OP, can you answer the question about whether your D will retest? Did she have a prep clas? It is another thing a parent hoping their kid will get merit might do if the kid’s own studying isn’t getting her there.
Yes, she did have a PREP class. It didn’t really help that much ($175). It actually did help with her writing. She gained 100 points (620 -> 720). But it didn’t help with reading/math. She has taken the SATs twice now and the also the ACTs twice. She has just announced to me that she doesn’t want to take them again. After one of the tests she told me she thought she could answer all questions correctly but didn’t have enough time. So we’ll just have to live with the scores that she has already gotten.
2 ACT’s and 2 SAT’s already taken, with prep? Was the last batch taken fairly recently?
For a senior who should be focusing on preparing college applications and keeping up with grades (considering this semester’s grades could still count), I would not expect the scores to go up enough to make a big difference, if these scores are recent and were achieved with prep.
Better to focus on a solid list of colleges and prepare quality applications.
Thanks @prospect1 ! Yes, she just received her ACTs scores this weekend.
Ok…WHAT is a brand name school to the DD?
Clemson will be about $45k…is that ok? Is that below brand name?
Well, I think Clemson/Miami is about the best caliber school she will be able to get into - perhaps a little higher but definitely with no scholarship. She is right on the edge for a $7500 scholarship (>=28) and won’t make the $10k or 15k one if it is purely on scores. She would need the 15k one to get the cost to an acceptable level. I think this is a long shot but I am will to try and then ask for more if needed. We’ll see what happens…
WP- as a future CEO your D should educate herself as to how merit money works. It’s fine to ask for more money if needed, but merit scholarships are a quid pro quo, like so many other things in life. If your D has something the college really, really wants- they’re willing to pay more for it. If not- well, them’s the breaks.
If she realizes that she’s below the bar on the scholarship she needs in order to attend, she’s going to have to come up with something compelling in order to make the case that the school should increase her award.
Future CEO needs to do some homework…
She will not qualify for 15,000 with her stats. Clemson is very stats driven. ECs are not strongly considered unless she is applying to Calhoun Honors. Her stats are borderline for admission especially for an OOS student.
@carolinamom2boys Well have to see… based on who I know who got in from her high school, I believe she will be accepted but I do agree getting more than $7500 will be tough.
@blossom I think that you are right on educating herself on how money merit works. If anyone can get accepted / attain a higher gift though, I believe she can. She really is a shining star - believe me - no on is harder on their kids than I. Her performance on classwork ECs is stellar. Her teachers in high school are actually excited about giving her recommendation letters. I had one of her teachers call me last year and when he identified himself, I said “ut o”. He laughed because he was calling me to tell me what a great student (and person) she was. I told him that my mom used to get calls from teachers but that wasn’t the reason they were calling 
Wow… and here I was worrying about paying for my college on an income of 30k (
Seriously?
OP, as I’m sure you know from your older D’s apps, those qualities that endear your D to people are not always easily translated to a cold, hard college app. It might be worth investing in a private college advisor to help D find the best ways to express her qualities in her applications. It does sound like she should have no trouble getting high quality recommendations, which is a good thing of course.
Mentioned earlier was College of Wooster which does in fact interview all applicants (who visit) and offers generous merit. Worth a look. Agree with Earlham and basically all the other midwest CTCL schools.
Thank you @OHMomof2 ! It looks like a good school - list price is very high though…
Have you said what your daughter’s rank is? In order to qualify for merit , a student must be ranked in the top 10% of their class have at least a 28 on the ACT or 1250 on the SAT. In order to qualify for 15,000 scholarship a student must have a 32 ACT or 1440 SAT . Clemson superscores the SAT, but not the ACT. This info was given at Discover Clemson Day in May 2014.
@wppdf2, what is D’s unweighted gpa? Selecting colleges based on a weighted gpa is not particularly useful since many colleges will unweight the gpa.
I don’t have the exact number in front of me but last I remember it was between a 3.6 and 3.7.
@wppdf2 my D’s scores were higher but she received about $24K in merit from Wooster. I think list is $55 so around $30K left…
Is your D adventurous enough to go far away to college?
There are some colleges out there that have scholarships that focus on such things as leadership, commitment to diversity, etc. For example, Ohio State has the Morrell (not sure of spelling right now) scholarship, which is awarded by showing a commitment to diversity (don’t need to be a URM yourself, just have a track record of commitment to diversity causes) - and it’s a full tuition scholarship. Don’t let OSU’s size deter you; it is a gorgeous campus in a genuine campus town (not a big, dirty city). Loyola Marymount in California offers some good leadership scholarships – sounds like your D might qualify for that type of thing.
More importantly, D could provide some geographic diversity to some colleges, and sometimes they find a way to give “merit” money for that attribute without necessarily requiring a high gpa/test score.
I don’t know that she would qualify for “diversity” commitment. I don’t know of anything she has done that would help her here. She isn’t opposed to going far away but she doesn’t especially like large cities or large universities. I tried to keep the search down to less than 20k students. Her leadership skills are terrific. She is president of multiple clubs and has just been nominated for another today so I am told. She takes these roles very seriously and tries to leave a mark everywhere she goes to improve whatever she is representing.
Going to be blunt – shining stars who have been given a lot of advantages in life don’t score 27 or the equivalent after 4 tries at standardized tests. You can’t talk yourself into more merit if your stats are low and you have had an upper middle class upbringing.