<p>Kathiep, there are those of us who don’t believe that a B student is mediocre; that is the definition of a good student. Heck, if insurance companies consider a 3.0 worthy of a good student discount (and we all know how they don’t like to part with their money), then it should be good enough for the rest of us.</p>
<p>A C student would be mediocre, in my book. </p>
<p>I suspect the OP (and the poster who prompted him/her to start this thread) wanted to discuss merit scholarships for non-superstars – students like your son who do well but not well enough to automatically come to mind when the words “merit scholarship” are uttered.</p>
<p>Know a young man who has stats very similiar to kathiep’s son. mid to low B average, around 1150 for SAT. He got merit scholarships at both Hendrix and University of Tulsa without a lot of hooks but wrote decent essays. Tulsa’s original offer was much lower but eventually matched Hendrix’s by adding dept scholarship’s etc. I think his total was around $10,000 at each school. $3000 or so of tulsa’s required 3.25, the rest of the money required lower GPA at both schools. With lower Cost of Attendance at both schools, family’s cost was just a little over other son’s cost at flagship state school and this young man really needed smaller school.</p>
<p>keepmesane, Did this student pick either Hendrix or U of Tulsa? If so, did the student just finish his first semester, and is he within the margin of what is required to keep the awards?</p>
<p>Tulsa because in the end, decided to go Engineering. This is his Jr year. Lost the one $3000 at 2nd semester Soph yr but due more to engineering major than the school. Engineering is tough on anyone. I think he would have kept it if it wasn’t for Calc 3 and Physics professors who spoke little Engligh. However, has now gotten more dept scholarships and summer internships that more than make up for it so for him, worked out just fine, grades back up, and family seems content with financial situation at school.</p>
<p>Sounds like he is happy there and it worked out. At least this is a school where COA is around 31,000 and 91% of students receive an average of about 9500 in institutional grants.</p>
<p>However, the subject of “big merit aid” for mediocre students is basically a pipe dream"</p>
<p>Nope. Depends on how wide you cast your net and keep your minds open. On this very forum Momfromtexas has a thread with a method and results of looking for big merit aid for mediocre students. And she is talking full ride big. Those schools are not ones you see on many lists around here or in most places not local to them. But they are there, and their awards are there too.</p>
<p>Kathip, what your kids got is impressive. Both schools are very good, liberal arts type small schools that I would have thought required much higher basic stats for more than $5K in merit money. Were these awards pure merit, or merit within need? My son got “merit” money but all under $5K, in fact, mostly $1000 “discounts”, since the schools were mostly expensive private schools. $5K, even $1K is nice if you can basically afford the school or have decided to go for the school when you really can’t afford it. But if you are truly budgeted at $25K or whatever dollar figure and have already been looking at loans and every possible money source, and the sticker price is $45K+, those small amounts are not going to bring it down enough to make it possible.</p>
<p>"Kathiep, there are those of us who don’t believe that a B student is mediocre; that is the definition of a good student. Heck, if insurance companies consider a 3.0 worthy of a good student discount (and we all know how they don’t like to part with their money), then it should be good enough for the rest of us.</p>
<p>A C student would be mediocre, in my book. "</p>
<p>I agree. I consider mediocre to be around a 2.0-2.9 and a 450-550 v, m and/or CR score. S’s unweighted 2.7 or so gpa is what I consider to be “mediocre”. </p>
<p>I would have been thrilled if any of my kids had had unweighted gpas of 3.0 or higher.</p>
<p>Some (many?) schools will give substantial merit packages to low/moderate gpa high test score kids. Example: My S, about 2.9 unweighted (mostly honors, no AP courses), 31 ACT. $12,000 at Randolph-Macon and Northeastern, $16,000 College of Wooster.</p>
<p>Nope just merit. On the back of son’s offer it outlines the definition of his grant and the gpa required to keep it. I talked to the finaid office when we visited before my son accepted the offer because my daughter would only be in school for one more year and I didn’t want his aid to be cut in half starting his sophmore year. She showed me a copy of the offer that we had gotten and pointed out where it said it was guaranteed for all four years with the gpa. The gpa to keep it for freshman year, btw, is a 1.7.</p>
<p>Frankly, I think he got it by the skin of his teeth, but that’s good enough for us.</p>
<p>A huge amount of the kids at both my kids colleges receive financial and merit aid. That was something I was very aware of when I helped them with their college search - not just that there was aid but the percentage of the kids that got it and the avg. amount.</p>
<p>“Some (many?) schools will give substantial merit packages to low/moderate gpa high test score kids. Example: My S, about 2.9 unweighted (mostly honors, no AP courses), 31 ACT. $12,000 at Randolph-Macon and Northeastern, $16,000 College of Wooster.”</p>
<p>True. Both of my low gpa, sky high test scoring sons could get full tuition scholarships plus even more money or perks at some second and third tier colleges. However, I don’t consider the low gpa, sky high test scoring students to be “mediocre” because their test scores put them in a different category than students with mediocre test scores and grades.
Some colleges will accept the high test score, mediocre gpa students just to try to boost their average test scores or to be able to brag about having some NM semifinalists or commended students.</p>
<p>From prior experience with merit awards, is there any wiggle room? </p>
<p>In other words, after you receive notice of merit awards from competing colleges, are the offers non-negotiable? </p>
<p>Can you ever play one against the other with any positive results if the student really wants to attend one college over another, but the preferred college is offering less merit money?</p>
<p>My child was awarded an achievement scholarship from a small Liberal arts college worth more than $45,000 over 4 years (one from Loren Pope’s list of “colleges that change lives”). Also a finalist for a similar size scholarship at another top tier LAC. In his/her case the “achievement” is owning a successful business. Has an A average with AP classes, got below 1100 on the SAT and below a 23 on the ACT. Was captain of a varsity sport, highly involved in the arts, and owned a business. I can say after many college interviews, that there are all sizes of schools that actually look at achievement in school and extra curriculars just as much as standardized test scores. One admissions counselor told us that standardized scores are good if there is an absence of other information. An"average" kid with a really strong work ethic is many schools’ dream. So far, 6 for 6 out of schools applied to have accepted him/her. From large top tier state schools to small liberal arts colleges. His/her test scores weren’t even on the distribution chart for these schools but he/she applied anyway and bombarded them with other info, like extra teacher recs. resume and art portfolio. After looking at some of these discussions, with so many people obsessing about test scores we were really stressed-out needlessly. I just wanted to say that for those of you whose kids cannot excel on standardized tests, there is hope! We have learned that there is definately more than one way in the door of good schools. (fyi - One of the state schools where he/she was accepted was in top 20 of public another is top 50 public). (I guess I veered off topic somewhat here). But there is also more than one route to scholarships for “average” test takers.</p>
<p>Lucky, that is great for your son/daughter, but are you afraid to identify your child by gender? I mean, it isn’t like anyone will know who you are if you said you had a son, since there are lot of sons from Texas at small LACs !</p>
<p>“An’average’ kid with a really strong work ethic is many schools’ dream.”</p>
<p>Luckytxmom hit the nail on the head. These are kids that will go far in life and illustrate the 90% perspiration, 10% inspiration rule for success.</p>
<p>Dado2grls–I have “heard” that you can speak to the aid office and stress that you really really want to go there and ask if there is any way they could increase the aid package, but I don’t know this for a fact.</p>
<p>" In his/her case the “achievement” is owning a successful business. Has an A average with AP classes, got below 1100 on the SAT and below a 23 on the ACT."</p>
<p>Having an “A” average with AP classes is not an average kid. He is a far above average kid. Being captain of a varsity sport and owning a business also is not average.</p>
<p>His SAT scores were above average, too. </p>
<p>One can’t judge “average” by the superstar stats of many students who post on CC.</p>
<p>My niece goes to Western New England College in MA. I think the cost of education is around $32,000 and these are the scholarships posted in their website. Not too bad…</p>
<p>Recalculated GPA SAT (2 sections)
ACT Amount
4.25 and above and 1250 and above
or 28
$13,000
3.76 and above and 1180 and above
or 26
$11,000
3.26 and above and 1030 and above
or 22
$ 9,000
2.76 - 3.25 and 1030 and above
or 22
$ 8,000</p>
<p>She actually likes it. She’s a Junior in the Business Dept. Lived on campus the first two years and said it was fun. She got a great tutoring job through the college with middle school kids for her sophmore year. The college also placed her in anexcellent internship this semster and she is loving it. It’s kind of a nice little find.</p>
<p>She is from southern Maine. There were a variety of kids from all over but many from New England.</p>
<p>bus52, thanks for the input. We looked at Western New England. My H did not care for it. He did not care for the technology at the time we looked. We also noticed by flipping through a year book in admissions that the majority of students were from MA. The admissions counselor spent a long time patiently answering my questions. We saw a prospective student show up for an interview wearing sport shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flops, but that should not necessarily reflect poorly on a school. Someone could dress inappropriately for an interview at any school. It was strange though.</p>
I mean, it isn’t like anyone will know who you are if you said you had a son, since there are lot of sons from Texas at small LACs !</p>