Banneker/Key Scholarship

<p>Giving up hope, oh well</p>

<p>@Mr. Physics–Please do not think that whether or not you receive this scholarship has any bearing on whether you will be accepted to the Ivies and other highly selective universities. People forget that there are many, many qualified students out there, so you may receive some scholarships/acceptances and not others. Similar questions were raised on the Coca Cola scholarship board when students learned that they did not qualify as semifinalists. I noted there that my D was accepted to Harvard SCEA but did not make semifinalist (a Princeton '16er posted the same). It happens, the same way that one student may be accepted to Harvard and rejected from Yale and another the exact opposite. Since you posted stats, I will note that my D’s are very similar, except her standardized test scores are slightly higher (I don’t post her stats because she doesn’t). </p>

<p>@mom3–I found your post quite irresponsible. You needlessly injected race into the discussion, then admitted recent B/K scholars did not appear to be UMDs, then said you hate to see kids work so hard and not understand why they didn’t get picked (suggesting it is about race). It’s not always about race (as jlewis’s post demonstrates). UMD is choosing from thousands of very qualified applicants–some will not be picked.</p>

<p>btw not everyone has received it. most people from my school got theirs already but literally no one in the school district 15 minutes away from my school received it lol. i think its a postal issue in our area or something.</p>

<p>and i know this because people from that school are freaking out on facebook hahaha.</p>

<p>@oncloud9…How many people at your school received it? That must be some High School if more than one person got it.</p>

<p>Maybe maggiedog’s son’s invitation or MrPhysic’s invitation was sent to superfishelb1tch by mistake. That poster said he/she got an extra invitation in his envelope.</p>

<p>B/K scholarships are exclusive. UMD only offers it to about 150-300 students each year, hoping to yield slightly above 100 scholarships.</p>

<p>Don’t forget there are other scholarships that UMD offers, which will released in March.</p>

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<p>Not so. Probably more than half a dozen of my daughter’s classmates were at the interview day last year. There may have been others invited who didn’t go because they’d already decided to go elsewhere. Not all were the top-out-of-sight academic award-winners, not all were in the top 10% of the class. She saw lots of people she knew from other local schools as well. Admittedly, most of the people she knew wound up getting the partial scholarship and not the full B/K, but they got the letter. </p>

<p>The selection process isn’t based just on grades/scores/rank. There are some intangibles involved that no one can explain. My daughter was surprised to be invited. I imagine her classmates were surprised to see her.</p>

<p>If you all want to discuss the intangibles, I am all ears because from what I have seen it is not always given to the most meritorious students or ones that are smart and are giving back to the community. MD calls out these students as the top of the top students and it is an insult to the kids that didn’t get the scholarship and have done more wonderful things with the lives. </p>

<p>These are kids that I am worried about because they maybe thinking they have not jumped through enough hoops and have failed. </p>

<p>I still see things posted from the early decision round that I don’t understand. Do I think the system is really fair? No… </p>

<p>There is the problem when colleges use intangibles. An intangible maybe recognized but it is hard to justify because you can not quantify an intangible.</p>

<p>bcisaidso </p>

<p>When I went to MD Banneker scholarship was only a scholarship for minorities. When my dd came home from hs last year and told me all the higher ranked kids didn’t get this scholarship I was shocked. That the only person to be offered it was a minority with much lower stats and almost no ECs compared to the rest of the top ranked kids. I chalked it up to the scholarship still being offered to only minorities. The only kids that I saw and knew were a B/K scholar when dd and I went to the honors presentation at MD were minorities. We went to some after the honors presentation social gathering. Yes it was just a coincidence but it was the only ancedoctal evidence that I had. It was this site that got me interested enough to check out the list of recipients and I did. </p>

<p>So yes I introduced race to the equation because it was once a race based scholarship. I guess I am talking about the white elephant in the room. This is the aftermath of what happens when you make anything based on a race.</p>

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<p>Oh, dear.
I understand your frustration, but I wonder if you realize that you just implied that my daughter is not meritorious or smart? </p>

<p>The point is that you did not see every application, nor do you know what the selection committee is looking for. </p>

<p>At other schools my daughter applied to, she did not get a merit scholarship and people with grades and test scores that were not as high as hers got them. So I have been on both sides of the bewilderment equation. </p>

<p>There are many people who believe that selection should be based on some specific numerical criteria–whatever it is their kid has, presumably. But this isn’t a country with a specific college entrance exam where college admission and scholarships are determined by a score on that exam, so, like it or not, the intangibles come into play.</p>

<p>For what it’s worth, looking back at the students I’m aware of getting the B/K letter last year at my daughter’s school, I don’t remember any being under-represented minorities. They were Indian, Asian, Jewish, WASP, etc. Every B/K kid I happen to know personally is white, mostly Jewish, but I don’t know too many of them.</p>

<p>@Momof3greatgirls
If you aren’t part of the committee that selects scholarship winners, you have no way of understanding the selection process. Who are you to judge which kids have done “more wonderful” things with their lives? Just because a person hasn’t done research at a university or founded a non-profit doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a scholarship. Maybe the person has been sick for a long time or even just lives in an area that doesn’t provide the same opportunities. Sometimes babysitting the kids down the street or getting a job to help support their family is equally as “wonderful.”</p>

<p>Also, ‘intangibles’ are extremely important, despite not always being quantifiable. When you meet someone, you don’t introduce yourself by telling them your GPA, SAT score, and prestigious awards. Instead, the way you speak, how interesting and friendly you are, and the way you carry yourself are the things that people base their opinions about you on. My mother hires students at Hopkins and has to turn down many well-qualified people who could easily do the job. She chooses the people who are friendly and well-spoken in addition to capable.</p>

<p>And last, if anyone who doesn’t get a scholarship is “thinking they have not jumped through enough hoops and have failed,” then they need to change the way they think. As stated above, there are many deserving people, so not every one of them can get the scholarship. Thinking you’ve failed as soon as you have any sort of rejection is a really bad way to go through life because rejection happens and you have to understand that it’s not always under your control. And no student should be “jumping through hoops” to get into college or get scholarships. The people interviewing applicants know the difference between the kid who is the president of 5 clubs and volunteers 3 days a week so that his resume looks good and the one who volunteers an elementary school once a week and is in only one club because he loves to do it and is trying to make a difference in someone’s life.</p>

<p>Losing hope that I’ll get it, the process seems so random. My friend with lower SAT CR/M, lower ACT, lower GPA, less passionate essays (we read each others), same race as me(white), and the same EC’s got the scholarship and I didn’t. He doesn’t even want to go to UMD, and won’t even be able to keep the award due to a DUI he got recently. No offense to him, but I deserve it more than he does.</p>

<p>@troy12 about 25 or so kids. lol my school is super competitive</p>

<p>@Momof3greatgirls</p>

<p>I agree with you 100%!!</p>

<p>@mom3–No, this is what happens when you make everything about race, or make statements with nothing but personal experience to back them up. In my humble opinion, it was irresponsible, especially given you’re a parent. </p>

<p>I know of 4 people who received the B/K letter. I know that 3 of the 4 have 4.0s (I don’t know about the 4th–I’ve only heard that she’s extremely bright) and are National Merit and/or National Achievement finalists. I don’t know anyone’s SAT/ACT score but my D’s, but I will simply say that I’m certain it would be deemed competitive. Two of the 4 students are URMs–I believe (and it seems UMD agrees) all are worthy of the scholarship. I am also certain that many who did not receive the letter are equally worthy. Based on what I’ve read on this thread, it seems UMD has approx 100 of these scholarships to award. Many qualified students will not receive it. </p>

<p>I will say nothing more about race on this thread. For those who have not yet received letters, I am still pulling for you. For those who have, congrats and best of luck–I look forward to hearing your good news in a month or so (my D is not pursuing the scholarship, so I will live vicariously through you).</p>

<p>Unfortunately, this thread is devolving into conflict regarding who deserves what, which is not what it should be about. The ambiguous nature of the criteria for the scholarship may promote it. UMD seems to be more focused on numbers than a lot of LACs or Ivies, as any state school would be; yet, there is talk about how they may base their decision on intangibles. </p>

<p>I think it’s important to remember that anyone in the running at all, who is in the honors college, is already a talented, intelligent individual. It should not be assumed that BK students are somehow one step above the rest. </p>

<p>And by the way, I did find out that my son, who has a 2340 SAT, (1570 CR+M), 800s on SAT IIs, second in his class, and is a NMF did not get the interview. We are out of state, so perhaps that was part of it. Or maybe the intangibles were not what they wanted. But thanks again for all of the support I received on this forum.</p>

<p>maggiedog, </p>

<p>I am really really sorry that your son didn’t get an interview, he definitley deserves it. This selection process is seriously flawed and is a bunch of bull crap, and UMD is not recognizing the talents of people like your son. I plan to write a letter to the head of the banneker key program.</p>

<p>For those who didn’t get invited, don’t despair. You could get the President’s or Dean’s Scholarship, which goes all the way up to 12,000 per year.</p>

<p>MrPhysics,</p>

<p>Thanks for your comments. It is actually pretty remarkable that ANY school these days offers a full ride scholarship. I guess we were too hopeful in assuming that this might be a possibility for our son. Just like everyone else who is trying to get the BK scholarship, he has chances at other schools, and probably like a lot of others, he also has a full scholarship offer at another school (although does not want to go there). </p>

<p>Depending on any other scholarship offers that may occur at UMD, he may still go there. But if he gets better need-based aid at another school he likes just as much, it won’t happen. </p>

<p>I guess one of the most stressful things in this process was the uncertainty. Not knowing if/when the letters would be sent, not having any confirmation e-mails as a back-up in case the mail got lost, getting VERY different information when contacting the school, and knowing that there were possible interview dates that would be coming up (and would involve travel, work schedule changes, etc.) all contributed to this. </p>

<p>Anyway, congrats to those who have this opportunity.</p>