Hi everyone
If I apply to schools which offer merit scholarships, will my chances be greater to get one if I apply Early Action instead of Regular Decision?
Especially if my ACT scores are higher than the school’s average?
I know this is quite a broad question, but I hope there’s some kind of a widely known, but nowhere officially stated “rule of thumb” regarding merit scholarships.
No real answer. This would totally be dependent on the policy of the school.
@thumper1 What if there’s nothing stated on the school’s website? How would I know if it’s on a “first come, first served” basis?
University of Miami as an example:
"Students are automatically considered for the President’s Scholarships when they apply for admission to the University. An additional application is required for some of the Premier Scholarships.
To be considered for a University of Miami academic scholarship, students must complete and submit the Undergraduate Application for Admission using the Common Application.
Scholarship Consideration deadlines:
November 1 (Early Decision/Early Action)
January 1 (Regular Decision)"
Would my chances be greater if I applied Early Action because there weren’t as many applicants yet? Or wouldn’t it even matter because Early Action Applicants usually have higher stats and are more competitive than regular decision applicants?
Once more…there is no way to answer your question. In the example you give…University of Miami would be making that decision based on their policies for awarding merit aid. No way for us to even guess.
@thumper1 Thanks for your answer.
I was hoping that there was some kind of way to guess, because my college list needs some fundamental revision.
Of course there’s a way to guess.
But you are likely to be wrong, so how does that help you?
If you are trying to revise your list based on where you think you’re going to get the most money, you need to make sure you also have some rock solid financial safeties where you are going to be admitted, and where based on the PUBLISHED stats you are guaranteed merit aid (i.e. everyone with your GPA and scores gets X dollars).
Otherwise, you are throwing darts at a board with a blindfold on.
OP - one option is to do a search on collegedata.com for each school, then click on the school name to bring up tons of useful data. Look under the admissions tab. Search there and if school has EA it will list how many students apply EA and percentage accepted, and it will list how many students apply RD and percentage accepted. Each school is different, so for some there is a big advantage to apply EA, for some a slight advantage, and for some no advantage at all. Also interesting to look at the gender differences in acceptance rates both EA and RD.
As an example (and this is the most extreme I have seen), one college I saw on there awhile back said its overall admission rate for RD was 40%, but EA was 94%. The choice would be obvious in this example, but other schools vary.
@4kids2graduate thanks for your advice! I’ll definitely do that.
If you are not going to improve your test score or GPA, you should try EA. It may give you a small advantage, if any. The only draw back is you will have less time to work on the essay.