Dickinson scholarships and merit aid

Does the admission application cover merit, or is a separate one needed?

Automatic — the Admissions Committee evaluates every prospective student for merit without a separate application. The office did not name a priority date, so the admission deadline is the one to work back from until Admissions says otherwise.

“All prospective students are evaluated for Merit Scholarship automatically by the Admissions Committee.”

If an outside scholarship comes in, what happens to the package?

It depends on federal need, per the office, which stopped short of saying what gets reduced first. At a school meeting need, outside money interacts with the need calculation rather than the merit award. The order the office left open here it supplied two days later — see the last three answers below.

“If your student received an outside scholarship, it could have an impact on your student’s financial aid package depending on their federal need.”

What should a family do when an outside scholarship is coming?

Send it in early. The office asked families to forward outside scholarship information as soon as they know about it so the impact can be evaluated up front, which is worth doing precisely because the reply leaves the order of adjustment open — the evaluation is where a family learns what it actually costs them.

“We always suggest that if a student knows they will be receiving an outside scholarship, they should forward the information to the financial aid office. We can then evaluate any impact it may have.”

Is there a priority date to hit for full merit consideration?

There is not. The office said a completed application is the only condition, and that such students are reviewed for merit as thoroughly as any other. That closes the open question in the first answer above: work to the admission deadline and nothing earlier is being held against you.

“No, so long as student submits a completed application they will be reviewed for merit as thoroughly as any other student.”

Do you superscore, and is there a score that unlocks an award?

Superscores are used, but the office was explicit that merit is not tied to a test number at all — there is no score that qualifies a student for a given level. Higher awards simply come from more competitive pools, which means a stat-threshold model of Dickinson merit is the wrong model.

“We will use the superscore of any test when assessing merit, however, merit is not directly tied to testing so students do not need to earn a specific score to be considered for any level of merit. That said the higher the merit award the more competitive those pools become.”

What GPA keeps the merit award, and is there recovery after a bad term?

A 2.0, and dropping to it does not cost the award immediately. The office described working with the student back to strong academic standing over a grace period generally running two semesters — a written commitment to recovery time, which is more than most offices will put in an email.

“Students need to maintain a 2.0 to keep their merit awards, but if a student does ever drop to that GPA they will not lose it immediately. We work with the student to bring them back to strong academic status and generally that grace period is over 2 semesters.”

When an outside scholarship does bite, what moves first?

Loans and Federal Work-Study come off first, and grant funds only rarely. The office framed the whole thing as something it works to avoid, with only two triggers: aid already sitting at cost of attendance, or a federal overaward. In the overaward case only need-based federal components come off and institutional aid is untouched — so the merit award itself is the last thing at risk here.

“In that case we will remove loans and federal work study first but it could cause us to lower grant funds, although this case is rare.”

What if the outside award creates a federal overaward?

Only need-based federal components are removed, and institutional aid is explicitly protected. This is the answer that makes an outside scholarship worth taking at Dickinson: the money the college itself put on the table does not move.

“The other way is if it causes a federal overaward based on the FAFSA need calculation. In that scenario we would just need to remove need based federal components, but institutional aid will not be affected.”