Did anyone apply for Fall '07?

northeastmom
Wed, 17 Jan 2007 13:24:21 +0000

Milwdad, This is my pet peeve about merit aid. Some schools look at gpa and do not look at it in the context of a specific high school. We had the same problem with respect to merit aid at 2 different schools last year, although most of the other schools did look at son’s holistic record, and he did get merit awards at 5 schools. One additional school did not offer aid as merit, but made up for it with a financial aid package was equal to a merit aid award, without the constraint of needing a 3.0 to keep the award (did not get this type of financial aid package at any other schools). The 2 that did not offer a good package (merit or financial), were just take off the table for consideration. I did call them to see how they determined merit aid. At both schools they used a chart using gpa and standard test scores. In both cases son made the cut for merit aid with his test scores by a lot, but not his gpa missed the mark b/c he went to a top hs and took tough classes. If we knew this going in, my son would not have applied to those schools in the first place b/c he could not attend without those dollars.