My daughter was offered this package, and though we know nothing about NYC, it’s such an amazing offer that we are going to fly out and check it out. I’m so glad to hear this glowing review!
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Oh congrats! For our family, this scholarship made a huge difference. We are a donut hole family that “could have made it work” but NYU, his top choice, ended up costing more per year than all 4 years combined at Fordham. This scholarship gives all of us breathing room: he can go out to Broadway shows or interesting restaurants occasionally without having to worry about it, he can take internships that apply to his major rather than having to work unrelated jobs, he can do study abroad without financial stress. Our kid is at the LC location, but I have heard that Rose Hill is great too. What majors is your student interested in?
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UA CE/English, currently Stem Path to MBA. The English degree is for a top tier Law School path also. You are not alone. My kid has the same plan. 
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This is a little off topic, and you may know this already, but there is zero need to pursue an English degree to attend a top law school. CE is enough by itself.
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Thanks so much for the encouragement and advice! DD got her letter on the portal on 2/14 and in the mail 2/17. The school notification letter never arrived. She’ll be pursuing a Food Science degree at Mississippi State. Now to sort through their package offerings. Is anyone else considering State? I think we are going to need to sit down with the scholarship office again. We are not getting consistent answers. 
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Finally asked S23 if he was leaning toward Tulsa or Maine (I made it a whole two days since we got home from our Tulsa visit before asking, pretty proud of myself 
).
He said Tulsa!
Anyone else here possibly headed to Tulsa?
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Sharing thoughts on the University of Tulsa admitted students’ event. It was a 2-day event so this might be long 
First time to Oklahoma and the smallest school on the list. The event was very well organized and attended – about 120 students, half NMSF, from 30 states plus a couple of international students and a bunch auditioning for the arts programs. Of those DD spoke to, the students were deciding between a large state school and Tulsa. The current president was a NMSF and understands the opportunities the scholarship presents. I think about 700 NMSFs were accepted this year.
The college: 2,700+ undergraduates located about 10-15 minutes from downtown and the airport. There are some walkable fast-food restaurants and stores but not the typical college town and one neighborhood around the campus was a little rough. Campus felt safe. Very nice facilities, housing and dining and a pretty campus.
Student life: Very inclusive with opportunities galore for those who choose to take advantage of them. Research is encouraged, paid, and can start the summer before freshman year. Many programs, some with additional classes, which I think can work with a busy schedule if you come in with AP/IB credits. D1 sports and Greek life (smaller– about 40 per chapter and more service-based). Students seemed happy and friendly – not a lot of students eating by themselves. Not sure how many students are from OK and the surrounding states, but it felt more local which could change if it draws students from the NMSF group. College employees from admin to food services to security were all very kind, happy and supportive of the students.
Academics: You will know your professors and they will know you. Largest intro classes about 50 and most around 10-15. 10:1 student/facility ratio. Lots of student support. If you fail a test or miss some classes, someone will reach out (quite possibly the president who gives everyone his cell #!) and find you to try to help. If you want to get lost in the crowd, not the place for you. Programs seemed solid. Not sure if they have the car, canoe and other engineering competition teams but if not, admin seems responsive to requests so someone could probably start one. Starting an honors college soon and career/job placement was excellent.
Tulsa: Small city with music venues, museums and good restaurants. New park by the river (which was strangely very dry?). It was a holiday weekend so not sure if this is typical but it was very quiet. Anyone know about safety there?
The scholarship: COA plus, which we would use for travel, upgraded housing, study abroad and expenses. Books are free to all. I didn’t see anything tying the scholarship to a college GPA.
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I grew up near Tulsa, and I have a lot of friends and relatives who still live there. I can answer a couple of questions.
The river varies a lot! Sometimes (often) it is extremely dry, basically it looks like a mud flat. But there are other times when the water can be very high. And I think once in the past 20 years it flooded pretty severely.
Overall, I think of Tulsa as a very safe city. However, there’s definitely crime. My brother (who lives in the “north Tulsa“ area, which is the area around TU and has always been considered the rougher part of town) has had his car broken into several times. I personally know of a fair number of drug dealers in the city. 
You occasionally hear of a shooting. But I think it is pretty low (or at least typical) crime for a city of its size. I would have no safety concerns sending my kids there for school.
I think there are a lot of nice entertainment and cultural options in the city. There are constantly concerts, Broadway touring shows, citywide festivals/events.
Any complaints I would have about living in Tulsa have more to do with the political and cultural landscape of the state. But I think those things would be highly mitigated if your primary association is with the university. You’re going to have a lot more variety of opinions and values in people associated with the university than I think you do across the state as a whole.
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This is a wonderful wrap-up! We were there for a regular tour and a meeting with a (very impressive, holy cats!) Computer Science professor, so we didn’t get ALL the details. I didn’t notice the rough neighborhood, but we only explored in one direction from campus! Thank you for all the info!
It does feel a bit more regional to me - every person asked where we were from and when we said Minnesota the reaction was “WHOA. That is FAR!” And in the admissions building they had all the tours of the day listed by name on the big screen and my kid was listed as from St. Louis, MO, but he’s from St. Paul, MN, which we thought was funny. I bet they get a lot of kids from St. Louis, but mine isn’t one of them! 
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Thank you for the info on the area and the general climate. I asked in our tour if the university tends to be more liberal or more conservative, and the guide said it is truly a mix, but that TU is definitely “very liberal, for Oklahoma!”
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Thanks for all the information (especially about the river!). It’s really helpful to hear from people in the area. The campus felt very inclusive but will definitely need to consider the surrounding area.
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Much thanks for the Tulsa Time wrap-up, @2020hindsight! My son was signed up to attend for the longest time, but ended up going the same weekend to the UT-Dallas first NMF session the same day instead after deciding that UTD was higher on his list than Tulsa. He ended up not being super-impressed by UTD, so I sorta wish he’d visited Tulsa instead, but que sera sera.
Having 700 NMSFs accepted is kind of crazy for a school the size of Tulsa – they only average about 700 students of any sort per class! I’m sure there’ll many that were accepted but don’t attend, but even if only 20 percent take them up on their offer, that’s a class that’s around 20 percent National Merit. I kinda wonder if the offer for next year’s students will be tapered down a bit, either to only NMFs rather than including NMSFs, dropping the extra $6000, etc. – I wonder if they’re getting too many NM students. (They may end up with as many as UCF, which is both actively wooing NMFs and 25x bigger!)
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The president seems to be all in for the program. He spoke about being a NMSF and how it allowed him to go to college and wanted to provide similar opportunities. The goal is to provide the best package and enroll the highest percentage of NMSF. We didn’t pick up on exactly what that meant - maybe highest percentage of NMSF to overall student ratio(?). The admissions counselor previously said that they weren’t sure what the offer would be for next year which seems to conflict. Just my opinion but it seems that Tulsa has room to increase enrollment - small classes, low student-faculty ratio and dorm space - without changing the feel or how they operate. With the new initiatives it felt like this might be a college that starts to quickly rise in the rankings.
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Wow, I just read the wiki article about the University of Tulsa’s president. Impressive guy! He has been president since 2021.
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Okay, I just want to clarify something for finalists. The letter says they need to declare a first choice college by March 1st if they want to be considered for that school’s National Merit Scholarship.
IF my kid declares his first choice and something changes in the next month or two, he can still change his first choice for another two months, right?
Example: He’s leaning toward Tulsa, so he puts that down for now, and then something happens and he ends up changing his mind in three weeks to Maine, he can change his first choice to Maine, correct?
(I really hope his leaning toward Tulsa is permanent, but in case it isn’t…)
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What letter? From NMSC or a college?
This FAQ from OU helps answer some questions. Under the question, “What is college choice?” they state, “College choice is the school that you designate with NMSC as the school that you plan to attend. It is important because the school that you have designated by the deadline is the only school that can give you the College-sponsored Award.”
Are you concerned about listing Tulsa as his first choice? Tulsa’s big package is offered to semi-finalists so he should be good. There is a smaller scholarship, in addition to the big package, for finalists. The website says that finalists have until NMSC’s deadline (May 31) to declare Tulsa their first choice.
- Students must designate TU as their first choice school with the National Merit Corporation by the final deadline set by National Merit.
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Right. We were told that he needs to have Tulsa in as his first choice by March 1st to qualify for that small award (I think it’s $750?). I am just worried about if he changes his mind between March 1st and end of April.
(U of Alabama) I was under the impression that outside scholarships stack with the Alabama NMF package. Can anyone confirm this?
In general, merit scholarship (as opposed to need based financial aid) can stack up to the cost of attendance (COA). Each university has the COA published on their website. Call Alabama to confirm. They may be able to help you find other things that you can use the outside scholarships for (ex. one time computer purchase).
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Actually, many schools allow students to stack Outside Scholarship money (over the cost of attendance) that they get and then refund the excess after paying the students charges. My son is attending one school currently. I am told Alabama does also. I am just looking to verify.
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