<p>The Indiana University and Purdue merit scholarships both require higher GPA’s. While both are generous for a state school, neither brings the cost close to instate tuition.</p>
<p>Need to know SAT scores by section, especially math and CR. A 1900/2400 is too low for flagship state university merit money, but a 1400/1600 will get a lot of attention and some merit aid. Without a significantly higher GPA, URM status or spectacular EC achievements, your search will not be easy. Again, need to know specific scores by section on the SAT.</p>
<p>exploringoptions, he’s really not interested in LACs, and the ones you listed are kind of a waste of cash. Not sure that he’s aiming to play lax in college anyway.</p>
<p>His SAT M+V is about 1350. gbesq, that scholarship program looks interesting. I don’t think he’s realistically considering journalism as a career (no pay, etc), but he’s definitely interested in studying it for its academic merits.</p>
<p>IMO, large state flagship universities are great for attending graduate school but LACs do a better job of preparing for graduate school. The listed LACs send many graduates on to medical, law, business and other graduate studies. A merit scholarship is more likely at these schools than at any OOS public or your named Virginia in-state public schools.</p>
<p>cavalier302, is his gpa weighted or unweighted? Because if it is unweighted, he may not have as good of a chance at VT as he would hope. Unfortunately this year’s large class size is making for extremely competitive admissions. We were told at the open house in BLacksburg that they are looking at UW incoming freshmen GPA’s being in the 3.7-3.8 range (for general studies majors- for engineering and architecture it was a 3.9-4.0)
Granted, his SATs are great; that should help, and hopefully he has a strong curriculum (they also stressed that in the open house, they want honors and APs on that transcript). I have been shocked by how good students like your brother get turned down, even from their own state schools. I know you said that you didn’t care for any of the other state schools, but maybe it would be wise to encourage him to apply to a few more, just to be safe. What is the old saying, "love thy safety’? Good luck!</p>
<p>exploringoptions, I appreciate your suggestion but I don’t LACs are worth considering in his case for a number of reasons.</p>
<p>KandKsmom, VT really isn’t <em>that</em> competitive. People with numbers like his get in from our HS all the time. His courseload is primarily AP/honors/GT, so he’ll have that going for him. He’s not interested in any of the other state schools in VA (besides JMU) because there really aren’t any other good ones in VA.</p>