<p>My son is a junior and is compiling a list of colleges to apply to. Some colleges have more info. on their websites than others. I would like to call or email colleges and find out how likely he is to receive scholarships and if there are scholarships not listed on their website. I know most scholarships are not guaranteed but I am interested in how competitive he would be for the academic scholarships a college offers. He has a good SAT score and GPA and I am hoping that will help him with scholarships. Of course, I don't want to be obnoxious and ruin his opportunities. Most of these colleges are fairly small and not well known. Any tips of how to go about this or suggestions of specific questions to ask to ferret out info. would be helpful.</p>
<p>I understand your position, the descriptions of merit aid on college websites range so widely. While some give lots of information, others don’t give enough to make a reasonable decision about whether or not to expend the energy to write essays, apply, etc. to a school where you’ll need merit to attend.</p>
<p>I think it’s fine to call or email a college to ask for further information, but I don’t think giving them your son’s stats and asking how likely he is of receiving merit aid will be useful as schools aren’t apt to give either false hope or frank analysis. Rather, if you could get them to give you more information about the various scholarships: number given, average SAT and GPA of recipients, essays required, is need considered, who is the award open to (eg. URMs, specific majors, etc.), then you can evaluate his chances. Basically, he needs to be in the tip top of the pool of students that qualify for the award to be in the running. However, IMO even more than admissions, merit is difficult to predict because you don’t always know which factors are of the most importance to the selection committee.</p>