Hey guys, I am a 2020 graduate from Charlotte, North Carolina. I will list my stats out below but I want to give you a little background first. I come from an extremely diverse, lower income school depsite being in the middle class myself. My school is public but very academically challenging as the top 50 in my class all have GPA’s above a 4.0. Elon is one of the only private schools I am aplying to so I will likely need merit or Need based aid. I appreciate any feed back you guys can give me.
Weighted GPA- 4.12
Unweighted GPA- 3.66
Class Rank- Unsure but in top 10%
SAT- 1210
Extra curriculars- Model United Nations President, National Technical Honors Society Vice President, National Honors Society Fundrasing Committee, Baseball 2 year varsity, Yearbook Section Editor
Employment- Harris Teeter Homeshop, City of Charlotte Summer Internship
My son got a decent merit scholarship from Elon with a 3.5 UW, 3.9 W GPA and 29 ACT. He applied EA. So things look good for you for merit! He is out of state though, so that might matter…you are probably competing in a larger pool of in state students.
His scholarship to Elon was lower than all of his other merit offers, BUT…Elon’s tuition was also significantly lower than the others so I think it all worked out the same. ONce accepted, you can apply to a Fellows program (its like Honors), and I believe that Fellows get an additional $6000 merit scholarship.
PS He is attending and loves it, it was a great fit for him and we are all very happy with the choice.
Update: I was accepted but with no merit money :(. It was a bummer but I am applying to the Leadership fellows and Elon fellowship program, which both offer scholarships so if anybody has information on those please feel free to post.
The problem is the merit scholarships are kind of low compared to other schools. $6K won’t even bring the cost below $40K which is alot more than some of the schools we are looking at. My son is applying RD so not even sure he would be eligible for the Scholars or Fellows
I really wish they would give the Merit $ earlier. My son is excited about Elon but the $4500 is low merit, and he is exhausted by the process of applications, now Honors/Fellows applications and potentially interviews, just to get merit that other schools would give with the initial offer.
$4500 only basically protects for the annual tuition increase. So now we won’t even know until March whether the Elon offer is worthwhile with an expected amount of merit (we expected the $6K minimum but $10-12K puts it in line with other schools so he applied to Fellows/Honors).
They need to make it easier for these kids to want to accept the offer!
Basically if you dont get Fellows it makes it our of reach for many when you can get much more from some of the bigger schools (Uof SC, Tenn and others similar.) For my son who doesnt qualify for Fellows it looks like he will be going to one of the other schools.
Did everyone receive the email 2 days ago saying that you are an “excellent candidate” for the Fellow program? My D received no merit so if she was accepted into Fellows it would help make Elon more in line with her other choices. Just not sure if she was at all targeted for this or if everyone received it.
@MAmom111 I’m wondering that too. Exact same situation. My S hasn’t decided whether to apply yet. I’m wondering if it’s possible that merit will come out later. ?
Really wish they were more transparent about merit and Fellows. It feels like a game (and reading back a couple years, seems it has been an issue for awhile). Elon was probably my son’s 1st or 2nd choice but he needs more merit than $4500. He applied to Fellows, but I think the weekend interviewing is stressful for the kids and feels too competitive. This is a small university and if they don’t get Fellows after investing the time interviewing, I suspect that changes the students’ feelings about the school. I know my son feels pressured by the interviewing for Fellows (prefers to attend Accepted Students weekend without the pressure) and wishes they had given him enough merit to make a decision.
I’m also reading too much online about party and Greek culture at Elon. Sigh…
PS We did not get the email, but he had already submitted Fellows application.
In your emails inviting to apply to Fellows, did it suggest a specific fellows program (Like Honors, College, Business, etc)? Just curious.
In my reading past year threads, I don’t remember seeing anyone report additional merit (beyond what was given at admission) unless they were accepted into a Fellows program. Of course, doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened!
@onemoremom12 No…it just said you can pick this and that (ie some combo of Fellows and Honors programs).
But for a liberal arts school, it seems confining to make them choose at age 17/18 which major for Fellows and risk losing the $ if they want to switch majors.
@sunnyschool I agree. It’s rather confusing to even understand what you are applying for. My S took a look at the brochure that came in the mail, it was slightly easier to follow than the website. At first he thought it looked interesting but then he worried about being locked into something too early. One of the attractive aspects of Elon is that they seemed to say one didn’t need to know a major for sure on day #1.
Also, the deadline 1/15/20 is the same as for some RD applications. I wish there were a little more time to think about it and figure it out.
@sunnyschool Thanks. The two non-major Fellows programs (Honors and Leadership) would be the way to go for kids not wanting to big a field of study. I guess you don’t need to know exact major, but do need to choose a “school” (business, communications, etc). It’s hard for kids to get motivated to write ANOTHER essay when the payoff isn’t clear. I wish everyone great luck in deciding what to do!