Anonymous wrote:WM is on the list (OP here).
She is your typical suburban kid. She plays a sport outside of school (I don't want to name it because it will out her probably). She does a school club and is a leader in it. Otherwise, she's just a kid who spends time doing D&D with her friends.
Rigor is a weird thing. She's doing the IB program. So who knows how that will be viewed (it's either panned or lauded on here).
Personally, I would love to find merit. We have two other kids and she only has about 100K saved in the college account, so it's not enough to just write a full check and be done with it.
For merit - she should meet with her school counselor. Can she ask a fav teacher/counselor to be nominated for UNC/Morehead Cain (not sure how it works at your school). Also ask about the Davidson Belk scholarships. Same for Wake. We learned that our counselor has a lot of discretion in nominating candidates for these so make sure she knows you are merit shopping.
Also look at Grinnel/St. Olaf for $$$$.