<p>White male
2270 SAT(800M 740R 730W);
SATII: 760 Bio, 800 Math II;
3.93/4 GPA,;
4 AP; 5 in Bio, rest pending
Capt Varsity Soccer, Captain Math team, RPI Medal, etc.
Not more than 15K merit anywhere...Brandeis, Rochester, RPI, WPI, BU (10K) , Babson (Zip), PC.
Any insight? Parents make too much? Bad economy? School doesn't weight grades or give class rank ... just top 10%.
No Financial Aid either.</p>
<p>when searching for merit aid schools, you have to look at the mid range stats of the students and then be way above that… usually means you have to move down a tier or two…also need to look at number of scholarships offered and are they automatic based on stats or are they selective ie only a few are even offered?. you sons stats are actually higher than my son’s but he got full tuition at 5 schools… full ride at one… 20-25K at 3, and Rochester he got 14K. and then one he got the highest out of state merit but it totalled 13K. his school did not weight or rank either, no need based aid available.</p>
<p>truly believe that applying very early to rolling admission schools that offer merit aid based on stats is another important tip.</p>
<p>My insight on the merit aid, is that these schools apparently do not feel that they need to discount further. Your stats are wonderful, and you should be proud of them! </p>
<p>Honestly, we stayed away from most name schools in the Northeast because we knew that they would just not provide enough money to our family. We looked at lower tier schools and we looked in the midwest and the south. Many of them have lower sticker prices to begin with! Not all of them were so generous either, but enough were fairly generous with merit and financial aid. I will say that even though they were still not affordable, one school in the northeast (LAC) did offer quite a bit of grant money. Editing this to say that another rural school in the northeast was MOST generous with our child as well, but that school does not have a household name either.</p>
<p>thanks for your insight</p>
<p>Honestly, I am surprised you did not get more from those schools. I think it is the economy.More kids applying to more schools. They are either spreading $$$ around a bit more or possibly they thought you were using them as safety. </p>
<p>I think those were good choices with your stats for merit money. I would be disappointed too. I wonder if the RPI medal threw off some of the other schools?</p>
<p>I do think money must be being spread around more. I am suprised that more money was not offered from Brandeis.</p>
<p>It’s too late for you, but for others who could find themselves in this situation…always apply to a couple of schools that will give you assured merit $$ for your stats…no guesswork…and you’ll have a couple of financial safeties in your pocket. </p>
<p>There are schools that would have given you free tuition PLUS for your stats. </p>
<p>Can your parents afford your schools? If not, do you have a financial safety?</p>
<p>BTW…I agree with NEM…not much merit is in the Northeast…some, but, it can be hard to get big amounts even at the mid-tiers.</p>
<p>Try to negotiate. If you have a more generous aid offer from a school that is comparable to the school you want to attend (ie, they compete for students), approach the Financial Aid office at your preferred school and see if they will match your better offer. At worst, you get a ‘no.’</p>
<p>Actually $15K at RPI is pretty good these days (unless that counts loans they offer). My son had even higher stats (but not soccer captain) and was offered $10K at RPI. </p>
<p>Juniors and parents - CC has a wealth of info about schools that offer good scholarships, especially for NMF. Start doing your homework early.</p>
<p>I’m a bit surprised too, but not by a lot for the best schools in OP’s list. Was the essay so-so ? If I was looking to criticize OP’s stats, I would note that his GPA was high, but absent AP grades.</p>
<p>All else equal, a student with high SAT and success in an AP or IB curriculum is going to be more attractive to admissions than high SAT and middling curriculum. Many schools would have noted the good grades with athletics, but ? perhaps not the techie choices OP was interested in.</p>
<p>Our experience was that not submitting a FAFSA did not affect generous merit offers at LACs in the 50 - 75 tier range.</p>
<p>I’m a bit surprised too, but not by a lot for the best schools in OP’s list. Was the essay so-so ? If I was looking to criticize OP’s stats, I would note that his GPA was high, but absent AP grades.</p>
<p>Our experience was that not submitting a FAFSA did not affect generous merit offers at LACs in the 50 - 75 tier range.</p>
<p>There is a general notion among many of the students (and some of the parents) who post here at CC that stats will guarantee merit aid anywhere. That is simply not true. You really have to investigate the various institutions that you are thinking of applying to. There are several threads full of good ideas “stickied” at the beginning of the Financial Aid Forum, and a search for “full-ride” or “free-ride” should pull up even more useful threads.</p>
<p>If you need serious money for your education (rather than just wanting serious money), you need to start early and do the research. You cannot trust the “merit aid fairy” or the “financial aid fairy” to come through for you.</p>
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<p>That is very true and that is how we targeted my son’s application list. With lesser stats than that, he had merit aid offers of between $18,000 and $22,500…at respected but lower tier schols.</p>
<p>Also, for others reading this thread, investigate further when you hear other parents talking about “fantastic merit aid.” What is fantastic to one family is not enough to another. If a family can afford to pay full price, $15,000 a year is $60,000 they get to pocket. If a family can’t pay, $15,000 may be $10,000 a year too little.</p>
<p>I’m with others here… My experience is that 10-15k is pretty standard for merit aid unless you would be at the top range of the incoming class, which means going to a lower-tier school if you want the merit. Geographical diversity helps, too. Someplace far from home, and not in the Northeast, may make you more of a catch.</p>
<p>RPI sat 1420 is 75% avg gpa a-/B+</p>
<p>Harry Potter’s sat 1540 gpa 3.9</p>
<p>I’d say Harry Potter was in ballpark for nicer merit. You were unlucky HP, that’s all. </p>
<p>[Boston</a> University - Average SAT Scores](<a href=“http://www.satprep.ca/sat_scores_by_college.asp?US_College_ID=164988&School_Name=Boston%20University]Boston”>http://www.satprep.ca/sat_scores_by_college.asp?US_College_ID=164988&School_Name=Boston%20University)</p>
<p>sat 1370 is 75%</p>
<p>WPI 1380 is 75%</p>
<p>Let’s not shoot Harry potter. I am sorry Harry Potter. I think you were in range for better merit.</p>
<p>I’m not surprised. My older son’s stats were better three years ago and he also got offered $15,000 from WPI and $10,000 from RPI. We thought that was great, but he went off to a full pay school in the end! If you were paying attention Brandeis lost a bundle of money due to the Madoff scandal and is focussing on need based aid now.</p>
<p>There are schools out there offering more, but these aren’t them.</p>
<p>It’s hard to figure out why some students get great offers and others don’t, not just concerning merit scholarships, but also in terms of admissions. My daughter was offered almost $20K/year at BU, and half tuition at another school, but waitlisted at two safeties. The acceptance rate at all of the schools is about the same. She was accepted at a very competitive school (got a likely letter) that is need-blind and rejected at a school that is less competitive. </p>
<p>Two things jump out at me: (1) certain students must appeal to adcoms - there must be that certain “something” that makes them want that student, so much so, that they’ll offer a scholarship; (2) schools seem to be able to tell which students love them. The application must telegraph this quality. Adcoms only want kids who want their school. Of my daughter’s two waitlist schools, she never visited one of them and she felt ambivalent about the other one - she applied because it is nearby and there was no supplement.</p>
<p>Thanks, I was hoping someone would offer more. Now I’ll wait for Ivy Day. If I am lucky enough to get into one ( I applied to three), I’ll likely go since the cost differential won’t be that much.</p>
<p>Sometimes a student might strike a chord with a certain admissions person - it’s probably not something that is completely “knowable,” and one reason why everyone calls it a crapshoot. It’s certainly not worth beating yourself up over. Anyway, you can only go to one college, so you probably don’t need to have great offers all over the place. Perhaps your luck is yet to come…on Thursday!</p>