Do they take into consideration four years of Latin AP/IB with straight A’s? (Because he loves it)
Or four years of marching/concert honors band with leadership positions? (Because he loves it, too)
Do 6 AP math, science and history classes matter if the scores are 4/5?
Does the educational rigor of the high school count? (He’s in one of the top public schools in the country)
His teachers consistently praise his work ethic and easy-going personality.
I’m feeling rather overwhelmed and stressed.
My junior S has a 3.75 GPA un-weighted, barely top 25% right now - could dip before end of year, 30 ACT, still waiting on new SAT score.
Depends on the school. The net price calculators on some schools include merit awards. At some schools, you merit awards reduce your financial need…so you get less need based aid. At some schools you can stack merit and need based aid up to the cost of attendance.
There is no one answer to your question.
Start by reading the links in this thread:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest
All of those things you listed will help him get accepted, few will impact any merit awards. Some calculators will make provisions for automatic merit awards, but many won’t. Generally though you should get at least as much as the calculator predicts. FWIW I think that admissions officers think Latin is harder than it really is.
You should know soon… Let us know what happens when the offers are all in.
@jadedhaven If you are running NPCs and those schools are unaffordable, most likely those school are going to remain unaffordable. A few may offer extremely competitive merit scholarships (in a discussion on another thread, it was pointed out that American offers 5 full-ride scholarships and something like 20 $30,000 scholarships.) Those types of scholarships are not a “plan” if required for attendance.
If you cannot afford your parental contribution, follow the link that @thumper1 provided and search for automatic scholarships based on your child’s GPA and test scores. If test scores are raised slightly, you’ll find more scholarship opportunities. Schools do offer scholarships for a 30, but a 32 will often offer more $$ more and a larger list of schools.
His accomplishments will open doors to honors colleges, possible dept acceptances or dept scholarships, and have him prepared to college level work. But at schools that focus on need-based aid, they won’t will change the $$ amt, they will only work toward admissions.
Fwiw, our strategy with our kids is for them to apply for a couple of those crazy competitive scholarships but focus mainly on applying to schools they know they can afford and be happy attending. They don’t get to attend top schools, but they have all been happy with their choices, and both our kids and we have no debt from their college educations.
Depends on the school. There are some with nice band scholarships. My son got a bunch and at one school that he really liked, they came back to him twice after acceptance and initial music scholarship to offer more and the amount became very significant. If you money for specific things, do research for those and see about applying there. My son wanted non-major music scholarships and opportunities, so we should those out. However, he is not an elite school candidate, so the list would be different.
I think all those things you listed help with admissions. Latin, music, good teacher recommendations will grab the attention of the admissions officers. Financial aid is often separate. Some schools are based on the numbers only, either for merit or need.
You’ll find a good fit. It is overwhelming at first, but at some point he’ll find the right school with the right fit.
In a nutshell, yes. Its called preferential packaging to entice a student to attend. From our experience it comes in many different forms. My D had very similar stats: four years Latin IB with the national silver award, straight As, GSA Gold Award, IB score of 39/42, ACT 30/31superscored. There were a few schools that included “scholarships” over and above what the NPC indicated. You might want to search for schools that will want your son, not the other way around, although it is important that he can see himself at any school to which he applies IMHO.
@zoosermom not to hijack…but would you mind sharing where you found the non major music scholarships? Definitely something I would like to look into for S17…who is also not applying to elites.
@eandesmom On top of the main scholarships, Purdue also offered $1000 non major music scholarship to my D if she decided to join the orchestra a few years ago.
Sorry… I did not read carefully enough, OP. Your son is a junior. There were not as many NPC available when we looked i 2009. Mostly they reflected financial aid, not merit scholarships. It probably varies from school to school. Maybe try asking in a particular college thread. I suspect those factors would impact acceptance more than scholarship, but ya never know.
Advise: If there are schools that are appealing but too expensive at NPC rate, set the groundrules now. You can apply… but only if you can deal with the fact that we can’t afford it unless scholarships bring the cost down to ________.