I don’t think 3rd quarter grades have any impact unless they’re really bad but I just wanted to make sure. Can they be a reason to not offer further late aid?
Call your school
Doubtful (except for potential merit aid). It will have a greater chance of affecting admission.
Further merit aid, as in you would like more? Yes, bad grades can affect that.
All colleges and universities set their own policies regarding this. Some base their merit aid directly off of the acceptance scores and GPA while others wait to confirm the scholarship until the student’s final transcripts have been received. Others allow students to test higher and have a cutoff date in which you can submit new information.
Your next step would be to contact the schools in which you received merit aid offers and ask them for their policy regarding this. They should walk you through this process.
Like can lower grades hurt chances of possibly getting more aid before May 1st?
As others said, it depends on the school. My daughter’s school sent the merit award with her acceptance in October, but it was very clear that it could go up or down until the final grades and scores were submitted. The merit scholarships were off a gpa/score grid, and they do not round, so if you had a 3.30 at acceptance and it fell to a 3.29 with senior grades, your scholarship could be reduced.
So I increased my total average from marking period 1 to marking period 2 four points.
For marking period 3, should it go up for my best chance of increasing money?
There is no way to know.
What college asks for third marking period grades?
Around here…colleges want mid year grades…and then expect to see your final transcript in June. No college around here would have any idea what your third term grades are. They don’t request them.
Unless there is something truly remarkable about those third term grades, which you would have to send to them, I can’t see how this would matter.