You are correct @mom2collgekids, SCU does not give merit to only Jesuits/Catholics, they give to anybody that fits what they are looking for. Also they do not give special scholarships to those attending a Jesuit high school. SCU is not just scores - essays and activities that show commitment to community, leadership and service that all feed into the Jesuit philosophy are important. A particular religion not important. Major choice important - engineering and business most competitive. I know a friend with stats like Bob’s student that received $500 for books and that was it; another got zippo and one got 6K, so they can be sporadic. With similar test scores (33/34) and a 4.5 gpa one received Johnson Scholars award (full) and another the Provost award (half), but they offered much more than those scores in leadership and ECs. Overall, SCU not known for merit aid. It is certainly holistic and getting more competitive, particularly in engineering and business because of all the ties/connections to Silicon Valley and its resurgence, along with ease getting internships. (The SCU Engineering welcome student reception was held on the Google campus.)
USD seems to be more score predictable in terms of scholarships, the Acala ($25K) seems to trigger at 32-33+ ACT and weighted gpa around 4.5 seems to guarantee at least that or full. They give an extra 1 or 2k on top of those if you come from a Catholic school (don’t have to be Catholic, just attend a Catholic school). USD feels more Catholic (cause it is), but the vibe is very Catholic there, a beautiful campus no doubt, but as my youngest said visiting USD, “Wow, this is super Catholic everything.” San Diego is cool town, I felt the USD campus was a little isolated on the hill, think you want car there. SCU has the mission (and is super beautiful too - geez the landscaping there is amazing) but doesn’t feel as strongly religious just walking around. Engineering and business much stronger at SCU.
In terms of scholarships, my feeling is USD is way more predictable.
SCU gives almost twice as much merit aid as USD, so it seems odd you think it should not be known for merit aid.
I think my son stacked up very well in those areas as well, so I don’t think that explains the merit result in his case. I wonder if it is more of a “Tufts” phenomenon for merit aid, where they don’t offer to students they don’t think they can get. I note that in the prior admission cycle Santa Clara enrolled zero National Merit Scholars http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=776, and so it is possible that they simply do not bother to target students at that level, like my son.
Perhaps. I personally know three NMS kids (very well) that attend so I am not sure I understand that data source. One is a Johnson Scholar, the other got Provost and the third a bit less than half. Defintely NMS. Interesting data comparing SCU and USD - that is surprising that SCU gives more, mine is way less scientific and based on observation and knowing many students at both schools. USD just seems more predictable (good grades/scores), where SCU seems more holistic (unpredictable like USC), that was my main point.
Sample of one. My daughter got better scholarship money at SCU than at USD. She did not get one of those huge scholarships at either school. But SCU was almost twice as generous.
Interesting. A niece and nephew both got the Acala 25K/dept & catholic bonus at USD for total of 32K/40K total (two different years), and got 6k and 14K respectively at SCU. Both super achievers in the sciences/engineering (10-11 APs, etc), so maybe that was high priority for USD that year and not so much at SCU that year. Go figure, admissions can be a mystery. 
I guess the only thing I can conclude at this point is that Santa Clara simply didn’t like my son! He will be at a much better school (Georgia Tech) this fall, but it’s still a head scratcher.
BobWallace…my son graduated from Boston University…he didn’t get accepted at University of Maryland.
Some of these admissions and aid things ARE a mystery…
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I can conclude at this point is that Santa Clara simply didn’t like my son!
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lol…I think it may be the Tufts thing. It just makes no sense at all to me why your son wasn’t offered at least $25k per year.
I don’t know but my daughter’s friend who had stats to be accepted at UCB, got full tuition for business major at SCU for business major. 2008 time frame.
2008 is a long time ago in admissions terms, DrGoogle.
That’s a lifetime in college admissions. I can assure you neither school is what is was then and the admissions game is totally different as well. The changes from 4 years ago to now have been so significant, 2008 surely seems like a simpler time to most of us
My daughter had 3.8/4.2 GPA,33 ACT and strong leadership. She received 12k from SCU, 20 from Chapman, and 23 from DU. She had classmates that had higher stats and didn’t receive any merit aid from SCU.
just for another data point - dd1 received 0 offered from SCU and 15k from USD. dd2 received 25k offer from USD and didn’t bother applying to SCU. ACTs were 33 and 34. uw gpa were both 3.9. dd2 had a higher weighted gpa (4.3 vs 4.1). USD changed its NPC this year to show an automatic $5k if you go to a catholic high school