I was hoping for some full ride scholarships but he hasn’t even made it to finalist status at several schools so I am thinking that I was overly optimistic. He has been accepted to UVA, UNC, Villanova, and several others, waitlisted EA at Harvard. So we are waiting on:
Harvard,
Duke,
Vanderbilt,
Wake Forest
William and Mary ( I was expecting a postcard but none came)
he is #1 of a class of 425 at a private school with a very good reputation. School does not offer AP classes. 100 average unweighted. ACT: 35, SATM760, V800, W730, Bio SAT 800, EC’s are unimpressive. He did receive several academic awards over the years and was co-captain of a Varsity sport. Participated in that sport for 4 years at Varsity level but no outstanding achievement in the sport. I am thinking that that sport ruined his resume because it was a total time suck that prevented him from being more diverse.
Please comment on Chances for the schools that we are waiting on.
I’m not sure why you were expecting full ride scholarships. Good GPA but no AP from a small school. Solid ACT/SAT scores. No significant ECs. The entire package does not scream out pay me a full ride to your top university.
If you need a full ride, you should be looking at schools a level down who would be eager to have him and would offer significant merit aid to get him in their student body.
Why would Harvard or Duke offer him a full ride? They’ve got lots of applicants like him and some even better with stellar ECs.
@mnm111 Sorry I was unclear. I Was hoping for full ride at some other schools, which I didn’t list ie: Catholic, Richmond, and Maryland. No way I expected Full ride at Duke, etc. My point is that since he wasn’t offered the Merit money I was hoping for, I am wondering whether he has a chance at the others.
Many selective schools (including Harvard, I think) do not offer merit-based scholarships at all. However, Harvard tends to have great financial aid packages and will meet all demonstrated need.
Those SAT scores would make him an average applicant at Harvard (Meaning he’s just exceptional, rather than one-of-a-kind). Whether his school offers AP classes or not, most top colleges would expect a student to show initiative in such a situation-whether by taking APs at a nearby school, taking them as independent study subjects, or even enrolling in some introductory courses at a local college. It’s not always a reasonable expectation (what about students living in Northern Alaska or some equally isolated region), but college admissions haven’t been reasonable in half a century.
Academic awards can’t hurt, but they’re par for the course at Harvard.
You’re right that the lack of extracurriculars is a problem. Harvard applicants with just a single extracurricular of any note have to be exceptional in that EC. They need to be actors/actresses with the potential to win Oscars one day (Natalie Portman). They need to be basketball players who could play in the NBA in the near future (Jeremy Lin). If your son doesn’t have some outstanding achievements in his sport, then it won’t be much help (though no college will consider participation in a sport a bad thing, whatever the level).
With that said, an applicant with academics like his shouldn’t have too much trouble getting into at least a few of the other schools you listed, even if the lack of ECs prevents him from being a true standout candidate for a very generous or full scholarship.
I don’t want to give such advice lightly, but if it’s necessary to borrow money in order to pay for your son’s college education, even large amounts, you should definitely consider it. It can be a tremendous burden for families (and personally I find the rates charged by many top universities in order to pay for superfluous facilities nothing less than criminal), but the benefits of a college education can be still greater. See the link below for more details.
@BrownHopeful27 I agree. I am not expecting any merit $ at the schools I was asking about. Harvard, Duke and Vandy are all very generous with “need based aid.” The net price for each of them ends up being quite reasonable. Harvard asks for 10% of family income even for incomes over 200K. I’m just wondering if we wasted the 100 bucks applying and sending scores.
I get what your saying @Disneydad. “Dang, if my kid can’t get a full ride at blah blah, then what makes me think he’s gotta chance of being accepted to ya ya”. Well you’re not alone. But I like to believe we still gotta chance.
Maryland offers 150 full ride scholarships. He should be hearing about them if he won one right about now. William and Mary sent my D a card. It’s a positive sign for admissions but I don’t know about merit scholarships
@Wje9164be Those are the two schools that have me worried. seems like a lot of people have heard that they are finalists for B/K scholarship at Maryland and he hasn’t gotten anything. He also didn’t get a postcard from W&M. My older son had applied there and did get the postcard. He had lower scores but better EC’s so I’m wondering if my younger son’s application is too one dimensional with good grades but not much else. Congrats to your daughter for W&M. Its a beautiful school. They have 1693 scholars but it is a very small # and a very competitive applicant pool so I wasn’t counting on that one.
William and Mary has also said that they are only sending out postcards for applicants they review early in the process. It could just be that they haven’t reviewed your son’s yet, which is completely possible due to chance. If your son has already gotten into UVA and UNC (I am assuming OOS for the latter) then I really don’t think it should be a problem. Note though that many of those schools you listed don’t offer full ride merit scholarships or have been more competitive. Many schools have been moving towards holistic review for merit, but there are still quite a few out there that have automatic merit scholarships if they meet certain stats (which your son definitely seems to).
@Disneydad I spoke with the B/K folks at Maryland last week–my son did not get the notification from them either. They told me that if you haven’t heard from them yet, then you are not a semifinalist. Sorry.
i hear you, @DisneyDad My kid slipped in at northeastern with a very generous merit grant…and also at Rhodes college…but not even 1 penny from uchicago or unc=chapel hill…she’s one of those kids who was smart enough to get in but barely…so she’s really not in the running for any money at those places. my experience (based on seeing what a couple of kids at her school are doing) is that you need the superstar stats and…well, that’s the thing…it’s hard to pinpoint…but that spark…well-articulated by @notverysmart above. in our case, we have a very decent state university that she will be able to attend for free (given her stats) and that is likely where we are headed…
