Academic Merit Aid – What You Need to Know
Last Updated on October 28, 2020 by Jill Schwitzgebel
An academic scholarship. If you have a good student, you may have always assumed that this will be their free ticket to college. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. The good news is that there IS merit aid available to academically-talented students. The bad news is that the most highly selective schools in the country do not offer it. The reason for that is clear – they are attracting elite, academically competitive students without it and all of their students would likely qualify for it. Instead, many of those elite institutions use their funds toward need-based and athletic-based awards. But there is plenty of aid out there if you know where to look. And you definitely shouldn’t dismiss those highly selective schools as “too expensive.”
Who Gets Academic Merit Aid?
We already know that it’s not the kids going to Stanford or Harvard, since they don’t offer it. But at institutions outside of those top 30 or so on college rankings lists, the students most likely to receive merit aid are the ones who are in the top 25% of the applicant pool at the college to which they are applying. That means that their SAT or ACT scores and their GPAs are higher than 75% of admitted students. Colleges want to raise their academic profile by attracting bright students, and to do that, they are usually willing to offer significant financial incentive.
Your child does NOT have to have scores and grades that could get them admitted to Yale in order to qualify for merit aid at lots of other colleges. Use the college search tools easily accessible online to discover schools that are good targets for your student. You just need to do your homework to find those schools where your student will stand out by being among the stronger applicants.
This means that if merit money is your goal, you need to help your child focus on colleges where they would be among that top quartile of admitted students. This likely means considering schools that might be “safety schools“ for your student academically. The schools may be private or maybe you’re looking at the honors college at a public university. Many times, that merit aid is automatic if a student has a certain test score and/or certain GPA.
In schools that are “test optional”, the merit aid is likely going to students who DID submit their scores. This stands to reason, as the students most likely to send their test scores are the ones who have done relatively well on them.
How Can Highly Selective Colleges Be Affordable Without Merit Aid?
Because most highly selective colleges have large endowments, they are able to be quite generous with their need-based aid. Almost all of them promise to meet your full need, so you will not pay more than what the FAFSA says that your Expected Family Contribution will be. That’s rare. Additionally, many of these schools will meet your need without using loans, which is more rare.
In many cases at highly selective colleges, you will pay even less than your EFC. For instance, check out Princeton – if your family makes up to $140k, they will cover full tuition, as well as 17% of the cost of the student’s room and board. They will still cover full tuition up to an income of $180k. And if your family makes less than $65K, everything is covered, including room and board. So THAT is how these schools can be affordable, despite a sticker price that shows tuition, room and board coming to a total of $70000 or more.
Recognize that even if your child is a candidate for one of these colleges, acceptance is far from guaranteed. But rest assured that your student would be well positioned for merit aid at any number of other selective colleges. Among others, I always like to recommend CTCL colleges for those academically-talented students who are interested in the benefits of a private education for the price of a public.
Finally…
Be aware that both need-based and merit-based aid can be confusing topics. Sometimes, colleges will use merit aid as a means to meet your financial need, which may or may not be helpful, depending on the college’s affordability for your family. But the bottom line is that if your student is hoping for merit aid, it’s important to do some research well before application time to make sure that they are maximizing their chances by considering schools where they may qualify.
