ny mom

My soon to be senior in sept daughter has done pretty well, not phenomonal, but is top 10%, NHS, AP, etc. Her SAT scores were okay. Being tutored over summer in hopes of improving. She is looking at Marist, SUNY Buffalo, Gordon College to name a few. My questions is regarding scholarship monies. Is she better off applying at more mediocre schools to get more money, or should she stick with better schools and get less money? She is a quarter hispanic student looking to study medicine.

Thanks!

entomom

In general, if you are going after institutional merit scholarships, you will want to be at the tippy top of the applicant pool based on your stats, ECs, etc. So, by definition merit aid schools will usually fall into the match or safety categories rather than reaches.

If your D is trying for merit scholarships that are directed specifically at Hispanics, the situation will be a little different as the general pool of students applying will not be in the running for these scholarships, rather she will be competing with other Hispanic students.

I guess rather than applying to one type of school over the other, I'd say to apply widely, to give her a chance at different levels of scholarships. It tends to be very difficult to predict which schools will give any given student merit aid, unless they have defined standards for giving scholarships (such as schools that state that they give a certain amount to any student that is NHRP).

If she applies to a better school with less scholarship money offered (and possibly also more difficult to get), will you qualify for FA or have enough saved to pay for the school?