<p>Does OSU or other colleges base the merit scholarship awards on the ACT/SAT at the time you are admitted (12/1 application) OR is it based on the final score that they might receive closer to the awards date? </p>
<p>My S was painfully close with a 28.25 on ACT yesterday. One point higher on any test would have put him at 29. (Of course he needs to get accepted, but he’s got his fingers crossed.) A 29 according to the website equates to $2100 per year. He’s got the same situation with an SAT of 1250–a 1300 SAT qualifies for the Provost award as well.</p>
<p>We’re thinking he probably needs to re-take it by December/January. He doesn’t want to go through the rigors of another test if it doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>Btw in my experience, OSU is pretty flexible on the “class rank” requirement, since a lot of schools don’t rank and it’s kind of hard to standardize GPA across school districts.</p>
<p>I hear you. My S very very competitive high school has weighted GPAs and often has 20+ kids with over 4.0?! How do you get 20 valedictorians? Another 20 kids have close to 4.0 but never took a single AP or IB class. It seems nuts to compare a kid with a 3.9 and no APs or IBs (even when offered at the school) to a kid with a 3.7 and 12 AP/IB credits–and all 4s and 5s on exams!? I would love to know if the GPA and class rank standards are flexible for the OSU merit scholarships.</p>
<p>It think that they’re somewhat understanding. In 2006-2007, the requirements on OSU’s website to qualify for Maximus stated that you had to be in the top 3% of your class with a 32+ ACT. I was barely in the top 10% of my class, but I still was invited to compete at Maximus .</p>
<p>Actually, think the class rank thing is pretty firm. My son had 30 ACT, high GPA, but was in top 12% since school doesn’t rank. He only got the Trustees (little over $1000), they said due to rank. I think they are more flexible with it when it comes to Honors placement and such. But not the money.</p>
<p>They must have tightened their belts over the last couple years then, because a lot of people that graduated my year and prior years wouldn’t have made class rank cut-offs (if our school had ranked people) for the scholarships that they received.</p>
<p>Thanol’s right - many people (including myself) got the full scholarships without meeting the class rank requirement. But of course, having good grades and AP classes helps.</p>
<p>But they’ve been decreasing scholarships lately for incomers (I’m thinking of the national merit one) so maybe it’s different now.</p>