<p>My daughter decided she wants to go to bs. We told her it was too expensive. She them came back with a list of schools that offer the full, four year merit scholarships. We gave her our blessing to go for it. She did just that and completed all four applications over Thanksgiving break. She is a great kid, with strong grades, diverse ecs and a decent ssat score. She has orchestrated the entire application process; from asking to go to bs, to researching the schools. to making sure everything was completed and sent in. I was along for the ride...She had a blast visiting the schools and loved each one. (one was an off campus visit due to distance)</p>
<p>I have no idea if she will get a scholarship. The odds are so against her. But to me, the outcome is a win-win situation. She is doing phenomenally well in a great public school and is well liked by all her teachers. She lights up a room and I would miss having her around. On the other hand, the bs schools are great and what an opportunity it would be for her. As I said, win-win.</p>
<p>So, what makes a merit scholar? The total package? Do some things weigh more heavily than others?</p>
<p>I think you'd have to tell us the schools for us to know that. Different schools value different things. Sorry if you can't divulge that info, but I think it really does differ from school to school.</p>
<p>The merit scholarships I looked happened to stress community service, which is not something that my daughter had much of. So while I think my daughter is pretty great and an academic stand-out, she didn't even bother to apply.</p>
<p>Good luck to you and your daughter. I wonder why you didn't pursue need based financial aid, which is more abundant supply?</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick replies. I don't want to say the schools names for obvious reasons. They are all wonderful schools, and my daughter would be honored and proud to go to any of them.
As far as FA goes, we did, at the last minute, apply for that as well. My problem with it is that there is no guarantee that she would receive it each year (or enough) and I would worry about returning to our school (we live in a state that mandates that each child has to take a state test in most subjects in order to graduate. Leaving for a year or so would complicate that issue greatly).</p>
<p>Best of luck zuzu'petals (and you have a great name!) Schools in general will try to keep students, so if she has enough aid the first year, chances are decent for subsequent years.<br>
Don't sweat the state test issue too much - I'm sure she would be fine. For most subjects (maybe not history), the boarding school education will cover the right stuff.</p>
<p>Agree with nemom about the state tests,(and recurring FA). I live in a state with regents exams. Seriously, they aren't difficult. Furthermore, to achieve a score with "distinction" means to get roughly 77% of the answers right. Not. Kidding. Example: for one of the math regents, a student needs a score of 85 or better for distinction and 65 or better to pass. These are SCALED scores! 85 = 67/87 and
65 = 30/87. You read that correctly. A student can "pass" this particular regents exam by getting 34% of the available points. The bar is very low in our state. Don't sweat it.</p>