@Lindagaf I know that merit at Kenyon isn’t easy to come by. We know two students are our high school who received merit and have GPAs close to S19. We know their ACT scores but S19 hasn’t taken his official SAT yet so we can’t compare those yet. One of those students received $10K and the other $15K.
Kenyon also has a studio art merit scholarship that our S19 could apply for. It’s worth $15K per year. He would not be required to major or minor in art but would be expected to take classes. (The website says, though, that he would be highly encouraged to at least minor in art.) While S19 loves to draw and paint and is talented, he really wants to keep art as a hobby and isn’t interested in minoring in it. He will submit portfolios from AP Portfolio because art really is a part of him. And, honestly, I’ve heard that it could be a nice bump in his application to be a boy who produces art and is applying to LACs. I try not to push the art thing too hard with S19. I find that, if I leave him alone, he spends more time on it and enjoys it. As soon as I start talking about how it could help his app, he puts down his pastels and I don’t see him pick them up for a week. 