Chance Me For Merit

Paying for College
1

Junior this year at the #1 school in Massachusetts, Boston Latin School. First public school in the country, number one feeder to Harvard. All classes we take are honors, unless stated as an AP.

These are the AP’s I have taken/will take:
World History, US History, Environmental Science, Macro Economics, Micro Economics, Statistics.

UW GPA: 3.4
SAT: 2200

Extracurricular:
Trumpet Player in the highest ranked jazz band and orchestra in my school, get gold at every competition we go to, including state finals -6 years
Special Olympic Volunteer - 3 years
Caddy at Brookline Country Club (hosted numerous U.S. Opens and a Ryder Cup) - 3 years
Varsity Golf - 1 year
EPICC (similar to Model UN) - 2 years
Founding member of my branch of Junior Statesmen of America - 2 years
Member of Film Club - 3 years

COULD I GET MERIT AID AT THESE SCHOOLS?
Want to go into Finance, these are the schools I’m looking at:
Boston College
Bentley
UMASS Amherst
NYU Stern
Notre Dame
U Michigian Ann Arbor
U Chicago Booth
Lehigh

2

I don’t think Boston College gives merit. I don’t think Notre Dame does either. If they do, it might be small alumni awards, nothing that could be expected.

Your GPA seems too low, but I don’t know if that’s typical for Boston Latin.

3

U Chicago Booth Graduate school only, no undergrad program.

Your low GPA will hurt your chances at BC, Notre Dame NYU and Michigan. they would all be reaches. Chances of merit aid at these schools, if they offer any, is zero.

4

Crush it junior year, be a leader and have a great summer experience.

Then lower your tier to schools that more likely can offer merit like Miami, Tulane, GW, Northeastern, BU, Drexel, Temple, Fordham, etc.

5

Try to calm down in the ALL CAPS.

6

Both have merit aid with some medium to large awards for the very top admits (1% at BC, 4% at ND).

7

Chancing for merit aid is difficult in general. A 3.4 GPA is going to make you a long shot for merit aid at many colleges.

What is your budget, and what is your SAT CR+M score?

Generally speaking if you need merit aid you can’t pick colleges at random. Rather you need a strategy that matches your qualifications.

Also a stellar performance on the PSAT this year will open up some good merit possibilities.

8

For the SAT I have a CR+M score of 1500, 750 in both.
My EFC is around 35k, with two other brothers in college. However they are both spending the first two years at community college.
Sorry about the all caps I’m just trying to have the main points be emphasized.

9

Pull your GPA up to 3.5 and you’ll get automatic full tuition/full rides at a bunch of schools. Not the same level of prestige that you seem to be going for, but you’ll actually be able to afford college, which is what matters.

10

I imagine Boston Latin has some very experienced GCs on staff. What have they recommended?

11

Are you taking the PSAT?

12

Take a stroll through naviance and see where kids with profiles like yours get admitted. That needs to be your first step. You’ve got to toss out the non-merit schools from the git-go.

There’s a difference between wanting to “go into finance” and intending to MAJOR in finance. Do you know the difference? You can major in econ (school of arts and sciences) at a school with no undergrad business school (like U Chicago); you can major in political science at a rigorous program, or you can major in finance (but understand the difference in what you will be learning/focusing on and what you are giving up).

13

Is that your weighted GPA? What will it be at the end of junior year?

14

Your GPA is very low for UMich admission, not to mention merit aid. Disregarding your GPA, your SAT is just above admission average and within the mid 50 for UMich, it is also far from getting any merit aid.

15

My weighted GPA at the moment is only a 3.56 because at our school we can only take 1 AP freshman and senior year. If my school weighted honors classes as a +.5, then my weighted would be 4.06.

16

A weighted GPA means very little for admission. Colleges will generally use UW and their own weights.

17

But I think @mom2collegekids is looking at weighted bc some scholarships may allow it for their qualifications.

I agree you don’t seem to qualify for merit for the schools on your list, and some of them don’t even offer it. And that most of them may even be a reach for you. But their are schools a notch or two down (all still top 100 schools) where you may qualify for merit.

My advice would be to do some careful research either in your school’s Naviance or on the common data set from each school to see what is a good match for you, and where you may get merit (and who even offers it).

18

Do look at Bentley – a friend’s daughter (currently a senior) got a TON of merit aid there, and has been very happy both with classes and with internship & job opportunities. I’m actually a Bentley grad myself, so I’m partial too :slight_smile: