<p>There are schools known to toss merit money around at anyone they’re interested in. Case Western, Tulane, and I think Miami are all known good sources if you want to see what they’ll give you. Not to mention schools like Alabama, who were seeking high scoring OOS applicants. Ohio State has some pretty nice merit as well for high scorers.</p>
<p>Case was particularly good this year, no supplemental essay, no app fee, EA school, so no binding, and they tossed around a ton of $15k and $25k merit awards. Being a girl, your daughter would be in a favored group, as Case is a bit male heavy. If they have the same offer next year, it wouldn’t hurt to try, just to see what they’d offer you. You literally just have to push the send button. And it’s a nice school to have in reserve should other options not pan out.</p>
<p>A general rule of thumb regarding merit money is to look at the % of merit awards being offered. If it’s say 10% of the kids get merit money, then if your kid’s test scores are in the upper 5%, he’d be within the range of those getting that money. That’s if the there are no special factors the kid has. You want to allow for that which is why you cut the % in half. You then look at the average award. If it’s lower than it’s going to help, your chances are low that your kid will get enough from that school. Also look on the school websites for specialty awards where your kid might have a shot. GT and CMU have female engineering awards, for example. Or some auto awards for stats or where if your kids stats are well above certain thresholds listed for consideration.</p>
<p>My one son got a lot of merit money, but the biggest award was $5K, a drop in the bucket for the cost of that school. The other amounts were even less.</p>