<p>You will probably find more generous merit aid at lower ranked private colleges than you would have a couple of years ago. These schools need to be close to the cost of a state school to get a decent class these days, so they have added to aid budgets and are more heavily discounting (aka giving merit aid).</p>
<p>How do we know which schools are “lower ranked” private schools?</p>
<p>Look at US News, any LAC below 20 that is not the exception will be in this category.</p>
<p>There is a thread I started on wonderful tier 3 schools. LOOK THERE. Bridgewater College. Belmont Abbey College. Places like that, that are wonderful, nurturing and structured. They have resources to help kids. They care. Strong academics. Good schools. Good luck.</p>
<p>Maybe check out Virginia Wesleyan.</p>
<p>Ok. I will look at the threads. He is a really good student. Takes AP classes, 4.10 gpa but doesn’t do well on the standardized tests. Will look to see if any of these are the ones recruiting him for soccer.</p>
<p>Has he always done poorly on this kind of exam? It may be time to sit down with the counselor and school psychologist and talk about screening for learning disabilities. Good grades and consistently bad standardized test scores can be an indicator for some dyslexias. Really smart kids find their own work-arounds for daily work so the teachers might not be worried about him. However, when the amount of work increases in college, his personal tricks may no longer serve him well.</p>
<p>Happykid can’t test her way out of a paper-bag so I do understand where you are coming from. She never did take the PSAT, ACT, or SAT, just the AP English Lit exam.</p>
<p>Good point happymomof1. He has not done well on the standardized tests but he is a very good writer. He got 11 out of 12 on the ACT and I think 600 on the SAT. He scored 26 on math on the ACT and 25 in Science but in Reading and English he got an 18. He did score well on the practice exams with the test prep and they said they were harder than the real thing so he should do better on the actual exam.</p>
<p>*CLU doesn’t follow that exact chart. My other son was between two but they gave him the largest amount. GPA qualified him for the lower amount but his ACT (25) gave him the higher amount so he got $10K per year. We were hoping to pay around $30-35K after merit. *</p>
<p>Call and talk to CLU’s scholarship office. Your older son was given the higher amount based on his ACT. That isn’t unusual for some schools since schools badly want to raise their mid 50 test score ranges… It is more unusual the other way around (awarding for higher GPA. )</p>
<p>I’m glad to hear that he’s testing again. Hopefully he’ll boost his scores. :)</p>