Anonymous wrote:Tulane, Lehigh, Boston College, Boston U, U Rochester, Villanova.

OP will not get merit for those stats at these colleges.

Anonymous wrote:Tulane, Lehigh, Boston College, Boston U, U Rochester, Villanova.

With a 3.57, this student would be lucky to get admitted to BC, Villanova, Lehigh, Rochester. Merit at BC is out of the question.

Look for schools where the stats - including GPA - are over the 75th percentile.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kansas, Iowa, Michigan State

Big state schools aren’t big on merit aid for out of staters.

Not true

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kansas, Iowa, Michigan State

Big state schools aren’t big on merit aid for out of staters.

tell that to my son, who got merit aid from a bunch.

Anonymous wrote:

No, that is generally not how it works.

Well, I guess the OOS public schools that admitted my two kids and gave them merit made a mistake! They would not have qualified for merit (or in some cases, admission) based on their unweighted GPAs.

Some public schools have firm cutoffs for merit published in the scholarship section of their websites and will state whether the GPA used is weighted or unweighted. I also found Naviance a useful source of information regarding whether a given school uses the weighted GPA on the transcript or whether they recalculate it.

You are guessing at best.

Anonymous wrote:

No, that is generally not how it works.

Well, I guess the OOS public schools that admitted my two kids and gave them merit made a mistake! They would not have qualified for merit (or in some cases, admission) based on their unweighted GPAs.

Some public schools have firm cutoffs for merit published in the scholarship section of their websites and will state whether the GPA used is weighted or unweighted. I also found Naviance a useful source of information regarding whether a given school uses the weighted GPA on the transcript or whether they recalculate it.

you understand what the word "generally" means?

No, that is generally not how it works.

Well, I guess the OOS public schools that admitted my two kids and gave them merit made a mistake! They would not have qualified for merit (or in some cases, admission) based on their unweighted GPAs.

Some public schools have firm cutoffs for merit published in the scholarship section of their websites and will state whether the GPA used is weighted or unweighted. I also found Naviance a useful source of information regarding whether a given school uses the weighted GPA on the transcript or whether they recalculate it.

"I just don't think kids can "count" on merit aid from a top 75 school. My DC has never received a B, 9 fives on APs as of the end of jr year (the scores are available through the fast response site, for those who don't know) got a 1590 on the SAT, strong ECs (but not a star athlete, cured cancer, etc), will likely be NMS. Getting costs down from the top 75 to match UMD will involve a significant amount of good luck."

This brings up another part of the difficulty of "matching UMD" in-state. This poster's DC WILL get merit aid at UMD.

So starting with a round number, $27k in-state cost of attendance, a Presidents Scholarship of between $2k and $12k leaves between $25k and $15k.

https://admissions.umd.edu/finance/freshman-merit-scholarships

They also have a significant chance of a partial Banneker/Key which opens up more chances of ~$15k cost of attendance.

On the other hand, if DC's "strong ECs" involve the Band, in order to create "the big college sports experience" there can be "band specific" money.

But Division 1 band is similar to Division 1 sports....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Possible merit aid (don’t count on it) at the Univ of Vermont, Temple, Pitt, or others in that approximate tier. Would likely be admitted to the Univ of Wisconsin, Univ of Washington, Boulder. The top tier state schools (Michigan, UCLA, UVA, etc.) would definitely be reaches, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

Nope, not Wisconsin with those numbers. Sorry.

I think those numbers are good for Wisconsin admissions; do you mean not for FA?

Anonymous wrote:

I didn't say it's weak. It's just not strong enough to get meaningful amount of merit aids from somewhat respectable schools. There are, simply, too many high performing kids in this area.

But OP's kid is not interested in applying to schools in this area. Big public schools will almost certainly use a weighted GPA.

My DS had similarly "not strong enough" stats, went to an FCPS HS, took fewer APs, and was awarded $12,500 from UMDCP for a 1480 SAT and a GPA in a similar range (3.9 weighted, probably around 3.6 unweighted).

No, that is generally not how it works.

Anonymous wrote:3.57 (unweighted) GPA, 8 completed APs, 1480 SATs. Any chance of merit aid somewhere? DC wants a large sports school. I am thinking UMD, she is thinking far away, midwest or north (doesn't like the south, "it's too hot.").

My DD had very similar stats last year and her are some of the schools she got into:

UMBC (in-state): $9000 merit for total cost under $15,000/year
Pitt: $8000 merit, total cost $40,000
UDel: $14,000 merit, total cost $37,000

Going to UMD with no merit but in-state total cost under $25,000