<p>Hello! I'd looking to possibly attend the University of Tulsa in the fall of 2014, but I would need their full scholarship in order to be able to go. So, I was hoping I could get some input on my chances. </p>
<p>I will be a National Merit Finalist
I have a 3.85 unweighted and a 4.3 weighted gpa
I'm ranked 2/7 (small class)
My ACT is 33 (33E, 35M, 32R, 33S)
My SAT is 2150 (710R, 720M, 720W, 10E)
I've taken the hardest classes my school offers
I'm doing dual enrollment this year and will have 12 credit hours when I'm done
I haven't taken any AP classes(my school doesn't offer any), but I've self studied and will<br>
take 5 exams next year (although that won't be on application) </p>
<p>ECs
4 years of student council (treasurer junior year, president senior year)
3 years of Beta (president senior year)
Treasurer of Mayor's Youth Advisory Council
Senior adviser of Mayor's Youth Advisory Council
Member of Legislative Youth Advisory Council
Member of my school's mission team (went to Romania twice, not sure if that matters)
Founder of a writers workshop, which is an after school program that helps middle school
students develop their writing skills
Founder of math workshop. Same as writers workshop.
Between 100-150 hours of community service </p>
<p>I'll have 3 letters of recommendation. One will be from school guidance counselor, another from principal, and the last from the head of the legislative youth advisory council. All of them will be very good. </p>
<p>My essay will likely be very well written. </p>
<p>NMSF haven’t been named yet. Was your PSAT high enough that you are certain you will make NMSF? </p>
<p>Most, but not all, Presidential Scholars at TU are National Merit Finalists, and not all NMF get the Presidential Scholarship. I have talked to a few NMF who applied but did not get it. Your ECs look good, though, so I’d think you would have a good shot at it. There is also an interview portion, that I believe carries a lot of weight. </p>
<p>I have heard that the people who apply but don’t get it still get offered a full tuition waiver, which is not too shabby at TU.</p>
<p>Cba - my son was fortunate enough to receive a Presidential Scholarship for the class of 2017. He was a NMF with a 3.96 unweighed GPA (2nd in class), 2280 on the SAT and a strong well-rounded blend of ECs though yours are stronger due to the volunteer elements although he did also play sports. He also had high subject test scores, multiple fives with one four on AP tests, etc. I think it helped that he visited the school in November and interviewed (he tends to interview well) so I would suggest that. It also probably helped that he is from fairly far away assuming that Tulsa values geographical diversity. Best of luck!</p>
<p>S was a 2012 HS grad, NMF who applied for the Presidential Scholarship at TU. Grades were very similar to yours, he had 2230 SAT, a bunch of APs. Weak ECs. He is shy so probably did not interview well. His essay and recs were good, I think. He didn’t get the Presidential. From what they told us (number of applicants vs. number of scholarships given), about 1/3 of applicants get the scholarship. To be honest, unless you have a stellar interview and essay, I’m not sure how good your chances are because there are so many top applicants with perfect or near perfect scores/grades and really impressive ECs. (Your ECs do sound excellent). S was offered full tuition, though, and I think that is what they offer most NMFs who don’t win the Presidential. (S chose near full-ride at another school). I do hope you win the scholarship–good luck!</p>
<p>My son is a Pres scholar at TU. The best advice I can give you… Show lots of interest in TU. Go to Tulsa Time or make an official visit where you register with admissions. Call and ask a question from time to time. It’s a great school and an awesome scholarship! They will also like the things you “founded”, so mention in interview. Good luck! Also, consider taking a subject test, like blnrule mentioned. Especially something to show aptitude in your major since you don’t have APs.</p>
<p>My daughter attended a breakfast for potential Presidential scholars this morning and was told that she has a very good chance at the scholarship. ACT 33, gpa 4.35, editor high school newspaper, several AP classes, co-founder of club at her school which would relate to her major, lots of volunteer hours including summer volunteering at nonprofit which is related to her major.</p>
<p>I’m very excited. She was actually told that she would be eligible for the scholarship and to get her essay in but I’m not counting the chickens yet.</p>
<p>I echo what has been said above about showing interest. She toured TU and showed an interest several months ago, and has taken every opportunity to attend events and show interest.</p>
<p>DS interviewed with the admissions rep when she visited our town back in the fall. She said that was considered his interview for Presidential, although he didn’t know it at the time. In fact, she told us about the Presidential during the interview.</p>
<p>We just attended Tulsa Time. They said that financial aid and merit scholarships would come out this week and next. Presidential would come out in Mid march. My sense of it was you may get a scholarship this week and it still might be replaced with Presidential come March. They have 54 to award. Last year, 26 went to Oklahoma kids and 12 were not NMF’s. Hope that helps. Basically, very long odds for this one if you are not a NMF.</p>
<p>Just wondering if anyone in the past has received or heard of someone who received a full tuition scholarship if they failed to get the Presidential Scholarship. My S did not feel well on the day of the PSAT and ended up falling 3 points below where he needed to be to qualify for NMF. (We’re in one of the states that has a high cut-off.) He then took the SAT shortly after and scored a 2300+.He’s also in the top 1% of his class. I’ve heard that a few non-NMF’s get the Presidential, but I know the odds are kind of against you if you aren’t. My S has a good resume with solid EC’s, tons of volunteer hours, and has taken nothing but the most rigorous classes all throughout HS. He also competed at the State level in an individual sport for the past 3 years along with being captain of that team since he was a sophomore, which is very unusual at our HS because almost all team captains are seniors. He also wrote what I thought were outstanding essays and I assume his rec letters were good. He loved his day-long visit to the campus but we really can’t afford to send him to a private school unless he gets something close to full tuition. And financial need aid won’t help us because we are in that middle class trap where our EFC (IMO) comes out WAY higher than we can actually afford.</p>
<p>Yes, as I mentioned above, one of my kids (hs class of 2012) was offered full tuition after not being awarded the Presidential scholarship. It was my impression that this is what all the “qualified but not chosen” applicants were offered. I think you can expect a very generous offer in any case. It sounds like your kid’s stats are great (and better than my kid’s except for the NMF issue. My kid was NMF, but slightly lower SAT scores and weak ECs,) I think your kid has a very good chance. They want leadership, volunteer work, good interviews. Best of luck to him!</p>
<p>cdkmom - if you read my post above …it said … They have 54 to award. Last year, 26 went to Oklahoma kids and 12 were not NMF’s. Hope that helps. Basically, very long odds for this one if you are not a NMF. (Got this info at Tulsa Time this past weekend.) </p>
<p>I also think that 1/2 tuition is possible rather than full tuition for top students. So fingers crossed for yours and mine! </p>
<p>Thanks atomom and MaterMia for your responses! Still sounds like somewhat of a long shot, but at least there is hope. His interview was done all the way back at the end of November when we visited. I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing. Possibly good in that it that maybe it showed his strong interest since he applied for the scholarship so early, but maybe bad that it was so long ago. Also, other than that visit, we have not been back to campus because we are out of state and it’s expensive for us to revisit. He wanted to attend one of the breakfasts, but to travel all that way just for one morning seemed like too much to his dad and me. And the Tulsa overnight stuff never worked with my S’s sports schedule. (He competes nearly every weekend.) My son emailed them about the last breakfast and let them know how much he wished he could have attended, so hopefully they can understand the problem with out of state students and multiple visits. MaterMia: did they indicate what method of correspondence they would use to notify students about merit aid? Email or snail mail?</p>
<p>They said emails would start coming out later this week. I got the sense they would go out in waves starting end of this week and into next week. And tomorrow is Thursday and nothing here yet.</p>
<p>The applications were accepted through February 15, and the application says on its face that the Presidential scholarship notifications will be mailed in late March. </p>
<p>DS and two of his friends (all OOS) received the Vision Scholarship by snail mail on Friday. None of these three students were NMF, but all had 32+ ACT and top 10% in class. Although it wasn’t full tuition, it was a very nice scholarship. DS is still in the running for the Presidential, which we were told would be announced 3/15. Good luck to all!</p>
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