Here’s the recent CDS from Grinnell.

http://web.grinnell.edu/institutionalresearch/webdocs/GC_CDS_1920.pdf

Seems like almost all students who aren’t eligible for need based aid receive merit aid. The merit aid is an average of over 18k/year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nephew lives in Texas and ended up at Rice with a $100k. He is an outstanding student and had acceptations from Columbia, U Chicago and Princeton with $0 financial aid. He had a full ride offer from his state's non-flagship school.

And this is why you don't apply ED.

You forgot to add “to a school that is not your first choice”.

Merit aid is rare at the top schools. This information is (usually) easy to find. Google the name of the university and "common data set." Once you get the most recent CDS, go to section H, line H2A-N and O. This will tell you the number of freshmen and upperclassmen who had no financial need and who were awarded merit aid (excluding athletic awards), and the average amount of merit aid given.

Top 20 universities according to USNWR, and their published amount of merit aid for freshmen entering in the fall of 2020:
Princeton--0
Columbia--0
Harvard--0
MIT--0
Yale--0
Stanford--0
Chicago--doesn't have recent CDS readily available on their website, which actually is illegal
Penn--0
Cal Tech--0
Duke--11 freshmen got merit awards, average of $72k
Johns Hopkins--no recent CDS available
Northwestern--92 freshmen got merit awards, average of $4k
Dartmouth--0
Brown--0
Vanderbilt--154 freshmen, $19k
Wash U--40 freshmen, $30k
Cornell--0
Rice--32 freshmen, $19k
Notre Dame--49 freshmen, 18k
UCLA--no easy way to determine for OOS students


Top 21 colleges according to USNWR (there was a tie for 20th)
Williams--0
Amherst--0
Swarthmore--4 freshmen, $54k
Pomona--0
Wellesley--0 freshmen, but 6 upperclassmen had merit aid averaging $40k. Not sure if Wellesley awarded it previously but has stopped?
Bowdoin--12 freshmen, $1k
Annapolis--n/a
Claremont McKenna--22 freshmen, $14k
Carleton--6 freshmen, $2k
Middlebury--2 freshmen, $10k
West Point--n/a
W&L--23 freshmen, $48k
Davidson--15 freshmen, $40k
Grinnell--no recent CDS available
Hamilton--0
Haverford--0
Barnard--0
Colby--no recent CDS available
Colgate--0
Smith--20 freshmen, $20k
Wesleyan--3 freshmen, $60k

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Received UC-Berkeley Regent's Scholarship OOS.

How much?

About 61k to 68k per year - varies year to year.

Isn’t the non need based (merit) part of the scholarship $2,500 per year?

This. Merit is fixed offer for four years. Financial aid varies according to your finances.

This is merit based scholarship. Once you qualify for the scholarship, the amount will vary according to income up to 100%.

Is it income based or income is a factor? Purely merit based scholarships aren't tied to family income.

I believe the scholarship itself isn't income based. But the amount, other than an honorary award of $2,500/yr, is tied to income.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Received UC-Berkeley Regent's Scholarship OOS.

How much?

About 61k to 68k per year - varies year to year.

Isn’t the non need based (merit) part of the scholarship $2,500 per year?

This. Merit is fixed offer for four years. Financial aid varies according to your finances.

This is merit based scholarship. Once you qualify for the scholarship, the amount will vary according to income up to 100%.

Is it income based or income is a factor? Purely merit based scholarships aren't tied to family income.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nephew lives in Texas and ended up at Rice with a $100k. He is an outstanding student and had acceptations from Columbia, U Chicago and Princeton with $0 financial aid. He had a full ride offer from his state's non-flagship school.

And this is why you don't apply ED.

He didn't apply ED, fid Harvard EA but wasn't accepted. T30 admissions are so weird and random.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Received UC-Berkeley Regent's Scholarship OOS.

How much?

About 61k to 68k per year - varies year to year.

Isn’t the non need based (merit) part of the scholarship $2,500 per year?

This. Merit is fixed offer for four years. Financial aid varies according to your finances.

This is merit based scholarship. Once you qualify for the scholarship, the amount will vary according to income up to 100%.

I think the average is about 10k - 30k per year unless you are in the top 5%.

I am not completely up to date on what is considered T 20 but you can be

Morehead Cain scholar at UNC
Jefferson Scholar at UVA
Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholar at Vandy

I think they are full rides plus summer stipend(s) and you have to be nominated by your school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it a good decision to attend a low ranking T20 for partial (20-30k per year) if you have acceptance to a an Ivy and parents can pay but with with significant stretching?

If you get a scholarship at a top 20 you can get into HYP. There's no reason to forgo 30k at Emory to pay full at Cornell, Dartmouth, or Brown.

I don't know. If you have the money I think I would pay it for any Ivy my kid really wanted to go to. I wouldn't take out a substantial amount of loans for an Ivy vs Emory though. And it depends on the kid and what they want to do (if they 100% wanted to be a doctor, I'd just save the money for med school).

Notre Dame offers some merit scholarships and I believe it is specifically to lure students away from ivies. I know someone who was accepted to Yale that took the ND scholarship.

That happens more than you'd expect, especially from Catholic high schools.

Anonymous wrote:Nephew lives in Texas and ended up at Rice with a $100k. He is an outstanding student and had acceptations from Columbia, U Chicago and Princeton with $0 financial aid. He had a full ride offer from his state's non-flagship school.

And this is why you don't apply ED.

I think Washington and Lee gives full ride to 10% of their class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GT and UNC offer VERY limited merit scholarships but do have a few full-ride but are exceptionally hard to get. They're usually used to poach from ivies, to give you an idea of the caliber of student.

Do people actually turn down HYP to go to UNC?

Frank Bruni did. Morehead-Cain and Robertson are a big deal.

Anonymous wrote:GT and UNC offer VERY limited merit scholarships but do have a few full-ride but are exceptionally hard to get. They're usually used to poach from ivies, to give you an idea of the caliber of student.

Do people actually turn down HYP to go to UNC?

There is a "backdoor" way to save $80k at few more Top 20s if you have good AP test scores.

Apply to schools that accept a large number of AP credits toward graduation. My kid is getting his degree from Cornell in 3 years due to Cornell accepting his AP scores in language, math, chem and English (saving me $80k).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Received UC-Berkeley Regent's Scholarship OOS.

How much?

About 61k to 68k per year - varies year to year.

Isn’t the non need based (merit) part of the scholarship $2,500 per year?

This. Merit is fixed offer for four years. Financial aid varies according to your finances.

This is merit based scholarship. Once you qualify for the scholarship, the amount will vary according to income up to 100%.