My daughter was just notified that she is a finalist for this scholarship. She applied regular decision and obliviously has not heard if she has been accepted. Would it be a stretch to assume she will be accepted since she is a finalist, or do the two not necessarily coincide?
Adding: They want her to come out to the school for a “finalist” weekend. Something seems a little off…is this a marketing ploy to get kids back to the school for another look or truly a legit thing - which would make me want to know she was accepted first before spending money to travel there?
My D also received the invitation and is going! We know older students with the scholarship and yes assume they are “in” and see if they receive money. That part isn’t necessarily a guarantee.
oh they also assume if you don’t go that weekend you are not interested and thus may decline you. But that is obvious.
I also received this invitation. I hope this means that I’m accepted into the school. And yes, the finalist weekend thing is mandatory for the scholarship because you have to audition.
Which scholarship did you apply for? I did the Dance one!
My daughter is a creative writer - so no audition. I can certainly understand the audition aspect for those in performance. And I don’t think it is fair to assume they don’t think you are not interested if you don’t attend - they did mention extenuating circumstances would be considered if you cannot attend. We are on the west coast and it is a lot of time and money to travel there…again, it would be nice if they would first let you know if you were accepted into the school before making the ask. Now I could also certainly understand an audition being mandatory before even being accepted into any arts based program, but that is not the case with this scholarship…again it just seems a little off to me.
It is worth it to call them and find out. I agree it is far and expensive from the west coast and given your D is not performance based perhaps they can arrange a Skype interview. My D is for dance and a drivable distance.
D also received email and we are a plane flight away. Happy to know we can assume acceptance. The scholarship range is confusing: $2500-$20000 annually is a big range. Does anyone know how they determine the amount, or could all finalists receive some amount?
I would love to know what sort of material the kids are supposed to prepare for the Theater merit scholarships. Can anyone shed any light on this?
My D graduated in 2018. She was a theatre arts merit recipient. At the time she auditioned (2013; she took a gap year after her acceptance) the audition was a typical two contrasting monologues plus a song (singing was optional). There were also some group theater exercises, tour of campus and department. And a Friday evening dinner for all finalists in all the disciplines plus any parents with faculty and current arts merit students. We assumed all activities were evaluative.
And we know from her experience later that the faculty does ask current students for their impressions of candidates.
I would assume that anyone who is a finalist for these scholarships has been accepted to the University overall. We treated it as not only competing for the scholarship but like a mini accepted students day. My D got a great sense of the arts community on campus and could really see herself there. There was great value in attending.
In OPs case there won’t be an audition but a great chance to interact with faculty and community and to communicate sincere interest in Bucknell. If OP really can’t attend due to finances or other conflict I would reach out to the creative writing dept directly and let them know your student is still interested in Bucknell. Maybe they can even help with travel expenses.
My D ended up not attending the larger admitted students weekend.