<p>I wouldn't beat yourself up about it. Even if she'd been able to raise her score by 100 points, it still may not have been enough to guarantee a scholarship. I don't know the situation at Maryland, but the best state schools often aren't all that generous with merit aid - except for the really exceptional students. </p>
<p>MotherOfTwo -- your nephew should be fine. Most of the very top LACs don't even offer merit aid - and at those schools that do, such as Grinnell and Carleton, there are many bright students who are there because of the merit aid. Many schools are happy to have someone with high scores because it gives them bragging rights. Also...as has been pointed out many times, it's possible to study for the SAT - and good scores/poor scores are not necessarily a reflection on intelligence.</p>
<p>Actually jenskate1, I got a huge book on scholarships for college kids and there were very few that she was eligible for. Most were really specific.</p>
<p>Thanks Topcat. The schools my nephew is applying to are not of the likes of Grinnell and Carleton. Although rankings aren't everything, I know, they are basically in the 50-100 and the third tier of USNews LACs. A coach from a top 20 LAC school has been in contact with my nephew and is very interested, but his parents are not encouraging it too much because of the perceived money issues (this school does offer merit scholarships, which USUALLY go to top 10% and over a certain SAT, which to me means they may loosen on the 10% if the scores are REALLY high). All I can say is, it's not really my problem - all I can do is offer advice without seeming to be minding their business too much.</p>
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she told me that the way she looks at it, there's not much difference between $20,000 and $200,000...they're both a lot of money! (May the Lord help us all!)
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<p>Big chuckle reading the above...thanks for that...</p>
<p>Boy, can I relate to so many things on this thread! Both my boys got nice - but not full - scholarships, but part of me resented the fact that I'd always expected full scholarships for both -- Oldest is very bright, nearly perfect SATs, straight As, 4th in class (of 750 or so) -- Everybody said no need to worry about him! He'll get scholarships everywhere. However, he chose Penn, where his scholarship is need based (and their idea of our need is somewhat different than ours!) </p>
<p>Second son is quite talented musically, and we heard the same thing: Colleges will be begging him to come. And yes, they did, and he could have had some easy rides. But he chose Juilliard for the quality of the program, and got a nice, but not full, scholarship.</p>
<p>So, we have become like a couple of the posters above -- we are so deep in debt, what's a few more zeros?</p>
<p>But I also second the posters who suggest looking for outside scholarships. Caution -- Penn reduced scholarship money by the amount of outside money received, thereby reducing our motivation to look very hard. Juilliard, on the other hand, allows them to accumulate, so my S was able to add two others, one of which we learned of by searching the web.</p>
<p>My oldest was offered a free ride he refused. It really was heartbreaking for us. The colleges that do offer the free rides offer are just not that attractive to the very bright or talented student.
Well, there is always R.O.T.C.! Sign......</p>
<p>Thanks to Orginaloog and Coureur. I sort of guessed it was he. It think we need to increase the amounts to trillions now as billions seem to have become chump change.</p>
<p>Angst....my college sophomore son's SAT was 1320 and he didn't get accepted at UMCP at all...never mind the honors program. He was initially waitlisted, and then was NOT accepted (the only school of 7 that didn't accept him). If he had gotten accepted, he certainly would not have gotten a scholarship. He is at Boston University with a $10,000 a year merit scholarship (It was his top choice over Maryland anyway). Go figure.</p>