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My son is a freshman at a large state university. He had a 32 ACT with 3.0 GPA in honors and AP classes. National Merit Letter. Eagle Scout. He's diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and takes medication. The school he's at has mid range ACT's of 19-26, so he's above the range for that school. We didn't submit financial aid applications because our income plus his assets generates an EFC well above the cost of this school. (But they said we would be notified if they offer merit aid even without a fin aid app.) It doesn't seem that his high scores did him any good in the application process -- no merit money, no honors college, and the schools that accepted him would probably have accepted him with a lot lower scores. Am I wrong? How could we have handled this better? e.g. could he have gotten into a more competetive school or could he have gotten merit aid?

By Roger (Roger) on Monday, November 26, 2001 - 06:38 am: Edit

Hi, MM. First advice: don't try to second-guess yourself too much. It's really easy to do in this process - particularly if the student gets an unexpected rejection, or has second thoughts about his selected school.

At large state schools, most honors college and merit aid decisions are formula-based, with cutoffs for GPA, SAT, ACT, etc. Often, these criteria are published in their literature or on the college's web site. Sometimes, these cutoffs are the initial screen, and a committee will further evaluate the candidates.

It's possible that he could have gotten into a more competitive school, but the more selective the school, the less likely he would have been to receive merit aid. It sounds like you adequately covered the merit aid side of things at the school he's attending.

My only advice if you have another student who will go through the college admission process in the future would be to apply to a variety of schools. Often, private schools are more generous with merit aid if the applicant is in the top quartile (or decile) of their applicants. Different state schools have different policies, too.

The most important thing, of course, is that the school is a good fit for the student's needs. I hope your son is enjoying his school.

By Dadster on Tuesday, November 27, 2001 - 09:17 pm: Edit

Midwest Mom: Sounds like your son is doing very well. Don't sweat the stuff that may or may not have happened. Congratulations! Any more college-bound kids in the pipeline?