<p>D is hoping to get offers for merit scholarships from a number of the schools on her list. We felt that she was in the stats ballpark to get some reasonable offers. However just found out her rank-in-class and it is relatively quite low. In fact, according to the school handbook and what I can figure, in previous years her Index would have resulted in a substantially higher rank, so I don't know what went wrong there. </p>
<p>Anyways, wondering if that factor alone will outweigh her other factors at many/most of the schools from which she was hoping to get merit? Or even result in rejections at schools where we have felt fairly comfortable acceptance was likely?</p>
<p>Convince your high school to quit reporting ranks? (Sorry. I am so glad our h.s. does not rank students.)</p>
<p>I think that great test scores and excellent grades will yield your daughter good merit scholarships, even if there are students from her
class with higher GPAs.</p>
<p>* In fact, according to the school handbook and what I can figure, in previous years her Index would have resulted in a substantially higher rank, so I don’t know what went wrong there. *</p>
<p>this can happen in later years when some students take add’l AP classes. </p>
<p>As for merit…there are some schools that use rank as a qualifier, but many schools do not. </p>
<p>As for admittance…what schools are we talking about? The top schools can strongly consider rank, but many mid-tiers or below probably don’t care much about it.</p>
<p>^Sorry if that wasn’t clear m2ck, the ranks are only given out first semester senior year. There must be a very top-heavy class this year, as her Index doesn’t place her as high as it would have were she in some previous class (according to the manual). One of the schools high on her list is University of Pittsburgh, which seems to take rank into account for admissions.</p>
<p>Top schools can strongly consider ranks? This is news to me. I think they look at your unweighted GPA and recalculate according to their own system.
Every school weights differently.</p>
<p>Our school ranks by weighted GPA and reports to colleges whatever you prefer - unweighted or weighted. I think I will advise son to ask for unweighted GPA, even though he is #1.</p>
<p>
Same here, ranks were given this past week and they only look at the first three years. Stupid, I know, but I guess it is a common practice since some deadlines are approaching and kids need their rank and GPA.</p>
<p>You can check their common data sets, or the information on [CollegeData:</a> College Search, Financial Aid, College Application, College Scholarship, Student Loan, FAFSA Info, Common Application](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com%5DCollegeData:”>http://www.collegedata.com) to see how strong a consideration class rank is compared to other criteria.</p>
<p>My son does not rank well, but we already have heard from some colleges about scholarships based on SAT scores. I called and explained his class ranking and asked if he would still get the scholarships and they said yes.</p>
<p>One of the schools high on her list is University of Pittsburgh, which seems to take rank into account for admissions</p>
<p>ahh…but doesn’t UPitt require HIGH stats for good merit? Not sure what your D’s stats are, but if you need merit to make UPitt affordable, then if she doesn’t have high stats, UPitt may be moot. Aren’t you OOS for UPitt so the cost would be $40k+ per year?</p>
<p>My son’s best friend was offered a generous merit package from Pitt. And our high school doesn’t rank. He had very good stats (34 ACT/3.8+ GPA) and a lot of ECs, FWIW.</p>
One of S’s friends got an OOS scholarship last year with stats similar to D’s, but not sure if they have changed policies since then. Not sure where he was ranked though.</p>
<p>Not a parent, but when I applied to colleges, I was only in the top 40% of my graduating class. I still got very substantial merit at most of the private schools which accepted me. My GPA/ class rank was below average for almost all of the schools I got into, but my test scores (30 ACT, 2040 SAT) put me in the top 25% for all of the schools that gave me merit money.</p>
<p>My DD has a low rank as well - top 40% with a 3.6 GPA. So far she has received anywhere from $2,500 to $12,000 per year. She has a 25 ACT. Doesn’t seem the rank is hurting her. But I also think they are looking at the high school she is in (private catholic). We are waiting on the acceptance and award from her top choice school, so fingers crossed they too won’t weigh the rank so much.</p>
<p>She is getting merit with an ACT of 25? Clearly, it all depends on which schools a student is applying to.</p>
<p>I think that it’s important to remember that merit money is a tool a college uses to get something it wants. Sometimes that is a kid whose high stats improve the figures it reports to USN&WR. Sometimes it is an essentially full-pay kid who not only brings more $$ to the table, but whose decision to attend improves the yield reported to USN&WR. Merit is a major tool for yield management. Giving small merit awards to full-pay kids can result in higher yield and a healthier balance sheet.</p>
<p>^This is exactly right. For many colleges, the stated tuition is like the sticker price on a car–it is just a starting point. Giving kids a little something in the way of merit money makes them feel wanted and special (which of course is generally a good thing). In our experience, a meaningful merit award was one that reduced the cost of attendance to less than the price of our state flagship (meaning, in most cases, that it made the COA half or less of the stated price). To be offered such substantial awards, a student generally has to be at the very top of the score/GPA range.</p>
<p>None of the schools our kids applied to (20 between the 2 of them) use class rank for merit scholarships. They have all been based on test scores and GPA a couple have required an extra essay or an activities chart but none have asked for class rank.</p>
<p>*Quote:
Originally Posted by mom2collegekids
ahh…but doesn’t UPitt require HIGH stats for good merit? Not sure what your D’s stats are, but if you need merit to make UPitt affordable, then if she doesn’t have high stats, UPitt may be moot. Aren’t you OOS for UPitt so the cost would be $40k+ per year?</p>
<p>Sylvan reply:
One of S’s friends got an OOS scholarship last year with stats similar to D’s, but not sure if they have changed policies since then. Not sure where he was ranked though.*</p>
<p>Do you know how much this was for? Was it related at all to his major? As you say, policies do change from year to year. Is this student a current sophomore at Pitt? </p>
<p>UPitt can be very unreliable with merit awards. There have been many discussions about this. Entomom was disappointed that her high stats D didn’t get the merit that they had hoped for. She saved the response she got from Pitt after they had asked why her D didn’t get the higher desired merit amount. I think she got a merit award, just not the amount that they hoped for. </p>
<p>The upper quartile for UPitt is ACT 31+. I don’t know what your D’s stats are, but if they are well within the upper quartile, it would seem that she has a decent chance at merit.</p>
<p>how much merit do you want? Enough to get cost equivalent to an instate SUNY ( would SUNY COA be about $22k??)</p>
<p>*My DD has a low rank as well - top 40% with a 3.6 GPA. So far she has received anywhere from $2,500 to $12,000 per year. She has a 25 ACT. Doesn’t seem the rank is hurting her. But I also think they are looking at the high school she is in (private catholic). We are waiting on the acceptance and award from her top choice school, so fingers crossed they too won’t weigh the rank so much.
*</p>
<p>Go to Collegeboard and put in the “top choice” school’s name and look at the middle range quartiles. If your D’s ACT puts her in the top quartile, and the school does give merit scholarships, then she’ll likely get a nice one. If her ACT is in the middle range, she may not get anything or may get a small one. Of course, if the total cost of the school is high, a small one will hardly make a dent in the price. :/</p>
<p>mamadubbs brings up a good point. Students attending private schools often don’t have the rank that they might if they attended their local public. It’s not unusual for high stats kids to not have “top 10%” rank at private schools. In a state like Texas where rank is used to guarantee UTexas admittance, it’s a problem.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids–our kids would most likely have a HIGHER rank at any of the private schools around here because they are easier than our public schools. This isn’t a private/public thing, its a quality of the school issues. Heck, our kids would have a higher rank in just about any other high school in the nation…which is why class rank is meaningless to most colleges for this.</p>
<p>Most colleges that offer automatic merit awards have some kind of metric on their websites that show what award you will get with what GPA/test scores. Check the actual school site to see what they offer. For the few schools that didn’t have that information on their websites, it was supplied in the materials given to us on visits or even at a college fair. If you are really concerned, call the financial aid office at the school and ask.</p>