Anonymous wrote:My 3.5(uw), 1300 SAT kid got merit aid at every school he applied to..including his 1 reach (though less there). Several of his schools give merit aid out like candy (like 96% of students). You have to do some research to see what the average amount paid is..sometimes it is WAY less then tuition.

it's not a question of whether merit is possible, it's a question of whether it's "enough" to make the school affordable.

My 3.5(uw), 1300 SAT kid got merit aid at every school he applied to..including his 1 reach (though less there). Several of his schools give merit aid out like candy (like 96% of students). You have to do some research to see what the average amount paid is..sometimes it is WAY less then tuition.

Post on the individual colleges at college Confidential. You’ll get a sense where your DC lies for merit aid.

Read this:

http://www.thecollegesolution.com/

Then read the book by the same name.

Then create your list of schools.

"What are the chances that an average kid, 3.5 gpa, test scores about average, from a family that makes around $200,000 to $250,000 gets merit aid?"

The odds of that student getting merit aid are nearly 100% at schools ranked lower than about about 75th that cost more than say $60k or so.

The more they cost the bigger the aid. The amount of aid might not be huge at a $60k school but $10k X four years is nothing to sneeze at.

Will they get merit aid at say UMd where the out of state cost of attendance is already a "reasonable" $50k, of course not.

For many schools, merit aid is like a coupon to make them price competitive with schools like UMd.

Merit aid is not about your financial situation. Apply widely. There is no way to give you, anywhere near, a complete answer here Op. If you've read here, at all, before, you know there are plenty of stories of students getting merit aid and many had no way of predicting.

OP do some searching online.

12:03 is generally right -- if you overmatch with a college your chance of merit aid is higher -- because they really want your child's stats to bring up their averages.

https://scholarships360.org/great-schools-great-scholarships-top-merit-scholarship-awards/

http://time.com/money/4894643/best-colleges-merit-aid-scholarships/

http://time.com/money/4594731/college-everybody-scholarship-2016/

Merit aid is out there for average students as long as you're not a snob about it. Large public universities are more likely to be transparent about what they will offer based on grades and test scores and some even provide a handy chart (Ohio State comes to mind). My DC who had about a 3.4 and 30 ACT did get $6000 at an OOS public (total cost in low $30s after scholarship). It's not clear if your DC has truly average test scores (1100), or average for this area's suburbs (1300). That could make a difference.

Mid-tier LACs can sometimes be pretty generous.

Anonymous wrote:What are the chances that an average kid, 3.5 gpa, test scores about average, from a family that makes around $200,000 to $250,000 gets merit aid?

Is the GPA weighted or unweighted?

A 3.5 and an ACT above 30 can get you merit aid in southern and midwest public schools as well as some private schools.

Anonymous wrote:Really depends on where you are talking about getting the merit aid, how much you need, and if you think that is a school worth attending. There's always a school.

A lot of the merit grants people are talking about aren't that big. My kid "got merit aid" from Boulder - $10k over 4 years, which isn't close to enough to make a difference. (He is a better student than your kid - he also got into their honors college).

None of the schools listed in the previous post are going to take him, even at full-fees.

Boulder is terrible with merit aid.

Really depends on where you are talking about getting the merit aid, how much you need, and if you think that is a school worth attending. There's always a school.

A lot of the merit grants people are talking about aren't that big. My kid "got merit aid" from Boulder - $10k over 4 years, which isn't close to enough to make a difference. (He is a better student than your kid - he also got into their honors college).

None of the schools listed in the previous post are going to take him, even at full-fees.

From semi-respectable schools like UMD, W&M, UVa, none. You will have to look at much lower ranked schools. Private schools (aka 70k/year schools) may give you 15-20k per year "scholarship" but it's really just a discount than merit based scholarships. You should have to ~50k per year to make up.

Income has no impact on merit aid. As for the expected merit based on stats, depends on where. The better your kid is relative to the school the more money they’ll throw at him/her.

Sorry to be so vague. The more specific you get with regard to grades and scores the more specific answers you’ll get here.

What are the chances that an average kid, 3.5 gpa, test scores about average, from a family that makes around $200,000 to $250,000 gets merit aid?