Do colleges look at CR+Math SAT's or the entire SAT score for merit aid?

Paying for College
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<p>I'm new at the whole college search. Been working since beginning of summer on searching out schools and we're trying to decide if a retake on the SAT is necessary or even desirable before January.</p>

<p>CR+Math for my son is 1480 but his overall score isn't as high at 2120. He's wanting to major in Engineering and looking at a variety of schools here and a few out of state.</p>

<p>He took the ACT recently but lost track of time on one section so he fears his score will be lower that what it should be. He gets very nervous and doesn't perform well on standardized tests in the real thing but does great at practice.</p>

<p>Other info: his GPA (unweighted) is 4.0 and he is taking 5 AP classes this year.</p>

<p>Any help is appreciated.</p>

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<p>It seems to depend on the college, spellingmom. Where is “here” for you"</p>

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<p>We are in Virginia.</p>

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<p>Quite a number of eastern schools only consider CR and Math sections for admission and merit aid. You can get an idea about the ones you are interested in from the collegesearch.collegeboard site and from the school websites. Do you have particular ones in mind?</p>

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<p>That’s part of the problem because he likes the idea of college and doesn’t have his heart set on one particular college. He likes Virginia Tech, University of VA, University of Richmond, University of Pittsburgh, MIT (out of reach), Grove City, George Mason and on and on. OOS could include any within driving distance would be nice for the family because we’d like to have him home whenever he wants to come.</p>

<p>We’d really like to have full tuition and most of room and board covered (who wouldn’t) but our EFC is high so no need based aid would be coming at all.</p>

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<p>Why doesn’t he take the SAT again to get the writing score up?</p>

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<p>*We’d really like to have full tuition and most of room and board covered (who wouldn’t) but our EFC is high so no need based aid would be coming at all. *</p>

<p>Is he a national merit semi-finalist? If so, that’s one way to get nearly all costs covered by some schools.</p>

<p>Virginia has about 340 students at Bama…probably many are getting good sized scholarships. </p>

<p>With your son’s stats he would get free tuition (including out of state costs) if he applies by Dec 1st. He would also have to do the scholarship app, but he would get the scholarship for sure if he applied on time. </p>

<p>Also…since he’s an engineering major, he’d also get $2500 per year. That would stack on top of the full tuition scholarship.</p>

<p>Total value…over $90k…That’s probably the most he could get without being a NMF at a school of similar ranking.</p>

<p>here are some pics to give you a general idea of the campus look. The first two links show you the Shelby Complex. The first link has more pics on the bottom because the complex is too big for one pic.</p>

<p>Bama has brand new Engineering facilities. See below</p>

<p>Shelby Science and Engineering Complex - aerial view - scroll down for more thumbnail pics. (This shows Phase II which is completed. Phase III will complete this year and is being built to the right of this aerial shot.)
[Science</a> & Engineering Complex Phase II - Davis Architects](<a href=“http://www.dadot.com/project/education_college_university/science_and_engineering_complex.aspx]Science”>http://www.dadot.com/project/education_college_university/science_and_engineering_complex.aspx)
Shelby Hall (note little pics on bottom of link) [Shelby</a> Hall - The University of Alabama](<a href=“Page Not Found | The University of Alabama”>Page Not Found | The University of Alabama) Following links have more thumbnails about Shelby.
[Exterior</a> Tour](<a href=“http://www.bama.ua.edu/~chem/facilities/buildings/shelbytour/exterior/exterior1.html]Exterior”>http://www.bama.ua.edu/~chem/facilities/buildings/shelbytour/exterior/exterior1.html)
[Shelby</a> Tour](<a href=“http://www.bama.ua.edu/~chem/facilities/buildings/shelbytour/tour.html]Shelby”>http://www.bama.ua.edu/~chem/facilities/buildings/shelbytour/tour.html)
Rendering of Phase III
[Science</a> & Engineering Complex Phase III - Davis Architects](<a href=“http://www.dadot.com/project/under_construction_0/science_and_engineering_complex_0.aspx]Science”>http://www.dadot.com/project/under_construction_0/science_and_engineering_complex_0.aspx)</p>

<p>The campus is gorgeous, the academics are strong, the Honors College is very LAC-like and popular, and the honors dorms are very nice (see below for those pics)</p>

<p>Residence Halls [Ridgecrest</a> East, South, and West Residential Complex - The University of Alabama](<a href=“Page Not Found | The University of Alabama”>Page Not Found | The University of Alabama) [Riverside</a> East, North, and West Residential Complex - The University of Alabama](<a href=“Page Not Found | The University of Alabama”>Page Not Found | The University of Alabama) [Lakeside</a> Residential Areas - The University of Alabama](<a href=“Page Not Found | The University of Alabama”>Page Not Found | The University of Alabama)</p>

<p>With the full tuition scholarship and the engineering scholarship to pay for meal plan, you’d really just be left with housing, books, and some odd smaller things to pay for. Also, your son could take out a $5500 student loan freshman year to help pay costs. He also might get Work study or he could do what my sons do…they work for the university as math and science tutors and Bama pays them for their work.</p>

<p>How much can you pay each year?</p>

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<p>Thanks Mom2Collegekids. We are already checking out Bama. His grandfather would love that!!! </p>

<p>He didn’t quite make the NMF so that’s not it the picture but did get commended. We’re pretty limited to about 10 K for school and he can go local to George Mason for about that commuting back and forth daily. Not our favorite but it’ll do if need be.</p>

<p>Erin’s Dad, one of the things I’m trying to figure out is if he should take the SAT again. He’s doing 5 AP’s and works part-time plus has a ton of extracurriculars as well. He’s scheduled to take the Nov SAT II’s so it really leaves only the Oct or Dec SAT for some of the schools to consider the score for merit aid purposes. </p>

<p>Thanks though! Does the reading portion really get counted??? That’s kind of what I’m trying to get a handle on. Because, if most schools really only look at the CR + Math, then I think we’ll just be done. He writes well and could probably do much better on the writing a second time.</p>

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<p>We’re pretty limited to about 10 K for school and he can go local to George Mason for about that commuting back and forth daily. Not our favorite but it’ll do if need be.</p>

<p>Well…$10k per year contribution from you along with a full tuition scholarship and $2500 for engineering from Bama will pay for nearly all costs…including honors housing. Your son might have to either take out a small loan or perhaps contribute some summer earnings for books.</p>

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<p>Some schools will only look at CR+Math but you’ll have to check each school’s common data set to find out.</p>

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<p>Often the school’s website will tell you on its scholarship page. </p>

<p>Erin’s Dad…I didn’t know that the CDS specifies whether M+CR or all 3 sections get considered for merit. I guess I never noticed that detail.</p>

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<p>I believe if the CDS only publishes the CR and Math scores then the writing is not considered.</p>