<p>I'm a senior in high school. I have a 5.2 gpa and average SAT/ACT scores. My parents make about 25,000 a year combined. How much money do you think FAFSA would give?</p>
<p>FAFSA isn’t an entity. It’s an app. It doesn’t give money. If you have a 0 EFC, then you qualify for 5500 federal grant and the same amount in a loan…and maybe a little work study.</p>
<p>As for any other aid, that may depend on the state that you live in and what the school can afford to give you. Most schools do not have much aid to give.</p>
<p>If your test scores are average, then you may not get accepted into the schools that can afford to give the best aid. </p>
<p>What are your test scores? What state are you in?</p>
<p>What do you think are average SAT scores? </p>
<p>Your SAT score has no bearing on need based aid.</p>
<p>It will depend largely on the school. If you use the EFC (expected family contribution) estimator on the FAFSA page, you can see if your family qualifies for PELL grants. That is the only thing that the EFC does is let you know if you are PELL eligible or not, and also make it possible to get other loans and aid, none guaraneed, that use the EFC figure. THe maximum PELL grant is around $5K. You are also eligible to borrow money on your own , usually up to $5500 if the official cost of the school you pick (the COA=Cost of Attendance) justifies it, and some of that may be subsidized. Any other aid is dependent on what the school offers and what your state offers in terms of financial aid. You can apply to 10 schools and get 10 different financial aid packages and if you pick a varied lot, it is possible for the costs to be zero to tens of thousands of dollars. </p>
<p>Your grades and test scores will come into the picture as the individual colleges will decide whether you are eligible for their scholarships, and often times are more generous to students with the higher scores.</p>
<p>I wrote a thread on this board titled “How Families Sometimes Do It” giving a real life example of a cousin who went through the process last year, and what kind of financial aid he got from public, private, community, commuter colleges as he applied to a varied group. </p>
<p>If you are in a state that has college programs like PROMISE, HOPE, BRIGHT FUTURES, your grades and test score can mean subsidies. NY and CA have programs as well for low income students.</p>
<p>The student has an ACT 25.</p>
<p>While test scores may not determine need-based aid, they can somewhat affect aid…</p>
<p>1) With an ACT 25, the student probably won’t get accepted to the schools that “meet need”.</p>
<p>2) Some schools that don’t meet need will give a preferential need-based aid pkg to students with desirable stats.</p>
<p>You need to raise that ACT score or take the SAT and get a score that is much higher…this might position you for some merit aid.</p>
<p>The best way to get a GUESTIMATE of your financial aid is to do the Net Price Calculators on the college websites of the schools you are interested in applying to. This will give you a ballpark estimate of the kind of aid you MIGHT get from that school.</p>
<p>How does someone with a 5.2 GPA get a 25 on the ACT?</p>
<p>5.2 on what scale?</p>
<p>Maybe they’re not good at taking tests? Standardized test-taking is a skill all its own and may or may not have much correlation with a person’s actual academic performance.</p>
<p>kdog…we don’t know what the scale is. That said, some schools have massive grade inflation. There was a mom last year looking for schools for her 4.0 student (all A’s) who had a 20 ACT.</p>
<p>Kdog- as said above, the two don’t necessarily correspond. I’m very good friends with a person who got a 23 on the ACT and yet a perfect 4.0 (school didn’t weight)… on the flip side, I know someone with a 32 on the ACT and a 3.2 GPA. Schools also inflate or deflate grades which is why rank is important.</p>
<p>My son did not even get a 25 on the ACT and had an excellent GPA from a college prep high school. He has never been able to do will on standardized tests. His SAT scores were not good either. A good friend of mine has a daughter who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from a very good college and with close to an unweighed 4.0 from a rigrorous college, who is now successfully in a challenging PHD program. Her SAT scores were below 1500 (3 part) and her GRE scores were not good either. It did hurt her in getting into the most selective colleges and programs.</p>
<p>What kind of grade inflation do the schools practice for a kid to have 25 ACT and perfect GPA?</p>
<p>My son had that score while still in the middle school. And he is definitely not a 4.0 material. I just don’t understand how a student with 4.0 in High School cannot break into 32-36 range.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure why you don’t understand, especially since a few people just gave plausible explanations above. There are kids who simply don’t do well on standardized tests, even with preparation. Just because YOUR son could do well on standardized tests doesn’t mean everyone can. Some students may have test anxiety, some may not work as quickly as others, some may just not “get” standardized tests. And yet they can be very intelligent and do quite well in both a high school and college classroom setting. Of course, there are plenty of kids who test to their ability on the standardized test but go to schools where grade inflation is out of control, but grade inflation is NOT the only explanation.</p>
<p>Again… some people just can’t do standardized tests well for a number of reasons. The person that I mentioned who tested poorly on the ACT but had a perfect GPA has a 3.5+ GPA now in college. Standardized testing is not the be all end all. It’s why more and more schools are switching to test-optional. The best indication of success in college is not a high ACT score, it’s success in high school (ie high GPA).</p>
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<p>It would be, if the same curriculum was taught in different High Schools or even within the same High School. My son is enrolled in all Honors and AP classes, plus a class at the local flagship. He is tested very differently from the kids that take regular classes. He also gets much more homework. </p>
<p>His school does not rank. Nor do they weigh Honor classes (only APs with 3 or above AP test score). He will be lucky if he gets 3.5 unweighted GPA when he graduates. He told me, he is sure he would have had all As in if he only had to take regular classes.</p>
<p>My point is that it is hard to measure success in High School under the current system. If success is measured solely by GPA, then it is very easy to achieve it without trying too hard.</p>
<p>P.S. My son has ADHD, that is not being controlled by any drugs. So in theory he should be the one complaining about standardized tests (for which he never requests accommodations). Yet, he feels that those tests, and not his GPA, will help him get into a decent college.</p>
<p>It’s not my opinion that GPA is a better indicator for success in college over test scores. There have been a number of studies. It does take a lot of skills to get good grades even in easy subjects. You have to follow the directions, be organized, schmooze the teachers some, pay attention on a sustained baiss. THose kids who are excellent students throughout high school have skill sets that can help them get through a lot of things. </p>
<p>The reason a lot of highly selective colleges do not just go on gpas, is because they are also looking for those students who have reached certain benchmarks in learning. College is a true step up in difficulty levels and it is not doing a kid a favor to get him in water too deep for him, way too deep. So standardized tests are used to have some measure of what the kid actually knows within his peer group, and for poor testers, it is just too bad. The other thing that is very heavily examined among applicants to top schools is the difficulty of the curriculum. There are some schools that get kids accepted at the Ivy level even though their class rank is in the 2nd quintile, because the schools know the rigor of those curriculums. That is a category unto itself in assessing a student for competitive college acceptance–difficulty of curriculum and courses. </p>
<p>Lerkin, I know a number of ADHD kids since so many of them tend to be male and my kids went to all male schools. Many of them do well on standardized tests even without accommodations and those I’ve known who had the extra time didn’t even use it–my son who is the slow and steady sort wishes he had that extra time. Where they fail, and many of them, unfortunately do fail, is in their inability to focus on a sustained time period on things like 9 week courses and juggle the course load and requirements of 4-5 classes, and do the studying and take notes and stay organized. Executive function, I believe is what it is called that is the real problem. Not intelligence or test taking even, but the inability to balance it all and focus on that big picture. Many of them are outright geniuses in small select areas where they can keep a focus. But grades are a big problem for them right on through college, not test scores. </p>
<p>I have one who gets high grades and his grades from not so great to perfect over time. THe more time he has, the better he does. But test which are short time assessments are his Waterloo.</p>