How much merit aid is given out?

[Anonymous]

Generally, in state public schools offer the least amount of merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have an average child grade wide who doesn’t play sports or have any other hooks. And we’re white and middle class. Am I to assume child won’t receive any merit aid or scholarship? I’m looking at the college price tags and trying to figure out what’s realistic. If merit was a miracle, would it only be for like $5k or something hardly worth considering for OOS or private?

It’s hard to predict, apply to colleges where he will be in top 25% and they offer merit money. Some rural campuses (UT Elpaso and UT Commerce come to mind) offer money to average students to get geographical diversity.

[Anonymous]

Our two DCs received enough merit aid at out of state publics to bring cost down to what we would have paid for in state in our own home state. For 1 child who was a stellar student, that was given by a Flagship OOS. For our 2nd child who was not advanced academically, it was a directional OOS.

[Anonymous]

DD had ok grades with fairly rigorous set of courses. Applied to several in state schools (VA) and a couple private schools. Merit at state schools ranged from nothing to a few thousand. The privates included one CTCL. Both were set up such that each student received one of 3 merit amounts based solely on academic performance. One was 15/18/21 k, and one was 8/11/14 k. In both cases the private schools qualified for Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant of $4k.

[Anonymous]

I recommend watching this video by Jeff Selingo on "buyers and sellers" and then using the form below it to check out the info on schools.

https://jeffselingo.com/which-colleges-are-really-buyers-and-which-are-sellers/

[Anonymous]

Depends on what you really mean by average.

[Anonymous]

What kind of schools are you considering? If public, a lot of schools will have the specifics for automatic merit scholarships posted. If private, it just depends. Some private schools give everyone some sort of scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Generally, in state public schools offer the least amount of merit.

But are often the least expensive options to begin with. So 10K at an in-state public has more of an impact than 30K at a $60K+ private.

[Anonymous]

If you can pay full price the first year have your kid be an RA the remaining years. They usually get free room and sometimes food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have an average child grade wide who doesn’t play sports or have any other hooks. And we’re white and middle class. Am I to assume child won’t receive any merit aid or scholarship? I’m looking at the college price tags and trying to figure out what’s realistic. If merit was a miracle, would it only be for like $5k or something hardly worth considering for OOS or private?

What "merit" is there in being an "average child" who doesn't do anything of any particular note?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have an average student, good EC but nothing extraordinary. She applied to a range of schools from 35% rate to 65% acceptance rate and got merit everywhere ranging from 20k a year to $43K a year

Were those merit awards from in-state public?[/quote
No, all from
Private

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have an average child grade wide who doesn’t play sports or have any other hooks. And we’re white and middle class. Am I to assume child won’t receive any merit aid or scholarship? I’m looking at the college price tags and trying to figure out what’s realistic. If merit was a miracle, would it only be for like $5k or something hardly worth considering for OOS or private?

What "merit" is there in being an "average child" who doesn't do anything of any particular note?

Ignore this OP. Apply to schools where they are in 75 percentile, even if lower tier schools. And do some research as to which schools give merit and which don’t. My kid was higher stat for Penn state and nothing from them, which did not surprise me as they don’t give merit for being above average.
Check out Miami Ohio. A few recent threads on this school. High acceptance rate and merit awards listed on their website.

[Anonymous]

just an example, that's what MW gives to instate students
https://www.umw.edu/admissions/in-state-merit-scholarship/

[Anonymous]

OP here: you all are awesome. I downloaded Jeff Selina’s spreadsheet and I’m feeling more hopeful that maybe there’s some flexibility of the sticker price for an averages student. We mostly looking at school work admit rates > 50% but preferably over 70%. Some of the private and OOS ones are just too expensive though but if we can get $10k merit at least then it may be doable. And by average I mean 3.2 GPA.

[Anonymous]

A high ACT/SAT can get merit award even with lower grades at some schools.