<p>Well, of the 3 Zollman recipients who posted last year, none went to Smith. Smith gives 10 awards and hopes 5 will come. The whole point of merit scholarships is to recruit highly qualified students who have many excellent options. Smith is competing with Ivies and other very highly-ranked schools for the early write pool, and many of the people who last year at this time were picking what house they wanted to be in at Smith wound up at other schools – including my D, who was positive that Smith was the only school for her. It turns out that when you have a list of college acceptances in hand, you think very differently than you do when everything is theoretical. Also some of the most prestigious schhols have incredibly generous need-based aid, so even with merit aid from Smith, some people will be financially better off elsewhere. In any event, Smith is a fabulous school, and I suspect most or all of you will have some very tough choices to make this spring. Too bad you can only go to one school!</p>
<p>Ah, I remember getting my early write…I can’t believe it was already two years ago! The handwritten note made my day. It referenced my common app essay, which was a nice touch. Congratulations, everybody!</p>
<p>Does anyone know what % of RD admits are notified with an early write?</p>
<p>According to the Smith web site they award about 50 STRIDE scholarships per year. If you look at the common data set for Smith for the past 3 years, they’ve had about 120 students with Smith non-need-based scholarships attend each year. I’d guess that’s about 25 STRIDEs and about 5 Zollmans per class. So that would be a 50% attendance rate for STRIDEs, assuming the 50 is an up-to-date number.</p>
<p>My daughter knows a number of other students at Smith with STRIDEs, and a couple who got early writes who didn’t get a STRIDE. Can’t really tell the breakdown based on that, though, since the latter case is much less likely to come up in conversation. In her case, she didn’t qualify for financial aid but received similar merit aid offers from a few other schools. She preferred Smith over those others (although she still liked the others a lot), but it would have been hard to turn down one of the other offers if she hadn’t had one from Smith. She’s been having a fantastic time at Smith.</p>
<p>Hmm guess it’s still just a waiting game, then. From what I’ve heard, FA comes out around the same time as RD letters? Can someone confirm this? </p>
<p>Oh, and also, would it be appropriate for me to contact my regional admissions counselor and verify if my mid-year grades made it onto their file? There was a problem with transcripts at my school that I just discovered that erased some of my classes.</p>
<p>The FA letters come a few days after the email notifying you of acceptance. My d actually got hers the next day, although we live in nearby CT so that may be an exception to the rule. Not sure about the other part of your query.</p>
<p>CIEE stated the correct STRIDE statistics. About 200 plus STRIDEs are offered and around 50 accept. The article is from a few years ago, but the yield remains between 20 and 25 percent.</p>
<p>"In an effort to entice more high-achieving students to attend Smith, the administration has increased the monetary value of the STRIDE undergraduate research program scholarship from $5,000 per year to $15,000. The award hike went into effect this year, but only for entering STRIDE students.</p>
<p>“The STRIDE program is an admission incentive program,” said Dean of Enrollment Audrey Smith. The program is offered to a small percentage of incoming first-years, and pairs students with faculty members working on a variety of research projects. STRIDE is designed to increase the yield of high-achieving students, or the percentage of these students accepted to Smith that choose to enroll, Smith said.</p>
<p>Peter de Villiers, the faculty coordinator of the STRIDE program, says the research scholarships have doubled the acceptance rate for high-performing students since the program was instituted.</p>
<p>“It is an important part of our admissions strategies for attracting the academically strongest or best prepared students to come to the college,” de Villiers said. “Ten to 12 percent of those top-rated students in the applicant pool used to say yes to Smith before the STRIDE program was implemented, and now 20 to 25 percent of that group say yes to the offer from Smith.”</p>
<p>The yield for this group used to consistently exceed 25 percent and has declined in the past few years, according to Smith. The yield for all admitted-students normally ranges from 36 to 40 percent.</p>
<p>“We were concerned with the range of students we were losing,” Smith said, explaining why the STRIDE award amount was increased. The college was losing academically promising students to Ivy League schools, state universities and other liberal arts colleges such as Mount Holyoke.</p>
<p>Despite the award increase, STRIDE enrollment levels remained constant this year. The college was expecting to enroll 60 STRIDE students, but only received 51, one fewer than last year. </p>
<p>“With the collapse of the U.S. economy, we don’t know whether the increased grant awards prevented a big decline in acceptances,” de Villiers said.</p>
<p>The STRIDE award forms a part of students’ federally determined financial aid. For admitted STRIDE students receiving financial aid, the award first replaces the loan part of the aid package. Merit awards cannot be added on top of student’s federally determined need, meaning that the increase in the STRIDE award will not affect the total amount of aid packages for students receiving more than $15,000 in financial aid."</p>
<p>Those numbers don’t match the common data set numbers, but maybe if a student gets need-based FA beyond the amount the STRIDE scholarship, they have to count it all as need-based for common data set purposes. In any case, more is better.</p>
<p>The other great thing about the STRIDE is the associated research job for the first two years. Although you can do research the first two years without a STRIDE, it’s nice to have it guaranteed before you get to school.</p>
<p>Not letting STRIDE replace work-study and the student’s summer earnings really reduces its value for kids whose other options are Ivies or full ride merit at state schools. If I run NPCs for Smith and for an Ivy, Smith costs ~20k a year more because of differences in defining need. Reducing that to $15k doesn’t really make it much less ugly.</p>
<p>At least Smith offers merit scholarships. For full or near full pay kids, it’s a nice relief, especially if their state schools can’t offer merit aid. Seriously, the UC/CSU system is pretty much ALL need based, except for Regents/Chancellors (at a minimum will get you around 2.5k/year).</p>
<p>Got my Zollman Scholar offer in the mail today! Ahhhh!</p>
<p>That’s awesome, congrats wildeparty10! Are you accepting the offer?</p>
<p>Guitar500, I am visiting Smith next week to decide if I want to go! The Zollman makes Smith higher on my college list now!</p>
<p>agh I am not at home, but I really want to check! has anyone else gotten one? do you think some might still be arriving early next week?</p>
<p>My daughter received her Zollman notification today, and is extremely excited! It now apparently also includes the research funding portion of STRIDE, which is a nice addition. The scholarship makes it possible for her to seriously consider Smith; it would have been out of range for her financially otherwise. I expect her to be at the Open Campus gathering in April, and then we’ll see what she decides. What a terrific opportunity – thanks Smith!!</p>
<p>Congrats everyone who’s received a Zollman!</p>
<p>I haven’t received anything related to FA/an official acceptance from Smith yet. Should I be worried?</p>
<p>Ahh! Congrats guys 
Perhaps the STRIDES are coming out soon as well?
Just found out I was waitlisted at UChicago and accepted at UCSD…but Smith is still my number 1, so I guess we’ll just have to wait.</p>
<p>I got my stride notification today!
I’m pretty sure the big packet (with fin aid, etc) comes in a few weeks. I am so excited to visit in April.
I also got a little handwritten note from wellesley–is anyone else going to be deciding between them? they don’t have merit aid, but i’ve heard their need based aid is more generous.</p>
<p>Traditionally, STRIDE and Zollman are both released before the ED offers. ED offers will theoretically come out next Friday. But if they send STRIDE via regular mail, who knows when they’ll arrive! Best of luck, everyone, and congrats to those who received Zollman offers. </p>
<p>@lynnekeshet – My daughter didn’t apply to Wellesley, largely because they don’t have merit aid. But it’s a great school. Smith and Wellesley each have advantages and disadvantages; I’d strongly recommend visiting both to see for yourself if at all possible.</p>
<p>I got the Zollman offer today!! I’m so happy right now 
It just feels good to be wanted haha…</p>