<p>Hi, I'm a high school junior from a competitive MA school and I am SERIOUSLY considering UMass Amherst. Here are some of my stats:</p>
<p>GPA: 3.52 avg out of 4.71 GPA cap (due to weird scaling)
PSAT: 183 (60 math, 60 reading, 83 writing)
SAT: (taking them in June)
SAT Subject Tests: (taking them in May)
Class Rank: Top 25-30% (school doesn't rank)
MCAS: 270 ELA (advanced), 272 Math (advanced), 258 Biology (just missed advanced :P)</p>
<p>JR Year Courses: 5 honors classes, AP Chem, and gym
SR Year Courses: 2 honors classes, 3 AP classes, Statistics CPI, and gym (so GPA will probably go up)</p>
<p>EC: Varsity swim (3 years), club swim captain, volunteering</p>
<p>Other Achievements:
National French Exam Bronze Medalist (2012)
National French Exam Certificate (2013)
National Spanish Exam Certificate (2012)</p>
<p>My question is, assuming I get into UMass Amherst, would I receive and merit awards or FA? I am Asian and I come from a middle-class family. If I receive FA, how much would I be likely to receive? Also, would I have a shot at the Commonwealth Honors College with my current stats? I aspire to major in Business and maybe minor in a foreign language or communications.</p>
<p>The minimums for the Commonwealth Honors at UMass are a weighted GPA of A- or higher, minimum combined SAT critical reading and math of 1300, and top 10% of your high school class. It doesn’t look like you have all these things right now, but since you’re a junior, you should still have some time to up your statistics–study hard for the SAT and keep your grades in an upward trend. </p>
<p>It also seems as though if you’re an instate applicant, you need to be in the honors college for merit, and even those awards aren’t typically very big. Financial aid can vary though. Look for their net price calculator to see if you can get a rough estimate from that.</p>
<p>The minimums for Commonwealth College are not hard and fast, you can get in without meeting all of those if you are close. Not sure how they will treat your weird GPA, but if it scales, it is about a 3.0/4.0 right now. You need to work on getting that up, and on nailing the SATs, or it may be a moot point, as competition for admission gets greater every year.</p>
<p>Even if you don’t get the Honors College initially, you can join later as long as your UMass GPA is high enough.</p>
<p>As for merit - your MCAS scores should be enough to get you the Adams scholarship, which gets you $1714/year.</p>
<p>Other than that, based on your current stats, I don’t think you will get much merit aid. UMass is pretty stingy with in-state students; for example, my S, who had a 1550 M+CR, top 10% rank, and a 4.5/4.0 GPA, got only a $1000 Dean’s Scholarship.</p>
<p>For need-based financial aid, without knowing anything about your situation it is impossible to say, other than UMass is not known for generous need-based aid either.</p>
<p>Thank you for the feedback. Yeah, I thought I might have a better chance with UMass Lowell but there doesn’t seem to be a forum for that. If anyone knows anything about that please let me know okay?</p>
<p>My son was accepted to Northeastern, UMass Amherst & UMass Lowell. UMass Lowell gave him the Chancellors scholarship and a spot in the Commonwealth Honors (now) College. The 1/2 scholarship made it a no brainer. At UMass Amherst all we were offered was the $1714 Adams scholarship and $1000. The classes at UMass Lowell are smaller and are all taught by professors. He is very happy there. However, whether to attend Lowell or Amherst depends on your major. It is also close to Boston which makes for a nice weekend adventure every now and then. I would definitely investigate it further.</p>