如何获得美国的Merit Scholarships呢？
Merit-based是美国大学奖学金的一种，是以申请人本身的学术、思想品质、发展潜力等实力因素来决定最后奖学金的多少。不管你经济上是否需要帮助，只要是学校认可你的学术背景，一样还是会给予奖学金的。
How Colleges Determine Merit Scholarships
How do colleges and universities decide who will get their merit scholarships? Grade point averages, standardized test scores, and the strength of you...全部
Merit-based是美国大学奖学金的一种，是以申请人本身的学术、思想品质、发展潜力等实力因素来决定最后奖学金的多少。不管你经济上是否需要帮助，只要是学校认可你的学术背景，一样还是会给予奖学金的。
How Colleges Determine Merit Scholarships
How do colleges and universities decide who will get their merit scholarships? Grade point averages, standardized test scores, and the strength of your high school curriculum often play a significant role。
However, there are other factors, particularly at private schools, that can play a supporting role in determining which students pocket awards。
学院和大学怎么评定什么样的学生将获得merit scholarships呢?一般我们都知道的一些标准就是，GPA，标准考试成绩，高中课程难度。但Merit Scholarships的获得还有其他影响因素。
Teenagers who receive merit awards are happy to receive the money, but they often don&apos&apost know what it took to earn them。
That&apos&aposs why I was happy to stumble across the blueprint for the merit awards that the University of Rochester dispensed to its latest crop of freshmen。
Jonathan Burdick, the undergraduate dean of admissions and financial aid, decided to take a look after the 2011-12 class was formed to see what factors had mattered in merit award decisions。
Even better, Burdick assigned a dollar value to these factors。
I found the merit aid breakdown fascinating。
While all schools will have their own criteria, this list will give you some sense of what matters beyond the obvious。
Here&apos&aposs how Rochester&apos&aposs merit awards played out during the past admissions cycle:
(下面的这个列表可以让大家知道除了标准成绩，gpa以外还有哪些因素影响了美国merit scholarships的获得。
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• $3,000: The school typically rewarded candidates who reached out to it with an extra $3,000。
These were teenagers who had serious conversations with the admissions and financial aid office。
Schools like to feel wanted, and reaching out to them with meaningful conversations can help。
• $2,000: That&apos&aposs what teens who weren&apos&apost New Yorkers received。
Sixty two percent of the freshmen class hails from somewhere else。 While Burdick didn&apos&apost check, he suspects that students who lived farther away received an even fatter amount of money。
Why would students benefit from being from distant states? Because college crave geographic diversity。
They want to be able to brag that they have students from all 50 states or close to it。
• $62: Each "A" on a teen&apos&aposs transcript generated $62 worth of merit aid。
• $400: Teenagers received roughly $400 for each tough course that they took。 Courses that would qualify included Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and honors。
• $1,800: A student got this much more if the school considered his or her recommendations excellent。
• $115: Each 10-point improvement in the SAT above the average for Rochester freshmen garnered an extra $115。
The average SAT score was 2040。
• $400: Observing deadlines matter。 Students got an extra $400 for completing the application on time, as well as making sure mid-year grades were sent。
• $1。89: You got this much less every time a student was admitted with the same major。 This clearly favored students with less popular majors such as philosophy and hurt students interested in such big majors as psychology, political science, and economics。
• $1,700: That&apos&aposs how much the typical freshmen received in merit money if his or her parents completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)。
The school imposes a progressive tax on its merit awards。 On average, $4 less in income boosts the merit award by one cent。
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