<p>I think she was a slightly above average student with just ok test scores. This school, with the scholarship, allowed her to not have to attend the University of Maine-something she did not want to do!</p>
<p>For a private school with the scholarship, the cost is not bad. Just curious, did she meet what was required to keep the award for all 4 years, and is she graduating on time?</p>
<p>
chuckle, chuckle! 
We saw students dressed for interviews like that at Rice U, Careleton, Mccalester, Oberlin, Bowdoin, College of Wooster, UT-Austin… it reflects only on the applicants, not the school. And my DD wore regular shoes, but she wasn’t at all what you would call “dressed up” for her interviews. That’s the way most kids dress these days.</p>
<p>I know this is not really a reflection on the school, but it still rubbed me the wrong way b/c we did not come across this elsewhere. We saw students dressed in nice slacks, sweater, or nice collared shirt, sportscoat and even a few suits elsewhere. My son never wore a suit, but he did have slacks, sweater, or collared shirt, and shoes on!</p>
<p>The honors college at the University of Central Arkansas will give you a full scholarship, a private room in some of the best dorms in the country (the other dorms at UCA are pathetic but the Honors dorms are second to none anywhere in the country), and garaunteed study abroad money (for up to two summers) with an ACT of 28 and a hs gpa of 3.5+. The university isn’t well regarded but the HC consistently puts a crazy percentage of kids in grad/med/law school including one Harvard law school kid and a Rhodes scholar in the past handful of years. You will not find a better deal than this one anywhere, but most kids/parents wouldn’t consider it simply because of name recognition.</p>
<p>To meet the OP challenge - the military academies all give full rides even to the bottom of the class.</p>
<p>The satellite campuses in PA have money. One can go based on a mediocre HS record, do well in college, and get merit money.</p>
<p>Schools with affiliations sometimes give “merit” money to almost everyone who appllies with that affiliation - e.g., church members.</p>
<p>But the military academies aren’t for mediocre students. I’ve seen outstanding students get turned down by them.</p>
<p>My kids both got accepted at Millersville, daughter got accepted at PSU and neither were offered any money. My daughter was accepted into the honors program at Millersville, and it might have had a little something but I don’t think so.</p>
<p>Agree with Northstarmom about the academies. The only students I know that got accepted to them were excellent students with great EC’s.</p>
<p>Well, here’s my update. My D got a Balfour Scholarship at Wheaton College in Norton, MA and it came down to there or Willamette, which gave her almost as much. D has chosen Wheaton as a great school where she will ‘fit’ and the merit aid really helped in making the decision. So I wouldn’t call my D mediocre, but the Ivies might not want her - But, frankly, I’d rather see her at Wheaton and save $13 to $15K per year than at Brown, since I think her overall experience will be better. But that isn’t to say Wheaton would be for everyone - but it will be good for her and the merit award is a big help.</p>
<p>Silly thread.Not a good way to look at life! Every child deserves their scholarship!</p>
<p>Or, is it sour grapes. Another good name for this thread!</p>
<p>corunnerdad: Congrats to your very talented daughter! Now comes the hard part- she has to mantain her average to keep it!</p>
<p>Congratulations. I’m glad to see that the thread is revived with news of a student getting a good scholarship to a good college.</p>
<p>Yes, congratulations. Now to drag this back around to the original topic, would you describe your D as (1) average relative to the applicant pool at Wheaton, or (2) of “outstanding academic ability, unusual talents and potential for leadership” as stated in the criteria for a Balfour scholarship? (1) or (2)?</p>
<p>^^ I think that’s what prompted many early responses in this thread. What is “mediocre” by CC standards is hardly mediocre elsewhere.</p>
<p>“mediocre” was defined in #33 to mean average relative to the applicant pool at a particular school</p>
<p>Since I was the one who originally used the word, I claimed the right to “clarify” it.</p>
<p>Does a 27 ACT make you average? At Wheaton, it might based on scores. Or does 4.0 weighted GPA with a ton of AP classes and having won multiple State medals in track make you not average? Or does writing a really good essay make you not average? I guess Wheaton didn’t think she was average. On the other hand, at Willamette she wasn’t ‘heads and tails’ above everyone else on GPA, etc, but still got a nice aid offer. I think level of interest matters, too. My alma mater, Illinois Wesleyan, basically blew my D off because she wasn’t interested enough.</p>
<p>I guess one problem a lot of us have with the use of the term ‘mediocre’ is that it is often used disparagingly. Honestly, if you are getting merit aid from a school and you are at the 50th percentile of that applicant pool, I say HOORAY for that school!!! That’s the kind of school I want my kid to think about - not one that thinks they are so great that ‘money shouldn’t matter’.</p>