SAT vs. PSAT for merit based scholarships

[dereksurfs]

Hi,

This has been a very odd junior year for DS17 with regards to standardized testing. He is generally a very good student who is not great at standardized test taking. They have been a real struggle. This is mainly due to being a perfectionist and running out of time which we've been working on. The results have been so-so PSAT scores. After two attempts, the last and best was 1380. He was really hoping to break 1400. However, he just received his SAT scores which really surprised us all at 1540. Although it was grueling for him, he did well given it not being his strength. With these disparate results (PSAT vs. SAT), I wonder what they really mean when being considered for merit based aid? We really can't afford private schools unless significant merit $$ is offered. I will say that his so-so PSAT score was still high enough to qualify him for the National Hispanic Recognition Program. And his GPA is high with all A's in his AP and dual enrollment courses. Any thoughts on SAT vs. PSAT appreciated.

I must also mention we are not set on attending private schools. But scholarships are something we need to consider regardless of where he attends.

Thanks,

[GoodGrief]

IME, the schools are uninterested in the PSAT score. The SAT score is commonly used as a deciding factor in distributing merit scholarships. I would not give his PSAT scores another thought, past the fact that they qualified him for the NHRP! Congratulations to him!

[RootAnn]

Hi Derek!

I agree with GG. Do the schools he's looking at offer auto merit? I seem to remember y'all are looking at PNW schools. Have you checked their websites for details? Auto merit is spelled out if they offer it. Other merit is usually. sometimes, but not always mentioned. Some (but not a lot) net cost calculators will spit it out for you.

The only thing PSAT scores count for is NMSF, but I don't remember a lot of schools in that part of t hth e country offering a lot of big NM scholarships, unless you were looking more New Mexico (or was it Nevada-ish?). (You can tell I haven't looked at anything near the West Coast. Dd#1 isn't considering any school west of Missouri.)

[GoodGrief]

Washington State Univ was offering full tuition to Nat Merit semifinalists; typically the schools offer similar scholarships to those recognized by the NHRP too. University of Idaho had a full ride for National Merit Finalists; again, might be worth checking to see what they offer to those recognized by NHRP.

[8filltheheart]

Agree with the above. You are discussing 2 completely different sources of merit $$, NM-based scholarships and merit-based scholarships. Large university based NM scholarships are provided by a smaller number of schools. The big well-known ones are Bama, UAH, UAZ, NM, UKy (recently reduced), UOK (recently reduced), FL public Us (recently added). More schools add smalller NMF scholarships. (USCarolina adds $6000 for NMF to their other scholarships.) 

The more common practice is to use test scores for admission. Some have published GPA/test score combos that result in $X. Some are unpublished/based on holistic review. Of those, if you read on CC, some of them you can sort of estimate what scores receive what amt (Case is an example of this.)  Others are far less predictable. You know the scholarships exist. You can see the profiles of previous awardees. But, you cannot safely assume any particular student will be awarded the scholarship. (For example, the yr my Dd was awarded Top Scholar at USC, 2 other high profile kids (1 accepted to Stanford and another awarded the top scholarships at several other schools) were not selected as TS, but another student who was accepted to Harvard was.)

still another variable is stacking of scholarships. Some schools will allow scholarship $$ money to stack up to full cost of attendance. Some won't. Some schools reduce out institutional grant $$ dollar for dollar for scholarship $$ and do not allow scholarships to exceed parental contribution. Others will allow admissions scholarships, dept scholarships, and outside scholarships to stack up to the full cost of attendance.

FWIW, my ds who attended UA on full scholarship was not a NMF. He had 4 different university based scholarships that stacked on top of each other.  So, just bc he didn't have NM scholarship did not mean that he received less$$ (as a matter of fact, he received more  scholarship $$ than NMF scholarship awardees.)

[dereksurfs]

Its good to know the PSAT isn't as heavily weighted, apart from NM scholarships. That's good news for ds17 since it was not his strong point. Thanks for all the helpful information.

Unfortuantely, all the rest of it seems very relative, subjective and variable which makes its hard to get a true sense of real costs beyond the basic college calculators. Most of those do not take into account the number of scholarships a school will give to a particular student who they may be trying to attract - the more holistic, real world picture or bottom line. I guess its one of those things where you never really know until you apply. 

[GoodGrief]

31 minutes ago, dereksurfs said:

Unfortuantely, all the rest of it seem very relative, subjective and variable which makes its hard to get a true sense of real costs beyond the basic college calculators. Most of those do not take into account the number of scholarships a school will give to a particular student who they may be trying to attract - the more holistic, real world picture or bottom line. I guess its one of those things where you never really know until you apply. 

There is truth to that. You can get a pretty good idea ahead of time what major scholarships are available at any given college on their website, though sometimes it is a bit hidden for some reason. For some schools I found I had to google the school name and "National Merit" to get the specifics on their National Merit participation.

Often smaller departmental scholarships are not listed, and the applicant may get notification that they are eligible for something like that. Occasionally the school will add a scholarship after the application season has started too. That was the case when my older daughter applied to UW back in 2012.

Then there are the rare situations, like the young man I know who got additional need-based aid from Yale well after the May 1st acceptance deadline.

So it is true that you never do know precisely how it will all play out financially. But for the most part you can get a pretty decent idea as far as for what your student might potentially qualify at any given school.

[TCB]

Just wanted to chime in and say it's definitely worth doing a google search with the name of the school, as well as looking on their official scholarship page. I just happened to google my dd's school and national merit and that is how we became aware of their great NM scholarship. I hadn't seen it on their page despite looking at it multiple times. Also, when I looked at their page it said that some of their scholarships were only given to students who graduated from an accredited school, however when my dd applied she was automatically granted those scholarships despite being homeschooled and, in fact, they have now changed the wording on line to remove the accredited school part so you can't really rely on the website for full information. We had almost written that school off because of the accredited school thing and then I saw the NM scholarship so we applied, and then, of course, found out that the other scholarships were open to her too.