<p>NY winners haven't been announced yet for sure. I had my senior awards ceremony this week, and they just gave certificates to the nominees.</p>
<p>Good news-Maine's scholarship office called me today, and let me know they looked over my case, realizing that they had made errors in evaluating certain criteria in my app. They went on to say that I qualified for the scholarship, and that they will be getting a letter and some $$$ out to me shortly. They didn't specify exactly what those errors were, but thanked me for bringing them to their attention. So if you didn't receive the scholarship, and can't deduce the reasons for this turn of events, call them!!!!! Please! Not to sound like a Geico advertisement, but one phone call could save you thousands of dollars, lol.</p>
<p>Kudos to you, conwoman. I have two questions for you.</p>
<ol>
<li>Are you going to Yale?</li>
<li>Do you have to go to a school in Conneticut?</li>
</ol>
<p>
[quote]
NY winners haven't been announced yet for sure.
[/quote]
My NY household is very confused. Our school's award ceremony was more than a week ago (5/26), and one of my d's friends was announced as a Byrd winner. (Several kids qualified to apply, but only one winner had been notified as of last week.)</p>
<p>This afternoon my d came home to find a letter from the NY state education department, informing her that she too had been awarded a Byrd scholarship. She's excited, but puzzled and hesitant to celebrate just yet, since something seems a little off-kilter.</p>
<p>The letter, dated May 2005, states that the Higher Education Services Corporation is responsible for processing the award payment, and that all future correspondence would be from them. Of course, there was no one at HESC to take her phone call by the time she got home to open her mail. There's a website ( <a href="http://www.hesc.org%5B/url%5D">www.hesc.org</a> ) from which no useful information could be gleaned, at least by us. We'll have to wait until Monday to see what's going on.</p>
<p>So maybe some NY recipients HAVE been notified? It seems weird to me that our school knew about her friend's award in time to announce it at the ceremony if other recipients are only hearing now.</p>
<p>I LOVE Pennsylvania....</p>
<pre><code> SELECTION PROCESS
</code></pre>
<p> Final selection of all qualified applicants will be done by a <em>random</em> selection from each county in Pennsylvania.
The number of awards from each county will be determined by the amount of monies allocated by the Federal Government.
Awards for this program, new and renewal, are contingent upon federal funding for 2005-06.</p>
<p>haha...isn't it great?</p>
<p>frazzled, </p>
<p>That is very strange. I had my awards ceremony this morning, actually. The 8 or so people who were nominated were recognized during the assembly, and we each got a paper certificate from the school. </p>
<p>Hmm, I just realized that this could mean that no one from my school actually won the Byrd, and the school was trying to deemphasize that.</p>
<p>suburbian, here's the telephone number to call for info from HESC: 888-697-4372. The voicemail will ask for your SS# and DOB, then supposedly tell you the status of your application. Except in my d's case, the message says that her records are unavailable or irretrievable or something, then tells her to call back during business hours.</p>
<p>The Byrd program is almost as hard to understand as National Merit - perhaps more so, since apparently each state administers it differently. As I understand it, there are a certain number of Byrd scholarships available per county, so if you're in downstate NY where the applicant pool is particularly competitive, the chances are lessened even for kids with near-perfect SATs and GPAs. My d's SATs were very good, but at least 4 kids in her school scored higher. Her adjusted GPA was excellent, but she and I thought that probably those same 4 kids would have very similar GPAs.</p>
<p>We probably shouldn't get all that excited in any case - supposedly the entire program is dependent on Congressional appropriation, and for some reason I don't really trust those guys .....</p>
<p>vtoolder:</p>
<p>I am going to Yale, but the Byrd scholarship doesn't require you to go to a school in CT.</p>
<p>"The Byrd program is almost as hard to understand"</p>
<p>what do you expect from politicians in DC?</p>
<p>Does anyone know the criteria used for the state of florida? My S has a
30 on the act and 4.35 GPA. Thanks</p>
<p>For Florida, the GPA used is unweighted. All they really consider is SAT/ACT scores and UW GPA, but I don't know the exact formula.</p>
<p>I'm in NY and I got my Byrd winner notification letter almost 2 weeks ago. </p>
<p>Just a question: How do you get the money for this? Do they send it right to your college?</p>
<p>Bright Futures gives out a scholarship to the top scholar in each county every
year. I know it is decided on ACT/SAT scores and GPA. My S was ranked 3rd
with a 30 on the ACT and 4.35 unweighted. He scored higher than the #1 and</p>
<h1>2 students on ACT. Do you know the criteria for determining who gets this</h1>
<p>award? Is it more GPA or ACT scores? Last year #2 recieved it. DOE is very
secretive about this and it is normally not made know until Nov. Thanks.</p>
<p>Bright Futures ATS is run the same as Byrd in Florida only Byrd uses UW GPA. It's UW GPA times your act/sat score.</p>
<p>Savoirfaire87:</p>
<p>I am just curious where you got your information. Did you hear anything that would nail down the notification timeframe? I have been told that it will be sometime in June. </p>
<p>I have also heard about the random picking of award winners in PA. Its like a raffle or lottery instead of awards to the highest achievers. It seems like this scholarship really varies from state to state.</p>
<p>i'm from CA and i recieved an award. i found out by calling the office and asking the reciptionist. supposively they send stuff out a couple of weeks ago, but i never recieved the letter.</p>
<p>So I found out today that I would have gotten the Byrd, had my school's guidance counselor filled in my GPA correctly. $6,000 down the drain... wonderful.</p>
<p>So sorry Just<em>forgot</em>me to hear about the oversight. That is alot of money to lose. That is why I double checked about my S nomination. In the state of FL they take the UW GPA and SAT/ACT score and put them in the computer. Then they pick winners until the money runs out! I finally got to talk to someone about the scholarship but I didn't ask what the normal SAT/ACT score was in order to win. Would anyone know if u had a 4.00 what the SAT/ACT score would have to be?</p>
<p>It will be the last of June before FL determines their winners. Letters will go out mid July</p>
<p>Did anyone hear from NJ?</p>
<p>I was looking through the archives and NJ byrd scholarship recipients last year found out June 5.</p>