<p>@saintfan Why do you think he didn’t get in? Those are amazing stats so there has to be a reason </p>
<p>Because admissions is not just stats based…</p>
<p>Also the vast majority of Emory’s non need based aid goes to recipients of the Emory scholars program. If he didn’t apply for it, he would have only been a candidate for need based financial aid or one of their token merit scholarships. </p>
<p>He did apply for Emory scholars and didn’t get it - I didn’t read his essays so have no clue there. He is bright and nice and well spoken and has a good range of activities although no drop dead stand out thing. It was a tough year though. Wait listed at Tulane as well. Just make sure your list isn’t all reaches both academic and financial.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m really just thinking about applying to Boston University, Emory (reach), Case Western, Ohio State, and a couple state schools, which I will 100% get into. What do you think about the other schools on my list? It’s definitely not a final list though so I’m open to more suggestions 
@saintfan </p>
<p>Here’s the thing . . . it is a waste of time, your and ours, to make lists of schools without having an idea of financial constraints. The list will be very different if you have low vs high EFC, EFC that your parents can comfortably pay vs one that makes them gulp, etc. If you are in that second category you NEED merit aid which means that an academic ‘match’ might not be affordable. Example - my neighbor who was accepted at Emory but did not get Emory scholars is technically full pay but given the details of his parents finances they are not comfortable with that amount. He needed that award to attend and didn’t get it. He applied to several schools that give no merit at all where he also was/would have been priced out. They sadly didn’t listen to the advice about picking a comfortable price point first and building a list around your student’s stats AND the search for aid both need based and merit based funding. There are a gazillion schools out there and until you have a better financial picture it will be difficult to narrow down the list.</p>
<p>@saintfan Although I would like some financial aid, I don’t think I can apply for much since my family falls in the highest bracket. Considering that, what would you say about the schools? </p>
<p>merit aid is not related to need. They award it even if your dad’s a millionaire, if you are at the top of the applicants. Many awards are competitive but some are automatic. Always check if there’s a handful or scholarships… or if 10% students get it. If 10% get it, typically if you are in the top 10% for stats your odds are high to get scholarships. Top20 basically don’t have merit scholarships since their applicants all have merit-worthy stats :)</p>
<p>@MYOS1634 Idk if you would know the answer to this but do you think I would be able to get full tuition scholarship at University of Louisville? I’ll easily be in the top 10% of applicants I’m pretty sure </p>
<p>Then you need to find out if they are comfortable paying what the net price calculators spit out or if they want/need you to seek merit aid. Choose a couple schools and have your mom or dad run a few NPCs even with ballpark numbers just to get an idea. As someone else said if they blanche at the number that it spits out find out what out of pocket cost they would be comfortable with. Can they and will they happily pay 60k per year? 45k? The cost of in state public only? Once you have a better picture you can target schools that award the right amount of merit aid to a kid with your stats along with some in-state options. Even if they say “the sky’s the limit” not all parents really understand what that means since the costs have changed so much since we went to school.</p>
<p>Also, when you start to get a better idea it is fine to email or call the admissions office to find out how they calculate GPA if it isn’t obvious in their web site. Many pull out only certain classes and have different weighting schemes if they weight at all. Some states/schools (Texas comes to mind) looks at class rank and SAt scores.</p>
<p>Here is the Louisville scholarship page. The best scholarships are competitive and only 10 are awarded. Your GPA looks like it isn’t quite there yet. The broad category of merit scholarships are pretty undifferentiated - it’s hard to know how much you might be awarded. There may be more information about that or a specific forum where you can find out the stats and awards of some other kids.</p>
<p><a href=“http://louisville.edu/admissions/aid/scholarships/kentucky”>http://louisville.edu/admissions/aid/scholarships/kentucky</a></p>
<p>Centre College looks like it is worth a look - the price is more modest than many privates and you could likely reduce that further with merit aid of some amount</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.centre.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/merit_special_scholarship.pdf”>https://www.centre.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/merit_special_scholarship.pdf</a></p>
<p>One more thing . . . one of the mistakes that my neighbor made (aside from parents lack of realism about finances) was frittering away a lot of time and energy applying to schools that were never really in the cards based on what turned out to be the financial constraints. To make matters worse, he didn’t give adequate attention to the safeties and low matches and left some money on the table by not completing special scholarship applications and giving them the love that was necessary to take full advantage of available merit money. As a result, he will be attending an academic low match/safety and overpaying for it. </p>
<p>@saintfan Thanks so much for all your help! 
I’ll take all that into considerations. Btw, what do you all think about the ■■■■■■■■■■ college chance calculators? I feel like they might be too lenient because they actually said I have an ok chance at Emory and Carnegie Mellon </p>
<p>Your chance may be OK but that’s where all the details factor in as well as shear numbers of applicants. I’m not saying don’t apply, just know how much merit aid you need and don’t fritter away your time and energy on too many reachy school at the expense of locking down some really good options that you can afford, will likely get in and would be happy to attend. Many have great scholarships that require extra essays or letters. Just be sure not to give those short shrift in the process. </p>
<p>Okay, thanks! Yeah the only super reachy school I think I’m gonna apply to is Emory. I have narrowed my list down to these schools thus far: UofL, UK, centre, Ohio State, case western, bostonU, and Emory. I know UofL and UK would be safeties, Emory is a reach, and ohio state is probably a match or low match not sure, as well as centre. Not so sure about BostonU or case western either but I don’t think they are very reachy. @saintfan </p>