<p>I'm a college senior this year and receipt of my school's "big" merit scholarship. I've always been curious about how my school selects scholarship recipients beyond the objective criteria. As a current student, is it "okay" to ask this? How about to ask about me specifically?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Is it OK to ask the people who awarded it? I wouldn’t, and I doubt that they’d tell you anything beyond generalities. Congratulations!</p>
<p>You could certainly ask the admissions office about the details of the selection process.</p>
<p>I’d wait until I was out, then yes. It’s ok. They may or may not tell you, they may or may not remember specifics- but there’s no harm in asking.</p>
<p>Make friends with a student worker in the Admissions office…maybe you get get some info out of them.</p>
<p>If the question you are trying is ask really is “Why me specifically and not the girl down the hallway?”, you may not get an answer nor would it be very polite. If you are curious as to what the criteria for selection was and then figure out yourself what gave you the edge, that would be legitimate. As MidwestMom2Kids says you could ask about the details of the selection process and criteria and may get an answer like “the minimum GAP is 3.8 and beyond that we look for people have contributed to improving the community around the campus …” That might give you the hint you are looking for.</p>
<p>Don’t expect an answer such as “We were considering you and John …, and you won out as John’s recommendations were not so strong…”</p>
<p>Why is it important you know, ego stroke?</p>
<p>You can ask, but more than likely after all of these years, they won’t remember.</p>
<p>Of course, if you’re one of the few merit aid recipients who took the time to send a thank-you after getting your award, they may remember you.</p>
<p>You also could stop by the scholarship office and express appreciation for the scholarship, and you could let them know about your accomplishments in college. While there, you could ask them how you got selected for such an honor.</p>
<p>There is no harm in asking, and there could be real value in the response.</p>
<p>Not in ego stroke.</p>
<p>But…if there was something that made you stand out (other than objective data like GPA and test scores) it could help you a lot in determining how to present yourself for jobs and/or grad school. You had a quality or qualities that were appealing to the scholarship selection committee that either made you fulfill their criteria and/or made them realize you’d be a substantial contributor to the college community. There is a lot of value in finding out what those qualities were, what made them appearling to the scholarship selection committee.</p>
<p>It’s definitely worth asking, and I don’t see any reason to wait until you’re out of school.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the wait if you want to ask a question. It’s not like their going to take it back for your impertinence. 
On the other hand, if it’s for ego stroke, you probably already know why and just need the affirmation of your brilliance one last time before you head into the real world? Just a guess.</p>
<p>Considering that on another thread, you said you’re attending a safety – one that appears to be 2nd or 3rd tier – and your stats were the following, it should be very obvious why you got such excellent merit aid. I honestly don’t know why you feel the need to ask how you got the scholarship.</p>
<p>"4.0 UW GPA, 12 APs, top 2%, 33 ACT, strong and consistent EC’s [nothing national, though], strong–I’m assuming-- recs, etc), but I choose to apply solely to schools where I would have a strong chance at solid merit aid "</p>
<p>Am I understanding this correctly?</p>
<p>you were awarded a big scholarship as an incoming freshman to your college.</p>
<p>now you’re a senior in college and you want to know why they chose YOU?</p>
<p>They aren’t going to remember or even try to find out.</p>
<p>But, what were your stats and ECs? What college is this? Maybe we can tell you why you got it.</p>
<p>Back in the last century, my recognizable-on-CC-selective-womens-college admitted a more geographically and economically diverse group of students one year as an admissions experiment. Many of us went through four years there wondering if we were an “admissions mistake” because we could see that we weren’t quite like the classes before, or after us. We knew that part of the difference was that our class had tied up so much financial aid just before an economic downturn, that the college couldn’t afford another class quite like ours. But still, we wondered about our grades, our test scores, our extra-curriculars.</p>
<p>Jump forward to 15 years after graduation, and I was doing regional admissions work. I read all of the literature on who was and who wasn’t a good candidate for the college. There in black and white, I saw the suggested HS courses, GPA, test scores, ECs, etc. Mine were plenty good enough. In some areas, they were way better. I was no “admissions mistake”. I should have believed it when they told me in that admissions letter almost 20 years earlier!</p>
<p>Believe it. You are not a scholarship blip. The committee knew what it was doing. You met or exceeded their standards. Trust their judgment on this one. Go ahead and ask if you’d like some detail (they may want you on the committee someday), but if they can’t give you any details, stop worrying. You were good enough. You are good enough.</p>
<p>I have not read the OP’s posts on other threads, so, if there is some ego serving here…it is unfortunate. Any maybe that’s why there are some apparently harsh posts on this thread.</p>
<p>"now you’re a senior in college and you want to know why they chose YOU?</p>
<p>They aren’t going to remember or even try to find out.</p>
<p>But, what were your stats and ECs? What college is this? Maybe we can tell you why you got it. "</p>
<p>If the scholarship was one of only a few given out and there were interviews and fairly significant competition and if there are still members of that scholarship committee around, they certainly will remember why that student was chosen. </p>
<p>As knowledgeable as the parents are on this site, I don’t think they’ll know more about why the student was chosen than the actual selection committee!</p>
<p>If the student is one of 50+ chosen for this “big” scholarship, it might be more difficult to get the details.</p>
<p>Besides the aforementioned ego stroke, of what possible value would this information be? You have hopefully grown and matured as a person over the last four years, so even in the unlikely event that they remember you, it is safe to assume that many of your “personal intangibles” have undergone small to substantial changes. I agree with Northstarmom, drop by admissions, tell them what a great time you’ve had at college and thank them for the free ride. You’re a little young to be looking back and analyzing past glories.</p>
<p>Another question might be:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Personally: I think you have. :)</p>
<p>I can see why you’re curious. My son as admitted to all eight schools to which he applied. None were “reaches”, however. I’d love to talk to the addmissions officers and find out if they cared about *anything *on his application besides test scores and GPA. Did anyone bat an eye about his being an Eagle Scout? Could he have skipped every single EC and just played video games at home and be at the same school?</p>
<p>I know some kids in Son’s class who hated Debate by their junior year but stuck it out for the purpose of college admissions. I can see where those kids would love to know if they could have gotten into their school of choice if they hadn’t slogged it out that last year, or if they could have had more fun with the same end result.</p>
<p>Info like that doesn’t change a thing…it’s just something about which folks wonder…</p>
<p>missypie, I wonder the same. D was welcomed with open arms at one school (max. merit scholarship to boot), and rejected by a very similar school. I’d love to know why, but I’ve reconciled myself to the fact that I never will.</p>
<p>S got a merit aid scholarship to his LAC. It was easy to find out additional info beside the obvious (high SAT scores, rigorous curricula, extraordinary community service in terms of impact) how he got picked. When I dropped S off, we ran into someone who had interviewed S for his scholarship. S had been so impressed by that person (a recent graduate) that S had called me right after the interview to tell me about his interesting conversation with the person.</p>
<p>So… I immediately knew who the person was, and S, the person and I got into a long conversation about the college, its opportunities and other things – including how S got picked and what some other nominees had done during interviews that caused them not to get picked.</p>
<p>I’ve been on scholarship committees for corporate-funded scholarships. if someone had asked how they got picked, I would have told them. Hopefully, they’d ask such questions after sending a thank-you note or otherwise expressing appreciation for the opportunity. In most cases, however, it’s very obvious why anyone got picked. It should be very obvious to the receiver, too.</p>
<p>In the OP’s case, his stats were sky high at a mediocre college. No surprise that the college gave him major merit aid.</p>
<p>Nope, not an ego stroke, nor do I really care about my case specifically. The scholarship committee seems to pick applicants that go into to do incredibly impressive things, even if they don’t look “perfect” on paper. I’ve always wonder what exactly they look for in applicants that lets them see the potential they find.</p>