<p>I would like to know what are the possibilities of getting merit based scholarships for freshman at American University. Are there specific scholarships for auditioning for Music or Musical Theatre programs that can be added to general merit scholarships?</p>
<p>Information on merit awards is here:
[AU</a> Freshman Merit Scholarships, Financial Aid, American University](<a href=“http://www.american.edu/financialaid/freshmanscholarships.cfm]AU”>Freshman Scholarships and Merit Awards | American University, Washington, DC)
I don’t see any reference to special scholarships for music or musical theater, but you can always call and ask.</p>
<p>My son auditioned for music two years ago. He was offered a nice music scholarship plus a large academic scholarship. Wonderful opportunity but he chose another school.</p>
<p>Do the Presidential, Deans and Leadership scholarships require separate applications? And how competitive are they?</p>
<p>mmmgirl, the link I gave above answers your question regarding applications. In most cases a careful reading of a school’s website will provide a great deal of information.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone here can give you much help on how competitive the merit awards are, since we only know about our own experiences. I can tell you that my D, now a senior, got a Dean’s award which I believe (though can’t prove) was based on her high SAT scores. (She was also admitted to the Honors program, though I have heard of kids who got into Honors with no merit awards and got merit awards without getting into Honors.) In any case, my info is kind of stale at this point–the amount of the Dean’s award has been reduced since she received it, and the criteria may well have evolved as well.</p>
<p>Concur with MommaJ - every year is different. The web does not say how much the Presidential and Deans are either - this changes from year to year. However, no application required for Dean or Presidential scholarships.</p>
<p><a href=“Merit Aid? - American University - College Confidential Forums”>Merit Aid? - American University - College Confidential Forums;
<p>This post gives you a link to the most recent data to see where you fall in the applicant pool, and some insight from an admissions officer on the criteria for merit aid.</p>
<p>Thank you for your answers.
bubmom, could you give us a range of how much the music scholarship was for? Would he have been able to keep both the academic and music scholarships? Was that anywhere near full tuition? Was the music scholarship for 4 years or only the first?
I appreciate your information.</p>
<p>This was two years ago so much might have changed. Music money of $10,000 per year was in addition to academic scholarship. I know academic amounts have changed.</p>
<p>Total award would have been $30k. Not everything but very generous.</p>
<p>Here is our experience, if it is at all helpful. As others have said, I’m sure it changes from year to year based on the strength of the applicant pool. My D is a freshman and received a $20,000 Presidential Scholarship. She had a 4.1 weighted GPA and a 2050 (1430) on the SAT. She did NOT get offered a spot in the Honors program. The other thing that may or may not have played into the process is that she auditioned for and was accepted as a Theater Performance major. When we received her acceptance letter, they said several very nice things about her essay. </p>
<p>SO, what was the key? Grades, SAT score, intended major, essay…bottom line, we have no idea. I do think it was interesting that they would offer her that much money and not invite her into the Honors program, but she REALLY loved University College so it worked out perfectly for her. </p>
<p>I have a D who is a junior in high school and is considering an application to American. We have had this conversation here as we are wondering if D #2 will be in the running for a merit scholarship should she decide to pursue admission. </p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>KellyLJ1 - my daughter was given the Presidential Scholarship and is in the Honors program. She has many good, intelligent friends who have scholarships but are not in Honors. The difference? I think it is the standardized test scores. Each year American comes up with different cut-offs for Honors - my daughter made the cut-off that year. Makes no difference in the end - if a student desires, they can apply to get into the Honors program at a later date. Getting the merit scholarship is more important in my opinion.</p>
<p>I think you may be right NewJerseyMom. My D got into the honors program but only got the Dean’s scholarship (which was $20K back then, lucky for us). Her SAT’s were over 2100.</p>
<p>Hi, I was wondering if the ~$20,000 scholarships you are speaking of are renewable for four years, or just five thousand per year? Thank you!</p>
<p>Presidential, at least, is $10,000 per semester, for 8 semesters, as long as the student is an undergraduate and maintains a GPA greater than or equal to 3.2 and earns 30 credits toward a B.A. per academic year.</p>
<p>Dean’s scholarship this year was $10,000, and it was awarded to my daughter w/a weighted GPA of 3.8, SAT 2180, and multiple awards in extra-curricular activities. We’re hoping for some other things to come through as well. She was not offered honors, only the seminar program, but I think that’s standard among freshman. We were told that only 15% of their accepted students (so approx 40% of 17,000, take that “top” 15%). We were happy, just need more to make it financially viable.</p>
<p>Wow, the scholarship program has really been revamped. Looks like AU, like a number of other schools, is de-emphasizing merit awards in favor of need based aid, and is also reducing the size of the Honors group.</p>
<p>Yes, they announced the change in merit scholarships last fall.
[AU</a> reallocates amount of need-based aid in budget | The Eagle Online](<a href=“http://www.theeagleonline.com/news/story/au-reallocates-amount-of-need-based-aid-in-budget/]AU”>http://www.theeagleonline.com/news/story/au-reallocates-amount-of-need-based-aid-in-budget/)</p>
<p>And here is the latest article about the changes to the Honors Program.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.theeagleonline.com/news/story/big-changes-head-to-university-honors-program/[/url]”>http://www.theeagleonline.com/news/story/big-changes-head-to-university-honors-program/</a></p>
<p>I’ve read that the current program participants aren’t too keen on the changes.</p>
<p>I received a Dean’s Scholarship for $18k with a 2210/1410 SAT, 4.7 GPA.</p>
<p>@DeskPotato, why do you suppose current students would be upset about cutting back on Honors participation? If anything, it just gives the program more cachet. And no one’s existing merit award is being cut, so I don’t see why that would be a concern either.</p>
<p>This type of revamping of aid suggests that the now infamous “I don’t want to pay for college” mom of another thread really needs to re-think her position. Big merit awards may be going the way of the dodo.</p>