Hello. I’m curious if those who received academic scholarships for fall 2018 admittance could share their stats here? I’m wondering if there seemed to be a specific cut-off for ACT scores this year? We were hoping for one but did not receive any notification with the acceptance …ACT score 32, UW GPA 3.9. Thanks!!
If you read through the 2022 acceptance thread you will see many posts about scholarships and stats. My son received $23,000 Presidential, which was later replaced by the Singer scholarship. 35 ACT/1540 SAT/3.9 UW.
Hi! I’ll put my stats below, but just so you know what I received…
At acceptance ::: 18k in presidential scholarship, 2k in Bosworth scholarship (merit+need based) + 23 k in other need based scholarships
Now ::: Singer full-tuition scholarship
Stats:
SAT: 1450
Did not send ACT
GPA: 3.89 unweighted, 4.68 weighted
Lots of APs – all received A semester grades
Major Awards: Posse Scholarship nominee, Academic awards through a local Fraternity chapter
Showed major interest in the school!
Hope this helps you out a little, but I do know that some schools distribute money based on whether they think you’ll actually attend their school or not. If your stats are so high or your demonstrated interest is so low that they believe you’ll have better offers elsewhere or you won’t necessarily consider their school seriously, they’ll simply give money to someone else. Not sure if Miami does this, but it is a possibility.
I received 13k Canes Achievement Award
Stats:
SAT: 1490
GPA: 98.2 (school doesn’t do 4.0 scale or unweighted)
Took several AP’s (Calc AB and BC, bio, english lit, etc.)
Some extracurriculars: Went to Romania to work with research organization, treasurer of NHS, etc.
I’m honestly very disappointed I didn’t get more money. Miami was my first choice and even with the money I received there’s no way I could attend without taking out tons of loans. The competition was crazy this year but if you read through the Miami 2022 thread you’ll see several students with better stats than me who got nothing. Sometimes there’s no reason as to why they choose to give certain people more money and others nothing. I wish Miami was more standardized with how they awarded money like other schools.
From the posts I’ve seen about Merit money, I am guessing (don’t know for sure of course) but it seems like Miami gave merit money out more to those who demonstrated need (rather than simply based on merit) or were minorities or had other hooks. It seems, from posts this year, that maybe they are on the way to not giving money based only on merit This is solely based on what I have read this year and the extremely high stats of applicants who received no merit versus the stats of some who did receive it.
My D got 23k presidential scholarship and a 1,784 Bosworth Foundation scholarship (no idea what that is).
Her SAT was 1430, UW GPA 3.89, 7 or 8 AP’s. I doubt any need based aid (miami estiamted our EFC to be about 40k)
This thread just shows how arbitrary these awards are.
I hope future potential applicants will search these posts and realize in areas of acceptance, scholarships and what your U of M EFC / need based aid will be - its a total crap shoot.
Plan accordingly!
@Mom2NND I don’t think that is universally true. I have no demonstrated need or “hooks” (white, both parents went to college etc) and received 20k per year. I agree it seems arbitrary on the surface as some people with my STATs got more or less $$ but I assume there is a reason elsewhere in the application. @JerseyParents I think these things are arbitrary at most schools, at least that has been my experience applying to over 20 schools.
I actually don’t think it’s arbitrary but rather Miami takes a holistic approach to determining who receives scholarships and how much – grades, test scores, ECs, need. It was one of the things that appealed to me about Miami rather than those schools who granted scholarships solely based on hard numbers and, therefore, excluded many well rounded and deserving students from receiving scholarships. Miami is trying to build a well rounded student body which requires looking beyond stats when offering scholarships.
@jbtcat HOLISTIC is center square in the BS Bingo game of college admissions 2017/2018. Its the excuse Harvard uses to keep its Asian student population down. Its the cloak of invisibility these schools hide behind so they do whatever they want to without accountability.
How you feel about it depends on your experience. - great when it benefits you and unfair when it hurts you
@JerseyParents I cannot speak to Harvard and, of course, there should be no excuse used for keeping down a specific population. And I suppose you are right that if something benefits you then you think it is good. But I don’t think it is a bad thing that students who show leadership qualities and other ECs and have an exceptional GPA but not necessarily exceptional test scores are also given scholarships and afforded the opportunity to attend a school that they would otherwise not be able to afford. Unfortunately, there is not enough money to go around to everyone who deserves it, so if a school chooses to give some money to those who meet certain academic standards and some money to others who are exceptional for other reasons, I would hate to think that the reason that is done is always for discriminatory purposes.
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@JerseyParents I completely agree and @jbtcat I agree that the holistic approach benefits people who are very well rounded. The problem is that it is very subjective. As you can see from this thread and the Miami 2022 thread, many hard working students with excellent stats and great EC’s received no money at all. You can’t deny it seems pretty random. And Miami is not the only school trying to build a well rounded student body, I’m pretty sure every college in America is trying to do that.
@jbtcat what you and other posters fail to realize is that those applicants with high stats, GPAs and test scores ALSO have leadership, 10 or more APs, great EC’s, jobs, and volunteer hours, as well as excellent LOR and essays. So they too are well rounded but with higher stats, that’s what doesn’t add up. Building a well rounded class is fine, but you can’t assume that those with higher scores who did not get money are not just as well rounded as those who did get the money. Almost all applicants at the high SAT/ ACT score level will have all the EC’s, leadership, LORs, Volunteer hours, and essay writing skills that those who got lower scores have too, and therefore Miami excluded many high stat well rounded and deserving applicants from receiving merit money- many of whom will not be able to attend Miami. In my opinion this has a negative effect on the stats of the incoming class because those with very high stats who did not receive money (but may well have wanted to go to Miami) will not be able to attend, while those with lower STATS who did get some money will attend, thereby lowering the overall GPA and SAT/ACT score of the class.
@Mom2NND I’m not assuming that those with higher scores are not as well rounded. I just think that some of these schools are looking to give opportunities to some students that don’t have all of the things you mentioned (which are all commendable and deserving of recognition) but do have something else that stands out on their resume that makes them deserving of a scholarship as well.
Has anyone seen the stats for the incoming Class of 2022? I’ve seen nothing yet. Last year, I don’t recall seeing anything until July/August and what it showed was that the []_[] was becoming more selective. I’m curious!
@Mom2NND Exactly!
@sdteak they won’t come out until after everyone has accepted or declined their offer and @Mom2NND i couldn’t agree more!
@jbtcat I agree that its good to give scholarships to people who have things that make them stand out but Miami seems to prioritize that over academics completely. And for a school as expensive as Miami, unless you’re parents are rich there’s no way anyone could afford it without a really significant scholarship. And for people who’ve worked really hard all four years by taking the hardest classes and maintaining a high GPA and test scores and doing lots of EC’s, to get accepted but get little or no money basically prevents these hardworking students to attend this school which in my opinion is ridiculous.
Unless we have official statistics from UMiami, I don’t know how any of us can say that Miami doesn’t give many with outstanding academic achievements significant scholarships. Purely from anecdotal evidence, I personally know 4 students with these excellent credentials who turned down Stanford, UCLA and University of Michigan because they got full tuition scholarships from Miami. There is just not enough money for every deserving student to get scholarships.
@jbtcat we are basing our comments that Miami didn’t give many outstanding well deserving students scholarships on the comments in the Univ of Miami CC threads. The facts are there if you go back through all comments in many different threads, numerous kids with 1500 and over SAT with everything else too (EC, leadership, LOR, GPA, AP’s, volunteer, demonstrated interest, etc) did not get a penny while many many who got 1200s or 1300s on the SAT or 30 or below on ACT did get money. That is what is suggesting that Miami used something other than Scores, GPA, EC.s leadership, LORs, APs, volunteer hours, and essays to give money- what is left? Minority status: which from comments I’ve seen looks to be a huge factor, need: again looks to be a huge factor- or other hooks. Yes, some percentage of non minority, no hook kids with little to no need did get some scholarships, but overall from the posts I’ve seen, by far the majority of those who posted info who received scholarships from Miami showed minority status, need, or other hook. For those whose kids did not get money (but surpassed on scores/gpa/ etc). the ones who did get money -it doesn’t sit right.