High Stats Merit Aid Results

My son made a college choice today, submitted a deposit, and sent letters thanks for the Ad Comms he had worked with, but chose not to attend their school. So college admissions are officially behind us— for Kid 1 at least. This forum was very helpful when I was Starting out and helping my child develop a college list— and figuring out how to pay for it. So, before put I put CC on mute for a while, I wanted to pass along merit award results, in the hopes they provide a starting place for other parents.

Stats:

4.0W at a highly selective test in STEM magnet and access to very high level, post AP STEM offerings.
1520 SAT (740V, 780M), 1 sitting
800 SAT Math 2, 760 physics, 710 Literature
NM Commended
Strong ECs, especially in music

Applied for Geology/Natural Science, PhD track, with a minor in music or music theory

We are full pay and we needed some merit aid to bridge the gap.

Applied to 9 schools. In at 8:

William and Mary (in state, Monroe Scholar, which is a summer stipend).
Grinnell with $25k/year
Pitt Honors College with $5k/year
Kenyon with $15,000/year
St. Olaf with $22,000/year
Macalester as full pay
Wooster with $37,000/year
And Oberlin with $25,000/year

Denied at Case Western. Which isn’t actually a shock, because over 100 kids from his school apply each year.

In the end, he had a lot of great options, is attending his first choice school (name withheld to protect his privacy, but we love his choice). And they were willing to move some on merit aid to make it happen.

My biggest advice if you go the chasing merit aid/ LAC route is to visit the school, be sure to interview, and make sure your child can articulate in an interview what excites them about this particular school. And continue to demonstrate interest by responding Ad Comm outreach, attending meet and greets, etc.

I also suspect that they overlooked some less than perfect grades because he had a strong essay, strong recommenders and a real passion for his ECs and what he wants to study that came through in interviews and essays.

Good luck to the class of 2021. I hope this is a helpful starting place for someone. And may you graduate in less turbulent times!