<p>Thanks Dumbo11! I sure hope we get to meet your D down there! I just printed our boarding passes for tomorrow’s flight and D is trying to figure out how to pack ALL her school books into a carryon that will fit under the seat : ( I think she plans on studying every spare minute - taking two days off school for this trip has garnered her six make up tests that are all scheduled for the day we return! I can’t wait till this school year is over!</p>
<p>Good luck IllinoisMom! I am really hoping your daughter gets Stamps. Yes, I remember how hard it was for the kids to go to these weekends, while trying to get schoolwork done. Senior year was no breeze for sure. Keep us posted after the weekend.</p>
<p>Good luck Ilinoismom!! Love to see more representation from the Land of Lincoln at the U!</p>
<p>**Thanks so much Dumbomom11, VHFather, and ZINC! </p>
<p>BEST OF LUCK TO EVERYONE HEADING DOWN THERE THIS WEEKEND FOR THE SINGER/STAMPS COMPETITION! </p>
<p>Hopefully they will not be able to pick from all these superstar students, who are all so incredibly accomplished and will decide to hand out more scholarships than last year : )</p>
<p>You never know - I was wondering about the number of awards available when I noticed several kids awarded $20,000 scholarships, but also invited to Singer/Stamps, which appears new to this year. </p>
<p>I have been crossing my fingers (and reading about the latest fundraising initiative “Momentum2” which apparently has already raised more than half the goal of 1.6 Billion)and hoping the reason is that they have more funds to hand out : ) Maybe just wishful thinking - but I sure hope everyone going down ends up with more $ (and/or Foote Fellows!</p>
<p>Leaving for the airport in a few hours - sunny Miami here we come!**</p>
<p>Illinoismom, perhaps we will meet down at the U this weekend! DD has strawberry blonde long curly hair! If you see her, I won’t be far away…come say hello!</p>
<p>I don’t mean to sound dumb, but is this for EA and RD people or just EA people?</p>
<p>I think just for ED and EA - not sure that RD folks have even found out about acceptance yet. The FINAID is coming so early this year…I’m confused too!</p>
<p>dindune-I just PM’d you with our info so you can find us both easily and you won’t have to wonder if you’re about to embarrass yourself by approaching the wrong person to ask if she’s illinoismom from CC : ) Googling D’s name brings up pictures, facebook and twitter immediately since she’s apparently the only person with her name. I’m her facebook friend (she requested me years ago!) so you can see my picture too (a photo taken from far enough away though that the real life wrinkles might throw you off when we do find each other!)</p>
<p>If you don’t get Stamps, is Singer automatic?</p>
<p>I think if you are invited to interview with Mr. Stamps, then you would have received the Singer - not 100% sure of this - just seems to make sense.</p>
<p>Zinc, that is exactly how it went last year. D was awarded Singer, and invited to the next step in the process of being a Stamps finalist, a skype interview with Mr. Stamps. When she received Stamps, it overrode the Singer award. Good luck all!</p>
<p>In addition to Zinc and dumbo: Is it correct that all Stamps invites will not necessarily be Singer recipients? Some of us (Stamps invites) will go and possibly not even get the Singer and will just leave with what we already have (University Scholarship, $24k)? Or is it a pretty safe bet that all the Stamps invites who don’t get Stamps will likely get Singer?</p>
<p>From my understanding, both Singer and Stamps scholarships are largely determined as a result of interviews, with little consideration given to your other stats. I could be wrong about this, though.</p>
<p>Such a principle employed in determining the recipients of Singer scholarships would suggest that being selected to interview for a Stamps scholarship is not a strong indicator of being selected for a Singer scholarship. However, from my understanding, there is also less competition for Singer scholarships than there is for Stamps scholarships, so, in general, getting a Singer is more likely than getting a Stamps.</p>
<p>Here’s the deal as I’ve always understood it. Roughly 300-350 students are invited to interviews over 3 weekends. Of those, about 70 will be offered Singer scholarships. And, of those 70, maybe 10 will be invited to a 2nd interview with Mr. Stamps for him to decide who will become a Stamps scholar.</p>
<p>But what avout those of us who are “Singer finalists and Stamps invites” as defined in our invitation letter? What makes us different than the applicants who were only invited for Singer?</p>
<p>The students who come on weekends 2 and 3 aren’t included in the pool of people considered for an interview with Mr. Stamps. Only those of you from this coming weekend have that opportunity. You are one of 300+ “Singer Finalists” and you are a potential Stamps invitee, depending on how you do in the interview and what your overall qualifications look like.</p>
<p>
Okay, so then in terms of getting Singer, we (Stamps invitees) have no more of an advantage than do the Singer-only invitees, correct?</p>
<p>Not that it matters, I’m just curious to know the logistics.</p>
<p>As far as dress goes, are we expected to wear pants, or are shorts okay? And if pants are expected, can we wear shorts at the dinner, or are pants necessary for both day’s events?</p>
<p>@SeekingUni - I think overall the qualifications of those attending this weekend are higher than those attending the other 2 Singer weekends, so you might make the argument that a higher percentage of weekend1 students would be offered the Singer. But this is all speculation on our parts - no empirical evidence published on this…</p>
<p>@Marinebio444 - last year, at the dinner most of the men wore pants (like Dockers / khakis) and polo or golf or oxford (collared) shirts, a few had sports jackets, only saw 1 or 2 in shorts. I wouldn’t say the dinner is “formal” but it definitely had a stuffier feel to it than the rest of the weekend. Now, for Saturday, most of your day is not spent in the interview, but I would think you’d want to look “nice” for that - whatever your definintion of nice is…so technically if you could pull off a time to change and wanted to cart around extra clothes you could wear shorts in the AM and pants in the PM. If you were my S, I would urge you to wear pants and a polo shirt on both Friday and all day Saturday. After you arrive in August, you can wear shorts every day for the whole school year!! Except when you’re scuba diving…</p>
<p>Agree with Zinc, definitely pants on Saturday, but Friday I think shorts (khaki) are fine. Is the dinner on Friday night? If so, switch into pants for the dinner. But especially if you’re going on the tour Friday afternoon (5PM!) you’ll thank me for suggesting shorts. Until you get to your interview it doesn’t matter too much, anyway. I feel like people on tours think that the tour guides are taking down their names and taking notes on them. We really don’t, haha.</p>
<p>As for the interviews, when I was helping out last year there was a huge variety in dress. It went all the way from wearing a T-shirt (sorry, man, not gonna get the scholarship) to a full suit. I’d recommend a healthy medium and wear, as Zinc suggests, a polo shirt (for comfort) or maybe a dress shirt. Most of the interviewers wear a polo shirt or a dress shirt with a tie, if my memory serves me well. “Business formal,” whatever that means.</p>
<p>And speaking of tours… I’m one of the (around six) people giving the 5PM tour tomorrow! For all you Stamps interviewees, see you then. :)</p>