<p>The PSAT score that is from the junior year October (I think it’s October) sitting is the one used to determine NMS qualifying. I do not believe you can “retake” that one. Some students do take the PSAT their sophomore year and then again their junior year. The junior year score is the one that is used for NM consideration.</p>
<p>Re: club sports…there are some schools that have very strong club sports that play interscholastically. I don’t know about SCU’s club soccer team, but they DO have a very strong club Lacrosse team that plays other schools. Perhaps looking for a school of this sort would benefit the OP’s son.</p>
<p>PSAT - one sitting in October of Junior year. That is the score that qualifies for NMF. It is possible that the state qualifying line could drop - but not probable that it would drop three points in one year. Commended status is a nice line for the resume, that’s about it.</p>
<p>Work on his resume - Look for a leadership position he can hold outside of athletics. A real job is even good. </p>
<p>Public schools in CA - look at their websites, my guess is that even the top students would be luck to get 1/2 tuition.</p>
<p>If you want to stay in California, start looking at the private schools. Santa Clara and Loyolla offer merit scholarships, deadlines are in the fall. You probably have a stronger chance qualifying at private California schools for merit.</p>
<p>Google “common data set” “name of school” 2009 … and that will tell you where your son is in the top 25% or higher, and give you an indication of where he might qualify for strong merit.</p>
<p>I don’t believe Stanford gives any merit - but again could be wrong.</p>
I go to Harvey Mudd in Claremont, CA. I know several soccer players that go to the various Claremont Colleges, a consortium of five small colleges. The soccer teams, i.e. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer, are pretty good. </p>
<p>(1) Pomona meets full need without loans, but does not give merit aid. </p>
<p>(2) HMC financial aid includes loans, but offers merit aid. There is the President’s Scholars (full tuition, several a year) and Harvey S Mudd Merit Award ($10k, maybe about 20% of the class gets it)</p>
<p>Since you’re California residents, another top engineering school with some (very limited) merit aid is Cal Poly SLO. The top soccer player in my area couldn’t even get a tryout for the team; he comes back home to play on his club team on weekends. </p>
<p>Many Jesuit colleges have good engineering programs and offer generous merit aid. Santa Clara was already mentioned; there’s also USD, University of Portland, University of Seattle, Loyola Marymount, Gonzaga. Most are D-1 schools. University of the Pacific (not Jesuit) has (had? you’d need to ask) a guaranteed 4-year graduation program in engineering. Most of these schools are FAFSA-only, which means they won’t be looking at home equity (an important factor for Californians). Santa Clara requires the Profile.</p>
<p>With interests in engineering or med school, perhaps you should look at biomedical engineering programs. UCSD has one of the best although has similar issues as noted for UCB and UCLA above. Boston University offers merit awards.</p>