Difficulty in receiving merit based aid?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
1

Hi my daughter would love to attend Wash U. She got a 34 on her ACT, national merit commended, many AP classes with 4/5’s, and a 4.6 GPA unweighted. We just found out that she will not qualify for any financial aid. she is applying for any available merit based scholarships. We heard there was a 10% chance of getting a merits scholarship-is this correct? Any tips for getting a scholarship?

2

I would be very interested to know as well. I have very similar stats and won’t be getting any help from my parents. WashU is my dream school!

3

The best merit for high stats kids that do not qualify for financial aid will be at lower tier schools. Don’t know what the metrics are for WUSTL’s merit. You could contact the school and ask. My hunch is that their merit will be geared toward the very high stats kid that they want to woo away from tippy top schools. Plus, I think a lot depends on those essays for scholarships. WUSTL can send you the info on all of their scholarships.

4

They are extremely difficult to obtain even for high stats students - perfect GPA, ACT etc…
I agree with above post that the merit is used to woo high stats students away from tip top schools.

5

You can get an idea for a school through a couple of methods:

  • Google " common data set". This is a standard set of info that many colleges provide, and merit aid is one category they give metrics on. You can see how many students are getting it and the average amount. I think the number is total # of students at the college, so remember that as you figure out what % of students get merit. From that percentage, you can make a very rough estimate of what percentile your kids stats should fall in to have a shot at merit. Not perfect, but gives you an idea. Generally merit is used to sweeten the offer for students they especially want.
  • Obviously you want to carefully read the college website for info. But schools are often pretty cagey about this – size and number of scholarships often isn’t available. They want to retain the flexibility to use the money as they see fit.
6

all info. offered is so very helpful thank you folks!