3/3 on Honors (so far) at Umd, 0/3 on merit $.

Sigh.

Happy that my NOVA kid gets $5K per year for this scholarship from UMD. We don't qualify for any aid and didn't apply. This scholarship is more of a confirmation/validation of my kid's hard work, so the psychological benefits is more real for us than the monetary benefits, particularly because of my kid's not tippy top profile. My kid is also admitted to UVA.

My DC wanted a large flagship experience and UMD (with merit) is coming out to be the lowest cost.

Will be interesting to know how affected UMD scholarships were by the federal research grant cuts and also Maryland deficit. Did they give less money this year that prior years?

Anonymous wrote:Stats are important but parents ability to pay is also considered even if they call them merit scholarships. I know a kid with max stats (1600, 4.0/4.95) that got only a Dean scholarship (2k only for the first year). Parents have 529 fully founded to cover all UMD in-state costs.

This is so wrong and not our experience. We have 3 kids - 2 got BK and 1 received President. 529 enough to cover all three, high HHI (about 400k) and never provided financial information/FAFSA/CSS to UMD. Just stop PP.

Anonymous wrote:Stats are important but parents ability to pay is also considered even if they call them merit scholarships. I know a kid with max stats (1600, 4.0/4.95) that got only a Dean scholarship (2k only for the first year). Parents have 529 fully founded to cover all UMD in-state costs.

I agree this is incorrect. Ability to pay is not considered for merit.