Her school is honestly too small. Her graduating class has 11 students. It’s a private all girls school.
1 Like
That would be very disappointing as they made no mention of that when they discussed being test optional. We would have submitted if it stated it would affect merit consideration
I believe I read one post early on the thread where someone received merit as TO
I don’t think they are using the test. The NPC asks for your GPA and not a test score. Most of the people on here that I’m seeing that got the highest merit had 6+ APs and a near perfect GPA. I think that APs weight highly for merit, which is a bit of a bummer if your school doesn’t offer m(any) or only allows taking them in later years.
I agree that I think it could be major-based. Def don’t think it has to do with AP vs IB since they are really viewed as equals (especially with an IB Diploma). I have heard the same about nursing merit in recent years, since it is such a competitive program. But congrats, I have heard great things about their ChemE major:)
2 Likes
I believe many TO schools use scores for merit, I would think only those who are test blind do not. TO just means you do not need to submit a score. ETA the test scores that get merit tend to be higher, so there would’ve been no reason not to submit them.
For those you received their merit awards already- did the amount line up with the NPC?
With our older child, we found the NPC to be pretty accurate ( close to the amount or they offered more).
Was accepted to MechE this past Friday so waiting on merit. Hoping it matches the NPC (or is better!).
I don’t know how to use the NPC, because the scale is 5.0.
If I put in her unweighted GPA it lines up.
it seems like she should get a bump given the full IB diploma (every class she’s taken junior and senior year is IB), but maybe they don’t give any weight to that. 
Ours was slightly more than the NPC said, but I was guessing on the GPA out of 5, so take that for what it is worth. From looking at what people here got, it’s hard to figure, but it seems the highest merit was awarded to people with 3.9/4.0 UW GPA with 1400+ SAT (or equivalent ACT) and more than 6 AP classes. IB/Honors/DE didn’t translate as well. Obviously, I’m guessing, but that’s what it looks like based on the responses here.
2 Likes
My kid got notified he was awarded the Presidential Scholarship this morning. $13k a year. OOS. He was accepted on Dec 5th.
The NPC was fairly accurate for us. Happy to share what formula I used to re-calculate GPA out of 5 if it would be helpful to anyone.
4 Likes
I would be curious to know this
2 Likes
Congrats! My son was accepted on the 5th as well. Did you get an email to check your portal?
And yes that would be great if you could share how you recalculated the gpa
I would love to know! My kiddo got the merit she would have based on UW GPA, with no added weight for her rigor. So I’m assuming UD does not give any bump for IB:(
I didn’t but I’ve been obsessively checking to kill nervous energy and saw it in there today. 
1 Like
Here’s the formula I used:
A = 4
B = 3
C= 2
Etc.. No pluses or minuses. I then added:
Honors = +.5
AP = +1
He was not in the IB program so I didn’t come up with a weighting for IB, but I would guess IB classes would weigh the same as AP classes.
I only used classes mandatory for the core curriculum (e.g. I removed his Engineering electives and an art elective he took as a Freshman)
He had 5 Honors and 5 AP classes Freshman - Junior years. Using this formula, his GPA came out to 4.15, which made the system spit out $12k per year as the likely merit award. It didn’t ask for a test score so I assume they don’t use that information.
What I don’t know is how wide the bands are. For instance, does the Presidential Scholarship go from 4.0 - 4.25? Or 3.8 to 4.15? Something else? If I have time later today I may just try to play around with it!
I wish I knew my son’s portal login or I would definitely be doing that as well!
Typically a perfect uwgpa is 4.0. There is no bump for honors, AP, DE, or IB, since HS’s weigh differently. When my daughter applied, she had a uw 3.95, w 4.2, 9 AP’s, rest honors, received $17,000 a year.
The UD app has a calculator that uses a 5.0 scale though. I think that’s what we are all trying to figure out!
Keep in mind that test scores are factored in as well. The only difference between 2 of my kids was a 33 instead of a 34, and 7 AP’s vs. 9, $2000 less a year.
1 Like
Well, just for fun I used your formula and assumed an IB course is same as AP. My daughter would end up with a 4.41 that way. Which does closely align to the calculator (she got 13, it says 12).
I think the IB diploma program disadvantaged her in this specific calculation. It is such a formal, structured program. There’s no “piling on” that can happen - it’s the 6 core IB courses plus the TOK, CAS, and EE. No opportunity to take dozens of higher level courses. And I’m good with that actually - it has been an amazing experience for her!
Interesting! That isn’t part of what they ask about on their calculator.
My student had a 1570 so I think that would qualify at the top. Her “missing piece” - I’m sort of guessing - is the number of AP/IB. Her unweighted gpa is a 4.0. She did highest rigor offered at her school, but that is just the full IB diploma which is the 6 core IB courses (each of which spans 2 years). Everything else is “standard” (not honors or AP/IB).