<p>I am looking at applying to the U of M CSE with the Golden Gopher application, and I was wondering how difficult it is to gain acceptance to the honors program with the CSE. If anyone has any knowledge on the program, I would love to hear it.</p>
<p>Statistics: 4.0 GPA, Rank 1 of 178, 33 ACT, 2260 SAT (800 SAT Math)
Notable Courses: Honors English 11 and 12, Latin I and II, AP Calculus, AP Chemistry, AP Government, AP Psychology, College Western Civilization</p>
<p>I am also a National Merit Semifinalist. Anyone have a guess at what my chances are for the Honors program? I saw that the average ACT/SAT for those admitted was 34/2225.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids, that would be University of Minnesota - Twin Cities College of Science and Engineering. One of the most - if not THE most - selective of all the colleges on the UMTC campus.</p>
<p>mh3353 I don’t know much about chances for CSE Honors but those are damn fine stats. Looks like you are right in the ballpark for the honors program. U of MN doesn’t require an essay or rec. letter - the stats tend to speak for the applicants. The NMSF would definitely count in your favor as well. Congratulations and Good Luck!</p>
<p>I’ll bet you get in and hopefully get merit $ too. I’ve read some of the acceptance threads here for the past year+ since my son is also hoping to get into UMN CSE honors and your stats sound very much in line w/ the students I saw who were accepted… though CSE honors seems to be getting a bit more competitive every year. You can browse through the past couple of year’s acceptances to get an idea too.</p>
<p>Apply as early as you can. “Priority” deadline is Dec 15th. </p>
<p>It only takes a few minutes to fill out the application. It’s mostly stats and some biographical info. The UMN reps I’ve spoken to said they start reviewing in October and first acceptances would come out in November (at earliest). The last guy I spoke with said that we couldn’t expect to hear until November at earliest - so maybe it will be later, but hopefully not. </p>
<p>Check out the merit scholarship page too. It is not guaranteed like some other schools (eg Alabama), but from my informal reading and talking to other parents, it sounds like most NMFs get something.</p>
<p>@mh3353 I think your chances are excellent for getting into UMN’s CSE honors program. My son was admitted nto CSE Honors last year. Your stats for GPA, class rank and SAT are higher than his when he applied. His ACT and number of AP courses taken topped yours. He was NMSF at application time as well. I don’t know what criteria they use to determine who gets the honors invitation, but it seems reasonable that your credentials put you in strong contention for inclusion in the program.</p>
<p>Your National Merit status will work well for you. Early in the application process, we found that UMN loves to enroll National Merit students, so they’re likely to offer you a lot of merit scholarship money to get you there – like enough to cover tuition for all four years. You would be doing yourself a favor by contacting UMN’s National Merit/Honors Recruitment Coordinator, Lindsey May, to express interest. <a href=“http://admissions.tc.umn.edu/nationalmerit/”>http://admissions.tc.umn.edu/nationalmerit/</a> </p>
<p>Good luck. I hope it all works out for you.</p>
<p>I have already scheduled a general visit to the college of science and engineering that is coming up in a couple weeks. Would it be a good idea to schedule the visit through Lindsey May instead? I have visited the page you linked, but evidently I didn’t look at it enough. It sounds like I could get myself a more “personalized” visit.</p>
<p>Also, what do you mean by “contacting her to express interest?” Should I just shoot her an email and say I am interested in the college? Is that it?</p>
<p>@mh3353 I recommend that you call her to let her know that you’re interested in UMN and that you’re a NMSF. She’ll be able to answer all your questions from there. When my son applied, he was invited by the U to their National Merit Day. It was pretty informative and something that Ms. May can tell you all about.</p>
<p>Remember, I don’t know what criteria gets you into the honors program, but during our college search we found that many universities use “indicators of interest” as one of the factors in their decision processes. Indicators if interest are things like “did you apply”, “did you visit”, “did you call or write”, etc. If UMN keeps track of all your “indicator of interest” contacts with them, you have a track record that might be just the thing that influences their decision to offer you an invitation to join the University Honors Program.</p>
<p>@mh3353…I agree with @chucktaylor1 about contacting the NM recruiter. Although it was a different person 4 years ago, our D1 worked with the NM coordinator to arrange a dorm tour of Middlebrook outside of the regular campus tour. They can pull some strings and possible open a few more doors for you with some folks in CSE. I don’t think it’s a matter of setting things up through her “instead” of the regular tours or through CSE, it’s more a matter of “in addition to”. I definitely think it would be in your best interest to allow her to put a face to the name. Good Luck!!</p>
<p>My D submitted the Golden Gopher Application on 9/15 last year. They did start the reviewing process in early October. My D got a scholarship notice on 10/11 and the acceptance notice on 10/15 last year. The process is rolling, however, the time needed for decision may depends on your credential in addition to submission time.</p>
<p>We tried contacting the NM recruiter and got no response. S applied before he got official notification of NMSF so he couldn’t check the box for it on the app. Since there was no response from NM recruiter, he asked about updating his application to indicate NMSF and was told he didn’t need to. HOpefully they are still giving out good merit $$ for NMF. Things seem a little different this year just based on past years; posts I’ve read. Maybe everything is just a bit slower this year or it’s the change in NMF recruiters?</p>
<p>MomMe32, Have you tried contacting the admissions counselor assigned to your S’s high school. I think you should at least email them to alert them to the NMSF and hopefully they will share this with the NM recruiter. </p>
<p>Kajon, I guess we haven’t tried the UMN rep who visits the HS. S has seen him 3x and S said it was just a presentation each time and putting down your info (scores, GPA, rank) - not really talking individually to the kids. I guess there are likely more kids since we’re in TC area so maybe he doesn’t have time? But I don’t know that the info even gets communicated to UMN admissions/recruitment since it has been like he is new to them each time he has contact and has to put down the info each time. UMN seems a bit less organized about their recruiting than other schools. </p>
<p>I thought colleges got NMSF lists since S started getting mail from schools specifically talking about NMF scholarships even before he was officially notified. </p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestion - I think it may be a good idea to try both the GC and the rep and see if that gets us anywhere. </p>
<p>Colleges must get NMSF lists, as we are getting tons of scholarship offers from colleges that S has not had any contact with.</p>
<p>As far as timing, no merit from UMN-TC here yet, but S also did not have the status when he applied, sent it as part of general e-mail update to admissions when it was official. Not sure if that got into his file or not. I know they still have the scholarship, as it is still listed on the scholarship list on UMN website. It’s possible they could change the # of awards. It isn’t unlimited like Bama and some other places. 2 years ago they were giving 125 of the larger $11,000 awards at a time when they were enrolling about 160 NMF, or at least that is what I was told. The NM coordinator at the time, ThuyVi, said they anticipated continuing at that number as far as she knew. </p>
<p>2 years ago, the CSE honors acceptance appeared on tracker and letter to house about week or 10 days after admission. I’m fairly sure the scholarship info was never on tracker, but only notification was by post mail. Not positive, though. Like billcsho, 2 years ago D got scholarship offer, a real offer for accepted student, not these random mailings schools send out, a few days before accepted on tracker. </p>
<p>Thanks for the timeline Celeste. I know UMN increased merit $ this year (as far as total amt for merit money in the budget) and held the fin aid the same. There was a lot of outcry about it. UMN’s argument was that the tuition didn’t go up vs last year.</p>
<p>I guess even w/o merit money, UMN is still a bargain compared to private colleges which will end up costing multiples of what it would cost S to attend the U. Can’t help but hope though. </p>
<p>MomMe32, at a minimum he’ll get the $11,000. Are you worried about that? With your S’s stats, I don’ think you need to. Or are you hoping for some extra beyond the basic offer? They also gave research money, on the order of $1500, 2 years ago, with the basic NMF award. </p>
<p>I didn’t know about the increase in merit money. I looked up and found news articles about it after I read your post. That’s good news. Thanks.</p>
<p>Celestroberts - Hoping mostly to hear he got into honors and then, yes, hoping for merit money. Not worried per se, if he wants to go to UMN, I’ll find a way to make it happen even w/o merit $$. </p>
<p>There’s almost an anti-intellectual culture at son’s HS. They don’t acknowledge good students - most everything is about sports (even though the teams aren’t very good). So the more studious types have to have their own self-drive and sort of defy the prevailing culture. S has been ready to move on for awhile now and feel like it was worth it to keep his own counsel these past years. So it would be nice for him to feel “rewarded” for his work and perseverance. S has long only had eyes for the UMN. I “encouraged” him to apply to at east a couple of other schools. He did it, but didn’t really take them seriously and didn’t want to visit them. However, the other 2 are much more organized about recruiting, acceptance, merit money - they give the message “we want you!”. So now I see him open to looking at the other 2 schools, which is good and I’m going to jump on it while the interest is there. However, I know that he still cares most about the U. He checks the mailbox and tracker every day, which is very unlike him. Just a mom wanting her kid to feel wanted by his longtime favorite college.</p>
<p>I would be very surprised if he didn’t get into honors, but not stunned if he didn’t get merit $ b/c that seems to be a political football on many fronts - including CSE “taking more than its share” of honors spots and merit $ vs the other schools. In general, from knowing kids who applied to U and reading posts from past years, it isn’t always clear how they award merit $.</p>
<p>Has anyone actually received a physical US mail acceptance packet yet or does everyone just know from their tracker?</p>
<p>OP, you will surely get into honors. You are fine. </p>
<p>MomMe, Since you live in TC area you must know a lot more NMSFs applying to UMN than we do. Do you know of anyone who didn’t get the $11,000? I know there is that smaller award, Cyrus Northrop, that is awarded ‘instead of’, not ‘in addition to.’ I checked about that 2 years ago and those 2 don’t stack, though there are others that do. But the few local kids here seem to always get the larger award. We’re in WI, so it’s almost like being in-state. Don’t think we get any OOS credit. Anyway, you may be worrying too much. If we get anything in the mail, I’ll post.</p>
<p>Things may be different now as they have a new NMF coordinator, but back then, they were very helpful and solicitous. Though we didn’t arrange visit until after all the honors, etc was in and they knew who D was from her app. But they helped arrange a very nice visit. We set up the class visits part ourselves as it was a lot and more than I think they were prepared to deal with, but they had us meet with NMF coordinator, who gave kids UMN string bags and other merchandise. S too, who tagged along! A staff member and CSE honors student met us for lunch in Middlebrook and the student chatted about her experience and the research award. There was a meeting with head of honors college who told of all the opportunities there. And I don’t remember what else. </p>
<p>I know about 10 NMSFs that applied to the U. They were all offered about 10k a year for NMSF and additional 10k a year for their ACT score and class rank</p>
<p>Celeste - Don’t know anyone who didn’t get anything, but awards seem to vary and it isn’t always clear why</p>
<p>Son got physical snail mail acceptance letter a few days agao.</p>
<p>Today (or yesterday?) tracker showed acceptance to honors program. Hooray! It appeared in a new pink box below the acceptance (or reviewing or whatever status) box.</p>