<p>frazzled, I agree. Mediocre in this case is within the context of a student destined to matriculate to a 4 year college.</p>
<p>My daughter is solidly mediocre, 1070 SAT, 3.6 GPA, however several nice ECs. She received $14k at Rider, $12k at St. John’s, $7500 at Monmouth, $11k at Arcadia, $2k at SUNY Plattsburgh. She is taking the 50% tuition break at Plattsburgh for the five-year master’s program she was hoping for and this mediocre student is going to follow her dream to be the best darned biology teacher the NYC public school system has ever seen.</p>
<p>zoosermom thank you so much for posting this information. More importantly, I am so glad that your did get into the 5 year program at Plattsburgh! I know that you were all hoping for this. That is such nice news!</p>
<p>Thanks Northeastmom! She is really, really excited and the scholarship brings the cost down below her high school cost, so it’s really doable for us. The only fly in the ointment is that she has to maintain a 3.25 to hold the scholarship (it wouldn’t be a big deal financially if she lost it, but emotionally it would be a disaster). We haven’t figured out yet what the 3.25 actually means, but she understands that since it’s an accelerated program they need to have high standards. So, we’ll see, but it’s awfully nice to have her accept a place she’s thrilled about at a price we can comfortably afford. It may not be Harvard, but we feel very blessed.</p>
<p>zoosermom, This is exactly the anxious feeling that we had last year when my S, who is a solid B student received 5 merit awards. I will say that only one asked for 3.2 (and gave 3 semesters to reach that point, it climbed from 3.0 to 3.1 to 3.2 over the 3 semesters). 4 others wanted a 3.0 (1 semester grace period) and 1 asked for a 2.8 (I was hoping that he would matriculate to that school, but I understood his reasons for turning it down). At least instate, if your D loses the 2,000 she will still be able to manage to stay. At a private college, like Arcadia, 11,000 times 3 years would be quite a hit without financial aid grants (unless one were wealthy). Well you can relax and enjoy the rest of the year with your D now! Science teachers are in such high demand too.</p>
<p>Plattsburg has some beautiful beaches on Lake Champlain & ferries to Vermont. Not far from Montreal. Great for biking. Good for her!</p>
<p>I agree with Frazzled1 - a 3.6 GPA is not mediocre. My D is an outstanding student and her GPA is higher than that, but if my currently 8th grade S pulls off a 3.6 GPA, I will be ecstatic and definitely not consider that mediocre. If you are talking about ACTs of 19-20 and GPAs of 2.6, then I think we are talking about ‘mediocre’.</p>
<p>I do think this is more about how to get some help when you aren’t a ‘Superstar’ (Read>4.0 GPA and >30 ACT) and that is important to a lot of us. We have targeted some solid private schools that provide reasonable amounts of merit aid to a fairly good proportion of students. With that, we know we can get her to a very good smaller school (<4000 students) while paying only a bit more than state school prices.</p>
<p>And my frank opinion is that undergraduate degrees are of pretty much the same value no matter where you go to school - it’s more about how well you do in school than where you go that makes a difference in terms of grad school admissions, employment, etc. There are a few exceptions to this - if you’re a Physics whiz at CalTech or something like that - but not many.</p>
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<p>I am the OP in this thread, and I challenge you to show where I am deriding anyone in this thread. I posted this thread because someone else (quoted in the original post in this thread) in another thread raised an informational question, which I found interesting. I have learned a lot in this thread about which criteria are used by which colleges for awarding merit scholarships in what dollar amount, and prompting that kind of informational discussion was my one and only motivation for opening the thread. </p>
<p>Best wishes to your child.</p>
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<p>Thank you. Yes, the term “mediocre” was picked up by my quotation of a poster in another thread, and should not be taken as an invidious comment about anyone’s child. Indeed, I haven’t even figured out what range of scores or grades or other admission criteria everyone is talking about here, other than that it is some range such that the applicant might not get a full ride at some subset of colleges, but might at some other. I have found the thread informative, because I am learning about a range of merit scholarship programs I haven’t heard about before, which may be of interest to my own family or to other families I know and like locally.</p>
<p>Type “define mediocre” in Google and the first words you get are: “moderate to inferior in quality”</p>
<p>Type “define deride” in Google and the first words you get are: “treat or speak of with contempt”</p>
<p>Now I’ll add another word to the debate: pejorative: “A word or phrase is pejorative or derogatory (sometimes misspelled perjorative) if it expresses contempt or disapproval”</p>
<p>The fact that you are blissfully and unapolgetically unaware of the meaning of your words is what upsets me. But what really set me off was the following quote from Northstarmom in the second post: (I hope she said it in jest, but nonetheless, the literal meaning hit hard.) “Why would any college want to pay to attract mediocre students? There’s nothing for the college in that kind of deal.”</p>
<p>The use of the word “mediocre” immediately followed by this statement in the second post fits the meaning of “pejorative” and triggered my reaction.</p>
<p>In my mind, it is the hard-working “average to above average” kids at every college who define the quality of education and experience offered by a college. If you feel entitled to admission simply because of your scores, you will not understand why many colleges are not afraid to reject students with perfect scores or grade averages, and do so for good reason. But if you work hard to get where you are, regardless of the status of the college, your education will mean far more to your future than an SAT or ACT score.</p>
<p>That topic - how average to above average kids can get merit aid - is worthy of comment and debate.</p>
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<p>Yes, let’s continue talking about that.</p>
<p>I’ll play. My nephew, who is a B student at an undemanding Catholic school, was offered $7000 to attend Neumann College outside of Philly. He has to maintain a 3.0 to keep the award.</p>
<p>A friend’s son was offered $10,000 at Drexel - which, for some reason, certain posters are reluctant to name. (A caveat about Drexel: I’ve known three students who attended Drexel, and they all couldn’t wait to transfer; make sure you love the school before accepting the offer.)</p>
<p>Drew University is known also for offering generous merit aid to the top of its applicant pool which, while not average, is considerably below some of the stats bandied about on CC.</p>
<p>I know of another B student who was offered merit money at Roger Williams, although the amount of the award was determined solely by SATs. If she had gotten ten more points (yes, just ten), then she would have been eligible for the next tier.</p>
<p>University of Denver offered another B student (probably closer to B+ but with no APs) a decent merit award.</p>
<p>Note about Drexel-I have read a lot of negative comments in the past. Two of my son’s friends are freshmen and the loved their first semester. One is keeping his merit scholarship so far, and the other is missing the mark (don’t know the amounts). They were both similar students who graduated from the same hs.</p>
<p>Re: Drexel. I think it all depends on what you expect out of college – and what Drexel offers you as an individual.</p>
<p>The students I know who wanted out complained of one or more of the following: 1. Lack of administrative support 2. Boring classes 3. Little sense of community 4. Dreary buildings 5. An often deserted campus </p>
<p>I also know a few professors who left because of the philosophy of the president (don’t know if he’s still there) who treated Drexel more like a business than an academic institution.</p>
<p>Are these criticisms fair? I don’t know. That’s why I advocate visiting the campus to be sure. Given the complaints that the campus is dead, then a prospective student might want to include a weekend day as well - contrary to the usual procedure - to see if that’s true.</p>
<p>Even if these things ARE true, it doesn’t make it a bad place for the right student.</p>
<p>"The fact that you are blissfully and unapolgetically unaware of the meaning of your words is what upsets me. But what really set me off was the following quote from Northstarmom in the second post: (I hope she said it in jest, but nonetheless, the literal meaning hit hard.) “Why would any college want to pay to attract mediocre students? There’s nothing for the college in that kind of deal.”</p>
<p>Why would I be joking?</p>
<p>Using the dictionary definition that you posted: "“moderate to inferior in quality” – why would a college offer “big merit aid” to atttact students who were only “moderate to inferior” in quality?</p>
<p>Is there merit aid for students who are average? Sure. Some colleges have found that slightly discounting their education by giving students so-called “merit aid” increases their yield. Do those colleges give “big merit aid” to mediocre students? Heck, no. Indeed, I don’t think that anyone here has described any college who gives “big merit aid” to mediocre students. </p>
<p>At least to me, “big merit aid” would mean at least a full tuition scholarship. </p>
<p>" how average to above average kids can get merit aid - is worthy of comment and debate.“”</p>
<p>Sure. But look at the subject header: “Big merit scholarships for mediocre students.” That’s not the same as how average to above average students can get some merit aid. The latter certainly is well worth discussing. However, the subject of “big merit aid” for mediocre students is basically a pipe dream unless one’s idea of “big merit aid” is far less than what I’d call “big merit aid.”</p>
<p>Looks like people are arguing based on their own perceptions of what “mediocre” means. Northstarmom offered one clarification. </p>
<p>I would add that it’s all relative. For colleges not in the top tier, HYPs “mediocre” student may be highly desired and worthy of $$ as a lure. And a student with a not-so-great GPA may have great test scores–or vice-versa–and the college may see a diamond in the rough, esp. when essays or other factors are taken into account.</p>
<p>Big merit award to me, means a scholarship worth 10,000 or more, or at a lower sticker priced school, it might be 6-7,000.</p>
<p>$10,000 at a school with a COA of 40,000+ would not make the school affordable for our family (without additional financial aid), but I still think that it is a big merit award.</p>
<p>“However, the subject of “big merit aid” for mediocre students is basically a pipe dream”</p>
<p>Exactly, Northstarmom.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, many here on CC (not you) have defined a mediocre student as having a 3.7 GPA and 2000 on the SATs. I can understand why some students and parents get upset, since the word indeed implies a lack of substance.</p>
<p>Obviously, the idea of “big merit money” is also somewhat subjective. To me, because I receive squat from my d’s school, several thousand dollars seems huge. It especially seems astounding when students who earn mostly Bs with a few Cs get that kind of money. </p>
<p>To me, a $7000 grant would make the tuition burden much easier, but to you and all the others who need/want full rides or, at the very least, free tuition, that’s nothing. </p>
<p>There are merit/enticement scholarships out there for B students, but I doubt there are many full rides. As for C students . . . well, the “merit” is lacking and so therefore they cannot expect to get anything other than in-state or in-county tuition.</p>
<p>It’s taken a few pages and days for me to decide to post. I feel bad calling my son a mediocre student when I always thought that a B was average, and that was his end HS avg. However, he did receive a very good merit scholarship at Roanoke College. The sticker price including tuition and room and board is $33,180 for this school year. He has $15,940 in grants. His SAT’s were avg - just under 1200 for the cr and math, ACT was hmmm about a 27 I think. He was also offered $12,000 from Allegheny. </p>
<p>My daughter ended HS with a 3.7 gpa, SAT’s around 1200 (old one) and attends a college that costs $31,000 sticker price but we pay $17,000. It has a huge endowment and was listed above Bucknell and Denison on the endowment list that was posted recently. Student body is less then 1,000. Daugher was also offered merit aid from Elon. </p>
<p>Yes, these are merit awards and there is a minimal gpa required but it’s under 3.0. And that’s about as much as I want to reveal on a public board!</p>
<p>kathie, I am glad that you did post. Mediocre/ave. here is in the context of college bound student going to attend a 4 year college. I find your children’s scholarships to be very significant, and it is good to know that they require a minimal gpa to keep them. Our son was only offered one award with a 2.8 college gpa required to keep it. All others would have been 3.0 or greater. If a kid (not talking about your son, kathie) only had a 3.1-3.4 in hs, it is easy for me to see why parents and the student would feel shaky about gambling on keeping a substantial merit award with a 3.0+ requirement in college.</p>