My daughter would really like to attend a small to mid-sized LAC and would prefer to remain in the south because she hates the cold. We won’t qualify for FA, but would have a very hard time paying for private LAC tuition for her. We’ve downplayed the possibility of merit because we didn’t want her to get her hopes up too high when we didn’t know how she’d do on standardized tests. We just got back her first real test results with the September ACT and now I’m looking for any advice on whether or not she has a realistic chance at merit. Her stats are 4.0 unweighted GPA so far - she’s a junior - and she just got a 35 on the ACT (35E,34M,36R,34S). She didn’t do nearly that well on the PSAT sophomore year (I think her composite was 1370), so we’ll see how the psat and SAT go later this year. She’s taking the most rigorous courses at her school and has one AP so far, with a 5 on that test.
Any advice on her chances for merit awards at southern LACs with those stats? Any schools in particular that are more generous? I’ve heard Tulane is good with merit. Any others to consider? She has no idea right now what she’d like to study. She will have at least 2 perfectly good, and affordable, in-state public options and we’re pushing her to consider the honors programs within those schools as well. Thanks!
She’s a strong candidate for the generous merit at W&L, University of Richmond, Sewannee, Centre, Rhodes, Trinity (San Antonio). Also Davidson and Wake Forest, but they award fewer merit scholarships. Tulane is good with merit, but you have to show a lot of interest.
Next door to Tulane, Loyola New Orleans. They would almost surely give some merit and would likely consider her for the full-tuition Ignatian scholarship.
I haven’t investigated the southern schools, so I won’t weigh in on that.
I will advise you, however, that the 35C is all she needs on the standardized testing front. Don’t bother with the SAT unless her PSAT result puts her in contention for National Merit (and then she’d need a confirming SAT score) or her school requires it as a standardized test.
My daughter’s experience was very similar. Her sophomore PSAT was very close to your daughter’s score and her junior PSAT went up only modestly. Her SAT performance was slightly better than the PSAT and she prepped for the SAT responsibly. However, she also just got a 35 on the ACT. Some kids do better on one test than the other.
Congratulations to your daughter! That is a fantastic ACT result. Coupled with her grades and course rigor, she will be very competitive for merit scholarships.
@Emmycat I would look at Davidson. The Belk Scholarship is full ride. I might be wrong, but I think they offer ~5-10 per year. My daughter is applying ED to Duke this fall but is also pursuing the Belk (asking her school to nominate her, etc.) We enjoyed our visit to Davidson. It compared well with our other visits to Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, etc. We won’t be getting any need-based aid anywhere, so Davidson could be a very compelling option if the planets align.
Thanks so much for the advice and suggested schools everyone. I will definitely encourage her to take a look at all of the schools mentioned. We just got the ACT results yesterday and I’m still trying to adjust to new possibilities and see what doors might have been opened for her. I knew cc would have suggestions of where we should start looking!
Thanks for the congratulations mamadefamilia and congrats to your daughter as well! Their similar scores are very interesting. I asked my daughter yesterday if she thought she’d learned that much more since taking the psat last October or if she just thought the ACT was more suited to her and she said she thought the ACT was just a much better test for her. I’m not sure if her school insists on the SAT, but if they don’t, we’ll definitely consider just skipping it. I know that would make her happy because her first reaction to her ACT score was - Yes! I don’t have to take it again!
bucketDad - Good luck to your daughter with ED at Duke and with the Belk! Davidson is a school my daughter has mentioned as a possibility because it’s a good distance from our hometown (not too close, but not too far). She’s a little afraid that it might be too small, but it has a great reputation and I agree that it would be a wonderful option if she could get a scholarship.
It’s tedious, but you can get a lot of info from the common data set.
For example, Wake Forest, with a sticker price of $60K/pa, admitted ~1300 students last year. In Section H2A, you find that 33 of them received non-need, non-athletic based aid, with the average amount being ~$30K. Wake Forest is test-optional, but they consider scores if submitted. Their middle 50% of ACT scores submitted is 28-32, which puts a 35 pretty safely in the top 20% (and probably higher) of the cohort. Grade wise, 77% of students whose schools ranked were in the top 10% of their class. They don’t provide GPAs, but a full 4.0UW with a rigorous curriculum will stand out. WF also notes that they put a lot of weight on the essay.
With that info for the colleges she is most interested in you can start making some guesses and setting some boundaries.
That’s awesome information, collegemom - thanks! I’ll sit down with her sometime soon and look at those numbers for the colleges she thinks she might like.
I can see this is going to be time consuming, but if I think about all of the $ on the line, it’s definitely worth it. My daughter is also an athlete who is potentially recruitable (according to her coach), so that’s going to add another whole level of complication to this process for us. With this great ACT score, I’m hoping maybe we can put the athletic option on the back-burner and let that be entirely voluntary if she wants to pursue it.
inthegarden - my daughter has mentioned Furman and really likes it. I’ll check out it’s common data set and see how her chances look at merit there. She’s been to athletic events at Furman and thought it was beautiful. Thanks!
