<p>As of right now I am ranked number one in my class, the valedictorian, and I expect to keep it this way. I come from a small school though, how does this affect my chance at getting merit based scholarships? I'm applying for scholarships left and right, but I don't know how I stack up to those who come from larger schools. Do I still have a good chance of getting a good scholarship? I have very close to a 4.0 GPA unweighted, and even higher weighted. I take all the AP classes available, although like I said, small school so they dont offer ALL of the AP classes available. I take all the math electives possible along with all the possible science electives that can fit into my schedule. I have a very tough schedule my senior year, unlike many of my classmates. So how will colleges view this? especially top rank colleges? For example some of the colleges I want to apply to are Ivy league or close to it. (MIT, Cornell, University of Rochester, RPI, etc...)</p>
<p>What I noticed on almost all of the applications my daughter filled out....was that the ACT (or SAT) was important also. She graduated with a 4.0 GPA. Most all of the scholarships asked about community service and school leadership and involvement. We did not fill out one application that was strickly based on GPA alone.</p>
<p>I was valedictorian in my class (2005) ~ most of the scholarships in our area for our students went to lower gpa students. The Salutatorian was a female and she had applied to alot of female only scholarships and received most of those. I applied to everyone that came down the pike, didn't receive any of them. I believe alot of scholarship comittees think that the Valedictorians receive $$$ from everywhere. I did not! </p>
<p>One of the many colleges I applied to was Penn State and they had little to offer for the first year. West Virginia University had a great merit based package!! I haven't had to pay anything. In fact, this year I had a refund of $3,500.</p>
<p>Continue with the AP classes ~ I racked up 47 credits with AP Scores and Dual Enrollment classes ~ My second semester of my first year I was listed as a Junior at WVU. You will save $$$ that way.</p>
<p>Community involvement is a must!! I won a baseball type scholarship ~ not for my playing skills, but my volunteerism. I coached Little League BB for several years and worked alot on the fields.</p>
<p>Good Luck!!</p>
<p>A lot of scholarships have minimum SAT scores that must be met to be competitive for the scholarship. You should check the websites of the schools you're interested in to see if they have parameters set for some of their merit awards.</p>