Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this is a really dumb question, OP.

+1

OP, if you want to guesstimate what kind of merit aid your child will receive at a given school, use the Net Price Calculator to get that info. In our case, it proved to be fairly accurate.

The Net Price Calculator will estimate financial aid, but it is silent on merit aid.

I don't think it's a dumb question at all, OP. It's very difficult to get an answer, though, because merit aid is all over the place and depends on the college and your child's desirability for that college. If you have a superstar kid, merit aid, including a free ride, is available at very competitive colleges like Duke, U of Chicago, Hamilton and many others.

My child got merit offers at Lehigh, Dickinson, GW, and several others. Most of the Colleges that Change Lives www.ctcl.org offer merit aid because they are not top schools in terms of competitiveness for admissions. They are all great schools, though, and your child will get a great education at any of them.

Look at the links a PP posted. There is lots of information on the web about which schools offer merit aid. But awards are very unpredictable. Financial aid, on the other hand, is predictable. Use the Net Price Calculator on each school's website, and you'll have a good idea of how much FA to expect from each school.

Anonymous wrote:

What were his stats?

3.9+/4.7+
15 APs (mostly 5s/few 4s)
over 1000 hours of service
NMF/Scholar
National AP Scholar as Junior
36 ACT (36/36/36/36)
Presidential Scholar (Semifinalist)
+ some other awards

Damn.

Anonymous wrote:

What were his stats?

3.9+/4.7+
15 APs (mostly 5s/few 4s)
over 1000 hours of service
NMF/Scholar
National AP Scholar as Junior
36 ACT (36/36/36/36)
Presidential Scholar (Semifinalist)
+ some other awards

That's crazy!!

Anonymous wrote:http://getmetocollege.org/what-colleges-look-for/2016-fall-diversity-visit-programs

Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter got $40,000 ($10,000 a year) at University of Florida. We were Florida residents so she also got the Bright Futures Scholarship. She was a National Merit Scholar finalist. She graduated last year and is teaching in DC! I have a son at Univ. of Colorado. $8,000 a year merit. I have another at Ole Miss. Full ride.

Nice!

Thanks Those three were our easy kids. We have one that enlisted in the Air Force right out of high school. We are super proud of her. She wasn't a great student, but she has turned out to be a really good Airman. We're hoping she'll be more ready for college when she gets out. The military will pay which is nice. Our youngest wants to go to MIT. He had better pray for merit aid.

MIT doesn't award any merit aid.

But it does give out crazy amounts of financial aid. 33% of the freshman class is tuition free. 56% get need based aid. The average amount of need-based aid is $43,000

http://web.mit.edu/facts/tuition.html

not many in DC area will get it. people make too much on paper.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grinnell College 15K per year for total of 60K
Luther College 22K per year for total of 88K
Mt St Mary's: 22K per year total 88K
Macalester: 12K per year for total of 48K

Our HHI knocks us out of any aid besides merit from the schools.

He's going to Grinnell.

Grinnell is a top choice for my DD. She hopes to visit through a minority recruitment weekend and I think she'll love it. Can you share your son's stats?

Sure...
unweighted GPA 3.5
ACT 31
5 APs
24 hours college credit from community college (that's max they will transfer in so he didn't even bother with taking AP test and they never asked for scores or asked if he was taking test)
Good EC's including HOBY, Boy's State, board member of local teen philanthropy group, and 2 sport athlete.

My advice is to connect with someone at Grinnell. A coach, an admission rep, etc. and keep in touch. Let them know its your first choice and if accepted DD will attend.

^^^ "donut hole"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter got $40,000 ($10,000 a year) at University of Florida. We were Florida residents so she also got the Bright Futures Scholarship. She was a National Merit Scholar finalist. She graduated last year and is teaching in DC! I have a son at Univ. of Colorado. $8,000 a year merit. I have another at Ole Miss. Full ride.

Nice!

Thanks Those three were our easy kids. We have one that enlisted in the Air Force right out of high school. We are super proud of her. She wasn't a great student, but she has turned out to be a really good Airman. We're hoping she'll be more ready for college when she gets out. The military will pay which is nice. Our youngest wants to go to MIT. He had better pray for merit aid.

MIT doesn't award any merit aid.

But it does give out crazy amounts of financial aid. 33% of the freshman class is tuition free. 56% get need based aid. The average amount of need-based aid is $43,000

http://web.mit.edu/facts/tuition.html

Understood. For people in the "donut hold," however, who neither quality for FA nor can pay $65k/year per kid plus annual increases for an MIT education, that is meaningless.

http://blog.prepscholar.com/guaranteed-scholarships-based-on-sat-act-scores

If your kid doesn't mind the midwest, check out Ohio State University (oldest DD attended on a full-ride merit scholarship) or Miami University (in Ohio... DD21 is attending and has a full-tuition merit scholarship). Sorry, but I only know Ohio schools because that's where we lived when our oldest kids graduated from high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter got $40,000 ($10,000 a year) at University of Florida. We were Florida residents so she also got the Bright Futures Scholarship. She was a National Merit Scholar finalist. She graduated last year and is teaching in DC! I have a son at Univ. of Colorado. $8,000 a year merit. I have another at Ole Miss. Full ride.

Nice!

Thanks Those three were our easy kids. We have one that enlisted in the Air Force right out of high school. We are super proud of her. She wasn't a great student, but she has turned out to be a really good Airman. We're hoping she'll be more ready for college when she gets out. The military will pay which is nice. Our youngest wants to go to MIT. He had better pray for merit aid.

MIT doesn't award any merit aid.

But it does give out crazy amounts of financial aid. 33% of the freshman class is tuition free. 56% get need based aid. The average amount of need-based aid is $43,000

http://web.mit.edu/facts/tuition.html

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grinnell College 15K per year for total of 60K
Luther College 22K per year for total of 88K
Mt St Mary's: 22K per year total 88K
Macalester: 12K per year for total of 48K

Our HHI knocks us out of any aid besides merit from the schools.

He's going to Grinnell.

Grinnell is a top choice for my DD. She hopes to visit through a minority recruitment weekend and I think she'll love it. Can you share your son's stats?

Do all schools have minority recruitment events? Do you find out about them on each school's website?

What were his stats?

3.9+/4.7+
15 APs (mostly 5s/few 4s)
over 1000 hours of service
NMF/Scholar
National AP Scholar as Junior
36 ACT (36/36/36/36)
Presidential Scholar (Semifinalist)
+ some other awards

Anonymous wrote:Grinnell College 15K per year for total of 60K
Luther College 22K per year for total of 88K
Mt St Mary's: 22K per year total 88K
Macalester: 12K per year for total of 48K

Our HHI knocks us out of any aid besides merit from the schools.

He's going to Grinnell.

Grinnell is a top choice for my DD. She hopes to visit through a minority recruitment weekend and I think she'll love it. Can you share your son's stats?

My kid was a very competitive applicant, didn't get into HYP but got in everywhere else (think next tier - Hopkins, Brown, Duke).

Richmond and Trinity both came through with very nice merit offers. Richmond, in particular, seems to use extremely generous merit aid as a way to recruit students that might otherwise go to schools perceived as being more prestigious.