Does the recomender section have the student put an email and it sends the recommender a form to complete or have them upload a letter? Or does the recommender section let the student upload a recommendation letter? We can’t remember from last year. We looked but it won’t let her see that section until she submits an essay.
Daughter recently hit up her profs for a letter of recommendation to submit for a department scholarship and is hesitant to ask anyone to complete another recommendation (out of respect for their time) if it won’t let her upload one she has already. She’s not sure she wants to go through this process again this year for at most a $500 scholarship. Last year she didn’t get any money. Just the title. She is a freshman at A&M and has a 4.0 and multiple clubs/organizations she is involved in and recently won a big department competition, but we have a six figure EFC so if she gets anything it won’t be more than the $500 minimum. She has already applied for the university wide returning student scholarships at A&M, a local aggie mom club scholarship, and now she is working on the department scholarship process. All of which are merit only, not income based at all and will probably have much larger awards than HSF would give her. Out of those only the department scholarship requires recommenders (3). She is considering not bothering with HSF anymore due to the essay, recommender, SAR, verification of enrollment, all the phases, etc but mostly hitting up a recommender again. She has the scholar designation and can use it on her resume and for networking. She does get notifications of events and internships. So far none apply to her. Disney and Warner Bros are corp partners but so far the Disney internships haven’t been animation/tech related more business related.
My son said he has to list the email of at least one reference and HSF will send them questions & request a reference letter. They suggest students email the reference to give them a heads-up and include a resume. He is going to ask 2 teachers (who have already written letters for him) just to be sure the deadline is met to get in the one required one.
Thank you. I don’t think she is going to do it. College profs do not write as many recommendation letters as high school teachers. I think she wants to respect their time and be selective about how much she asks from them- the department annual scholarship and for her future internship. She did not seem comfortable asking for more from them at this time.
I don’t blame her at all. I’m not even sure they ask for a letter. They just ask for name & email of a reference so it’s possible they just ask questions more like a survey but I’m not sure.
Sorry to hear that, but NHRP and HSF are two different things. The Presidential Scholarship based on NHRP recognition is highly competitive at BU as are all Presidential Scholarships at BU. They should however be extremely proud of their acceptance to BU. HSF is an independent scholar program unaffiliated with NHRP.
Phase 2 of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund application is due tomorrow at 5pm. In typical last minute form, my son completed his tonight, the day before the deadline. To be fair, he has been so busy so I’m proud he was able to follow through on it. Not sure of the timeline moving forward, but hopefully he advances as a named scholar and, even better, qualifies for a monetary award. Good luck to anyone else applying.
Daughter just submitted as well, hoping she will get it again even if only $500. Last year the due date was April 29th and the decisions came out June 29th. So with due date of March 30th this year, hopefully they will know by May 30th-June 1st this year.
There are other scholarships out there that it’s time to look into. LULAC is one, but it is due Friday, so not hopeful there is time to get it done.
Good luck!
For the LULAC scholarship one requirement is to list the college you intent to attend and the letter of acceptance. What if my son hasn’t chosen one yet? Should he just put his first choice?
I’m trying hard to make this sentence make sense, but I got nothing:
“Student applications will NOT be accepted by the LNESC National Office or any of the Centers unless stated otherwise on the list of participating LULAC Councils.”
Thought maybe there was something for those who don’t have a council near them - because the applications go to local councils, not the National Office or centers. There is no FAQ either.
Yes, what my son gathered is that it’s only for students who have local chapters. He said he met the criteria in the criteria section but then the info you pointed out was limiting as to who could apply.
I know Case Western does not offer specific merit for NHMS but I just wanted to report our positive experience with CWRU. When we attended an open house a year ago, they really talked up the minority outreach and embrace of programs for underrepresented students. It all sounded great but we were a bit skeptical. Sure, diversity seems to be increasing at Case in recent years but was it all talk? I must say CWRU really showed the love. My son has a 1450 SAT score and 97% unweighted GPA, so definitely not the tippy top stats for Case. But he was given their top merit of $43,500 and a generous financial aid package. With so many very strong students waitlisted, he was very honored. Sadly, it was still about $7k above our budget zone, so we had pretty much given up on Case and my son was focused on U Albany (a much cheaper option and also an R1 university that he liked.) Case was my son’s top choice (after being waitlisted at Northeastern) so he decided to write an appeal letter to see if they could offer more merit or FA. It was heartfelt and sincere, but we were told they never say yes and often give a “polite no.” But he figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. They could not give more merit since he had the max but they said they’d take another look at FA. To our surprise, they got back to him by the end of the day and offered an extra $5k in FA and $2500 in work study. Since our goal was $7k more, we were shocked that they actually came down in price to our budget goals! He is interested in being an RA so that could save us more money down the line. And they will stack outside scholarships (he won a $1000 one with potential for a few more including HSF.) He was invited to an exclusive yearly event-the diversity Unity banquet where they honor current minority students with scholarships for study abroad, etc. and have great guest speakers. So we attended the admired student day on 4/14 and attended that banquet in the evening. My son fell more in love with Case during the admitted student day and-wow-the banquet was a 5 star event! During the banquet my son was invited to their first ever diversity weekend (if he commits) with fun events which takes place 3 days before orientation and he would get to move into the dorm 3 days early-quite a nice perk! Needless to say, Case Western was not just “talking the talk” with wanting to increase and embrace diversity. I’m not saying that’s why they showed the love to my son. He does have a strong resume with volunteer work, leadership, etc. But they seem to be taking action to make the campus as welcome and inclusive to ALL students as possible. It was a definite pull factor for him, in addition to many other reasons he loves it. He hasn’t committed to Case yet but all signs are pointing in that direction, pending some odd twist we weren’t expecting.
Pitt also gets honorable mention for hosting a wonderful diversity event called MVP Multicultural Program. This included a very nice dinner, overnight accommodations, and even reimbursement for travel. The overall vibe of Pitt wasn’t for my son, but we were impressed with our visit and their outreach.
I completely agree with you about CWRU. My son applied to 16 schools bc we were looking for merit. We knew he wouldn’t qualify for much, if any, financial aid, so he applied to a lot of colleges—a mix of highly selective schools, state schools, and selective schools that offered big scholarships. He didn’t get any of the big scholarships from the selective colleges he applied to such as BC’s Gabelli or Vandy’s Cornelleus (in fact he was waitlisted at Vandy) but ended up getting great merit at CWRU which was not one of his top choices. But after attending their admitted student event day, the school is one of his top 2 contenders (out of the 9 colleges he was admitted to). Like your son, they offered him $43,500 merit. They invited him to a special dinner event, tho he couldn’t attend bc we had to visit their campus the weekend before due to a scheduling conflict.
This university surprised us in so many ways. We have been impressed. I’m not sure which way he’s going to go yet. We’re visiting his other top contender this weekend and then he should know. But this college is almost twice the price as CWRU. We’ve filed an appeal with their financial aid but otherwise, CWRU makes the logical sense.
I’m so glad you had a positive experience too. I know we often turn to the list of schools who give merit specifically for NHMS but this is an example of a school not on that list who is taking action to increase diversity and make all feel welcome!
Has anyone heard from HSF? My son was notified he was a finalist in March 2023 and completed the Phase 2 application but has not heard back as far as whether 2023 winners have been notified. Thought maybe somewhere here would have info. Thanks.
No news here. But at this point, we’re not expecting any money. My son applied to about a dozen outside scholarships and has not been awarded anything, even tho most were intended for URMs. Perhaps our family income is too high or maybe it’s bc he’s not first gen or just not as academically qualified as others. Thankfully our financial aid appeal to his college was successful so there was some relief there. If anything comes from this, it would be a nice surprise at this point. Thanks for posting. It’s a good reminder.
Our combined income is about $153k so I’m sure they don’t consider that low income enough for much of an award. Our EFC is low this year ($16k per kid) since we will have 2 in college for the 2023-24 year only. But we have low expectations of getting a $ award for HSF. It would be nice to get a small amount (if he is selected) but not holding our breath.
A few local scholarships are pending, but we generally had no luck with outside scholarships other than two $500 ones (in the form of Visa cards) through gymnastics. We did have great success with appeals directly to the schools for both my daughter (landed an extra $3k merit per year at Loyola New Orleans) and my son ($7500 in extra FA from Case Western) so it sounds like we had similar experiences.
Hopefully both our kids will hear soon and qualify for a monetary award. Good luck!
My daughter has not heard anything on HSF 23 yet. I was hoping early June because last year with a due date a month later I think they heard June 29th. yeah, it was 4/1, 4/29, 6/29. This year it was 3/1, 3/30 and ???
In other HSF activity, she was invited to apply for the National Leadership Conference this summer, so she did. She was then invited to phase II (we didn’t know there would be a phase II). However, after she applied to phase 2, they sent a message in the portal asking her to update something and she didn’t see it until a week after the deadline they gave her. She ended up being waitlisted for attendance, I assume because she never submitted the update. That was about 2 weeks ago. Maybe they have been busy with those applications? She heard on that around May 25th.
or just not as academically qualified as others. Thankfully our financial aid appeal to his college was successful so there was some relief there. If anything comes from this, it would be a nice surprise at this point. Thanks for posting. It’s a good reminder.