<p>Benley - our DS received merit scholarship offers from Loomis (LC Scholars) and Ridley College (Ridley Scholars). We did not request FA. He had tippy-top SSAT scores - but also had other attributes that the schools might have responded to (advanced course work, grades, ECs, etc).</p>
<p>Hard to know what the exact “triggers” are for the offer of merit scholarships - but I believe (no hard data to back it up, just our experience) that the higher a student’s stats are when compared to the schools average stats, it does help in the aid department (merit as well as need-based FA). Not debating how much difference SSAT scores may influence/inform admissions decisions - I expect it varies school to school.</p>
<p>DS was also offered admission to Deerfield, and received a personal letter from the head of admissions, prior to March 10, congratulating him on his top SSAT scores. But - no “non need-based merit aid” is given at Deerfield, as far as I know. (Just FYI - DS is at Thacher - which does provide substantial FA, but not any merit aid.)</p>
<p>mountainhiker, I think you are right. The high SSAT score in itself may not be enough of a great help in the aid department, especially with the highly selective schools where many high-stats students are applying, but I agree the top overall stats may help regardless the school has merit-based or need-based only aid. Most well-known schools don’t offer merit-based scholarships, so everything is worked out in the context of need-based FA (as in your son’s case with Deerfield and Thacher). BTW, it seems a convention of Deerfield’s to send letters to high SSAT scorers, which is not necessarily an early promise of admission or FA offer. I just want to put it out there so people new to this process won’t get their hopes too high by receiving such a letter.</p>
<p>$350,000+ income? I suppose qualifying could be possible like if there’s 10 kids in the family and they live in Manhattan and all the children are enrolled in private school…</p>
<p>Or if the family is living to their $350K a year salary and the dad, as the OP mentioned, is giving up that income to start a business, qualifying for aid could be possible? I say apply and if it’s something your parents want you to do and you’re accepted (without aid or scholarship) then they’ll figure out how to get you there. If not, well, freedom will come at 18…</p>
<p>“My parents are making enough money that we can’t qualify for FA (idk their income, but its over $350,000 definitely), but they will NOT spend a penny on high-school, although my mom encourages me to apply.”</p>
<p>If your mom thinks that there is a long list of “top” (don’t get me started) boarding schools that offer merit scholarships to kids from households with HHI $350k+, then she should certainly let you know that those schools are. </p>
<p>So far I think the collective wisdom of the forum (which includes many parents of current and former BS students people who no doubt have done their homework over the years) has turned up 3.5 (Culver, Loomis, Ridley - in Canada, and maybe Andover in some extreme situations?) schools that offer merit aid.</p>
<p>I think the assertions that “if schools want a kid enough, they’ll make it happen” are accurate. Though again, unless there is some truly out of the ordinary circumstance, I don’t think they’d give aid to a family with such a high household income. There is a big difference between not being able to pay and not wanting to pay.</p>
<p>My D received an unsolicited invitation to apply for a scholarship at Fountain Valley. I don’t think financial need was required and I believe the solicitation came based on her SSAT score or SAT taken through 7th grade talent search. </p>
<p>We HAD asked for info on the school, but out of the many schools we contacted, Fountain Valley was the only one with such an offer.</p>
<p>D did not apply there. I believe the scholarship was for half tuition, not sure that included room and board.</p>
<p>I don’t believe Andover offers merit-based scholarships. There’s no mention of them anywhere and we’ve never heard of anyone who didn’t apply for need based FA and received scholarships from Andover.</p>
<p>St. Paul’s used to have some scholarships that were awarded separately from FA (full ride) based on merit alone. It appears that they now usually require financial need but it seems that all SPS applicants are considered:
<p>PAA has 10 scholar-athlete scholarships that grant:
full tuition, laptop, books & fees, air travel, summer program, weekly stipend & medical insurance. </p>
<p>The person I know who landed the scholarship was offered only half FA pkgs by other schools because family is upper income. Coach at Exeter contacted this person constantly to try to convince candidate to accept Exeter instead. Candidate’s father wanted to know whether other schools would be willing to match PAA in a bidding war.</p>
<p>PAA buys athletes-- think about that the next time your school’s athletic team loses to them. But hey, I’m not criticizing. It’s PAA’s money. It can do whatever it wants w it.</p>
<p>So let’s say that Fountain Valley gives up to 50% merit scholarships…do you think the OP or his/her parents would feel that was one of the “top” schools?</p>
<p>That’s OK, GMT. It sounds like you have got the confirmation based on the specifics you have posted. I suppose it’s good news to those student-atheletes who want to be bought. It might well be their last chance to be bought if they eventually end up in an Ivy League school because according to an early post of yours Ivy League colleges don’t offer merit-based scholarships like PAA does to student atheletes or otherwise.</p>
<p>Nice Benley! Of course, Ivies and other schools with “no” athletic scholarships only pay out based on need, never based on athletic talent! In PAA’s defense (and other schools who choose to go above and beyond a family’s need), it is their money and they do have the right to allocate it at their discretion. No school has ever said they would strictly adhere to the PFS estimate so they do have wiggle room here. I will say from my experience, teachers/coaches and students at schools who choose to allocate funds based solely on need are getting a bit frustrated by the practice. That being said, athletics at prep schools is a competitive world, few should be surprised that they are following in the Ivy League’s footsteps.</p>
<p>classicalmama,
a few will get athletic scholarships at D-I schools but that is a very small number. Most will go Ivy, NESCAC or non-scholarships. Pretty much the case in most prep schools except certain sports like hockey or lacrosse where you’ll see kids heading to Notre Dame or BC. Just my observation.</p>
<p>True–I was thinking about the recruited athletes whose parents do not want to pay the full bill for an Ivy–they will continue to have scholarship opportunities. I’d add football to your hockey and lacrosse.</p>
<p>Not to split hairs but very few Ivy athletes pay the full bill. I think that’s one of the points being made in this thread, schools are offering financial aid packages to students who do not qualify (no demonstrated need) for financial aid or are giving substantially larger packages than the student qualifies for.</p>
<p>Thanks hola3 for pointing that out. It sounds like an argument over semantics but it’s really not. A common scenario we are all familiar with is that a family that’s “supposed to” receive 25K of aid according to PFS receives 35K from school A and 50K from school B both with a named endowment scholarship paper attached as is often the case, can you say school B offers <em>merit-based scholarship</em> and school A doesn’t? I’ve been trying to say what you said here - this is what many private schools and private colleges do with their FA money. It doesn’t mean they don’t take care of “the poor”. They just have more institutional needs to fulfill.</p>
<p>And, classicalmama, by introducing Ivies into this talk, I hope you don’t think I am trying to say Ivies are offering “merit-based scholarships”.</p>
<p>Well, I actually think along the same lines that you two do. What I don’t know–and GMT and Hola seem to disagree on this one–is whether Ivies will offer aid to every athlete that they want. I know that like many prep schools, they will offer aid to families that normally wouldn’t qualify for aid–but if they want someone badly enough, and the parents AGI is, say $400,000/year, without six other children is school or other ameliorating circumstances, are you suggesting that they will still offer aid? And, more importantly, would they offer that aid only to athletes and not to other admits? On the Athletic Recruit board, I haven’t gotten the sense that FA is automatic for athletes at Ivies. </p>
<p>Also, when Ivies like Brown or Dartmouth say they will match FA offers from other schools (i.e.HYP), do they make that offer to all cross-admitted students, or only athletes and other particularly desirable admits?</p>
<p>I asked a similar question in the college Parents Forum. First, no one knows for sure. They don’t publish the details or anything close. Secondly, it varies from sport to sport, and from individual to individual. Some say there are “fully funded” sports, “partially funded” sports and “no funding” (?) sports. It’s said Football and Lacross are fully funded while Basketball is partially funded in some Ivies, for example. And “matching” other school’s offer is always an art and not a science, as you know. I don’t know how it works for non- recruited student atheletes. I suppose it’d be more difficult to get more FA from colleges. Then we’ve heard families say how generous their HYP schools are (making me paranoid :)). It may be that they are truely generous or it may have something to do with the families’ expectations? We certainly didn’t get much luck in the HYP school DC is attending as a non-athelete.</p>
<p>Look, what it comes down to is that ALL financial aid is merit based in that only the kids the school really wants will get it. It may seem like spitting hairs but to me, I always looked at financial aid as going to those with financial need (and only those with need) and merit aid going to kids regardless of need. I think this is the traditionally accepted meanings of these terms. And it is true, PAA does not make the claim that all aid is need based.</p>