<p>Is it advantagous for my son to list a college on his AP Exam if he is looking for merit aid or is it better to keep them in the dark until application time. Understanding it is a numbers game and if my son shows interest now, they may make the mistake (at his expense) of not offering aid if they feel he is interested. Your thoughts appreciated.</p>
<p>Hi, Sprint31–I’m sure that the Admissions people will chime in, but I’d say he should go ahead and list a college, if he is confident of doing well on the AP Exam. It seems to me that the colleges will be looking for people who are interested in them, but not exclusively interested–to identify their potential merit aid recipients. There’s no point in offering a merit scholarship to someone who is extremely unlikely to come. Sending the AP scores does not demonstrate a level of commitment that is so strong as to reduce a merit offer, in my opinion. Someone who knows?</p>
<p>Listing the school at the time your S takes his AP will not affect the his merit award or financial aid. If he wants to list it, go ahead.</p>
<p>Showing interest can only help at this stage. The only thing that can potentially hurt wrt merit aid is applying to the school in question ED.</p>