College Suggestions

N_s_Mom
Mon, 08 Jun 2015 19:03:53 +0000

Here’s the rule of thumb: Go to the Common Data Set for a given school (google it) and scroll down to Section C, which shows the stats for the accepted student population. If you are looking for a lot of merit aid and/or scholarships, and you don’t have a hook, then you need to have stats that put you in the top 25% of their accepted class.

For example, with Macalester: http://www.macalester.edu/ir/institutionaldata/cds.pdf

You’ll see that 45% of the admitted students had SAT V scores above 700. Another 47% had scores between 600 and 700. Scholarships are probably not going to the unhooked kids with verbal scores below 750 at Macalester unless they have something else special to offer. (The country you are applying from is relevant in this respect.)

Now look at Rhodes, in Memphis:http://www.rhodes.edu/ir/1328.asp

24% of the students have SAT Verbal scores above 700 and 53% are above 600. Chances are better here, assuming they both have the same number of merit scholarships available - and available to internationals (not a good assumption - you’ll have to look up that info. Some schools have money for this, like Macalester, and others don’t. Not sure of Rhodes’ position.)