Merit

What type of merit would be awarded with a 30 ACT and GPA, 4.05 (Weighted)/3.88 (Unweighted)? She has excelled in her extra curricular activities. My daughter is also looking at Univ of San Diego, Chapman, Cal Poly San Luis, and others to attend in fall 2016. She lives in Colorado.

From what I know, SCU will likely be the lowest of the privates you have listed. They are not known for great merit except at the very high end (32+, 4.5+ and sometimes not then either, depends on competitiveness of major, engineering and business being the toughest) and instead give a lot of financial aid. My educated guess for your daughter’s scores would be around 15-20K at Chapman and USD. A higher ACT (32+) could push her into the 25K category at those schools. At SCU, generally speaking of course, based only on scores, but knowing several admits there, my guess would be zippo to 6K. I am not familiar with CP offering scholarships to out of staters, just don’t know how that works. However, maybe she will bend the curve at SCU so don’t let me discourage you, it is a great school with great connections!

@CADREAMIN Thank you for the great details and insite. What about the Univ of Denver? Thanks again!

hmmm can’t speak directly to that one either, although we did get a guarantee of a large amount of merit aid prior to applying based on student’s scores I suppose, so that may be good one to look into. Is intellectual level of a school important to you? Maybe that sounds snobby, not trying to, but for two of mine, how many really smart kids surrounded them was maybe their #1 priority. Just like an athlete wants to play with other great athletes. The academic demographics vary between the schools you mentioned and even departments within the schools. Do you have idea of her major yet? I can tell you all the schools you have chosen - can’t speak to Denver, didn’t go there - but know all the others really well - are super safe campuses. Mom would be comfortable with daughter at any of those from a neighborhood/campus safety perspective if that is important. (I have one that actually prefers the big urban grit and city struggle - to each their own I suppose.)

interesting that you mention the intellectual level. She surrounds herself with the student leaders/student athletes who collectively will graduate with 30+ ACT, student gov leadership, varsity Captains, and many are able to play a sport at the D3 and D2 level. Most of her friends are using undergraduate as a stepping stone for grad/law/medical school. She has a stronger interest in politics, government, english, and history. You are not snobby from my perspective so please share details about the school, intellectual capacity of the students down to septs, and please let me know which school has those students with academic limits. Thanks!

@CADREAM My daughter is heavily considering business as a major. Looking forward to your feedback regarding the intellectual levels. Thx

@CADREAMIN My daughter is heavily considering business as a major. Looking forward to your feedback regarding the intellectual levels. Thx

I received about a 10k incentive aid (a type of merit aid that says that they think I’ll be a good addition to the student body as a person) while having about the same stats as your daughter

My daughter had a 3.8/4.2, 33 act and strong extracurriculars. Of all the schools, SCU offered the least in merit aid. 23k at DU, 20 at Chapman, 20 at Lewis and Clark, 17 at Scripps and 12 at SCU. For all of the other schools, she received what we thought she would with the merit calculator. It’s really hard to predict what SCU will give. She has classmates with higher stats that received less than she did.

Depending what she did with her extra curricular activities, she could get nothing or she could get more than you expect. I think SCU really looks at the student and how they will contribute to the school. Good luck! They are all great schools.