Then it wouldn’t be merit aid.
It would be a quasi need based aid with a academic threshold
Most top 30 to 40 schools have already done away with merit or only offer a few highly competitive scholarships.
This is what is contributing to High Stat kids" especially middle to upper middle class families " that don’t qualify for need base aid but parents can’t afford sticker price so they are applying to schools say rated 50 to 150 or so in hopes of getting merit to make it affordable.
Luckily we live in Florida where tuition is under 7K a year at all 12 Public Universities and depending on stats the Bright Futures scholarships pay 75% to 100%. and parents have the option to pre pay Tuition and dorm and lock in rates staring when child is born.
OFF Topic I believe this is the main reason Florida Schools are moving up the rankings and getting harder to get into. High Stat kids that would have went OOS before can’t justify the cost and are staying instate.
For perspective this is are second go around with D23 previous S21.
We have a high EFC basically full pay and chased merit for both with OOS schools. They did not apply to any OOS ;its call it top 40 schools based on US News rankings due to lack of merit opportunities.
Disclaimer Im not a big on US News rankings but it’s a tool we all know.
We are in Florida so its hard to justify OOS tuition, but you always look for options.
S21 still ended up instate at FSU.
D23 we applied EA or rolling to 11 OOS " Nation Universities off US News List ranked from the 40’s to 130’s chasing merit" Received merit from all or under review still. We applied to 4 instate Universities.
D23 quick stats 3.7 something UW GPA 4.4 something Weighted on Florida public weighting, plus 1 point for college level courses and plus .5 for honors in core classes.
She will have around 45 or so college credits when she graduates High school with her AICE/Cambridge Diploma, between AICE/AP/DE classes.
President peer to peer mentoring group, VP Junior year
Officer NHS Junior/Senior Year.
City youth Soccer coach 3 years, not 4 yrs due to covid
Volunteer Daycare at church
Will have almost 400 hours community service hours by end of Senior year
Biology Pre Med Major… State Certified medical Assistant and EKG Tech
I have a problem that she shouldn’t be eligible for merit aid because of income as some are suggesting in this thread.
Yes she did find an OOS unicorn where tuition is just under 5000 a year after merit based on this years cost and includes Honors college acceptance This is now a top 2 choice between an instate. While we wait to hear from UF in late February. and a couple OOS schools that we are still waiting on merit.
From our experience EA worked great for S21 and D23 no real surprises. You need to do your research before applying and be realistic.
What does that mean if school considers demonstrated interest show it. Sign up for zoom calls, optional interviews, visit campus if you can etc. If app has options essays do them. If your stats are very high and worried about school deferring you, reach out to AO and explain this is one of your top choices… Don’t do the minimum on the application because you have High Stats. You are competing with students with the same stats that did extra on the app and lower stats students that may be doing a better job of saleing themself to the school.
Finally EA also takes the pressure off the kids knowing you have that college acceptance at the beginning of Senior year.