<p>Apply to schools that offer merit-based aid too. You might have a better shot.</p>
<p>… guess I’m better off at my town’s suck-ish public school. D: gotta love my parents</p>
<p>I guess I don’t really see the issue here. Private schools use there “financial aid” money to fill slots into their class as a whole. As I understand it, it athletes and other students who are at least in the academic range are hard to find because they generally are in scarcer supply than those kids who are solely offering (of course I understand they are offering other things!) their academic ability. They will not have completed their class if they don’t have enough athletes, or dancers or musicians to fill the slots that they have. Also, these schools search out the best who are more in demand among the schools and so the free market takes over…</p>
<p>I have already heard stories of students I know who g0t a full ride to an ivy because they were nationally ranked and filled a need at that ivy, and although I have not seen their family’s financial spreadsheets, I sincerely find it difficult to believe that their need equated to a full ride. On skills perhaps where there is less demand (e.g., violin players I have heard of 2nd ranked by whatever ranking system bypassed for $$$ at one ivy since they already got the no. 1 at that school so they went to another (very good school)). So all in all, it seems to me that that the $$$ are clearly used strategically for the schools and are not earmarked solely based on financial need).</p>
<p>Ivy’s do not give merit aid, period. They give it SOLELY on the basis of financial need.</p>
<p>Actually, GMTplus7, Nearly every school claims to base scholarships on need, but if the school “needs” a to fill a particular slot, they will give scholarships to do so.</p>
<p>Ivies really do not need to give merit scholarships to fill a slot, as they get 30,000 applicants.</p>
<p>GMT, what’s the difference between your anecdote about the Andover recruit and flowers’ anecdote about this Ivy recruit? Why could it be true w top BS and not w Ivies? It is not even considered a secrete that Ivies and the like would “buy” those rare talents they really want.</p>
<p>The HUGE difference b/w Andover & the Ivies is that in 1991, the Ivy League colleges settled w the U.S.Dept of Justice on an antitrust suit about tuition price fixing. The Ivy League schools signed a legal degree that they would agree to award only need based financial aid and that they would not award merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Andover was not a party to the lawsuit, nor does Andover state explicitly that it does not give awards on the basis of merit. Happy?</p>
<p>Oh sure. I am always happier when I learn something new. Thank you for telling me something I thought I knew but actually didn’t.</p>
<p>triangles - our child applied as a full pay applicant last year to 6 well known schools (but not HADES schools). One of the schools that accepted him offered a merit scholarship. We were totally surprised by this and did not realize that this happens. They offered just enough money to make our child feel special. Ultimately, he was accepted to his first choice school and chose not to attend the school that offered the merit award. It was difficult to turn down the merit award, and it made us look very very closely at the school before saying no. So the answer to your question is yes merit awards do happen, but I do not think they are common nor do I think “a lot” of money is going to be offered, but when it is offered it makes you feel really special.</p>
<p>Ivy Universities Deny Price-Fixing But Agree to Avoid It in the Future (NYT)</p>
<p>By ANTHONY DePALMA
Published: May 23, 1991</p>
<p>Although this is obviously not the best source, I believe that the poster on GMTplus7 misinterpreted the consent decree. The ivies (plus others???) used to meet once a year until 1991 and hand out uniform awards to applicants. This lowered competition among themselves and actually potentially resulted in lower awards to desired student applicants. The justice department wanted the free market to work is my take. They mentioned that this may help those most in need of aid but again there is no decree that says they cannot do what they are doing. GPA is also calculated flexibly from what I have heard from personal sources at colleges such as MIT, etc. They will basically calculate it in the best possible light (weighted, unweighted etc) if they want the student-applicant…</p>
<p>Also, I would like to throw out isn’t each private college/university method of determining financial need private. FAFSA is only for federal funds and by definition a private university can define and allocate financial need any way they want.</p>
<p>To return to the OP, despite rumors to the contrary, I have not heard that Andover offers any merit scholarships. You would do well to contact them directly on that issue.</p>
<p>Some families may have a high income, but have other commitments which make them eligible–other children in private school or college, family medical bills, etc. I would not assume financial aid is given out willy-nilly. </p>
<p>If you intend to apply for financial aid (whether or not your family qualifies), your parents will need to file with SSS: [Home</a> for Parents | SSS by NAIS](<a href=“http://sssbynais.org/parents/]Home”>http://sssbynais.org/parents/). You should read the information on the SSS site, which includes examples.</p>
<p>Periwinkle: I hate to bring up that horrible “Andover Acceptance Package” thread from 3/10/12 where RadDad75 offended the entire board with his gloating about his son’s “slam dunk” acceptances to all the top schools, but he did boast that his kid received the Stephen C. Sherrill award from PA which I believe another poster verified as a legit merit award for athletics I think. I went back to that thread and found it too painful to wade through entirely, but it did seem to give credence to PA giving some not well advertised merit money.</p>
<p>ChoatieMom, I wonder if the Stephen C. Sherrill scholarship is just one of the many named endowment scholarships Andover offers, or it’s really merit-based scholarship. A named scholarship usually would highlight what the scholarship was established for (e.g. to increase the presence of outstanding minorities, or students who overcome obstacles to pursue academic excellence, or students with strong athletic abilities as well as good charter… I am paraphrasing but you get the idea). All of these scholarships, as far as I am concerned, are still need-based although I am sure special circumstances of all sorts would be taken into consideration when financial need is evaluated. I think many boarding schools have named scholarships (DC did receive named scholarships from other schools), and the differences in FA packages from different schools are often not because of the presence or absence of a merit-based scholarship.</p>
<p>(ChoatieMom, check your PM)</p>
<p>The OP could look at a school like Culver, which has a number of merit scholarships.</p>
<p>I can tell you from experience that high SSATs will garner “merit scholarships” (to the tune of several thousand dollars of various benefits, depending on the school and the arrangement). These seem to be strictly inducements to enroll, with schools realizing that kids who come in excelling on standardized tests are generally going to come out the other end in the same range.</p>
<p>pelican, not to question your experience, but it seems the general consensus here is that high SSAT scores aren’t even that helpful to admissions, and that once reaching a threshold higher scores don’t make a difference any more. Is this a different message than yours or did I miss something?</p>
<p>Some boarding schools near me offer merit scholarships based primarily on test scores (to boost their average probably, it’s not the best). However the schools offer less than my public high-school so I won’t be applying there haha. But are there schools like this that are actually decent schools?</p>
<p>GMT+7 : Pls. put me out of my misery and tell me what sport did the full ride PAA athlete play - football?</p>