here donut-hole class of 2025 family

Also, to clarify, among the schools that meet full need, there is a group that offers no merit whatsoever (Ivies and MIT and perhaps some others).

Use the NPC. Anticipate no merit on top of that.

Depends on the school, but for the ones that promise to meet full need, merit tends to be limited to small numbers of students and is highly competitive. These would be specific scholarships that you can find on the school's website.

Sometimes schools that meet full need will call a need-based financial grant as a "scholarship" in the estimate, though that makes things confusing, as it doesn't mean the scholarship is merit-based.

Most schools that offer merit on top of need-based aid are not meet-full-need schools.

It is also not unusual for merit, say outside scholarships, to reduce the calculated need.

My opinion, if you're using the Net Price Calculator at meet-need schools (which is imperative if you need aid), don't expect more than the estimate you get from the NPC.

School specific. Not every school has merit aid.

Schools will sometimes give both, but typically any merit offered reduces the need-based aid. You won’t get the COA covered by need-based aid then a merit award on top of that.

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. There are schools that meet need and offer merit scholarships, and a student can receive both. Then a given merit scholarship might bring cost of attendance bellow the level of need. If financial need changes of the course of four years, the portion that is merit aid is unaffected. If the student looses the merit aid (without actually flunking out))financial aid might pick up the slack.

. Which ones?

Wrong. There are schools that meet need and offer merit scholarships, and a student can receive both. Then a given merit scholarship might bring cost of attendance bellow the level of need. If financial need changes of the course of four years, the portion that is merit aid is unaffected. If the student looses the merit aid (without actually flunking out))financial aid might pick up the slack.

No. Meet-full-need aid means all aid is awarded based on need.

If a school meets 100% need, will they still give merit aid on top of the financial aid?