How Hard is It

<p>Hey, OSU-ers…I know a lot of you got accepted into the honors program and also received full-rides. I was just wondering how hard is it to get a full-ride and get into the honors program? I know OSU is very numbers-based; so assuming I’m in the top 1% of my class of 550 (not valedictorian or saluatorian, but maybe ranked 3 or 4), what would my SAT/ACT have to be?
Thanks…</p>

<p>If you have an ACT score of 29 or above and/or an SAT of 1300 or above, you are automatically eligible for the University Scholarship ($1,800 a yr, renewable). Ohio State gives out their big scholarships through an essay competition called the University Scholar Maximas. It is by invitation only, but I think most Honors students receive the invitation. When I went to the Maximus competition, the girl I spoke to said that at least 1,000 students compete for the scholarships. They offer the competition on multiple days in February. The competition consists of 3 hours of essay testing. You have to write a total of two essays in that time. You are given two pages each with three topics and asked to choose one topic from each page. From those essays, they select 10 Presidental (full in-state ride-everything), 30 Medalist (full in-state), and 80 Tradition Scholarships (half in-state tuition). Also, if you were a National Merit Finalists and designated OSU as your first choice, you could possibly receive the Distinguished Scholarship (full in-state tuition + $4,500). So, unless you are a NMF, if you have above a 1300 SAT or a 29 ACT you're pretty much on the same playing field as everyone else. </p>

<p>By the way I had a 1380 SAT and a 31 ACT. I went to the Maximus Competition, and I received one of the Medalist scholarships (full tuition). So, it is possible! :) I write pretty well, but I've never won an essay competition before. I'm definately not a child prodogy writter. ;) I think the thing that stood out in my essays was my honesty and the fact that I wrote from the heart. Obviously, I am going to OSU now! :D If you have any more questions go to the Ohio State webpage, <a href="http://undergrad.osu.edu/admissions/frscholarships.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://undergrad.osu.edu/admissions/frscholarships.asp&lt;/a> , or feel free to email me. Oh, don't forget, there is an early deadline for these scholarships. You must submit your application for undergraduate admission by December 15 to be eligible. Good luck!</p>

<p>3 hours? that's a long time to be writing. It's 2</p>

<p>Thanks a lot, chelsea!</p>

<p>hookemhorns, yeah you're right. I looked it up in my papers, and the actually testing time was 2 hours. I only had about 5 or 6 hours of sleep the night before, so the day seemed much longer that what it actually was! :) My bad! :o</p>

<p>Dude, just do well on the PSAT to get a full ride to Ohio State like me. This means study for the PSAT as much as possible. And bring a dictionary and a thesaurus to the maximus competition. And don't slack off when you get here unless you want to lose your scholarship and lose your honors status.</p>