Anonymous wrote:University of Mary Washington is a public school in VA. They do offer merit $ sometimes. Also, Randolph Macon in VA is a small private but awards generous merit money. There are tons of small privates in PA that offer generous merit $ as well. Hopefully she will be able to get her grades back up before 1st semester of her senior year but if not, the other PPs are pretty accurate that the large flagship state colleges are significantly more competitive than they were even 10 years ago. But there are tons of SLACs that offer merit $. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:College is not for everybody.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know that these schools are nit ideal, but you are on a very difficult quest. Merit with so-so stats is illusive at best. Time to have a chat with the student about her options with current grades

OP. I know it's difficult. But DD wants to take a tour during spring break, and I don't know where to take her aside from in-state schools.

Her grades are not going to improve. She's having a hard time this year. All her friends are doing well, and she's floundering. We're taking her to counseling, but her counselor is baffled by her sudden lack of interest in school. She's overwhelmed by all the work, and doesn't want to do it, basically. So, her grades will be Bs, not As, sadly. She's smart, but this is the path she's chosen. She does not like to work hard.

Sorry for the vent. I went to an Ivy, so this is a struggle for me, but I don't want her to go to CC if I can help it!

Any other suggestions? Please?

I would make an appointment with a psychiatrist at this point then. She might have ADD and is depressed about her grades. Even if she is just depressed, you need more than counselling. I have been there with my child, I feel your pain.

Not to derail the thread, but how did you know your child had ADD? My DD has always done well in school, put forth very little effort because she's smart, but she's never done well on standardized tests, especially math, even though she gets good grades (until this year) in math. She has a long attention span, reads for hours, doesn't exhibit anything I would associate with ADD. What were the red flags for your child?

Anonymous wrote:Also check Mt. Saint Mary's University in Emmitsburg. I believe that they have a pretty generous merit aid program that is graduated based on GPA. It's laid out on their website, so definitely worth a look. Plus, it's a beautiful campus.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know that these schools are nit ideal, but you are on a very difficult quest. Merit with so-so stats is illusive at best. Time to have a chat with the student about her options with current grades

OP. I know it's difficult. But DD wants to take a tour during spring break, and I don't know where to take her aside from in-state schools.

Her grades are not going to improve. She's having a hard time this year. All her friends are doing well, and she's floundering. We're taking her to counseling, but her counselor is baffled by her sudden lack of interest in school. She's overwhelmed by all the work, and doesn't want to do it, basically. So, her grades will be Bs, not As, sadly. She's smart, but this is the path she's chosen. She does not like to work hard.

Sorry for the vent. I went to an Ivy, so this is a struggle for me, but I don't want her to go to CC if I can help it!

Any other suggestions? Please?

I would make an appointment with a psychiatrist at this point then. She might have ADD and is depressed about her grades. Even if she is just depressed, you need more than counselling. I have been there with my child, I feel your pain.

Anonymous wrote:College is not for everybody.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know that these schools are nit ideal, but you are on a very difficult quest. Merit with so-so stats is illusive at best. Time to have a chat with the student about her options with current grades

OP. I know it's difficult. But DD wants to take a tour during spring break, and I don't know where to take her aside from in-state schools.

Her grades are not going to improve. She's having a hard time this year. All her friends are doing well, and she's floundering. We're taking her to counseling, but her counselor is baffled by her sudden lack of interest in school. She's overwhelmed by all the work, and doesn't want to do it, basically. So, her grades will be Bs, not As, sadly. She's smart, but this is the path she's chosen. She does not like to work hard.

Sorry for the vent. I went to an Ivy, so this is a struggle for me, but I don't want her to go to CC if I can help it!

Any other suggestions? Please?

Have her thyroid tested at doctor
Depression screening - second. My daughter was doing fine in school but floundering physically and mentally. Thyroid was off she feels much better now.

Anonymous wrote:3.2 and a 1200 SAT isn't merit worthy. Thus the crappy options . Merit is merit for a reason.

Anonymous wrote:Could you do a tour more locally, to start getting a sense of big/small, urban/rural, etc . . . ? For example, if you're in MD, you could do a MD tour and look at Hood, Goucher, Loyola Marymount, McDaniel, UMBC, Towson, St. Mary's and Salisbury, which would give her a sense of different kinds of options. Then if she decides that she really loves one of those schools, you could look further afield at schools that are similar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in the donut hole: too much money for FA, not enough to afford privates or OOS public.

DD has a 3.9 unweighted, but she's a junior and is floundering this year. She'll probably end up with a 3.2 at the end of the year at the rate she's going. Her SATs will probably be around 1200 based on her PSAT scores, according to her high school counselor.

I am starting to compile a list of places for DD to visit during spring break, but aside from our in-state schools, what other colleges will accept someone with her stats, and give her merit aid? She has one somewhat unusual interest, is a non-varsity athlete, no special talents except that she's nice and funny and people like her.

She's social and outgoing, so she'll feel fine in a large OOS public, but we can only afford it if she can get merit aid. She'd probably prefer a SLAC, but are there any that would give her enough merit aid to match in-state tuition?

Any suggestions? I'm thinking U Delaware, U VT, maybe Penn State? Any other ideas? Northeastern, maybe?

There are plenty of SLAC's that would give her merit aid, but probably not enough to reach in state tuition.

If she wants an SLAC, I'm not sure why you're looking at Penn State. I'd look at state schools that resemble SLAC's instead: Mary Washington, Saint Mary's (which ever is OOS, I assume you're already looking at the one that's instate) Truman State, etc.. . .

Also, is she willing to go to a private school where her stats are on the high end? You'll find the most money there.

Anonymous wrote:Some of the small, lesser-known privates give a lot of merit aid for students with your DD's stats. Locally, Hood and McDaniel would give her a fair amount. York College of Pennsylvania also has good merit aid. You might get the cost down to close in-state state school tuition. State schools that we looked at didn't provide much in the way of merit aid unless the student had very high stats.