<p>Is there a bias that you've seen that makes it harder for kids who want to be teachers to get merit aid?</p>
<p>We've just gone through the process with our older son, who in the end did pretty well in terms of getting a good deal at a place that - with aid - we can afford. But he's a computer science major with a focus on game design, i.e. pretty strong tech skills, so I'm wondering: Do they look at major when considering merit aid? Do they assume that a kid who's going into the ed school isn't going to be as stellar as someone going for, say, bio-med engineering?</p>
<p>Our younger one is just starting the dance - starts Monday as a HS freshman. Likes math and science, starting the STEM cycle, intermediate math level (will finish w/AB Calc) but he's good at it. It's way early but what he's talked most about so far in terms of college/career is to be a middle school science teacher. If he goes through HS as I expect he should be fine both in terms of grades and test scores, unlikely NMF but some merit aid should be feasible at some schools...unless the reality is that sorry we don't consider future teachers in the same way, because if they were really smart they wouldn't be going "the easy route" into teaching. Which is BS but I've heard inklings of this attitude. Have you?</p>
<p>Some scholarships may be for specific majors.</p>
<p>At some schools, the student may just be admitted undeclared instead of into a specific major, so major may not be especially relevant to admission and scholarships in these cases.</p>
<p>Depending on the place he wants to teach at, he may have to major in the subject he wants to teach (e.g. science or math if he wants to be a science or math teacher) with supplemental teaching credential or similar course work, rather than major in education.</p>
<p>In any case, it may be too early to make firm plans for his college and career directions, since the time from high school frosh to high school senior could see a lot of changes in what he wants to do.</p>
<p>Some schools don’t have a lot of merit, but some of their depts may have endowed scholarships. If so, the STEM majors often have endowed scholarships. </p>
<p>However, there are schools that offer merit to ANY student regardless of major as long as the student has the needed stats. At my sons’ undergrad, if you have the right stats, you get the merit money no matter what your major is…art, music, eng’g, education, French…whatever.</p>
<p>At the schools my daughters considered, the merit scholarships were based solely on high school GPA and test scores. “Really smart” was determined by the grades themselves, not their intended major. </p>
<p>My math teacher daughter did not get a merit scholarship, as there were none to be had at her public university, but did get a small scholarship that was available to math students only. My physician assistant daughter received a very generous merit scholarship that everyone at her private school with her stats received, as well as another scholarship that was for her department only.</p>
<p>Merit awards IN GENERAL are incentives offered to get the students a school most wants to go there. Though there are some awards that are very general and focus on something like test scores, a number of school use a holistic process. Someone from the southwest might get an award over someone with higher stats than someone in the same state as the school. BC is an example of a school that gives limited merit money, and they do use it to attract students from other parts of the country as well as for high test scores. Absolutely, merit can go to those students majoring in a subject that is under subscribed at a school. If there are dozens of education majors lined up to go to a school, what is the incentive to pay one come? The education department is doing just fine, thank you, but if the engineering dept head is knocking at your door growling that he isn’t getting enough students, you might want to try to encie some kids that you accept with that major to come with some merit sweetners.</p>
<p>Merit is not a reward for the great work done, but is given because a student has something a school wants and is willing to pay for.</p>
<p>^from my experience…merit awards were awarded strictly by stats, top 25% in class and certain level of SAT scores…So, merit was in fact a reward for great work done.</p>