<p>Does it matter in merit aid? D brought her 3.4ish 9th grade uw gpa up to an overall 3.77 going into her 12th grade year. People like to say that schools like upward trending grades, but a lot of merit awards seem to be pretty formulaic. Any experiences? </p>
<p>FYI, SAT and ACT are 99+ percentile. Solid AP scores. Good ECs. Freshman grades are her only weakness.</p>
<p>Not sure how it would affect merit aid but it will definitely look good to colleges.
My stats:
9- 3.1
10- 3.5
11- 4.0
12-4.5
I got into some great schools (Boston College, Northeastern, Etc.) so just tell her to keep up the good work and she should be fine! Good Luck!</p>
<p>Look at the threads on this forum that talk about guaranteed merit aid. I believe your daughters SAT and GPA would make her eligible for some of those.</p>
<p>Her marking senior year grades will be VERY important as well. If she is applying regular decision, those will likely appear on her transcript from HS when it is sent.</p>
<p>You say 99%ile for SAT and ACT? What were her scores, and what was her CR/Math total from the SAT?</p>
<p>If you are from CA the UCs and CSUs don’t consider freshman year grades. There are some other colleges (Princeton comes to mind) that also omit freshman grades.</p>
<p>35 on ACT and 1520/2310 on SAT. Sadly not from CA.</p>
<p>Yay, someone I can help! Hopefully my comparable stats (worse GPA) will give you some hope.</p>
<p>I had a 2.85 freshman, 3.6 sophomore, 3.85 junior, and 4.0 senior. It was a 3.5 when I applied to schools and 3.6 when I graduated. 2340 SAT, 35 ACT. 9 5s and 3 4s on APs. Decent ECs and pretty good essays (I think so, at least).</p>
<p>Deferred then rejected from MIT. Admitted at Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, and University of Maryland.</p>
<p>I ended up getting $8,000/yr in merit scholarships from Maryland. I’m about to enter my sophomore year as a math/comp sci double major in the Honors College.</p>
<p>UnseenU -</p>
<p>The upward trend is not likely to matter much for merit aid. As you have noted, most merit aid is numbers based. The final GPA and the ACT/SAT scores will be what counts. Just be glad that your daughter does have good stats. They qualify her for serious merit money as you can see in the threads at the top of this forum. Have her look at the colleges and universities discussed there, and ask her what she thinks.</p>
<p>Thanks ameliab12 and congratulations on some great schools!</p>