For a well rounded student with strong ECs, what type of merit would be awarded with a 30 ACT and GPA: 4.05 & 3.88 (UW)? Thank you in advance for your feedback! We’re also looking at U of San Diego, Cal Poly San Luis, Chapman, and Oxy
My son had slightly higher GPA and higher test score (SAT 1540 CR+M, equivalent to 34-35 ACT) and got zero merit aid from Santa Clara. We visited from Georgia and he spoke with the admissions director and the head of the department he was interested in, so when the news came he was very disappointed. My conclusion is Santa Clara’s merit aid is based mostly on factors other than GPA & scores.
That’s unbelievable with those scores. We like the school, but it may not be the right financial fit given that other schools will assist.
Santa Clara merit aid is awarded to their top applicants. If I were betting, I would,say a 30 ACT score would not place a student in the position to get a huge amount of merit aid.
The school costs almost $60,000 a year. How much aid does the student need?
Is the student an instate resident for CA? If not, Cal Poly SLO might not be affordable either.
Understood. Yes, she would not qualify for in state. I still have difficulty with the price point given the little difference between these schools and reservations about all CA state schools due the gov/fin issues impacting higher ed and average time to complete an undergraduate degree. Thank you for your helpful feedback.
An ACT 30 would not get much/any merit from SCU.
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My son had slightly higher GPA and higher test score (SAT 1540 CR+M, equivalent to 34-35 ACT) and got zero merit aid from Santa Clara. W
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@bobwallace That is shocking. Many of my Calif nieces and nephews applied to SCU, and all who had ACTs above 32 got merit. Did your son apply late?
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would not qualify for in state.
I still have difficulty with the price point given the little difference between these schools and reservations about all CA state schools
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Calif publics are expensive for OOS students. As far as worrying about graduating in 4 years, that has little to do with the schools, and more to do with the students. My UC and CalPoly nieces and nephews have had no problems graduating in 4 years. However, they didn’t change their majors several times, and they didn’t drop classes, and they took full loads.
Calif publics are often horrible with merit, so don’t look there for merit.
What do you want your net costs to be?
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well rounded student with strong ECs
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To be honest with you, those things have little to do with merit. Merit awards are mostly to “buy” high stats students to improve a school’s reported middle quartiles. The more “upper quartile test score” students a school can get on campus, the higher its reported middle quartiles are.
The upper quartile at USD has an ACT 31+…so likely an ACT 32+ is going to get the decent sized merit at USD. The merit that I’ve seen at USD for the high stats kids typically gets costs down to “about” instate UC cost…because that is their competition.
Focused on a $ 35K net cost
$35,000 net cost should be able to pay in full for her instate public university. Is that a consideration?
No, he applied very early. They actually did give him a $2,000/year “geographical diversity” award, and the notice about it specifically called out that it was not a merit award.
Thumper1 - She is not eligibel for in-state as a Colorado resident.
Is she a California resident? I didn’t ask about Colorado.
If she is NOT a CA resident, aid at CA public universities will not be easy to get.
what is her home state??
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No, he applied very early. They actually did give him a $2,000/year “geographical diversity” award, and the notice about it specifically called out that it was not a merit award.
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@BobWallace Unbelievable! Wow! Just bizarre. I can't help but wonder what happened.
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m2ck, were your nieces and nephews Catholic? I thought maybe Santa Clara emphasized that.
SCU was the only private college where he applied that didn’t offer strong merit aid, and it was the lowest ranked by far. U Miami, for instance, offered $26,000/year Presidential Scholarship. We thought it was odd because he showed strong interest in SCU, whereas he didn’t even visit Miami and others that offered.
Yes, they are. However, I didn’t know that SCU only gives merit to Catholics. Does it say that somewhere??? I would think that SCU would offer merit to anyone with deserving stats.
I do know that many/all the Jesuit colleges give a merit scholarship (usually $10k) to applicants that went to a Jesuit high school. These nieces and nephews did go to Catholic schools, but not Jesuit.
The ones with ACT 32 or higher got $25k-28k in merit per year. I am shocked that your son got no merit at all.
Should one expect U of San Diego to operate in the same manner
USD is not Jesuit.
USD may give a merit preference to Catholic students, perhaps as a way to get more Catholic students to enroll. Does the scholarship page indicate anything?
I have never heard that USD gives merit preferences to Catholic students.
I am still shocked that Jesuit SCU didn’t give bobwallace’s child any merit for his stats. Absolutely shocked. I talked to my cousin last night and her ACT 33 son got $28k per year this year from SCU. Yes, they’re Catholic.
No. All Jesuit colleges do NOT give $10,000 a year awards to students who graduate from Catholic high school. These colleges do have a scholarship,for catholic high school grads, but it is not that much per year.
SCU gives significant scholarships to the top applicants in their applicant pool for that year. It does seem odd that Bob’s kiddo didn’t get much. But then neither did my kid. She got $6000 a year. This was in 2006.
I don’t think University of San Diego will be significant,y more generous.
How much do you need? These schools cost in the $60,000 a year range.
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No. All Jesuit colleges do NOT give $10,000 a year awards to students who graduate from Catholic high school.
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Oh, i know that. There are some Jesuit colleges that give to those who graduate from a JESUIT high school, not just a Catholic high school. …or at least there used to be some…I haven’t checked lately. Scholarship offers do change.
It is shocking (to me) that @BobWallace 's son got NO MERIT at all from SCU with his stats.
http://www.scu.edu/financialaid/SCU-Awards.cfm
From the descriptions, the awards appear to be holistic.