Hi, asking a question for my daughter about a possible gap year…she has been out of school (due to health reasons) from end of sophomore year and is now a senior. Last year did a reduced schedule online and this year has health issues under control and is doing all her remaining classes needed to graduate as a dual enrollment student at a local college. She has continued to perform all this time, though, with local community theatre and has been doing great (both MT and straight acting roles). A gap year is sounding very reasonable so that she can concentrate on her school work without missing a lot of class due to auditions (needs to get GPA up due to poor grades during health crisis.) QUESTION, though: will need a good amount of financial aid to go anywhere other than local university. Do most schools give their merit aid based on final GPA (rather than 7th semester) if it is available, as well as SAT/ ACT scores? Have inquired at several colleges but haven’t heard back. Final GPA is likely to be a good bit higher. Just worried that she would end up disqualified from merit scholarships/OOStuition waivers, though. Thanks for any input!
@catznpigz, could you clarify your question? You say you need a good amount of financial aid but then you talk about merit aid.
Need based financial aid is different from merit aid. Need based aid is based on your FAFSA and sometimes Profile, and it’s based on what it sounds like, your financial need. Merit aid is based on your grades, stats etc. Talent is based on your talent. Sometimes merit & talent can be combined with need, as well. So you can have a scholarship for merit that stipulates that it will be rewarded only to someone with high need as well.
What is your situation? If you’re talking about financial aid, it’s just based on your finances. Grades won’t matter. Well, they do matter but only insofar as being accepted into the college. Once you’re accepted, you’re in the pool for financial aid.
Merit & need-based merit–each school does this differently. You can find this information on each school’s website. A school can have a merit scholarship based on GPA, SATs & pure stats. Or it can have what it calls ‘holistic,’ meaning a mix of things with no firm line in the sand. It can also be based on attributes the committee wants, such as under-represented minority, geographically diverse, leadership, etc. Talent is talent–the school decides if you are awarded it upon acceptance based on their assessment of your talent.
Most schools will use data from first half of senior year. Second half will usually not be incorporated into their calculations for merit. This is because the deadlines are January the latest, usually. Some schools have rolling admissions up through April or later. In that case, they would use third semester as well. It’s usually whatever you have earned at the time you apply.
@connections , thanks for the reply, just saw it! (still trying to figure out how to use this board.) I guess what I mean is that we will not qualify for Financial Aid based on FAFSA (which I know from another child’s experience), yet will need financial assistance from merit aid in order to attend anywhere other than local university, I think I have had this question answered by several college admissions offices when I asked directly. The answer seemed to be: 7th semester stats will be used for merit aid/OOS tuition waivers; however, although many had rules that you had to attend within a year of HS graduation in order to take advantage of new Freshman scholarships/merit aid, those rules would be highly likely to be waived upon request due to my daughter’s situation. Again, thank you!