<p>Hey I'm considering applying to Harvey Mudd next fall and i have a quick question about the scholarship awarded to students who, among other things, score 750+Math, 700+CR, and 700+ writing on the SAT. HMC</a> Merit-based Awards</p>
<p>This scholarship is good for 10k/year, which is MUCH better than the one offered to national merit finalists. I am quite interested in Harvey Mudd, i named it as one of my two schools to send more info to for the national merit program, but i really think that it would be ashame if i missed out on so much money since my SAT scores are 800M, 730CR, and sadly... 670Wr. </p>
<p>$40k is a LOT to lose for only being 30 points (less than the standard deviation of each test i believe) short. So i guess i have a few questions.</p>
<p>1) Does every person accepted who qualifies for the award receive it? If not i might not feel so bad if it was a crapshoot to begin with
2) Do they make any exceptions with the award? As you can see with my math/cr scores, i cleared the other two cutoffs with plenty of room to spare. My overall score 2200 is higher than the minimum 2150 composite required. Does that count for anything?
3) Are there any other comparable merit awards i may recieve should i be accepted? Or can i only get this kind of aid by retaking the SAT and praying that i get a generous essay grader?</p>
<p>1) As far as I am aware of, yes, everyone whose scores meet the requirements receives the 40K (provided they maintain a 2.5 GPA throughout their time here).</p>
<p>2) I do not know of any exceptions, although I definitely understand your reasoning and point of view. Maybe you could call and ask them, but I would venture the answer is no.</p>
<p>3) If you are an ethnic minority or a girl, you may consider applying for the President's Scholar Program, which gives full tuition but is very competitive (it is in the link you posted).</p>
<p>If it were me, personally, I would retake the SAT to see if you can up it to the cutoff - you are almost there! I believe you can do it!</p>
<p>bco09, my daughter retook the SAT with this scholarship in mind and just met her goal. She was well above the cutoffs on everything but the CR. I tend to doubt they would change their policy because there are probably a lot of applicants who are just under on one of these requirements. It can't hurt to ask of course. I think you can definitely raise your score thirty points. We've come across other schools with 700 cutoffs for merit aid so it might be a worthwhile thing all around.</p>
<p>tiyusufaly, can you give me an idea of what is needed for the President's Scholar Program? Are these like perfect scorer, research experienced, have already made a name for themselves type applicants?</p>
<p>I don't think they make exceptions. A lot of the accepted students (someone may know the number, but my impression is around half) qualify for the scholarship, so I don't think they are reaching out to qualify more. However, you need not get all of the qualifying scores in one sitting, so do some practice essays and give it one more try. If you are concerned that your other scores might slip, send your scores to your other colleges before this last sitting. Then you can just concentrate on the writing this time, and send these scores only to Mudd. Good luck! My daughter loves Mudd, it is everything she hoped it would be.</p>
<p>I agree with mother<em>of</em>perl: retake. There won't be leeway for missing any of the criteria--the middle 50% SAT scores for this fall's incoming class (next thread) indicate that a whole lot of accepted people would be in your category. </p>
<p>Also, make sure that you have the top 10% of HS class nailed down. At least one person this past year went to a HS that didn't rank, although s/he easily met all the other criteria. I believe s/he ended up getting a letter from high school counselor to the affect that "if we ranked, X would clearly be in that decile," which might have worked.</p>
<p>P.S.--like m<em>o</em>P's daughter, my son loved his first year at Mudd--so much so that he finagled a way to stay over the summer.</p>
<p>No exceptions period. I can think of a couple people who were 10 points off in one of the categories and thus werte denied the money.</p>
<p>In addition to retaking the SAT, I would take the ACT as well. There is an alternative rule set for that if I remember correctly (33 composite maybe?).</p>
<p>Definitely re-take and only focus on the writing. $40 (or whatever it is now) and some studying and you'll probably get 1000X that amount back. How's that for a good investment?</p>
<p>thanks all for the advice. i wasn't so much reluctant to retake because i didnt want to sit in a classroom on another saturday for 4 hours as much as i was worried that if my M/CR scores went down it would reflect poorly on me. However mother<em>of</em>perl's suggestion that I send out my current scores before i retake sounds great. Tomorrow i have Math2/Physics SAT2 and i already took USH so i should be able to send 'em all out before the next testing date.</p>
<p>@atomicfusion i really can't think of many things that give 1000x return or pay $10k/hr of testing =)</p>
<p>No exceptions. Ditto stevedad's advice on the top 10%. S had scores well above the cutoffs, big national awards in his intended majors but was ranked 11% at a nationally known magnet program. Nine APs. 13 post-AP courses. S was offered a departmental scholarship and heavily recruited by Mudd profs. GC wrote a letter explaining the ranking situation -- no dice. </p>
<p>Osgood told us that the terms of the trust that funds those scholarships are absolute.</p>
<p>Two more As in one-semester courses would have put S over the top. Had S paid attention to turning in his completed HW in a couple of classes, the ranking would not have been a problem. I can't fault Mudd for denying S money, since he bears full responsibility for those grades (and he had been interested in Mudd since soph year, so he knew what was expected academically, and had plenty of time to get himself organized). I did sigh heavily, though -- Mudd is such an awesome place. But to answer the OP's question, yes, the requirements are that rigid.</p>
<p>S is going elsewhere, but it wasn't due to the money. In fact, Mudd was in the hunt long after MIT and until the very, very end.</p>
<p>If you think you'll qualify for over $10,000 in financial grant aid, then things may be overexaggerated. This scholarship will replace the HM grant, so people who qualify largely for need based aid do not really benefit from this. However, I'm not sure how heavy HMC are on in terms of loans. If HMC doesn't give loans, then this scholarship is already useless for the needy.</p>
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If you think you'll qualify for over $10,000 in financial grant aid, then things may be overexaggerated. This scholarship will replace the HM grant, so people who qualify largely for need based aid do not really benefit from this. However, I'm not sure how heavy HMC are on in terms of loans. If HMC doesn't give loans, then this scholarship is already useless for the needy.
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<p>HMC does give loans, but mostly they give grants. I have the merit scholarship and also large financial aid grants. It's at least reassuring that this 10k a year will be there no matter what. You never know what will happen with financial aid (for example: your parents could win the lottery). Also, grant size usually decreases every year.</p>
<p>Interesting note, you can get both the Harvey S Mudd Merit Scholarship (10k/yr) along with the National Merit Scholarship (1k/yr). When you get the mudd national merit scholarship you can laugh at all the kids who get the corporation scholarships of one time 2,500 dollar scholarships because you get more money. I have both scholarships so I know!</p>
<p>Re: NM scholarships -- some schools, I've heard (Carleton stands out at the moment) will take your NM and extend it to all four years. Mudd does not do this for those students who get the NM-sponsored $2500 scholarship. (sigh)</p>
<p>electronblue, from own experience with Pres Scholar, I had high scores (SAT1 >2300, SAT 2 >780), lots of APs, scored high on all, high GPA/rank in most rigorous track in all subjects, some external courses and research, state and national level academic and extracurricular recognitions, held leadership positions in school, volunteered and worked some too. </p>
<p>It's a great opportunity if your kid can get it. I turned down ivies and other scholarships, but no question that Mudd was going to be my next home.</p>