I’ve been playing around in an NPC for a public university that includes merit in the calculation. I say playing because I’ve been estimating GPA based on past performance (which is no guarantee of future performance) and also because the GPA weighted scale at the HS is out of 4.5 vs 5 for the NPC…also he hasnt taken the SAT yet. The reason for playing with this is that is the max merit or close to it makes the college “affordable”(ish) but lesser amounts put it out of reach. So trying to see if its worth a visit or not as it probably is a solid target school in terms of acceptance that he would like. However, we wouldn’t get financial aid for this school and can’t realistically afford nearly $70k cost of attendance.
What is odd is that NOT including the SAT unless it is 1550 plus leads to a higher award in the NPC. This is NOT a T50 or super selective school, so it was surprising. This seems to discourage any SAT reporting unless the score is nearly perfect. (And I know my child is not on track for a score that high).
But what is even odder is that there was a spot where a higher GPA yielded a lower merit award…by like $7000k! And then inputting a higher GPA after that bumped it up again. (These were all close GPAs like 4.3 vs 4.4)
I know that merit is a discount and that NPCs arent guaranteed accuracy, and this inconsistency probably gives them wiggle room to consider other factors besides grades, but it stinks if you’re trying to eliminate financially out of reach schools.
I’m not sure I have a question other than what have others seen? Any thoughts?
If merit is simply an outcome based on GPA and test score, I don’t understand why colleges make it hard to figure out. At ASU they have the merit calculator estimator (separate from the NPC calculator) and it is easy to see what different combinations do, how “valuable” SAT is, etc.
However, I don’t know what % of colleges actually do it this way. From where my kids have applied or are looking, merit awards seem more variable than a simple GPA+test score =$ calculation. Sometimes depends on school within the college, some kind of ranking unknown to observers, whatever. There are clearly outcomes that seem inconsistent to people who can only compare by GPA and test score, anyway.
If the NPC shows you achieving your cost without a test, then yes it’s worth a visit. But as a public school, interest won’t matter, so to save $$, apply, get your offer and then go see if it works. And if it doesn’t meet your cost, you’ll no doubt have other apps that will 100% be affordable. And you won’t have visited yet and saved that money.
There’s some but not many publics over $70k - the UCs are test blind so it’s gotta be a U Mich or UVA or I’m likely missing one.
Also, don’t forget COA are estimates. Look at direct costs - tuition, fees, room and board.
Some schools say 1k personal. Others $4k. Same with transport. Your costs will be your costs, not a school estimate.
Anyway, that’s what I’d do if hard or costly to visit - apply and visit only if it meets your financial needs after getting in and learning of aid.
I would try putting the weighted GPA as out of 4 (the unweighted scale), as that’s how it would be entered in Common App. The weighted GPA isn’t “out of” the top weight because rarely can a student take only weighted courses in high school.
Other than that, I can’t comment on the strangeness of the results you are seeing.
I’ve found NPCs for colleges to be notoriously fickle and error-prone, and not just for merit awards. Even the need-based component gets weird. Just one example, but for Brown I find that if I slightly change the amount of untaxed income by a few dollars, then we’d expect to either be full pay OR we’d magically only pay $5k! At some level, I feel like NPCs are random number generators!
Hit the GPA or GPA and test (depending on the school) and boom, you know what you’re getting!! There’s typically no discretion but it’s rather black and white - which I appreciated as my kids applied.
Just my personal opinion, but it seems to be poor form to guess at schools when an OP has specifically made a generalized comment. Of course, one could always ask the OP and see if they choose to answer but should respect their wishes if they do not.