Smart, underachieving kid, need merit aid, so frustrated!!
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Anonymous
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I'm looking for smallish colleges that will offer enough merit aid to equal in-state tuition, which is all we can afford. We're not eligible for enough FA to equal in-state costs.
My kid has a 1500 on the SAT (took it once), a 3.87 unweighted, two 5s on the APs she took last year, and is taking 5 APs this year. She's extremely well-read, well-versed in politics, thoughtful, wise beyond her years, and cynical. She loves to talk about politics and movies with her friends, cooks a little and plays one sport fairly well. She's 16 and a junior at a good public she doesn't appreciate. She wants to study math and political science at a smallish college. Here's my list of colleges for her to apply to (she has no list!!): Pitt, U Richmond, Ursinus, Davidson, U of Mary Washington, Gettysburg, Lafayette, Tulane. Can anyone suggest other similar schools that might offer substantial merit to a kid with her stats and basically no ECs? Please, no snark. My kid is delightful and fun to be around, not entitled, but she doesn't push herself at all. Drives me crazy, but I can't say this to her. So I'm saying it here. |
Anonymous
| I am not saying this to be snarky, but you need a reality check. Your daughter's SAT score is in the 98th-99th percentile. The average GPA of a high school is a 3.0 and a majority of AP test takers get a 3 or less. She signed up for FIVE AP CLASSES. Your daughter clearly works hard and you should acknowledge that. She is a child. Of course, she just wants to hang out with her friends and doesn't acknowledge the "prestige" of her high school. Either you are a troll or in a massive DCUM bubble. |
Anonymous
+1 Seriously, these kinds of posts are getting old. |
Anonymous
| What in-state tuition amount are you aiming for? MD or VA pricing? |
Anonymous
| Is she willing to go further away for school? The equivalent of the schools you list, but in another region, may be more likely to give merit aid to a kid from MD/VA. So, Knox, Ripon, Willamette, Whitman, Puget Sound, Macalester. (Those aren’t all the same level of selectivity, so some might be more of reaches than others in terms of getting merit aid, but they’re all worth researching.) |
Anonymous
| How is that possibly in achieving? |
Anonymous
| Is she open to women colleges? Then Simmons and Mount Holyoke. |
Anonymous
| The title doesn't make sense based on the text of the post. OP, your daughter is not an underachiever. Please seek help for whatever anxiety or competitiveness is making you belittle a kid who sounds pretty awesome (and high-achieving to boot.) |
Anonymous
| You need more schools like Ursinus on your list. It sounds like stats are high enough to get merit, but at most schools offering merit it's really just false pricing. The true price is close to in state tuition and a sizeable percent of admitted students are offered that. If you want a higher ranked school you need the state flagship or pay full price. |
Anonymous
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St Joe's
Dayton St. Mary's College |
Anonymous
| You want to apply to schools where she is above the 75% for SAT and grades. Schools usually have info on how many kids get aid. You want to look for schools where it is very high..some are 95%+. They are second tier schools with Ivy League prices that almost no one pays. |
Anonymous
| Look at the SUNY schools in NY. They tend to be small and affordable. The types of scholarships and majors differs between all of them. |
Anonymous
| I don’t understand this post at all. |
Anonymous
+100 in what way is this kid an underachiever?? She'll get merit at most of those schools. Is the concern that she's not doing a ton of ECs? Merit at colleges that discount for all higher-end applicants base that on test scores and GPA. A highly impressive EC will help at schools that give out a very small number of competitive, huge awards. This kid sounds awesome and mom needs to relax and let her kid know she's doing great. |
Anonymous
+1. My kid has a 1400 SAT, 3.7 UWGPA, took 7 APs total and has only one main EC (11+years participating and at a high but not national award type level). I think D is far from underachieving! The kid got into 11/12 schools applied to including a T25 and received good merit offers at 7 of them. The ones that didn’t offer anything are schools that we knew going in probably wouldn’t. Pitt has tightened up on merit even for stellar students. If you want something more guaranteed based on good stats try Arizona, ASU, Iowa, West Virginia, several schools in the south |