merit scholarship aid for National Merit Commended scholars

Paying for College
1

<p>Hi - Does anyone have any information on whether or not schools will give our S merit aid based on his National Merit "Commended" scholar status?</p>

<p>I see lots of chatter about aid for NM Finalists and Semifinalists but does anyone have experience with Commended and chance for more merit aid? </p>

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<li>TIA</li>
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2

<p>Although the “commended” status itself probably won’t open any scholarship doors, the fact that your son got such a high score sounds like it may correlate with high test scores/GPA…which CAN offer kids guaranteed merit aid based on those stats. Check with the schools he’s interested in to see if they offer this GPA/test-score based merit aid…although my d is a NM Scholar, at her current college (which does participate), she receives $1000 “official” NM Scholarship, another $4000 school-sponsored NM award…the bulk of her scholarship funding comes from other awards. Where is he applying?</p>

3

<p>Is your son a junior or senior?</p>

<p>I don’t know of any schools that give a scholarship for being Commended. </p>

<p>however, if your son has strong SAT or ACT scores and a strong GPA, then there probably are schools that will give him merit money. However, if he’s a senior, you may have missed the deadlines.</p>

<p>My kids’ undergrad gives a big NMF scholarship, BUT it also gives large scholarships for strong stats. </p>

<p>What is your son’s SAT/ACT and GPA? Is he a junior or senior?</p>

4

<p>the responses above are what I expected… “Commended” won’t get you anything specific but maybe the overall Test/GPA package will. He already has some scholarships as noted below.</p>

<p>Our S is a senior. Has already been accepted to:
Villanova, Santa Clara, Chapman, Loyola Marymount & Denver U. </p>

<p>Waiting on USC, University of Oregon (honors), University of Washington</p>

<p>Note: has rec’d some aid from Santa Clara (about $13K per year) and Chapman ($20K per year. We are waiting on the rest.</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<p>GPA: 3.75 unwgtd (at a top public school - had a rocky start but has been trending 4.0 since start of junior year)
SAT Scores: 680 R, 750 M, 660 W
SAT Subject Scores: 800 Math II, 620 US History</p>

<p>National Honor Society
NMF Commended
Team Captain
EC’s are good too… Service club, etc</p>