GPA: 4.26 weighted / 4.0 unweighted
I take almost all the APs out school offers, the rest are honors, with one required theology class that is not honors
New sat: 1300 hoping to get a 1400 on the next one
Rank: 2 or 3
APs
Gov and politics, psych, chem, calc, lit (the school doesn’t have that many)
ECs are good but nothing amazing:
varsity soccer (4 years with 3 varsity letters)
rowing crew at a local club
tutoring low income children in my community (3 yrs)
service club (3)
mock trial (3)
NHS (2)
Ski club (4)
pall bearing ministry
volunteer at hospital
peace camp counselor
By the end of high school I will have over 100 hrs of service
I will be majoring in chemistry
Also I want to apply ED but the only thing deterring me is cost. I don’t qualify for need based finanicial aid, so I would need a decent amount of merit based (around 15-20,000). Is that possible?
I think it’s quite possible that you’ll receive $15-20K in aid upon acceptance. If ED is how you want to apply, then absolutely do it. You’re committing to attend GW if and only if the cost of attendance meets your requirement.
That is entirely false. You can look back through all the posts of those accepted ED and see the awards they received. It’s more likely than not to receive some sort of aid, even when applying ED.
@CU123 No, I never said that. And @irish518 's stats aren’t average either, and are probably in the top 25%. That’s why I’m saying “quite possible.” Further, judging from your threads and posts, you don’t spend a whole lot of time in the GW forum, let alone reading through every year’s threads of accepted student stats like I do. If you didn’t bother doing your research and have facts to back-up any of your claims, then don’t attempt to call me out on any of my research.
@TomSrOfBoston What do you mean? Yes, the University determines your EFC. However, that number doesn’t always reflect what a family can afford, let alone what amount parents are pressuring their children to stay under. If a student applies ED with the hope that they can attend for under $20K per year only to find out the financial aid won’t make that possible, they aren’t obligated to attend.
“Families can decline admission, on one condition. In general, early decision is binding and a student is required to accept the offer of admission. But there is one exception. That’s if the aid award offered by a school isn’t enough to make the cost affordable.”
So that answers that question.
But that being said, it normally is harder to get merit aid by applying ED compared to RD, even though its possible. Since you don’t qualify for any need based aid, and if you REQUIRE merit aid to make the school affordable, I’d recommend applying RD. I have yet to meet anybody during my time at GW that successfully appealed their merit awards. If you call as an admitted ED student claiming that you can’t afford it due to the lack of merit aid, yet you didn’t get a penny from the FAFSA, that’s not going to be a conversation that goes your way.
I think your chances at merit aid are good with your stats. I don’t know about ED, but last year my DD applied RD. Her stats were 3.9UW/4.2W, ACT 34C, rank top 10%, 4s and 5s on AP exams, mid to high 700s for SAT subject tests, and multiple leadership ECs (class president, school board, youth commission, peer conflict resolution) plus volunteering and mock trial. She got offered $25k merit. You have a great rank and GPA. Good luck.