<p>Does anyone have experience with this? My daughter has accepted two invitations to interview for their top merit awards. At one the admissions counselor told us when she visited the college that if you have an ACT score of 30 and a GPA of 3.6 and show up for the interview, you pretty much get it - it's $21K, but it's a school that costs about $8K more than the other school. That is the one she is much less interested in attending, but she likes the school. The other told us that the students invited to interview typically have GPAs of at least 3.8 and ACT scores of at least 27 (they superscore). They have to submit an essay and participate in a small group interview. Awards can range from $17K to $20K. You are guaranteed $16K if you go through the interview process. My daughter has a GPA of 3.98 and an ACT score of 31 - not superscored. She's a good writer and does well on her high school speech team (she's in a category where it would help you in interviews), so I think she'll do well with both the essay and interview. She's a nice kid, always comes across well. Not many kids from our area attend this college. Her ACT score of 31 easily puts her in their top 25%. I believe a 29 and up is their top 25%. They also know she really likes the school. They sent her a get well present when she had to cancel a visit with the rep at her high school because she had an emergency appendectomy. </p>
<p>I guess my question is, how much does the ACT score matter when colleges give out merit awards? What experience has your kid had? The $16K guarantee is already appealing, but we know another school in the same price range, pretty equal reputation, has offered her $19K and she doesn't even have to interview to get it. Of course she doesn't want to go there. We can afford to pay for a public education, but with her stats we know she can get a private school education at the price of a public. We don't want her to leave school with loans. She can get into some more selective, expensive schools, but she'd leave them with at least $25k in debt. One school (she's at the low end of their top 25%) told us they typically give their top merit awards to the 33s and up, so we know that the ACT score does matter in these decisions. I hate playing the "But how much will it actually cost?" game of the private schools. This is our first kid going to college and her dad and I both went to public colleges.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your daughter on her interview invitations! I believe most use the ACT as a cutoff to get invited to these types of opportunities. Since your D has been invited already, she has made it past that hurdle. </p>
<p>Sounds like she will do well in an interview situation. I read an article recently about various types of interviews and it had some good points about various scenarios - a panel of interviewers with one interviewee, a group interview, etc. In the group interview it emphasized being collaborative rather than appearing competitive. </p>
<p>In the interview they are looking for students that are a good fit first. Then they are playing all kinds of games with statistics that are completely out of your D’s control. </p>
<p>For instance: if the schools orchestra really needs an oboe player - that kid will rank higher than others. The kids that are from out of state, URM’s, unique talents, etc. as long as they meet some standards in interview will be at the top of the list. Then the scholarship programs may ask something like: “If offered this scholarship, on a scale of 1 - 5, what is the likelihood that you will accept”? </p>
<p>The fact that your D has multiple opportunities is a great sign. If she is OOS, even better. </p>
<p>Encourage her to NOT fall in love with one school. </p>
<p>Again, it is numbers games. If the school knows they can get your kid in the door for the same price as your state flagship, that is what they will offer. If they know they are competing with another private that is equally attractive to your D, and she is getting a better deal there, then they may be willing to get more creative about their offer. </p>
<p>Good luck to your D! Would love to hear how the process unfolds. </p>
<p>Thank you! That was very helpful. I’m going to pass the interview information onto my daughter. When she opened up her get well package she said, “I just want to tell them that I’m going to go there.” We told her that can’t. She has to play the money game for a few more months. Even the college she doesn’t want to go to would be a nice fit for her. When she first started visiting colleges she really liked it and thought that was where she’d end up. We have been told by people who work in admissions offices that you can use awards from other schools to see if another school will match it. We’ll do that if it comes down to it. It’s all pretty exciting and I love that my daughter has such nice opportunities. </p>
<p>Tell her that at this point it’s about keeping options open. Once she has offers she can start to rule out colleges and she will have more time to think about it.</p>
<p>Try both not only to keep the options open, but that experience would definitely help her future. My D went to a local scholarship interview last year. At that time we got the school scholarship and estimated financial aid package already. At that time, we knew that local scholarship would likely gain us nothing as it would just reduce the need and the school aid. My D was hesitated to go initially. Finally she decided to go and that was a great opportunity to prepare her for future scholarships. At the end, she won that scholarship but it just simply added a line in her resume as the college took out the same amount from the grant. Anyway, that is a very good experience (no matter what the outcome is) and not everyone has that opportunity.</p>
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<p>Scores matter a LOT. That is the one stat that schools largely use to determine merit. Schools use merit to help boost their middle quartile numbers because that affects ranking.</p>