Anyone got experience with being waitlisted as an alternate for full ride merit scholarships? Particularly ones given out by a state flagship universities where they have a set number of spots per year. Just wondering when people heard (was it after May 1?) and if they have any idea how many/what percentage of people turned it down (i.e. how many were ahead of them on the waitlist compared to how many total scholarships were available). I know this varies hugely by scholarship (and likely by year), but just trying to figure out how long it will be before we know one way or the other.
what I can tell you from my experience at the CC level is that people who win awards have a deadline to either accept or reject the award. Those who don’t accept(assuming they go to another school), the next people down the line will be contacted. And the process repeats until at least at my school the spots are filled or no one is left.
My youngest last year originally was awarded a full tuition scholarship from an OOS state flagship. In his letter, they noted he was an alternate for the highest scholarship they offer (which is just under full ride by a couple thousand $.)
A few days after May 1, they emailed and called him to offer him the higher scholarship. I have no idea how many were alternates, but given the timeframe I assume he was one of a handful or fewer (I assume that the university contacted the students to make sure they really didn’t want the scholarship and then moved to their additional candidates.) They published their list of folks receiving the scholarship shortly thereafter so I don’t think they keep going down the line.
Not every school offers an upgrade- my oldest is at a different OOS school on a full ride and they always offer more full ride scholarships than they expect to attend. Some years they have more than their target number and some years they have less. They don’t offer additional folks the scholarship if they get fewer in a year than they expect.
I’m don’t think it’s going to be possible to predict how many from this year will turn it down- sure the university has trends that they can use to predict but I’d bet you couldn’t find that data- I doubt the university offers it for general review. Whether a student turns it down is going to depend on where else they got in this year, their parental preferences and their own unique family financial situation.
Good luck! It’s hard to wait.