<p>Hello, my son is going to be a senior in high school this upcoming school year so applying for schools is coming up as well! My son has a 3.0/4.0 GPA and received a 29 on his ACT. I need to know what schools give decent merit-based aid and I need help! I'd like it to be a decent amount of aid and I'm taking all suggestions!</p>
<p>Is the 3.0 weighted? If not, what is the weighted GPA?</p>
<p>If the 3.0 GPA is the weighted, that will limit some options. many schools require a 3.5 or 3.75 GPA for consideration.</p>
<p>UA- Birmingham would give him a large award.</p>
<p>However, if his weighted GPA is higher, then he’d have more options. Is the going to test again? An ACT 30 would get him more money. Or take the SAT.</p>
<p>On the updated 2014 UA-Birmingham scale -
$10,000 for a weighted 3.0 GPA
$12,000 if the weighted GPA is 3.5 or above.
you need a 30+ 3.5 GPA to get the $15,000.</p>
<p>Look for schools where his ACT puts near or above the 75th percentile. For example, Austin College offers “SAT (CR+M) of 1250+ or ACT of 28+, and a high school cumulative GPA of 3.0 – 3.49 = $19,000” You really need to hit individual school websites to see what they offer. You can usually do a search on test scores and location to start targeting schools.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>I’d like it to be a decent amount of aid</p>
<p>Can you tell us what you consider to be “decent” merit aid?</p>
<p>For instance, a school may give you $20k per year, but if the school costs $60k and you have to pay $40k, that may be too much.</p>
<p>But, another school may give you $15k per year (a smaller offer than above), but if the school only costs $35k per year, then the remaining $20k may be just in your budget.</p>
<p>How much do you want to pay each year?</p>
<p>A number of colleges on their websites include breakpoints for merit aid. Just be careful about relying upon any third party information, because that merit aid can change from year to year. You may also find some information on a college’s “common data set” - but it will not tell you specific breakpoints for aid. You also can often find information by searching this website to find students posting their aid offers and stats for a particular college. Some of that info can be found on threads for accepted students on the part of this website for a particular college. </p>
<p>Everyone should take both the ACT and the SAT. They are very different tests, and many students do better on one test than the other. Colleges will usually base their admissions decision and their merit aid offer on whichever score is higher.</p>
<p>You can find a chart online that compares equivalent ACT and SAT scores. After taking each test once, take the test a second time that had the better score.</p>
<p>My experience is that many private colleges will offer merit aid equal to 50% of their tuition to students in the top 15% or so of their applicant pool. However, full ride scholarships are extremely rare, unless you are an African-American with very high scores.</p>
<p>If you want a large amount of merit aid, you typically will need to apply to some colleges that are less selective than you would normally target.</p>
<p>Also, some colleges give more aid to students who apply early. Some students offer no aid to students who apply late, or who are pulled from a waiting list. One university waits to offer their merit aid - they only give it to students who have not accepted an offer of admission in the first 3 months, because they use their merit aid to try to get students who are wavering.</p>
<p>If you are unhappy with an aid offer, you can send a college aid offers from competing colleges and ask that they reconsider. However, try to do it in a polite way that does not appear to be hardball price negotiating. Also, don’t try to use a merit offer from a non-selective college to get better aid from a very selective college. Many private colleges will try to match aid offers from colleges that they consider their peers.</p>
<p>My daughter was accepted to one college that had a strange two-tier merit aid offer. First they offered a modest amount of aid, and then they made you attend an interview on-campus and other events before they would make a supplemental aid offer.</p>
<p>For some colleges, their merit aid actually has a need-based consideration. They may offer more merit aid to students who they think will need it. They are also playing to people’s ego. A mother would much rather walk around telling everyone that her son received $20,000 a year in merit aid, when actually it was largely offered because of need.</p>
<p>At the same time, a number of colleges only offer merit aid, and give out little of their own need-based aid. These colleges typically have a big “gap” in their costs to students with marginal scores and lower incomes. Many of those students decide not to attend because they can’t fill in the gap in the costs.</p>