OP may have already seen this page–or others like it. If not, I thought it might be of interest in trying to figure out what qualifications are needed to get one of the more competitive merit scholarships. Scroll past the scholars from North Carolina; it’s slightly easier in-state. Note grades and scores aren’t listed.
I am in Virginia, so looked at the Virginia ( 3 guys) and DC one (1 guy) in particular. All from expensive private schools(Norfolk Academy, St. Christopher’s, 2 from St. Albans). Privates and competitive magnets usually seem overrepresented in these kinds of lists. Not much of a surprise.
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They are very incomplete. For example, all California public universities are need-blind for admission, but only a few are listed in those lists.
Of course, the “meet need” part means less than it seems, since each college may have a different definition of “need”. For example, USC claims to “meet need”, while UCLA does not. But for a California resident from a very low income family, UCLA has a lower net price than USC, according to their net price calculators.
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Yes! All of this.
@Dollhouse if you haven’t already done so, I agree that a spreadsheet is essential to manage the deadlines and other criteria for comparison as acceptances come in. My D was also chasing merit to preserve her education savings for med school; the majority of her apps had early deadlines and additional essays to be considered for merit. Those deadlines were Oct 15, Nov 1, Dec 1… depending on the college. It was a lot of work on top of maintaining good first semester grades.
Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but has your D looked at Miami Ohio? It’s one of the public ivies, a beautiful campus. Your D should get merit and hopefully the honors college. I’m less sure about the diversity your D is looking for but it may be worth a look.
Good luck! I look forward to following your D’s journey. I have no doubt she will have many options.
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Thank you! We will look into Miami Ohio. Yes, she has many spreadsheets going. This almost requires project management software!
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Deleted….wrong thread.
Where did your daughter end up applying?
If it can help anyone in the future, I’ll write up where DD applied and all the results. I appreciated your input in this post, and it forced me to add a few safeties.
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@Dollhouse please please do! I think these sorts of threads can help future high school students…and their parents.
And please…if you don’t mind sharing….where will she be heading!
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Definitely post if you are comfortable. Threads like that where actual results are posted are super helpful to the ones who follow.
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I’ll have her put them all on one page and definitely post here for others in the future.
For now…the big question is…take the Morehead Cain at UNC or go to Harvard?
Net price at each option, and how much does it matter?
Full pay at Harvard, free ride + at MC/UNC
I want to take the financing out of the equation. It must be the best place for her. Pre-med/neuroscience/public health.
Medical school (MD or DO) or public health (MPH) will mean expensive professional school afterward. Is there money to pay for professional school if you pay full price at Harvard?
Yes, we would pay for professional school as well. The question is fit.
I don’t know if this holds true anymore, but the conventional wisdom 20 years ago was that Harvard was an easier path to med school for a couple of factors, including the fact that med schools wanted to enroll Harvard grads (prestige factor), and there was grade inflation (compared to peer schools, with the exception of Brown). Could have been total lies/urban legends…but the numbers thrown around back then were that a Harvard student could get into an American med school with under a 3.0, whereas Cornell students were having trouble once they hit the 3.6 mark. I didn’t go to either of those schools…take all of this with a grain of salt!
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Both have neuroscience as a major; has she checked the major and general education requirements and options at each school to see which may fit her academic interests better?
In terms of diversity, Harvard has more minorities (50% versus 39%) and international students (12% versus 4%) among undergraduates. But UNC has less upward SES skew (21% Pell grant versus 17% at Harvard). Both have Muslim student organizations; she may want to find out how active they are and what they do in particular.
What other “fit” factors are there?
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Congrats to her on such great options! She needs to go see both if she hasn’t, or maybe again? Look very carefully into fit, and the whole student body matters not just the fit with the M-C kids. Harvard and UNC are culturally very different schools, in addition to the significant size difference. Pick based on fit, 100%, and dont worry about the naysayers—-whatever is chosen, there will always be folks who disagree.
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Congrats to your daughter!
I’ll share my somewhat biased opinion (based on being an alum of UNC and having a husband who did his postdoc work at Harvard and supervised undergrad research students): take the M-C at UNC! She will get so much personalized attention and research opportunities as a M-C scholar. Heck, even students who are not on the M-C have fantastic research opportunities at UNC (I was awarded full funding to do a self-designed research project in the UK one summer that was life-changing!) I was in the honors program alongside all the M-C kids and it set them up for wonderful postgrad opportunities. We love Harvard in our house, but the M-C will create opportunities to stand out for postgrad applications anywhere.
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I’m an unabashed fan of former New York Times reporter and author of “Where You Go Is Not Who You Will Be”, Frank Bruni who was a Morehead Cain scholar at UNC, class of '86. He turned down Yale to go to UNC at a time when few top students from his area would have gone to UNC, let alone turn down HYP. (I’m around Bruni’s age and grew up in a neighboring town that was highly focused on college admissions, and turning down Yale was unheard of unless it was to go to Harvard or Princeton.)
Bruni will be delivering the UNC commencement address this spring. He talks about his M-C experience in this announcement: https://www.moreheadcain-network.org/news/662232
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