Schools known for good merit aid - Page 46

pumpkin65 · 09-27-2009, 06:07 PM

UDel feels much smaller than UMCP, and much smaller than VT - I've attended both and have a D at U Del. Based on the experiences of my D (who had a slightly higher SAT, a much lower ACT, and less APs than Chuckadoodle's son) and others students I know, he has a shot at honors and merit, esp. with a 32 ACT and what looks to be a pretty rigorous course load.

No, it won't snow much at U Del, but the Poconos are not far if you ski or snow board.

Here is last year's distribution of honors students...

http://honors.udel.edu/reporttoschoo...oolsjuly09.pdf

To add a bit, UMCP has gotten so competetive (at least for in state) my D's BF barely got into engineering there with higher stats than Chuckadoodle's son...he was put into Letters and Sciences and then notified a few weeks later he was in engineering. OOS could be different.

jerzgrlmom · 09-27-2009, 06:50 PM

I must be reading the chart wrong but I see acceptance rate is 28% for a 1940 SAT. 1940 SAT combined with a 3.4 GPA shows an acceptance rate of just 4%. The chart doesn't show ACT but perhaps a 31 would do better?

Does your HS have a relationship with Clarkson? If so, there may be more merit awards available to you. They have mechanical engineering, offer some merit awards, definitely have snow, not sure about club lacrosse.

RIT -bigger school but that # includes grad & night students and students off on coops. Maybe 6-7,000 live on campus (including upperclassmen in apts). RIT's classes are kept small. Has club lacrosse. Might qualify for presidential scholarship, smaller scholarship and/or honors program/scholarship with his stats. RIT also considers class rank. Definitely gets snow.

pumpkin65 · 09-27-2009, 07:42 PM

Chuckadoodle doesn't state whether 3.4 is UW or not...a 31 ACT correlates to a 2040.

RIT is a great suggestion.

TennesseeParent · 10-06-2009, 03:15 PM

Yes, Grinnell offers great merit aid, but it is $10,000 a year. To nearly every kid that has above certain gpa/scores. When total cost is $44,000 that 10g is not a big help.

TennesseeParent · 10-06-2009, 03:17 PM

Yes, Grinnell offers great merit aid, but it is $10,000 a year. To nearly every kid that has above certain gpa/scores. When total cost is $44,000 that 10g is not a big help.

Lewis and Clark offers full ride merit aid to top scores/top gpa kids.

mom2collegekids · 10-13-2009, 09:00 AM

>>> Yes, Grinnell offers great merit aid, but it is $10,000 a year. To nearly every kid that has above certain gpa/scores. When total cost is $44,000 that 10g is not a big help.
<<<

I agree... but I don't like the words "Good Merit" being used to describe a merit award that only covers less than 25% of costs. Such an award is "helpful," but it's not going to impress me because it almost seems to be a "gimme" for schools to do for students they want.

The words "Good Merit" should be used to describe merit that covers at least half of tuition.
"Great merit" should describe merit of "full tuition".
"Best merit" should be used to describe merit of "tuiton plus" or a full ride.
For anything less, perhaps the term "helpful merit" should be used..

When someone posts that they need a lot of merit money for private U, it's a bit nutty when some suggest schools that only give $10k per year for high stats and call it "good merit."

Maybe I'm wrong, but usually when someone posts that they need a lot of merit $$, it means that they have a high EFC that their families cannot pay, therefore they need at leats "full tuition" merit offers suggested to them to cover their college costs.

It's been my experience that when people just need - say - $10k per year in merit, they say so. They'll say something like, my parents can spend $25-30k per year, but I need more.

krug · 10-13-2009, 09:17 AM

Agree with mom2collegekids totally!
Merit is also very dependent on your stats and the schools you are applying to. The student MUST be have stellar stats compared with the average kids at that school. The same kids that are getting full rides at a "lesser" rank schools may not get anything at places like Hopkins, WashU, Vanderbilt, Emory, etc....

northeastmom · 10-13-2009, 09:44 AM

Quote:

When someone posts that they need a lot of merit money for private U, it's a bit nutty when some suggest schools that only give $10k per year for high stats and call it "good merit.

Absolutely right. If a family is willing to pay 10-15,000 per year and a school has a sticker price of 50,000, merit aid ALONE of 10,000 is not going to make that school affordable for that family. If a family has a EFC of 45,000 and a school that has a sticker price of 50,000 offers 10,000 in merit aid, that school might be the "best" deal for that student.

mom2collegekids · 10-13-2009, 09:47 AM

^^^^

So, true...

People sometimes don't understand that top 50 schools usually are completely populated with students with stellar scores, therefore an ACT 32 is just one of many. LOL On such campuses, a top student becomes "average."

My neighbor, who has a HS senior daughter with strong stats, was "shocked" to learn that schools like UIUC wouldn't give his ACT 32 daughter a big scholarship. He hadn't even been looking at prices at the various top schools, because he had wrongly assumed that such schools would welcome his daughter with carts of money. When I explained that many of UIUC students are smart like his daughter, then he understood.

He now knows he has to look at lower ranked schools since they do need merit money for her education.

northeastmom · 10-13-2009, 11:21 AM

As far as public Us, some have more merit money to offer than others too! As one admissions counselor from a public stated to an audience of instate families, your instate tuition is as though we have already given you a merit award. I am not buying that, but this is how their lack of merit awards was marketed to instate families.

mom2collegekids · 10-13-2009, 01:00 PM

^^^

Yes, that is very true... In some states, there is a culture against merit money scholarships. Some think merit money "takes away" from F/A. They don't want to consider how having additional "high stats" kids on campus helps the school.

Also, some state schools (especially top flagships) already have a lot of high stats kids, so they don't need to be enticing more to come there.

Other states are looking for more "high stats" students, so they are willing to "sweeten the offer" with more money. Right now, some southern public schools are agressively going after kids with strong stats. Many are offering full-tuition scholarships for top students...even for OOS students.

midwestDad2 · 10-13-2009, 03:28 PM

"My neighbor, who has a HS senior daughter with strong stats, was "shocked" to learn that schools like UIUC wouldn't give his ACT 32 daughter a big scholarship. He hadn't even been looking at prices at the various top schools, because he had wrongly assumed that such schools would welcome his daughter with carts of money. When I explained that many of UIUC students are smart like his daughter, then he understood. "

From my son's H.S., many students who got higher than 34 on ACT did not get any merit scholarship from UIUC. We did a college tour to UIUC several weeks ago, and we were told that it is very hard to get “significant” merit scholarship from UIUC, they only had 30 full scholarships and there are just too many students who got 35 and 36 on ACT.

But, I do agree with Mom2collegekids on most of her comments, which made sense.

curmudgeon · 10-13-2009, 08:49 PM

Tough standards at UIUC. There are only 4088 35's and 36's for 2009 in the whole of the U.S. out of 1,480,469.

curmudgeon · 10-14-2009, 03:14 AM

In response to a pm asking for my source for the ACT national data - http://www.act.org/news/data/09/pdf/two.pdf

This info is also available by state.

mom2collegekids · 10-16-2009, 08:24 AM

MY quote: "My neighbor, who has a HS senior daughter with strong stats, was "shocked" to learn that schools like UIUC wouldn't give his ACT 32 daughter a big scholarship. He hadn't even been looking at prices at the various top schools, because he had wrongly assumed that such schools would welcome his daughter with carts of money. When I explained that many of UIUC students are smart like his daughter, then he understood. "

Midwest dad's quote >>>>>
From my son's H.S., many students who got higher than 34 on ACT did not get any merit scholarship from UIUC. We did a college tour to UIUC several weeks ago, and we were told that it is very hard to get “significant” merit scholarship from UIUC, they only had 30 full scholarships and there are just too many students who got 35 and 36 on ACT.

But, I do agree with Mom2collegekids on most of her comments, which made sense.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Did I miss something? It doesn't sound like you disagree with anything I wrote. I wrote that many parents don't understand that their "high stats" child will be rather average at top schools, therefore those schools won't (likely) offer any (significant) merit money. An ACT 32 student is in the 99 percentile, but at a top school, she'd be a dime a dozen.

I think all of my comments made sense.