<p>Let me clarify what I meant to say. I fully understand that I am not going to get a large merit scholarship at a school like Duke, Rice, Vanderbilt, or WashU. I was asking as to how I could leverage my SAT score into a large scholarship at as prestigious a school as possible - not necessarily a prestigious schools, if that makes sense. </p>
<p>My GPA is a smudge under an A average for my high school which, as I mentioned, is a very, very well-regarded Catholic prep school. We don’t rank, but if we did, I would probably be hovering around the 30% mark. I also have pretty good extracurriculars (I’m sorry, but I don’t want to go into detail). If this helps to illustrate where I am, students of around my caliber at my school tend to end up anywhere from a “lower” Ivy to Boston College, at worst (and that’s a pretty good "worst).</p>
<p>I don’t mind forfeiting “prestige” in order to have my education heavily subsidized; however, seeing as how I’d like to (I don’t NEED to) go for the money, I’d still like to grab as much prestige as possible while doing so. I understand how wrong that is going to sound to CC ears, but it nevertheless is important to me. </p>
<p>mom2collegekids, I remember how you were an exceptional help when I asked a similar question a few months back, mentioning the University of Alabama and its full ride. I did a good amount of research into the school, and a lot of it seemed quite appealing - the facilities, the departments, the honors college, the school pride, etc. But I also spoke to my guidance counselor, immediate family, and friends about the possibility of Alabama - and I received overwhelmingly negative responses. Even I felt a bit apprehensive about the idea of going there; as good as the school may be, it’s not going to get me places here in the Northeast. I’m using the Alabama example to illustrate something that I would (arrogantly) consider “too low” - and Alabama may quite possibly be one of the, if not the best option out of the institutional National Merit Scholarships!</p>
<p>Thanks again for your response, mom2collegekids, and those schools that you mention - the ones that give “big merit” - what are they?</p>