Merit Based Scholarships?

<p>So I managed to persuade my parents to let me attend a private school but i'm not going to be able to do so without a couple of scholarships.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I wont ever qualify for financial aid so I was wondering if people could comment on any purely merit based scholarships. If I was to narrow it down, I find the following as my strong points but really mention anything that you might know of.</p>

<p>Strong Points:</p>

<p>Poetry
Math
Test-Taking (SAT/ACT etc...)
Story Writing
Composing
Free Hand Drawing Using Pencil
Robotics
Debate</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>Do you need a full scholarship? These are some of the schools I know have PURELY merit scholarships.</p>

<p>Mercersburg
Baylor
McCallie (all boys)
St. Paul’s has a couple of regional ones, and a Classics scholarship</p>

<p>Some schools may not have big programs, but they might give their top applicants like 10,000 in merit which happened to me.
Where are you from?</p>

<p>I know there are plenty of others. Could any more CCer’s elaborate?</p>

<p>boarding school review search for schools with merit scholarships</p>

<p>[Search</a> Boarding Schools](<a href=“Boarding School Search Results”>Boarding School Search Results)</p>

<p>Here are all of them. But you may have preferences as to the location or co-ed / all one gender</p>

<p>Portsmouth Abbey does-- they have a full scholarship you can qualify for if your SSAT is in the 90’s.</p>

<p>Dunno but isn’t the Icahn program at Choate merit based??</p>

<p>There is a limit to the amount of income a family can earn in order to qualify for the Icahn scholarship…there is a chart on the Choate web site that helps you work out if you qualify or not.</p>

<p>There were a lot of threads about that. Please search before posting. You’ll find a lot of info there.</p>

<p>Well, I’m specifically from NJ… Central area, I need my tuition to be somehwere in the 4 figure range… Right now I’m thinking about day-school (My parents say that Im pretty much never at home and I have my whole rest of life to myself so they want me @least up until junior year)</p>

<p>So if that helps right off the top of my head the schools I’m looking at are</p>

<p>Peddie School* Not Really Sure
The Hun School of Princeton
Blair Academy* Not Really Sure
Lawrenceville School
Rutgers Preparatory School
Montclair Kimberley Academy* Not Really Sure
Pennington Academy* Not Really Sure</p>

<p>As far as I am concerned those are my choices… I have a feeling that I am really only looking at RPS & Lawrenceville right now, but maybe others. In the Hun School I have a lot of friends so that is always intriging (idk if i spelt that right).</p>

<p>Do feel free to suggest other schools however,</p>

<p>In New Jersey there is the Ross Scholarship, which is for St. Paul’s School. Their regional scholarship programs are really great, and besides getting a full scholarship, you get to spend your 4 years of high school at a World-Class boarding school.</p>

<p>Well i guess that sounds good, idk what else is out there…</p>

<p>Just an addition feel free to post anything about schools in pennsylvania as well as NYC.</p>

<p>Well, I know Peddie has two available scholarships - one for community-service oriented kids called the Annenberg scholarship (full) and another based on teacher recs and test scores.</p>

<p>Kent has a very nice robotics lab if that is a major interest. 3D printer and all. Plenty of merit scholarships.</p>

<p>Lawrenceville is an excellent school but is not in the 4 figure range…although tuition is a little lower for day studs than boarders.</p>

<p>Merit based scholarships are only awarded once students are already in the school, usually during sophomore or junior year.</p>

<p>The only downside for day students is that they have to attend saturday classes like the rest of the school and for day students interested in social activities outside of Lawrenceville, this presents some problems. A lot of day students simply show up at school 1st thing in the morning, leave late at night, and even come to school on sundays. In other words, they do everything boarders do except sleep at school.</p>

<p>Most of the schools on your list are firmly AGAINST merit scholarships, believing that scholarship money should be reserved for low income kids. (HUn, MKA, etc) Pennington has a competitive scholarship where they select one or two kids with high scores and give them a full ride. But they are really hard to get.</p>

<p>I don’t want to discourage you, but just to tell you why they don’t have merit scholarships—it’s sort of a controversial subject, both at the college and boarding school level. With so many people applying for need based aid, they feel it isn’t fair to give funds to a family who could afford boarding school, but perfers not to pay for it for whatever reason they may have. Even the merit scholarships used financial need as one of the factors in making the decision.</p>

<p>I think your best bet is to try for the Pennington scholarship—good luck to you!</p>