| Most state schools consider gpa/class rank very heavily. My son and many kids at his private school did not do as well on merit awards because of that, despite very high SAT scores. I am not sure about that full award from UMD; it could well be a combined package of merit within need as I do know that their merit awards have an SAT1 cutoff that is above 1120. You will often hear anecdotes that will belie everything you know. They may or may not be true. Often there is some piece of information missing. I don't know how many times I hear about the merit award or athletic award from a school that I well know does not give money except within the context of need. And, of course, it really doesn't matter what someone else got in the end. It is what your student is likely to get when you try to put together a nice list of prospects where your student will be happy, he will get the training he wants, where he has varying chances of getting in with some sort of safety net and some propect of aid if you need it. |