<p>Parent of prospective applicant question here: I'm wondering how much of the merit-aid decisions are driven by standardized test scores. It's easy at some big state schools (a certain score equals a certain amount of money) and also at the schools that gvie no merit-based aid. But schools like Rhodes leave me perplexed. I understand that it is best to be at the high end of the admissions statistics but how high is good enough? To make this concrete, son's ACT score is 31 (very skewed, though, with 35s in English and Reading and mid-20s in Math and Science). The last info I saw, Rhodes's middle 50 percent was 2?-30. His GPA is 3.8ish, unweighted (school does not weight any classes, but all of son's core classes have been honors, with two AP classes last year and two more scheduled for this year). Should we not even think about merit aid because his ACT score puts him in the top 25 percent but not much higher? What else might help us predict how this might turn out?</p>
<p>My son will be a attending Rhodes as a freshman next year on a merit scholarship. I believe merit decisions at Rhodes are made holistically, rather that with too strong of an emphasis on SAT or ACT. This will generally be the case at all small LAC's. Your son's admissions counselor will be looking at his transcript, his grades, his EC's, his essay and don't forget the importance of the interview when it comes to merit aid decisions. The best thing to do is call Rhodes admissions and ask them for the SAT/ACT stats for past recipents of the various scholarships/fellowships they offer and this will give you an idea of which ones your son is at least in the ballpark for. Then you will know which level of scholarship you son's strong GPA, rigorous courses, etc., will put him in the running for. This is the strategy I took with my son. I called schools to get the historic ACT/SAT scores and GPA for various scholarships and most schools were forthcoming once I gave a few stats about my son to assure them he was going to be a desireable applicant. This strategy worked very well for us.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>