For those of you whose kids had their presidential changed to Singer, did they attend the scholarship day? S had a conflict so didn’t, and I’m just wondering. Any chance they’d change it now with a major new accomplishment?
Also, I don’t think Miami excludes high stats kids/high achievement kids, just think scholarships anywhere are kind of random. S 34ACT, ~3.8 UW (10 APs by end, most 5s that he already took, and every school weights differently but at submission 4.25), ECs at national level. 23k merit. Saw some on board with lower stats/more merit but also higher stats/more merit. Who knows why?
@havenoidea , my son attended the Singer/Stamps scholarship weekend. I recall that UM said you had to attend the weekend in order to receive any of the full tuition scholarships. But it does not hurt to ask? Is you S a NMF?
@jbtcat “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.”
I am a parent of a (now) rising junior. As others have said, Miami is trying to use its generous merit money but limited need-based aid to build more balanced and higher achieving classes as they move further and further away form the rich kid “Suntan U” stereotype. When my son applied 3 other people he knows who live locally all applied and have similar socioeconomic backgrounds but otherwise are quite different students. 2 of them got merit of $25k-$26k per year and 2 both got $19k per year. The only difference is that the former applied EA and the latter RD so maybe Miami takes into account the likelihood of applicants actually attending.
For those of you applying next autumn, it really makes sense to apply EA. There is no extra essay and Miami is test optional for certain applicants. So unless an ED application elsewhere prohibits you from applying EA to Miami I would strongly recommend doing so.
@londondad I agree that Miami wants to build a balanced class but they are by no means trying to get away from the “rich kid” stereotype. I’m from the northeast and Miami is known as the school that only rich kids go to because they are the only ones who can afford it. Even with some scholarship money Miami is substantially more expensive than any other school. Every kid I’ve known to go to that school has been very rich because they are the only ones who could afford it. Obviously this isn’t true for everyone but the majority of kids don’t get full ride or even presidential scholarships especially in recent years where Miami has gotten more competitive. And I’m sorry but looking at stats from this board there are lots of people who worked very hard and would have contributed to Miami moving away from that stereotype but they got no money or barely anything. For a school as expensive as Miami, being able to go there for most people means they need money of some kind.
^ I agree with you somewhat but I really think they are trying to get away from the rich kid stereotype although progress is slow. I think they are trying to build a balanced class but they don’t have the financial aid budget that schools in the next tier up have to get more lower income and working class kids to balance out the rich kids from the Northeast, Chicago, CA and TX that can easily pay full whack. They seem to be trying to use a mix of merit aid and need-based aid to try and bring in more high stat kids, international kids and lower income kids. For many kids from, say New Jersey, getting $25k per year makes Miami very competitive with out-of-state public uni options (for kids that do not want to go to Rutgers), so by definition UM becomes more affordable (as well as more desirable due to smaller class sizes, etc). Also they seem to be trying to form more partnerships with local high schools and minority encourage more local minority kids (many of whom are lower income) to apply and give them aid. As a result, the commuter student population is much more diverse than the out-of-state student body.
Lastly, while Miami is a okay school, there is nothing so exceptional about it academically that cannot be found at similar universities with around the same US News rankings. In this light, isn’t Miami just following the same aid policies that other very expensive private universities in their general peer group (off the top of my head, Syracuse, Northeastern, Fordham, Villanova, GWU, etc)? In some ways Miami is more generous with merit aid than some of those schools. Therefore, it makes sense for parents to shop around these types and compare prices particularly as some of them have easy Early Action applications.
At my school, they offer many different kinds of scholarships. I apply to many if the scholarships, but if I apply would it backfire on me or would it help?
My son is a Junior at UM. He had 800 M/730 CR, 800 SAT Math II, only 5-6 APs, no leadership positions, and his ECs were mostly baseball related - varsity, travel, and volunteer youth coach. But he was not a recruited athlete, so not really what you would call a hook, nor “well-rounded”. Not eligible
for need-based aid, no hooks. He got a $23K/yr Presidential scholarship.
My neighbors daughter applied the following year and got a Foote Fellowship. He is a white boy, she is a white girl. She probably had a better GPA - my son’s was around 3.7 UW. Her parents just bought a $3MM beach house on top of their $2MM regular house. She is my neighbor in that I walk my dog past her house, but it is a more expensive neighborHOOD, just to be clear on that. I don’t think financial need played a factor.
I think there is a sort of qualifying round, where they sort the apps into piles, and then they take the “scholarship” pile, skim off the tippy top…then throw the rest in the air and pick the ones that land face up.
I guess I’m a bit late… but I got the President’s Scholarship for 23k/yr.
1380 SAT superscored
3.8 UW/4.3 weighted
IB Diploma Candidate (HL: Spanish, Econ, Bio/SL: Math, English, Environmental)
strong EC and lots of leadership
Asian male from Northeast
I got the Singer Scholarship and am a current sophomore.
ACT: 33
Old SAT: 2180 (1440 two part)
HS GPA: 5.0 weighted, 4.0 unweighted
SAT Math II subject test: 800
SAT Physics subject test: 800
Did the people who received scholarships all apply ED? My daughters application got sent back at first because the school failed to send in her transcript, so she had to apply regular decision.
