<p>I know there are a few parents of Rhodes students here and I'm hoping you can share some information about two things. </p>
<p>First, merit aid. I'm mostly wondering at this point how much of the merit-aid decisions are driven by standardized test scores. It's easy at some big state schools (a certain score equals a certain amount of money) and also at the schools that gvie no merit-based aid. But schools like Rhodes leave me perplexed. I understand that it is best to be at the high end of the admissions statistics but how high is good enough? To make this concrete, son's ACT score is 31 (very skewed, though, with 35s in English and Reading and mid-20s in Math and Science). The last info I saw, Rhodes's middle 50 percent was 2?-30. His GPA is 3.8ish, unweighted (school does not weight any classes, but all of son's core classes have been honors, with two AP classes last year and two more scheduled for this year). Should we not even think about merit aid because his ACT score puts him in the top 25 percent but not much higher? What else might help us predict how this might turn out?</p>
<p>The other question is about the "pep band." Is this a low-key version of a marching band? Very competitive to get into? Something that takes tons of time? Son has played in the marching band all through high school and is competent but not outstanding. I think he would enjoy playing but not if it were extremely competitive or time-consuming. Just wondering if that's something he should express interest in when he completes the application.</p>