<p>I know that some of you don't think that B students deserve merit $$$, but are there schools that will give merit aid to B students?</p>
<p>Depends on how you define "merit" money. I was an A/B student in high school and I went to a private LAC. I was given a large grant to attend the school, it was called a "scholarship". But, in reality, it was more just how the school was able to meet our demonstrated financial need. </p>
<p>Perhaps the college also gave out even more merit money for amazing students - but I'm pretty sure they gave out "merit" (enough to meet demonstrated need) to everyone who got into the college.</p>
<p>Do I think there are merit scholarships that meet full tuition/board for "B" students. It is probably very rare. So what are you looking for in terms of aid to go to college?</p>
<p>Annika</p>
<p>Yes, my son had an unweighted 3.0 and got merit money. But he had very high SATs, some ECs and a background that attracted scholarships. My second son was into the performing arts, and even without high SATs and not even a 3.0, was offered some merit money. If you look at Momfromtexas post on full ride scholarship, you can see how she targeted such awards.</p>
<p>my daughter was a B student - nearly a B+ and she got all kinds of merit money. She did have decent SAT's.
The college where she will attend this month gave her a merit scholarship paying for half her tuition. A very nice need based grant is paying the other half. </p>
<p>Lots and lots of private colleges have a matrix for merit scholarships - some will even publish a chart showing with x gpa and y SAT's = Z merit $$$.</p>
<p>Check out some of the "Colleges That Change Lives" schools, as many of them can be relatively generous with merit aid.</p>
<p>B students can get merit aid. You have a better chance at an academic merit scholarship if your stats are above the 75% for that school IMO, but some schools also offer scholarships for things like talent (ie: music, art), or for leadership and past community service.</p>
<p>My S was barely the top 1/2 of his graduating class but received several good merit only awards (we didn't complete any FAid forms & probably wouldn't have qualified for any need-based aid). He had good test scores & pretty good ECs. He was a 3.4-3.8 student, then in HS & now in college.
If the school really wants a student, they will make more of the FAid package "scholarship or grant" rather than loan. If you don't qualify for FAid, you are really only seeking scholarships & grants anyway.
When you apply to schools who are looking for students like your child, you have the best change of getting FAid.</p>
<p>S, who had about a 2.7, got merit aid to a second tier LAC. He had top 2% SAT scores, rigorous curriculum, as well as excellent community service-oriented ECs with strong leadership.</p>
<p>Other S had a 3.0 and got virtually a full ride to an OOS public. He, too, had 98th percentile scores, a rigorous curriculum, and was one of the top students in the country in his main EC, including having done a one month out of state paid internship related to it.</p>
<p>Sure, Bridgewater College in Virginia even has a standard formula. My Son actually liked Bridgewater a lot, after a very nice visit. It was probably his second choice. </p>
<p>One of my kids was around the 50% percentile in grades and SAT scores, and did get merit aid from some schools (that kid will be graduating with honors this year from a school that he couldn't get into as a freshman --after transferring into it...yippee hurray hallelujah). </p>
<p>Some schools like Toledo have aid calculators on their school web site, where you can plug in numbers and see what they're likely to give as grants. We found some state schools that essentially gave some financial aid to all state residents (not PA, unfortunately). </p>
<p>Our high school identified scholarships awarded in the graduation program, and I noted that many "average" students appeared to have gotten scholarships from a wide variety of schools. As others have noted, you stand a better chance if you are applying to a school where your kid is a good match or above the norm, or where he/she has something that they're looking for...geographic diversity, a particular interest or EC, male if a school is struggling to maintain a balance, etc.</p>
<p>Great info. Is there a central location to find this type of info or do I need to search websites? My son's ACT score that he took at the end of sophmore year would qualify him for aid at the schools that we have been looking at. Unfortunately he was sick a lot this year and his gpa crashed. </p>
<p>Thanks for everyone's help. My son is interested in science, so if anyone has any specific schools that they would like to suggest that would be great. Bridgewater College looks like a nice one to check out.</p>
<p>Many colleges advertise their merit scholarships and do publish a matrix similar to Bridgewater college. Look on the admissions page or financial aid under "scholarships".</p>
<p>I should note - these Merit scholarships are strictly Merit and often given with the acceptance letter.
They are very common in small private universities and many "regional" Catholic univeristies.</p>
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Is there a central location to find this type of info or do I need to search websites?
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</p>
<p>Here's a trick you can try. Go to the College Board's "Matchmaker" questionnaire (College</a> MatchMaker - Type of School)</p>
<p>Select preferences (size, location, etc.). Under the "Admissions" rubric, select test scores that are significantly LOWER than your child's results. Also check off the less-selective options such as "More than 75% accepted" and "Over 50% had GPA between 2.0 and 3.0." Under the "Cost & Financial Aid" heading, be sure to select one or more of the choices under "Non-Need-Base Aid" (e.g., check off "Academics").</p>
<p>Once you hit "Results," you should generate a list of colleges that might provide some merit bucks for your B student. (You'll then have to research them, of course.) You can also play around with different preferences to tweak the list. </p>
<p>Happy hunting!</p>
<p>Definitely use the college board site and then look at each school's website to see what it looks like. As suggested, being well over the stats on the college board site for each school indicate merit money might be a possibility. Another thing is to look at schools which are looking for geographic diversity (that is, if your student is willing to travel and you can take on the added expense).</p>
<p>Also read the merit aid thread pinned at the top of this board.</p>
<p>D2 looked at Augustana College South Dakota, a small LAC, with some friends. They were told that students with a minimum 27 ACT would get $10,000 merit aid. One of the girls will be going there since they also have ties to the great health care system tied to the pre-med program.</p>
<p>Typing "29 ACT scholarships" (or whatever your score is) into google will bring ups some schools that offer merit scholarships in that category.</p>
<p>My daughter had an unweighted 3.68 after a year of mono. We read "Colleges that Change Lives" and she applied to 3 of them. All offered nice merit, as she was involved in music, sports, theatre, etc., and had good recommendations. She ended up in one of them!</p>
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My daughter had an unweighted 3.68 after a year of mono
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A year? Oh God no. Mine is in month 3, post-enlarged spleen and throat abscesses and is still feeling awful. I never considered a year.</p>
<p>Hi, with regard to financial aid, how do colleges define family income? Stanford, for example, says that under its new financial program, parents with incomes of less than $100,000 will no longer pay tuition. By income do they refer to the base salary or after-tax income or everything else, for example, if my parents happen to won an unexpected lottery in the year when I apply for admission and they may not have the similar luck in the following years?</p>