<p>Please chance me for merit aid. Hope to studey engineering.</p>
<p>GPA: 4.74 weighted
Rank: 1/260
Varsity Basketball
Student Council Delegate
National HOnor Society
SAT: MAth - 720,Verbal - 700, Written - 700</p>
<p>Schools of interest:
Michigan
Maryland
Wisconsin
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Lehigh
Carnegie Mellon
Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>I hate to say this, but there are thousands of students with similar stats at those schools. You might be in the top half of their applicant pools, but you need to be in the top quarter to get significant merit aid. You might get $5000/yr at Maryland, but if you are out-of-state, that makes only a dent when the total OOS cost is $37000+/yr.</p>
<p>what is your home state?</p>
<p>I don’t think those publics give much (if any) merit money to out of state students. I’m pretty sure that your stats aren’t high enough for any decent merit at UMich as a non-resident. As for the privates…I don’t know how competitive your stats are for any merit they may have. I also don’t know if JHU gives merit (or much merit).</p>
<p>The problem is that with high ranking schools, your stats will not be considered very high, so not deserving of much or any merit (if they give merit). </p>
<p>However, at mid-tier schools, your stats might be in the top 5% of their students…which is very good…however, not all mid-tier schools give merit or they might not give much merit to out of state students. </p>
<p>If you want merit money, you need to target schools that give assured merit for your stats. It’s ok to apply to some schools that have competitive merit scholarships, but if you’ll need merit to go to college, then you need to also apply to some schools that will give you ASSURED merit for your stats. Those can by your financial safety schools. :)</p>
<p>CC Important links to Auto Scholarships…
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>The above post says that you have to be in the top 25% to get good merit. I would go further and say to get big merit, you have to be in the top 5% or so. The top 25% might get small merit awards, but not enough to make a big dent in $35k-55k per year.</p>
<p>Yes to both above. If you are out of state for any of the publics in your list make sure you have your own state’s flagship engineering school on the list. Also add a couple engineering schools where you at the very top of the entering class if that isn’t represented above. You want to make sure you are accepted at a school you are willing to attend that meets your financial needs …or the best school you can go to that meets your financial needs. You can get a picture of what might financially happen by doing some “research.” Take a look at each of the colleges websites, compare yourself to the statistics for this year’s class (or last year’s). Get together with your parents and run some financial aid calculators to figure out what the minimum you and your parents will be expected to pay. Search on the forums for each of the colleges to get an idea of what kind of packages are being reported. Finally, there is data (and links all over this forum) to Collegeboard data, etc. for percentage of need met by the colleges and universities. Mom2 has posted a link to a good thread for merit aid if that is your number one consideration in choosing a college/uni.</p>