<p>Haha, yes, believe it or not I did try Googling it before posting it here. I know that I’m eligible for the scholarship. Not confused about that. What I’m wondering about is if the people who have gotten emails regarding the scholarship have had to sign up for something, since I haven’t gotten any email.s</p>
<p>Admittedly I didn’t phrase my first post all that well. Sorry about that.</p>
<p>The website answers your questions:
- there is no mailing list
- there were 14 scholars last year and 10 scholars a year before.</p>
<p>2012 Freshman Class was about 8000 students.</p>
<p>I called the other day. They said you get an email by the “end of January” if you are in the running. Finalists are notified by Feb. 25.</p>
<p>Towards the end of the previous page of this thread, greenfrogs talks about getting an email about the 40 Acres Scholarship. I’m just curious as to why I didn’t get any such emails. A mailing list I hadn’t signed up for would be a logical conclusion, though, like you said, it doesn’t mention any on their website. So I still don’t know why I haven’t gotten any emails. And regarding the number of scholars, I’ve read that they want to increase the number this year. It’s most likely going to be more than 14 this time around. I was wondering if there is a confirmed number out there yet.</p>
<p>jkmmmm…Did you apply for scholarships “generally” when you did your ApplyTexas or did you take the time and fill out the additional 40 acres scholarship application? If you filled out that specific application you should have received an email that said “we received your application.” The general scholarship stuff on ApplyTexas is different than 40 acres. So before anyone can answer your question, did you indeed apply for the scholarship directly?</p>
<p>I don’t know what happened last year, but as far as I know this year there was no special application for 40 Acres.</p>
<p>[Plan</a> II Honors Program](<a href=“Plan II Honors Program | Liberal Arts | UT - Austin”>Plan II Honors Program | Liberal Arts | UT - Austin)
“There is NOT, however, a separate application for the Forty Acres Scholarship offered by the Texas Exes Alumni Association. Applicants interested in this competitive award must complete and the submit the ApplyTexas application by December 1 to be eligible for the Forty Acres Scholarship.”</p>
<p>(There was a general scholarship application, if that’s what you’re talking about)</p>
<p>Yeah, I applied for scholarships in general, but this year there wasn’t any 40 Acres application. I dunno. Maybe something just screwed up in the system.</p>
<p>Because there was no direct application this year, they are probably still going through the masses of all applicants (probably firstly by grades/SAT/ACT) and trying to cut down to a manageable number of maybe-finalists. Like others have said, this year, the notification deadline is later than it has been in the past (late Feburary, in a month). I wouldn’t imagine any emails or anything coming out of the Texas Exes until that point.</p>
<p>Nothing screwed up just because you haven’t heard. That post about emails was from last year. Besides, we can’t feel entitled to communication for this scholarship; it only goes to about a dozen kids out of thousands of extraordinary freshmen from a particular year.</p>
<p>@texaskate And now comes my perpetual embarrassment. Didn’t even think about the time stamp. Just saw the more recent posts and assumed the thread had started this year. Sorry about that. :(</p>
<p>If you take a closer look at 40 acres scholars you’ll see that they are sponsored mostly by private donors. Mr. and Mrs… Family… </p>
<p>It means that these private donors choose who they want to sponsor, and they decide if they want to sponsor a scholar based on major, or some kind of legacy (look at scholars activities :)) or some student activities etc.</p>
<p>To clarify, individual donors do not select recipients of 40 Acres scholarships. There are more than 100 people on the scholarship selection committee. These scholarships are awarded solely on merit. The 40 Acres Scholars are among the best and brightest on campus. See the credentials of the first two classes of scholars. Some may be earmarked based on the terms of the endowment, e.g., an individual donor may donate a full ride for the most meritorious applicant pursuing a major in the College of Business or the New York Texas Exes may underwrite a scholarship for the most meritorious applicant from the state of New York, see <a href=“http://newyorktexasexes.org/40acres[/url]”>http://newyorktexasexes.org/40acres</a>. There is a lot of excitement about the potential of this new program, which is modeled after the UVA Jefferson Scholars program. See, e.g., <a href=“http://www.today.mccombs.utexas.edu/2010/02/from-president-bill-powers-tower-talk-a-new-recruiting-tool[/url]”>http://www.today.mccombs.utexas.edu/2010/02/from-president-bill-powers-tower-talk-a-new-recruiting-tool</a> and <a href=“http://alcalde.texasexes.org/2011/05/first-forty-acres-scholars-chose-texas-over-harvard-yale-and-just-about-everywhere-else/[/url]”>http://alcalde.texasexes.org/2011/05/first-forty-acres-scholars-chose-texas-over-harvard-yale-and-just-about-everywhere-else/</a></p>
<p>(In contrast, donors often actively influence the selection of recipients of the Named Scholarships they funded–see the second category listed here: <a href=“Scholarships | Texas Exes”>Scholarships | Texas Exes; )</p>
<p>Good luck to all 2013 applicants!</p>
<p>Based on opinion and I guess review of past 40 Acres Scholars, do you think that determining at least finalists depends more on extracurriculars/volunteerism or essays? I mean I think they probably try to be holistic, just wondering if they might put more weight on one or the other.</p>
<p>“They said you get an email by the “end of January” if you are in the running. Finalists are notified by Feb. 25.”</p>
<p>How can this be possible if they haven’t even made all of their admission decisions by this point?</p>
<p>I think they choose peopole as they are admitted. I received my admission on Monday to the University and Tuesday to the Music School. I was notified about being a quarterfinalist yesterday (Friday). Anyone have an idea how many people they will accept as finalists/scholars this year?</p>
<p>@SarahBassoon: Wow – are you going to be in Prof. Jensen’s bassoon studio at UT?</p>
<p>@lisiatc - I really liked my lesson with Ms. Jensen and UT, so it’s definitely possible. If I actually got the 40 acres scholar, I would go for sure. Are you a musician also?</p>
<p>@SarahBassoon - yes, I am a Mom of a UT ChemE freshman and a bassoonist. I play in community groups, as I have a day job. It was neat to see someone apply as a bassoonist to UT.</p>
<p>I’m a bassoonist, too, though I’ve applied to major in Linguistics. Three bassoonists in one thread, though. That’s a sight. </p>
<p>SarahBassoon, when you say you were notified as being a quarterfinalist, do you mean for
40 Acres?</p>