<p>I was accepted early to Chicago, and I was wondering what people think my chances of getting a College Honors Scholarship or a University Scholarship would be. My stats are as follows:</p>
<p>-2380 SAT 1
-800 SAT 2's in Math 2, Chem, and US History
-4.0 unweighted GPA
-7 AP tests so far (6 fives and 1 three in German), expecting to take 3 or 4 more this year.
-2 varsity sports (XC and track. I was also a varsity wrestler freshman year, but had to quit wrestling due to repeated shoulder and knee injuries.)
-Pretty good essays, I think.
-Great recommendations, I hope
-Fairly strong EC's (Peer tutoring, voluteering, speech competitions, journalism, etc. I recently wrote an op-ed piece on free speech that was published in the San Francisco Chronicle.)
-Chicago wasn't able to schedule me an interview, which probably hurts.</p>
<p>I'm absolutely in love with UChicago, but my parentals seem to want me to aim for HPYS on the premise that they're bigger names and will "get me a head start in life." And they're not as cold as Chicago. I sure I'll have a much easier time justify UChicago if it's cheaper than the other options.</p>
<p>Also, if I accept before April and start requesting housing and stuff, will that hurt my chances of getting a merit scholarship? I heard that Chicago gives them out largely to entice people who might be on the fence to come.</p>
<p>I have never heard of anyone who has sussed out what the criteria for these scholarships are, but I can almost guarantee it has nothing to do with "stats" and everything to do with being interesting to the faculty committee that makes the selections.</p>
<p>I've wondered whether the faculty committee sees all the files of all the accepted students, or only a selection of them; if the latter, who selects the files to be passed on to them, and on what basis? Or maybe that's equally unknown.</p>
<p>That's definitely right, JHS. I have a college honors scholarship, and know about four other people at Chicago that have them, and I can say that we were all very, very different in stats, experiences, etc. There's definitely no "stats formula", or even anything you an really look for as an "ah-ha!" moment, for scholarship recipients.
@DavidMcD- accepting the offer of admission now will have no bearing on their choice to give you a merit scholarship. I was accepted EA, sent my deposit in in January, and was still given one. Merit scholarships are evaluated by a committee before RD decisions are mailed, but basically what happens is that admissions counselors will send all their requests for merit scholarship evaluation to this committee regardless of whether you've already accepted your offer of admission or not.</p>
<p>How do we apply for merit scholarships? I read that you were suppose to check some box when applying, I never saw this box and when I went through all of my common app stuff and the supplement I couldn't find it anywhere. Where do we click the box, and if I missed it, what can I do to ensure that I am being looked at for a merit scholarship.</p>
<p>There is a box you are supposed to check, yeah, but seriously... if the admissions office wants to consider you for a scholarship and you didn't check the box, they'll do it anyway. Don't worry about it.</p>
<p>grace you are so helpful. i'm not even that concerned about this topic, (although i'll still take a scholarship... :) ) but reading it made me want to say that. Thank you helping us all out.</p>
<p>what's the point of the box? Why would someone check "No thanks, I don't wanna be considered for a scholarship?" Doesn't everyone check the box?</p>
<p>S was accepted EA, FA eligibility was less than the merit award. Have no idea what they were looking for, but the widely accepted knowledge is that it's kids they find interesting and who the faculty would like to teach.</p>
<p>My son got an EA admission. To be honest, the application was put together rather hastily, and the essays he is submitting now for the regular admission HYP type schools are much better. On top of that between now and next spring when the faculty board gets together to make a selection to award merit scholarship, there may be a few additional interesting things that may happen that will "fortify" his qualification.</p>
<p>For merit scholarship consideration, does it help if we keep sending additional stuff to U Chicago to be included into his file?</p>
<p>I can't really contribute to the conspiracy theories about merit scholarship selection other than to say that they do a good job and they don't necessarily choose people based on tangible qualities.</p>
<p>S sent 6 supplemental essays (work he had done for different classes and the school newspaper during high school with grades and teacher comments included). He was set on going to Chicago and he let them know it on a cover letter to the supplemental material. Friend that got the same scholarship didn't send any extra material.</p>
<p>I am heavily recruited athlete for Chicago (I have top D1 athletic institutions offering scholarships, but I am set on attending Chicago lol my best friend from high school attends) but I also have pretty good grades and good test scores, top 5%. Do you know if being an athlete will increase my chances of getting a scholarship? Has anyone heard of recruited athletes getting the awards? I have the fear that the committee would stray away from giving recruited athletes merit money because that could be seen as a sort of athletic scholarship.</p>
<p>S sent <em>one</em> update to his admissions counselor with several additional awards, etc. Whether it made any difference for merit money, I have no idea. I would not keep sending info to the admissions office. They have enough to deal with.</p>
<p>Does anyone recommend sending a quick letter to my admissions officer with my interest in attending Chicago for a better chance in receiving merit aid? I was admitted EA.</p>
<p>A scholarship would be huge (and almost necessary) because I do not qualify for financial aid.</p>