<p>Female from Colorado, competitive public school
Decision: Accepted EA
SAT: 1880
UW GPA: 3.87 W GPA: 4.25
Class rank: School does not rank
APs: 3 tests IB: 2 tests
Wrote a 240 page 70,000 word historical fiction novel, in work for publication
Lots of ECs: Copy Editor for the Yearbook, Created a Youth Film Program (3 years running, over 1000 people attended last year), taught myself to play the piano, over 400 hours of volunteer work, etc).
Great (guessing) letters of rec from History & Chemistry Teacher
Very personal essay
answered “why Tulane” and built a communication with admissions counselor </p>
<p>Sadly, I did not receive any sort of scholarship, which sucks especially in the light of receiving a $68,000 scholarship from another school (which is not a top choice, unlike Tulane).</p>
<p>Other Colleges:
Applied:
Rhodes College EA: Unknown
SMU EA: Accepted
DePaul University EA: Accepted
University of Minnesota Twin Cities EA: Accepted
University of Colorado-Boulder EA: Accepted
Rutgers University: Accepted
Tulane EA: Accepted
Emory RD: Unknown </p>
<p>Obviously one cannot give “odds” on winning a DHS or PTA. It depends on the quality of submissions that year, besides the sheer number. And the quality of your own, of course. But to the best of my knowledge, there are between 1000-1500 submissions for each scholarship every year. Of course many people apply for both, and you cannot win both. That improves the “odds” somewhat.</p>
<p>@fallenchemist , do you know how many apply for the community service scholarship? My D didn’t have the stats for the other two but applied for that one.</p>
<p>Probably not. They just finished EA and the office is closed until Jan 5. Frankly I wouldn’t look for any RD decisions until sometime in February, but they might surprise people with earlier ones.</p>
<p>Fallenchemist --my daughter applied and was sent a letter stating she would hear by December 31. We haven’t heard anything and are waiting today, but your message about them being closed makes me think we wait in vain. </p>
<p>Right, the Dec 31 was for those that applied in the extended EA period, just to be clear for the others reading this. I did think about that date when they closed up for the year. I wonder if there is a mix-up with her application. I strongly recommend calling as soon as they open (assuming her Gibson account doesn’t change tomorrow) and if they did make a mistake I am sure they will let her know right away. But who knows, maybe some brave souls are coming in tomorrow to take care of a few remaining applications. Not likely, but one can always hope.</p>
(sounds cocky, but i thought I was a definite shoo in)
School/major: Biology
REGULAR EARLY ACTION
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): M: 700 CR: 710 W: 600
ACT (breakdown): 32
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9
IB GPA out of 7: 6
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top quarter
AP (place score in parentheses): World History 5, English Comp: 5, Macro/Microeconomics:3 Biology:3
IB (place score in parentheses): Predicted 37/45
Senior Year Course Load: Full IB diploma
Honors& Awards:
National Honor Society 11th – 12th
All “A” Honor Roll 9th – 11th
Silver President’s Volunteer Service Award 11th
Extracurricular Activities:
Community Service: 600 hours total
Tutoring Program
counselor at camp
intern at hospital
ambassador at airport
tutor for underpriveledged children
debate for 4 years/captain
speaker and student organizer for ted talk at my school
writer for school newspaper
member of unicef club at school
NHS
National society of high school scholars
AP Scholar with Distinction
Student leader of World awareness club
Essays:
Teacher Recommendations: Hopefully good!
Counselor Rec: Hopefully good!
Additional Rec: also good
Interview: nope
My son was deferred EA. He already submitted the application for Deans Scholarship. Will he still be considered? Stats: 35 ACT, 3.9 UW, 5.1. Tulane is his first choice, but accepted to University of Michigan.
I have a question for those who were accepted with great scholarships (congratulations by the way!)…How do you plan to pay for the remaining cost of attendance? My son didn’t apply to Tulane, but he’s in a similar situation at the U of Denver…he got a big merit scholarship, but the remaining cost of attendance is still around $30,000. Does need-based aid come in after the scholarship to pick up some of the remainder? Or are families expected to fund the entire remaining amount? Just curious if these merit awards are the final determination of what a family will be paying.
Absolutely he will still be considered. The fact that he submitted the DHS project will be taken as a very strong sign of interest, but I still suggest he stay in touch with his admissions person every few weeks just to say hi and restate that. The best would be if he can honestly say that should he be lucky enough to win the DHS, he would definitely accept Tulane’s offer, but of course he should only say that if it is true. Since you say it is his first choice, I assume it is true. Congrats on his acceptance to UM though. That’s a feather in the cap for sure.
The timing at different schools can be quite different, but the answer to your question at most schools, and I would definitely think at U Denver, is that the need based aid is a separate issue, mostly, from the merit aid. I say mostly bcause certainly his merit scholarship is considered an asset for that school only.
So let’s say UD has a sticker price (full cost of attendance including tuition, room, board, books, travel, misc. expenses) of $50,000 and what you are telling us is that he got a $20,000 merit scholarship. Using that sticker price, that leaves $30,000 to cover, as you said. Now if you submit the FAFSA and CSS forms to UD, they will determine what they think you can afford to pay next year from your income and/or borrowing against assets such as a mortgage or a second home. Let’s say that is a $10,000 EFC (Expected Financial Contribution). Then UD should offer a need based package that could be made up of grants (you don’t pay those back), loans (obviously those are paid back) and/or work study. Now not all schools meet 100% of that $20,000 remaining in my hypothetical, and not everyone is happy with the EFC calculation. All schools have a financial calculator you can access on their web site that can estimate what you should expect to see, but sometimes they are not so reliable.
So the merit scholarships do not reduce EFC unless the merit award is so large and/or the EFC is so large that the unpaid portion after the merit scholarship is less than your EFC. So let’s say his merit scholarship was $40,000 and your EFC was $20,000. Obviously there would only be $10,000 left on the bill after the scholarship, so you saved $10,000 a year compared to having no scholarship or a $20,000 one.
In Tulane’s case, they notify people of their need based packages around the middle to end of March. Some schools are much quicker, not many are later.
Thanks! That is just what I was wondering about. So families don’t know the real cost of attendance until they see the package from the need-based aid as well. And that happens in the spring. Makes sense. In the case of Denver, they gave him a $23,000 merit scholarship, however I believe the remaining cost of attendance will be around $30,000. Our EFC was calculated at around $16,000, but I have reason to think this may not be accurate, and that schools are not going to give us a lot of need-based aid when we file CSS with them. So we could be left with most of that $30,000 hanging over our heads to pay, which is not possible for us. But it doesn’t hurt to file all the paperwork and see what happens!
