I applied to UMTC for CBS in the middle of September. Since I am an out of state student, I am really hoping to get a scholarship to lower the cost. What do you all think my chances are for one of the National Scholarships? Is there a noticeable cut off score for how they award them, or is really a case-by-case basis?
UW GPA: 3.93/4.00
W GPA: 4.453/5.00
8 AP Classes (including my senior schedule), all other classes Honors level except for band, gym, etc.
3 AP classes senior year, 2 honors
32 ACT (34 E, 31 M, 32 R, 31 S, 10 W)
Class Rank: 59/484 This was the most recent info for it. It’s updated each semester. I’ve noticed there’s a lot of emphasis on being in the top 10% of your class to get a scholarship. Would me being slightly out of it ruin my chances?
@TotallyTrudy you might want to call Admissions and ask what “top 10% of graduating class” actually means. If they award these scholarships before senior grades are out, that’s actually top 10% of the Junior Class. So do they award provisionally? Do they allow senior grades to be a factor? Those are the questions I’d ask. As it is you seem to be right at the cut-off which might explain why no one’s been able to answer this one. But a lot depends on the high school as well - if yours has a lot of uber-achievers who are headed for Ivies, your class rank probably under-reports your abilities and academic talent. And then, many schools do NOT rank at all. This is probably why they use a “holistic” process to determine admission and scholarships and that should help you - especially as UMN likes OOS students.
Don’t forget about college-specific scholarships as well. D1 applied and received one of those for CLA last year. The application should come out later this fall.
Hopefully you’ll get merit aid at UMN but your stats are strong enough that for sure you’ll get a scholarship somewhere. Good luck and Well Done!
I missed their hours today and didn’t get to call. I’m concerned about class rank though. My first two years my school used a GPA system based on plus and minuses (A+=4.0, A=3.7, A-=3.5). I took all honors my freshman year and four honors and two AP classes my sophomore year. While I was able to scrape by with A minuses, my class rank dropped a lot because other people were able to take easier loads but get higher As, so they ended up with higher class ranks. However, my junior and senior years, we are using the typical GPA scale (A=4, B=3, C=2). This has brought my class rank up, but I’m still not in the top 10%. I really hope the U of M isn’t very strict about their top 10% guideline and will look at the context of my school.
They’ll take into account the classes you took. Obviously with the all honors and AP for the first two years you were doing a pretty rigorous course load. Sound like you don’t have a weighted class rank? Sometimes those are included on the transcript. I’m thinking it’s gotta be difficult to compare across high schools because of different methodologies (even assuming they don’t change mid-stream as yours did). That’s why many admissions departments (not sure about UMN specifically) actually recalculate the GPA using their own weighting system. It puts everyone on the same page for comparison purposes.
It’s frustrating given that your calculation system changed mid-stream; however, keep in mind that was true for everyone in your class. If your rank improved it was because your academic performance improved relative to everyone else’s.
