My D was just accepted into Engineering at U of A today. It’s her first acceptance, so she’s very excited.
Not sure when she applied, but I think its been about 2-3 weeks. She was offered the $35K Arizona Excellence Scholarship, which roughly covers the OOS tuition and fees (we’re in CA) and is renewable for 4 years. I think she’ll get an additional $5K National Scholars Award when she’s named (hopefully) a NMF in Feb. I’m assuming that’s a one time award.
Its extremely generous, and U of A just moved up on her list!
Non-Arizona National Scholars: the value of the original Arizona Excellence Tuition Award + $5,000 National Scholar Award +one-time $1,500 Study Abroad Award for UA Study Abroad program. See “Arizona Excellence Tuition Award” for UA merit review and offer details.
Thanks for the additional info @rgosula, it’s icing on the already nice cake. She has not applied for honors college yet, but it looks like a great program. I’ll talk to her about it tonight.
@kcheves, you should apply for honors for someone with stats like your D to be properly challenged at U of A, if there is a realistic chance of attending. I am sure she will have other options.
National Merit Question. Does anyone know If the $5K/year National Scholars award considered an ‘official’ NMSC scholarship, or are NMF’s also eligible to accept one of the 7500 $2500 scholarships that NMSC will award to select finalists? Thanks.
Good question. At USC where my son had a $1000/year scholarship due to the NMSC, He ended up choosing or being forced to choose (I cannot remember) the $2500 over that. If he chose it, it was because $2500 today could be worth more that $4000 over 4 years. But you really should ask U of A about that, since it could make a bigger difference in your case.
Although he had a much bigger scholarship, also related to NM thathe did keep. So really, it depends on the school, and the scholarship.
Thanks @rgosula. It was USC I was thinking of when I asked that question. My daughter is also applying to Viterbi, where she would be eligible for the Presidential scholarship. In a thread in the USC section of this forum, some USC parents said that you had to decline the $2500 from NMSC to get the $1K/year from USC. But there seems to be some confusion about this. Regardless, its a nice problem to have
USC has been great. He is already working part time and starting on his Masters in his senior year. Because he had lots of AP’s. Will need 2 more classes after graduation, which he will take while working full time to get his Masters. He is able to use the scholarship for the Masters classes he takes within the 8 semester duration of the scholarship (presidential 1/2 tuition)
For sure cannot keep both the $1k/year and the $2500. Just cant remember if you get to choose or if they choose for you. I think my son did the “do the least possible”, which was do nothing and report receiving the $2500, in the hope that he might keep the $1k/year. But they took it away.
I think the decision for the $2500 was based on “bird in hand” / discounted time value of money, and the ability to put “National Merit $2500 Scholar” on his resume at the time.
The award definitely isn’t automatic. I was just admitted for Fall 2018 from OOS. I have a 32 ACT and a ~3.75 UW GPA and only received the $8,000 per year scholarship. I’m kind of disappointed since I was counting on good aid for UofA.
That’s how it’s always been calculated on other applications that did calculate it. Even if it was calculated in the tier below that, though, there’s no way I would have only gotten $8000 based on the chart because of my ACT score.
I just wanted to update: After I was admitted to UofA they recalculated my aid. Apparently even though my ACT scores were marked received the aid office hadn’t processed them yet and I eventually received the correct $30k/year scholarship. So please disregard my above comments.
