African American Male with strong stats needs ideas for merit $$ scholarships.

Parents Forum
1

<p>At recommendation of a helpful poster, I decided to post my stats over here.</p>

<p>**Academics **
GPA: 3.70 (unweighted)
Class Rank: 21/406
Top 6% of Class (will be in top 4% by this semester)
16 Honors Classes (pretty much all of the ones offered)
4 AP Classes (Our school offers ~6 AP classes total)
–EURO: 3
–CALC A/B: 4
–Didn’t take US History AP Exam or Physics, since they were first semester classes.</p>

<p>I had one C in Pre-Calc, but re-took it with different teacher and got a B. Everything else are A’s and B’s.</p>

<p>I’m also enrolled in “Dual-Enrollment” at local community colleges for Physics 101/102 and English 101/102</p>

<p>**SAT **
Composite Score: 1820 (Scheduled again for Oct 10)
–Math: 660
–Verbal: 640
–Writing: 520 (bombed the essay)</p>

<p>I’m aiming for a 2000+ on this SAT, most of it coming from improving my horrendous Writing Score. (i.e. Actually finishing the essay). I’m taking the SAT Subject Tests on November 7th.</p>

<p>**Part-Time Job **
Safeway (2006-Present)
20-25 hours a week (easily worked over 2,500 hours since I started).</p>

<p>Having a job has really made me come out of my “shell”. Not as shy anymore. </p>

<p>**Clubs **
M.E.S.A. Club (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement)
DECA Club (Distributive Education Clubs of America)
Reporter for School Newspaper (Technology Column)
S.U.R.E. Club (Students United For Racial Equality)</p>

<p>I’m thinking about majoring in Computer Science or Electrical/Computer Engineering, so schools strong in that area would be preferred. I would also like to attend well-known schools, and as stated in the title, I would need schools that could offer merit based aid, seeing as we wouldn’t qualify for need-based aid (Income > $125,000). My parents say they could contribute about $15,000-18,000 annually out of pocket.</p>

<p>A few schools I’ve been observing are:
ASU - Barrett Honors College (In-state resident)
Georgia Tech
Syracuse
USC</p>

<p>Any other recommendations? Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Ok, so I’ve been looking over the “Schools known for good merit aid”, and things aren’t looking too bright. Any parents with kids similar to me want to step in? Realistically, what schools should I be looking at that I have a chance to get into, could provide a good education, and aren’t a strain on my family financially? Thanks.</p>

3

<p>University of Denver is very generous with merit money and has a small but strong engineering / cs program. Denver is a great city with a lot of professional and social opportunities, the campus is very pretty and in a great, fun area; classes are small and professors are great.</p>

4

<p>Take a look at Rice. Strong programs in CS and engineering and merit aid offered to 1/3 of applicants (without separate scholarship apps needed).</p>

5

<p>Historically black colleges including places like Howard and Florida A&M probably would give you excellent merit aid.</p>

<p>University of Maryland-Baltimore County would also probably give you major merit aid.</p>

<p>You need to think about what kind of college you’d like to attend – size, region, diversity, etc. – and what you’re likely to major in. Also find out how much your parents are willing to pay each year, and find out how much – if any – financial aid you’re likely to qualify for from colleges meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need.</p>

<p>Then look for merit aid based on that. </p>

<p>Don’t just apply willy nilly to try to get merit aid. I Merit aid isn’t that helpful if it’s from a college you’d have no interest attending or if it still would leave your family $30 k a year to pay that they aren’t willing to pay or can’t afford to pay.</p>

6

<p>Carnegie Mellon, gives merit aid to those who it thinks CMU wants and will be extremely competitive to those schools who are in their peer group.</p>

7

<p>You should be looking for colleges that have merit scholarships for URM or specifically AAs. I did the same for Hispanic students and found quite a few. Here is a thread on the AA Student subforum which should give you a start for your own search:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/african-american-students/655866-good-financial-bets-avg-aa-students-high-efcs-despite-no-savings.html?highlight=scholarships[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/african-american-students/655866-good-financial-bets-avg-aa-students-high-efcs-despite-no-savings.html?highlight=scholarships&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>try the university of arizona in tucson or the university of alabama…our son has been offered a full ride at both based on merit.</p>

9

<p>[NSF</a> Grant: Marist College](<a href=“http://www.marist.edu/admission/nsfgrant/index.html]NSF”>http://www.marist.edu/admission/nsfgrant/index.html)</p>

<p>“With support from the National Science Foundation, Marist College is offering 12 full tuition, room and board scholarships to students who choose to major in Computer Science or Information Technology and Systems.”</p>