Class Rank: is competitiveness of High School considered for merit aid

Paying for College
21

Furman is a good possibilty. Your daughter may be in the running for a Townes scholarship which could get her 35,000k and while Furman considers GPA, I am not sure that class rank will be a problem. Additionally, great science and research with a good percentage of kids getting first choice into med schools.

22

Thank you, Furman sounds like a great school! Unfortunately, its D1 for sports. Will keep it on our list of schools for a possibility of attending without a sport.

23

Maybe Hendrix?

24

Yes, they are on our list. Thank you!

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25

Our D21 just got into Furman ED (with Merit). She too is an athlete and was strongly considering looking at being recruited for her sport. When she visited Furman in January, she was completely drawn to the campus, the academic environment, the people she met during the tour, internship opportunities and Greenville.

She liked the idea that she could join the club sport team. She would never want to give up her sport - itā€™s a huge part of her life. She plays for school, club team and regional team playing national competitions (we live overseas).

She only considered southern schools, so there are fewer D3 schools as compared to the Northeast/Midwest. Rhodes and Sewanee were on her list, but she didnā€™t have a chance to visit due to covid. Several Florida schools, like Rollins, are D2 and worth researching.

Good luck with her decision.

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26

I think she should consider the D2 schools in the south. She could combine athletic aid with merit aid. The Sunshine state conference has a few good schools with a good track record for getting students into med schools - Rollins, Tampa, Florida Southern, Embry Riddle and Florida Tech. There are also schools in North and South Carolina that might work - Queens, Limestone, Belmont Abbey.

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27

Some other D3 schools to look into that seem to offer good merit would be:

  • Trinity Univ (TX)
  • Denison (OH)
  • St Olaf (MN)
  • maybe Dickinson (PA)
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28

Is the class rank based on weighted or unweighted GPA? As I understand it a lot of schools look at unweighted GPA over weighted.

29

Class rank in high school is usually based on weighted for schools that do that. Colleges generally use unweighted. While a college can recalculate an applicants GPA, they canā€™t recalculate a class rank because they donā€™t have access to the grades of other kids at the high school.

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30

My eldest D had a similar profile and a 34 ACT AND we had a budget of $35k top (which would include the fed loan, so $30k without it)

Schools that came in within $35k
Alabama
Arizona
Ole Miss
Miami OH
South Carolina
Ursinus
Susquehanna
Juniata
Allegheny
Denison
Wooster

The small LACs on the above list were $30-35k. The cheapest was Ole Miss at something crazy like $12-15k!!

D attends Bama, full tuition paid, so we only need money for room, board, transport etc. Having some flex in the budget was crucial to pay for travel, internships, a contribution towards sorority dues etc. She also has money left over for grad school. Itā€™s relieving not being at the max of our budget.

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31

Thank you everyone. Most of the schools mentioned are on her list and weā€™ve added a few! Thanks again for all the feedback.

32

My Dd19 had very similar stats, and she ended up being offered merit and honors with the costs brought down to around $30,000 at university of Delaware, Quinnipiac, Scranton, UCONN, URIā€¦ Dd21 just had the same experience from Temple and UMASS Amherst (no honors there). Dd19 ended up at UD and loves it.

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