We had a very negative experience with retaining a scholarship. There are a lot of conditions required to retain but it’s not clear and staff often is unaware. And good luck dealing with the cold administration. If you are going to UM for the money, don’t count on it for 4 years. I’d something happens (illness, study abroad without taking enough credits., etc) they will rescind and do it without blinking an eye IMHO.
@2038 What kind of conditions are there? I would assume you have to maintain a certain grade point, and most schools require that students earn a set number of credit hours every year. What other problems are there?
Also a student can not have any disciplinary infractions.
Just chiming in here to give another experience, since it’s clear that @2038 had a bad one at UM. My son had a Singer scholarship, and freshman year had a very serious illness that required him to leave school in the beginning of November. We immediately went to the Dean’s office, telling the administrator of our issue. The Dean saw us within 5 minutes, even though should was completely booked. She spent time with us to explain how to move forward while being incredibly compassionate. My son recovered and came back to school at the end of January, but could not be on a full schedule. There was no issue with him retaining his scholarship - the school couldn’t have been any nicer to us. In fact, my son received Christmas cards from several of his professors and his advisor, with wishes of seeing him again soon.
Our experience with the school administration under a real difficult time was so incredibly wonderful that my younger son is now a student there. Obviously, everyone has different circumstances and situations, but I just wanted to let perspective parents know our experience is that this school really cares about its students. They’re not looking to pull scholarships, and sure, you need to maintain a GPA. This is common for most schools for any merit aid.
@2038 Thanks for the head’s up. My son is a freshman on a Merit Scholarship so this type of info is very important to us. Other than the 3.0 GPA requirement and not having any disciplinary issues, are there any other restrictions?
We had a similar experience to VHFather. Son had a serious illness- missed classes and exams- raising possibility of of not having enough credits that semester to keep merit scholarship. The school could not have been more supportive or sympathetic to his plight. They made it all work out. Many thanks.