Negotiating merit based scholarships.

Paying for College
1

Hello, I am an international student from South Korea, although I’ve been studying in the United States from my sophomore year.

As am international student, I am unable to fill out the FAFSA as it requires a social security number to join. Therefore, all my scholarship offers are merit based.
I’ve been accepted into Case Western Reserve University, Macalester college, and Occidental college. I’ve been waitlisted at Georgia Tech, U of Rochester, and Emory.

How would I be able to get more merit based scholarships?

The following is a summary of my academic career:

I consider myself a strong candidate with pretty much all As in my academic career except for freshman year, in which I was studying in Korea. My grades there were great, but they grade on how I did in comparison to others, unlike the United States.

For instance, if I scored at the top of my class with a 30 percent exam score, I would get a “1”. That would be well received in Korean colleges, but the American Colleges see that grade as an F as it was only 30 percent of the total possible score.

1 year of a different educational system caused my GPA to unfairly crash and burn, although I did well during my freshman year. My guidance counselor explained this in his recommendation letter.

I have taken challenging subjects like honors English and honors physics my sophomore year.
During my junior year, I took AP English, AP physics, Advanced intro to computer science, and Advanced Pre-calculus.
During my senior year, I am taking AP calculus, AP physics C, and AP computer science.

I have a 32 composite score on the ACT, and a 34 superscore.
I also have an 800 on the SAT math II subject test along with a 770 on the physics subject test.
During the summer of my junior year, I had an internship at Georgia Tech. My name is listed on the conference paper that they submitted and got nominated for. This professor wrote an incredibly strong reccomendation letter on my behalf, and I know this because Commonapp screwed up and accidentally sent the letter to me.

Other extracurricular activities include soccer team captain, founder and leader of the school robotics team, co-leader of the young thinkers club, and co-leader of the science bowl club. I was also involved in camp counseling, the school musical, and tutoring for a part time job.

Thanks for reading and the suggestions.

TL;DR: How do I ask for more money? I think I deserve it.

2

You should be aware that you are eligible for institutional need-based financial aid from those schools that provide such aid.

3

@BelknapPoint

My dad’s tax bracket is too high.

4

Why do you think you deserve more merit than they offered you?

It sounds more like you want more, you don’t need more, but have somehow convinced yourself that you deserve more.

Schools have a limited amount of merit money, and lots of awesome qualified candidates.

That being said, I would not want to discourage you from asking for more, and I suggest the approach is to simply explain it in those terms.

You haven’t told us how much the COA is at each of these schools, and how much merit they have offered you.

Are you expecting a full-tuition merit or a full-ride?

5

The only thing you can do is contact the colleges…and ask.

If your oarent income bracket is so high, will they be able to help you with college costs?

6

Deserve extra money from whom? Schools usually set the merit scholarships by statistics or have a selection committee that awards the funds to 20 or 30 of the best applications. If everyone gets the same amount for the same stats, why do you deserve more? You aren’t eligible for a lot of the awards that are federal government or state awards, and may not be eligible for private awards that require citizenship.

7

Why? There are plenty of US citizens who are top students and don’t get to attend schools they want to b/c they can’t afford them.