<p>I'm a junior with a 4.1 gpa and 3.95 unweighted. My ACT score is a 31. top 5 or 6 percent in my class. I'm mostly looking at Universities such as SMU, UT, Duke, Baylor, and just a few others.</p>
<p>I don’t think any of those schools have assured merit for your stats. </p>
<p>At Duke, you’d need much higher stats to be considered.</p>
<p>Isn’t UT focusing more on need-based aid and moving away from merit scholarships?</p>
<p>Go to collegeboard.com and look up the mid 50 SAT/ACT for each school. If a school gives merit, then you need to be well above that mid 50 range in order to have a good chance at big merit. Big merit tends to go to the top 5% of a college’s freshmen class (if the school gives merit).</p>
<p>For instance…at SMU</p>
<p>The middle 50% of students have…</p>
<p>ACT Composite: 25 - 30 </p>
<p>So, an ACT 31 is at the 25% mark. You’d need a higher score to likely get big merit from SMU.</p>
<p>What’s your situation? How much merit money do you need? How much will your parents pay for college?</p>
<p>Will you be taking the PSAT in the fall? If you score high enough, you can become a National Merit finalist. Lots of scholarships for those.</p>
<p>No i have not taken the PSAT yet, I’m taking it this coming October. I’ve only taken the ACT twice the first time i got a 26 and the last time i got the 31 so i expect it to get better. My parents are usually 300K+ earners so I’m just kind of curious to see what i can get.</p>
<p>What state are you from?</p>
<p>Like M2CK said, you need to be in like the top 5% or 10% of your incoming class in order to be considered for substantial merit aid. Normally what you’d do is look at schools that are a tier below where you would normally apply.</p>
<p>Alabama has good big scholarships for even OOS students with stats like yours.</p>
<p>Many schools use merit aid as a discount for kids in certain demographics. If you live in a zip code where most make over $300k, you probably won’t be offered much except where it’s guaranteed by stats. Don’t expect a cent from Duke or any reach school.</p>
<p>You would have to go to a school like Bama most probably to get much.</p>
<p>Do you need to get financial aid to attend college? Or do you want to get it. With a $300K income, perhaps your parents are already anticipating paying for your college costs. Ask them what they are willing to contribute.</p>
<p>Are you saying you are a rising junior and you’ve taken the ACT twice? Why?</p>
<p>I’m from Oklahoma i just started my junior year, My parents wanted me to start taking the ACT for practice so i took it twice last year. My parents plan to pay for college, I’m just curious to know what i could get.</p>
<p>If you’re from OK why would you consider attending UT (that “other” state)? You have some perfectly good in-state schools.</p>
<p>Baylor’s website has a merit aid calculator which tells students exactly how much merit aid to expect.</p>
<p>^ ditto. I tried Baylor’s calculator today. $13,500 per year for just above average stats (1270 SAT, top 10% class rank). <a href=“Undergraduate Admissions | Baylor University”>Undergraduate Admissions | Baylor University;
<p>Baylor’s Tuition is only about $31,000 to start with, so taking off $13,500 gets tuition down to $17,500 and R&B is pretty cheap at about $7,000, for a $24,500 total of tuition + R&B/ add about $3,000 for other stuff and you’re at a Cost of Attendance under $28,000. That’s just a litle over half of the COA of most private universities.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>True…but you do have the room and board a little low…</p>
<p>Room rates are about $5k per year</p>
<p>And meal plans are about $4k per year.</p>
<p>So, R&B is about $9k per year.</p>
<p>But, you’re right, with the merit scholarships, the cost (about $30k per year) is less than other privates without merit. </p>
<p>And, to save even more money, some flagship out of state schools would give you more merit and your resulting costs would be less than $20k per year. </p>
<p>Since this student is only a junior, he has time to raise his ACT score up. He should also take the SAT. He might do better on that.</p>
<p>I only moved to Oklahoma 2 years ago. I lived about 30 miles from UT so it was always my first choice.</p>
<p>The Baylor Scholarship Calculator is fun! Do any other schools have merit aid (not need-based aid) calculators on their websites?</p>
<p>If you’re OOS for UT, don’t expect much, if anything, from them. It’s hard to get accepted to UT as an OOS student and they will likely expect you to pay the full OOS costs…</p>
<p>OOS cost of attendance at UT is about…$45k per year. If your parents are willing to spend $45k per year for UT, then all you have to do is get accepted!!! :)</p>
<p>GADad,</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.tusculum.edu/mytusculum/calculator.php[/url]”>https://www.tusculum.edu/mytusculum/calculator.php</a>
[Xavier</a> University - Undergraduate Admission - Scholarship Calculator](<a href=“http://www.xavier.edu/undergraduate-admission/scholarships/calculator/]Xavier”>http://www.xavier.edu/undergraduate-admission/scholarships/calculator/)
[Alma</a> College: Freshman Scholarship Calculator](<a href=“http://www.alma.edu/about/offices/financial_aid/calculator]Alma”>http://www.alma.edu/about/offices/financial_aid/calculator)
[University</a> of Dallas - Scholarship Calculator](<a href=“404 - Page Not Found - University of Dallas”>404 - Page Not Found - University of Dallas)</p>
<p>(I googled: scholarship calculator site:edu) to get these results</p>