kiddo got an invite to interview (in Jan and/or Feb) today. We are in=state; not sure if that makes a difference or not; but thought I’d share that.
Thanks for sharing. My son got his invite today also. We are OOS. Hoping for one of the Saturdays. Great opportunity to interview. Everything with Nebraska has been first class, and I would expect this to be the same.
D20 also got an invite! She is excited to visit and to meet some of the current and prospective Raikes students. The invitation was the first good news of the application cycle that wasn’t pretty much a sure thing, and it feels good.
@bgbg4us and @VryCnfsd Just curious. Will your son/daughter still attend Nebraska even if they are not selected for the Raikes school?
@gohawks1 She likes Nebraska a lot, but she already has an offer that she would prefer over Nebraska w/o Raikes. What about you?
@VryCnfsd His top 5 is Nebraska, Michigan State, Iowa State, Purdue and Arizona State (in no particular order). He likes Nebraska, but I think its Raikes or somewhere else if he isn’t selected. He is interested in Engineering and a few of those schools have better Engineering programs overall.
We are heading to a scholarship competition at MSU after the Nebraska one.
kiddo is looking at some other schools; however our blood runs red! It’d have to take something really special to beat the 3 Fs he has going on if he went there - (family, friends & free tuition).
@gohawks1 I’ve heard the MSU scholarship weekend is really unique. Don’t they write a really hard exam and base a lot of the top scholarships on the result of that exam?
I’m really not sure how Raikes is going to use the information they get at the interview to decide among the candidates. Do you think they already have some ideas who they want to offer, or do you think everyone is going in pretty much equal?
@VryCnfsd Good questions. MSU is a test based competition. More general knowledge stuff. It’s supposed to be very difficult. They award 15 full cost of attendance scholarships and 20 full tuition scholarships. They have had very generous merit aid around $30K that we received already and automatic entry into honors college. It’s worth the drive from Chicago and worth it just for the visit.
I don’t think that they have made up their minds and I don’t think that it is solely based on any one component, but I think that the interview carries some weight. However, there are certain factors that I’m sure they are considering. Obviously the grades, test scores, involvement is part of it, but also the makeup of the 40 people selected.
I’ll try to state this as politically correct as possible, but I’m sure they want some diversity. I know in the past, just from info I saw online, that traditionally 25% of the class were female. I’m sure they would like to increase that number closer to 50%. I know in our case we were part of a group that they flew out from the Chicago area last summer to visit (the school overall, not Raikes specific). That was done in an effort to draw more kids from the Chicago area to Lincoln (It’s an 8 1/2 hour drive). Do those things matter? Maybe.
My son is pretty nervous about the interview, but like I told him, at the end of the day they want 40 Raikes and the other 60 to still attend UNL. It should be a good experience.
That’s a good way to think about it, @gohawks1. I agree that they will want everyone to have a good experience! I hope that the people who would best thrive in the program get accepted.
Very well said @gohawks1. Good luck to all those that are participating in the interviews. My son is a freshman in Raikes (out of state) and really enjoys the program. He was focused on other schools but the offer to Raikes was the key deciding factor for him. The classes are challenging and he feels a good fit with the members of his cohort.
@funding Do you or your son have any tips for the interview day for those of us following on this site? In your opinion was a lot of his getting accepted based on his interview? Or was it his accomplishments, grades, test scores, etc?
I have no direct knowledge of the process used to determine who gets the approx 40 slots/yr. That said, the measurables (gpa, ACT, activities, accomplishments, etc.) are likely used to determine who will get interviews. The interviews in turn help get the number closer to ~40. The face to face conversation would give interviewers a feel for softer personal skills. I would also assume the diversity of the cohort is important to the School/University and plays a factor in the final decisions.
As I mentioned previously, it has been a very good fit for my son. However, I think he would have loved almost any experience once he found his ‘tribe’ to hang with at the school. Good luck to everyone and Go Big Red!
So, this is the last weekend of the Raikes interviews. I wonder how long it will take them to send out invitations?
They cover it during the presentation, but they are going to make final decisions on 2/14/20. Everyone will know accepted, wait list or denied. They are interviewing 140 kids. They will invite 50 with hopes of yielding 40 students. They pull a very small number from the wait list and they don’t tell you where you stand on the wait list. So my impression is wait list is like a rejection.
@VryCnfsd Should have tagged you in above post. See above.
Interesting. So they expect a close to 80% yield! It’ll be a good Valentine’s Day present for 50 talented students!
Yep, my kid was there. He’s interested for sure. His eyes popped when he heard the starting average salaries! And there was a kid here on the CC boards (last year? Or 2018) who turned down a spot late May after taking a spot elsewhere; opening up a spot for a waitlist kid . . . So it does happen . . . . Good Luck!
Good luck to everyone here! I hope everyone active on this board gets in!!
Oh. I just re-read the last few posts - I didn’t attend with my kid and hear the details . So now I get it - there’d have to be 10+ turning it down to get off the waitlist . Hmm . Not super good odds for that .