Hi, I have recently been admitted to UNC from OOS with relatively high stats but I was not contacted for Excel@Carolina or any merit based scholarships. I have a 2250 Sat with a 1570 CR+M score. I have a 4.0 UW GPA with 11 AP’s and top 1% of my class. I was very surprised that I was not offered anything from UNC beyond admission.
How common is this?
I don’t want to sound cocky but I believed I was a strong candidate for both the Honors college and at least some merit based financial aid.
It’s very very common. Many (if not most) kids from OOS exceed the criteria needed for honors, and merit scholarships are limited for OOS- there are more for IS kids. My observation is that most honors spots ( certainly not all) are saved for IS kids. Additionally, for OOS kids to get these spots there has to be a huge " wow" factor, like writing a book or having your own line of clothing etc. Most OOS kids have these outrageous stats and they can’t put them all in honors. I think 25% of students are in honors. If they gave honors spots to every OOS kid who exceeds the criteria, they would take up most of the spots, leaving fewer spots for the in-state kids.
Getting into Carolina as an OOS student is hard enough. Getting into honors or getting merit is even harder.
You are not alone, same thing happened to my daughter.
The reality is that there are VERY few merit scholarships at UNC even for IS. UNC uses most of its resources to meet the full need of IS students ( It used to also meet the full need for OOS. I don’t know about now.). In that way, they can be generous with need based aid. The other reality is that it is a state school. With the large amount of high stats OOS students applying there is no need to offer merit scholarships to attract OOS students. This is typical of the top schools.
From what I remember, some of the bigger scholarships such as the Robertson Scholars seem to go to OOS students at least in my daughter’s year. When I was at scholarship day with my daughter, there were a lot of OOS students.
One of my kids was offered scholarships as an OOS student. I recall something odd like a menu of possibilities and the student is asked to choose 2 out of the list-or some such.
even in state students who fail to get the morehead are routinely accepted to HYPS schools, (I know one this year like that). My impression is that UNC takes a lot of morehead semifinalists that don’t make it to finalist and offer them the merit scholarships. (since a few years ago and this year I know of morehead semifinalists that were offered merit)
honors is really overblown at UNC since there is no guaranteed registration in non-honors classes. (this is different than honors at NC state, where honors college get pre-enrollment for all classes.) Even in state kids with amazing stats don’t get merit very often since they also spread scholarships around by county in NC (as they do with morehead).
@nickkoz you are not alone. In NC they spread stuff around based on county population so kids in the high achieving counties get screwed for things like Morehead for sure. I’m not sure if they also try to spread stuff around by States too? I know my kid has similar/better stats that someone offered merit previously, but there is luck of the draw variation in who the unknown competition is from your area.
You are not alone. My D is in state and got nothing. She had high stats too. There were 5 in her high school accepted into UNC-CH early decision and only 1 person received an invite to honors and a merit scholarship. She is #1 in class rank. Others in top 10 got 0.
If you are OOS, you were lucky just to be accepted. I would not expect merit.
UNC focuses its FA budget on need-based FA, since they guarantee to meet full need for both IS and OOS students. UVA is the only other public school in the country to do so.
Yes, a few years back my D was an in state Morehead Semi-finalist, Salutatorian of her 500+ class. She had a 2250 SAT, 35 ACT and got nothing. She has had an outstanding four years at U Chicago.
@Highbury Did your daughter get merit aid from Chicago, and if so how much? UNC was my son’s first dream school, but we scratched it off the list due to no merit aid.
My son has a 35 ACT and is going to take it a couple more times, once for the state and once just because he wants to, in an effort to get a 36. I figure he will at least get a 36 superscore. His gpa is something like 3.85/4.2.
Right now we’re pretty much fixated on finding a full-tuition offer because of all the NM scholarships out there. I’m kind of surprised Chicago offers much merit aid at all, given its standing.
OP, you are not alone. My D with very high stats was admitted from OOS last year but no scholarship. Can’t remember about honors.
@EarlVanDorn, this is OT but why take the ACT after a 35? Just my .02, but if I were an Admissions Officer, I would look askance at that. I do not believe a 36 will garner merit that a 35 would not.
@EarlVanDorn No, my daughter didn’t receive much Merit aid from U Chicago - only the National Merit Finalist award. However, the need based aid has been outstanding - despite us making a pretty decent income. We are paying less for her to attend than we would have been asked to at UNC.