Yes Wake was test optional already. I get that schools have all kinds of institutional needs. Just hard to explain it to D when she sees it as a dance competition.
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Well, if there is one thing for sure, it’s that “talent” and “merit” are far less dominant features in the admission process now because of the importance of institutional goals. This is a business under the guise of having a “well-rounded” class, meaning how can we enroll students who make us look more this or less that (depending on their needs & wants) which translate into better rankings by category. I cannot even tell you how underestimated this is. Tough thing is those goals are not transparent to applicants nor does one have any control over them to boost their chances. They DID move to test optional a few years ago so there is that bit of insight, yes ?
It is just a fact now and is even more prominently playing out in this cycle … the trend is escalating in that direction ! Pop essay prompt - What is your definition of “fair” ?
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Lol indeed. We were replying at the same time. Institutional needs are the KEY. End of story.
It may be a spread the wealth thing - distribute scholarships more broadly rather than stacking them? So if your child gets a large merit scholarship, maybe the dance scholarship goes to somebody else?
Oh gosh I doubt that. She didn’t get the Presidential at Richmond and there are more of those than the merit scholarships at Wake. She’s not at that level academically I don’t think. I looked at Wake’s other merit scholarships and she’s not even qualified for most of them. Some require financial need even though they are merit scholarships. Some require you live in NC etc.
Would be nice, but you are probably correct!
S2 received a “likely letter” from Richmond ( not sure they still do this with EA?) in mid-February of his senior year so we knew it was going to be a “yes” in March. Interestingly, he was NOT selected for any merit based scholarships which we thought may happen due to the “likely letter”! It was our understanding that they only sent out those letters to some of the more desirable candidates but that didn’t translate into any $$$.
Do you know how many finalists were selected for the WFU dance scholarship ?
The WFU website noted “up to 20 scholarships for dance, music, theatre, art, & debate”.
If I recall correctly, WFU is doing well in debate.
With only 20 Presidential Scholarships of $16,000 for dance, music, theatre, art, & debate, it could be that only 2 or 3 are awarded a dance scholarship.
Do I understand correctly ?
Clearly, this scholarship is designed to attract hundreds or thousands of applications vying for a scholarship in one of these 5 areas.
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I don’t know how they divide them up but I do believe they don’t take the same number per discipline each year. On an old CC thread, I saw that dance had eight finalists that year and gave two scholarships. Clearly it is super competitive.
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Sorry, I misremembered, I thought she had gotten a big merit award at Wake. I must have confused it with the other fabulous merit awards she has earned! 
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Sorry that the Wake dance scholarship did not come through. I too am surprised by how impersonal the communications were.
It is an extremely expensive school. We visited two years ago. While I loved Wake, at the end of the day I just couldn’t justify the approximately $160k premium Wake commands over many other private alternatives.
I am rooting for U of R. I think it’s the best city of all of the options before you.
Richmond is the same price as Wake. I finished up a whole spreadsheet today with costs and lots of other info. The schools that don’t offer merit (or where she did not get it - Richmond and wake) all hover around $73k per year. Davidson and Lehigh more like $70k. Of course, LMU will cost us more like $38k.
I looked up all of the endowments and now I’m all worked up about that. Richmond has almost twice the endowment per student as most on the list. Vanderbilt is second. Most have around $300k per student and LMU has just, get this, $51,000 per student.
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Yup. I found the same thing. I also had a spreadsheet!
Be aware that Lehigh has a number of extra charges that are not obvious at first glance. I suspect Lehigh’s all-in cost would be closer to Richmond and Wake.
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Catholic schools seem to have much lower endowments per student but also seem to do just fine with educating their students within the budget. Maybe the buildings are owned by the order, or students get scholarships through their high schools or Knights of Columbus sponsors.
The Jesuit schools (including LMU) also don’t pay million dollar salaries to their presidents and high level administrators because they use Jesuits. They do get paid, but not millions. A few have competitive basketball programs but not many have the big D1 football teams (BC does); basketball teams are much cheaper
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@homerdog I did not recognize LMU as a Jesuit institution. I’m a big fan of Jesuit education, and I’m not Catholic. I did go to Georgetown for one of my graduate degrees, and really developed an appreciation for Jesuit education while there “on the hilltop.”
Now I see those benefits again with my son enrolled in a Jesuit school.
If you’d like to see a copy of my spreadsheet with the costs I mentioned, please DM me. I really got into the weeds because we were evaluating Lehigh vs St. Joe’s and a few others.
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I would not be worked up - I have lived in California my entire life and know many LMU graduates - my friends and my kid’s friends - most of them likely had no idea of the endowment (or lack thereof) and all were happy with their education! I have been off College Confidential for a few months and have enjoyed catching up with your journey!
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Homerdog - Congrats to your daughter (and you)! I pick up on this thread every now and then to see the progress. Very exciting and such great options (with more to come I’m sure). Although we don’t have a student at Richmond, we do have a S2 '23 and Richmond came down to one of his top choices (and SMU was up there, too). Really think highly of both Richmond and SMU. We also have a S1 '17 who graduated from Lehigh and think I’d like to comment on some of the previous statements about Lehigh and with full disclosure (as you will be able to tell) that I am a huge fan of that school also. I would not necessarily be put off by the local neighborhood comments nor party reputation. Our son had no issues nor did any of his friends (male or female) with the area. As to partying, our son wasn’t a partier nor into Greek life and yet found his group pretty easily and enjoyed his time there. I always cringe when people “categorize” a school so strongly one way or another - everyone’s daughter/son goes off to school and my feeling is if someone is going to party they are going to find the party group(s) and if one is not inclined to they are going to find like-minded individuals (and obviously there will be students in the middle who find their groups). It sounds like your daughter has been brought up well, is disciplined and determined so I think she will thrive where-ever she goes! Congrats again and look foward to more updates!!!
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You can take business classes at Wake w/o being in the business school
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Oh really? I must have missed that. I’ll check it out.
Your point that any particular school should not be painted with a broad brush is reasonable, but misses the point.
The smaller the school, the more important it is for one to be aware of the dominant personality or culture of any particular school in order to help assess whether or not that particular school be considered.
Even though college is just four years of one’s life, it occurs during four formative years. Furthermore, because of the high cost of higher education, it should be four years spent in a location & culture which are attractive to the student.
Like it or not, Lehigh has a well earned reputation. Sure one can work around it–but why when there are so many other options ?
Lehigh has over 7,000 students. It’s not a small school by any definition.
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