Perfection isn’t possible, and kids (and adults) can make themselves miserable trying to attain the impossible. Balance matters, and there’s more to life than high grades, making more money, and so on.
While an imperfect measure, grades and test scores indicate mastery and achievement. Unless a student is taking easy courses or is a naturally gifted whiz at something, getting better grades and higher test scores usually takes more effort and work.Want your kids to get more out of their pre-college education and improve their chances of getting into a desired college and other post–high school options? Here’s what they can do leading up to and during high school:
- Strive for better grades. All other things being equal, colleges are going to admit students with better grades (higher GPAs) and also give more merit scholarship money to students with better grades. This doesn’t mean that your kids should take easier courses that enable them to get higher grades. High schools today use a weighted GPA, which gives a higher point value to grades earned in harder courses. And, more selective colleges also expect students to challenge themselves with higher level courses.
- Take advanced placement (AP) courses. Not only do AP courses demonstrate that your children are taking challenging courses, but some colleges also offer credits to students who earn a good score (typically four or five on a scale of five) on AP tests, which are typically administered in May. These credits may allow your child to accelerate his college experience by a semester or even a full year, saving you some serious money. Some colleges simply use mastery of AP subjects to place a student out of a comparable introductory course in that area.
- Prepare for taking the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) or ACT (American College Testing). The first step for students in preparing is for them to study and do their best throughout middle school and high school. Many high schools administer a practice test in 10th or 11th grade. On their website, the College Board offers ten free practice SAT tests for students to download. Once completed, the test is scored through your phone by simply taking a picture of your answer sheet. Or through the same link on that College Board webpage, you can take entire SAT practice tests through Khan Academy. The ACT folks charge $39.95 for their six-month online prep course with practice tests.
The table shows a list compiled by U.S. News & World Report of the colleges that offer merit scholarships to the greatest percentage of their students. (Note: This list excludes athletic awards.) The list includes a real mix of schools in terms of quality. The colleges that are consistently ranked as the top colleges are absent from this list for good reason — they don’t have any trouble attracting plenty of qualified applicants.
To help your kids’ chances of getting merit money offers from colleges, in addition to being sure to apply to numerous colleges that make such offers, they should also apply to schools that are likely to accept (and therefore want) them. To really maximize their chances of getting merit money, your child should apply not just to colleges that are likely to accept them, but to schools for which they are somewhat overqualified and where they’ll stand out from the crowd of applicants. (Of course, you don’t want to take this to an extreme and have your offspring be the absolute biggest fish in a little pond and not have peers who are like them.)
| School | Location | Percent of Students Receiving Merit-Based Aid |
| Hellenic College | Brookline, MA | 100% |
| Fort Valley State University | Fort Valley, GA | 94% |
| Oklahoma Baptist University | Shawnee, OK | 94% |
| Vanguard University of Southern California | Costa Mesa, CA | 94% |
| Webb Institute | Glen Cove, NY | 81% |
| Keiser University | Ft. Lauderdale, FL | 73% |
| Indiana Wesleyan University | Marion, IN | 60% |
| Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering | Needham, MA | 56% |
| New England Conservatory of Music | Boston, MA | 53% |
| Fairfield University | Fairfield, CT | 52% |
| Trinity University | San Antonio, TX | 50% |
| Oberlin College | Oberlin, OH | 49% |
| Samford University | Birmingham, AL | 49% |
| Denison University | Granville, OH | 48% |
| The New School | New York, NY | 47% |
| Cooper Union | New York, NY | 46% |
| Furman University | Greenville, SC | 46% |
| Hillsdale College | Hillsdale, MI | 46% |
| Gonzaga University | Spokane, WA | 45% |
| San Francisco Art Institute | San Francisco, CA | 45% |
| University of Puget Sound | Tacoma, WA | 45% |
| Rhodes College | Memphis, TN | 44% |
| The University of the South | Sewanee, TN | 44% |
| Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology | Terre Haute, IN | 43% |
| Savannah College of Art and Design | Savannah, GA | 43% |
| University of Dayton | Dayton, OH | 42% |
| University of Denver | Denver, CO | 42% |
| Alcorn State University | Lorman, MS | 41% |
| Andrews University | Berrien Springs, MI | 41% |
| Creighton University | Omaha, NE | 41% |
| Golden Gate University | San Francisco, CA | 41% |
| Centre College | Danville, KY | 40% |
| Eckerd College | St. Petersburg, FL | 40% |
| Southern Methodist University | Dallas, TX | 40% |
| Tulane University | New Orleans, LA | 40% |
| Augustana University | Sioux Falls, SD | 39% |
| DePauw University | Greencastle, IN | 39% |
| Truman State University | Kirksville, MO | 39% |
| Beloit College | Beloit, WI | 38% |
| Birmingham-Southern College | Birmingham, AL | 38% |
| Calvin University | Grand Rapids, MI | 38% |
| Marquette University | Milwaukee, WI | 38% |
| University of Portland | Portland, OR | 38% |
| Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Worcester, MA | 38% |
| Baylor University | Waco, TX | 37% |
| Butler University | Indianapolis, IN | 37% |
| Landmark College | Putney, VT | 37% |
| New College of Florida | Sarasota, FL | 37% |
| Ave Maria University | Ave Maria, FL | 36% |
| College of Idaho | Caldwell, ID | 36% |
| Lawrence University | Appleton, WI | 36% |
| University of Findlay | Findlay, OH | 36% |
| Case Western Reserve University | Cleveland, OH | 35% |
| Guilford College | Greensboro, NC | 35% |
| Holy Cross College | Notre Dame, IN | 35% |
| Mississippi College | Clinton, MS | 35% |
| Pratt Institute | Brooklyn, NY | 35% |
| Southwestern University | Georgetown, TX | 35% |
| University of Texas of the Permian Basin | Odessa, TX | 35% |
| Abilene Christian University | Abilene, TX | 34% |
| Benedictine College | Atchison, KS | 34% |
| The Catholic University of America | Washington, DC | 34% |
| High Point University | High Point, NC | 34% |
| Whitman College | Walla Walla, WA | 34% |
| Willamette University | Salem, OR | 34% |
| College of Wooster | Wooster, OH | 33% |
| Colorado School of Mines | Golden, CO | 33% |
| Illinois Institute of Technology | Chicago, IL | 33% |
| Iowa State University | Ames, IA | 33% |
| Lewis & Clark College | Portland, OR | 33% |
| Saint Louis University | St. Louis, MO | 33% |
| St. Lawrence University | Canton, NY | 33% |
| St. Michael’s College | Colchester, VT | 33% |
| Stonehill College | Easton, MA | 33% |
| University of South Carolina | Columbia, SC | 33% |
| Carroll College | Helena, MT | 32% |
| Drake University | Des Moines, IA | 32% |
| Florida Polytechnic University | Lakeland, FL | 32% |
| Florida Southern College | Lakeland, FL | 32% |
| Gordon College | Wenham, MA | 32% |
| Hobart and William Smith Colleges | Geneva, NY | 32% |
| John Brown University | Siloam Springs, AR | 32% |
| Miami University—Oxford | Oxford, OH | 32% |
| New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology | Socorro, NM | 32% |
| Sacred Heart University | Fairfield, CT | 32% |
| Suffolk University | Boston, MA | 32% |
| Biola University | La Mirada, CA | 31% |
| California College of the Arts | San Francisco, CA | 31% |
| Covenant College | Lookout Mountain, GA | 31% |
| Drexel University | Philadelphia, PA | 31% |
| Drury University | Springfield, MO | 31% |
| Harding University | Searcy, AR | 31% |
| Loyola University Chicago | Chicago, IL | 31% |
| Marist College | Poughkeepsie, NY | 31% |
| Pepperdine University | Malibu, CA | 31% |
| Ringling College of Art and Design | Sarasota, FL | 31% |
| Rollins College | Winter Park, FL | 31% |
| Union College | Schenectady, NY | 31% |
| University of North Alabama | Florence, AL | 31% |
| University of Tampa | Tampa, FL | 31% |