@seattlefinest206 Wow, that’s ridiculous. Isn’t the national deadline for students to enroll in a college May 1st though?
Also, has anyone who has been accepted not received their financial aid letter yet? I haven’t received mine. Ugh
Howard is a “safety” for many auto-scholarship students. I guess after this debacle, students will have to assess the administrative competence of a school before using it as a safety. The executive needs a house cleaning.
@ThatPeprika did you check your bisonweb account? For some reason if you havent received your fa letter, the info will be there, if it is complete.
Lol finally got my decision after applying EA back in september, and I was waitlisted. I’m kind of pissed, because I was actually really interested in the school, because of the scholarship opportunities, the location, and its status as a premier HBCU. I thought I did a pretty good job of demonstrating my interest, because I talked to the admissions counselor when he came to visit my school and I literally spent hours trying to get in contact with the admissions department through phone calls and emails, but I guess it’s whatever. I’m going to try and contact them (which will probably result in even more waiting) and have them remove my name from the waitlist, because of the lack of communication, the fact that Howard couldn’t even bother to tell me that I had been deferred from EA, and just my overall frustration with this whole process. I hope that Howard gets its shit together and realizes that not communicating with its applicants, not providing accurate scholarship information, and doing just a terrible job with interacting with people who have a genuine interest in this institution is a great way to drive away people who might’ve made amazing contributions to the community at Howard. Congratulations to those who’ve been accepted, and I hope you enjoy your time as a Bison 
@lcs2016 I am so sorry that happened to you. You certainly deserve to be very upset and to let them know it. If you have any desire to still see about getting in and merit money (as others have posted the standards have changed) then I would try and directly reach out to the admissions office you spoke to who came to your school. But I would not blame you for throwing in the towel and giving them a piece of your mind at this point!
The latest I have heard is that they are focusing on those eligible for the Founders and Presidential and have a hefty number of applicants who qualifies for those. Regardless, a total lack of professionalism in responding to applications in a timely way is not acceptable.
I wonder if they are sending out massive waitlist notices so that people have ‘an answer’, but still actually sorting and evaluating for final spots? If so, bad idea. As you said, they may well be driving ‘… away people who might’ve made amazing contributions to the community at Howard’.
@lcs2016 Im sorry that you had to deal with all of Howard’s BS. Also, what time did Howard contact you and how did they contact you?
My daughter just received an email today after calling for months now. She applied early action. I have no words and of course we are extremely disappointed. She was accepted but we will not take the spot after this mess. All of the predominately white schools had their decisions out when they said and I could always call and speak to an admissions officer vs. an admin. Howard is a great University academically, but their administration needs major help
Found out today I received the Founder’s Scholarship.
@BlackHuntress congratulations to you! If you consider going here are just a couple of things my daughter said about the full ride scholarship:
- Keep in mind the GPA requirement to maintain the scholarship (under old rules it was 3.3 or 3.5, not sure about now) and plan accordingly. She found that getting As in some of the classes was not as ‘easy’ as she thought it would be, especially by the second year. Some majors are considered to be harder than others, though that is subjective.
- Be aware of the number of credit hours you are required to maintain each term. It may be that even if a class is giving you fits you cannot drop it.
- In her case, the book voucher covered all books.
- Aside from a regular advisor, she was also given an advisor in her honors program as well as an advisor that tracks and meets with special populations (from what she can tell that includes top scholars as well as kids who are marginal)
- She’s been called into a few meetings about opportunities they want scholarship kids to be aware of. She’s had great summer abroad opportunities and summer internships in DC.
- There is always some type of MESS to deal with: Internet in the dorms is out, first year non honors dorms were loud at times, technology out in some of the labs at times, etc. You will learn to make due, advocate for yourself and find a whole bunch of pride in making through the struggle…but there will be struggles.
Good luck with your choice. If you received the Founders, I imagine that you have MANY other choices. Go with what feels right for you and enjoy!
T
I can attest to the internet going out. Ive had a higher cell phone bill because my child has had to use her hotspot. They are strict about the hours requirement.
How is howard in terms of medicine? And how is it in general? @ReturningFavor and anyone else who kniws someone or who goes there? @partyof5
@BlackHuntress from what I know it is fine. There are ample opportunities to volunteer and shadow because of the HU hospital and the fact that they are in a city. It is a university, so research opportunities are there, though competitive. There is a pre-professional office that works with pre-med kids and some sort of health science program, I think. A TON of kids come in pre-med on the mind. As with any college, many move away from that by choice or necessity as the science curriculum moves to the harder classes.
Xavier has long been considered a great HBCU fro pre-med kids. But I think HU holds it own. They also have the BS/MD program. At any college, pre-med will be competitive, time intensive and demanding. Some kids get lost in the HU life and become stretched thin with activities on and off campus (both productive an non). Keep your focus and you can stand out early. That is what D found.
@partyof5 Xavier is a total parent pick because of their success with med school admissions but my son is not persuaded. He declined to visit during his spring break but with Howard falling off the list he wants to see Xavier now. We’ll try to visit before decision day.
Prairie View is in our neck of the woods and we are alums but we allowed S to be persuaded by PV’s scholarship reception. They did a good job with presentations by the University President and deans as well as current honors students. We followed up with a premed seminar where we got a personalised tour of their state of the art 3D anatomy lab with plasticine cadaver.
To top it off he was invited to apply to a one of a kind premed program (UMA) that provides advising, mentorship, and financial support throughout the med school application process (including free MCAT prep course). I think if he gets into UMA he’ll decline other offers.
@BlackHuntress There are a lot of positives, first and foremost opportunities. Employers LOVE Howard kids. My child has had great internships, actually last year she was turning down top media companies. Everyone at Howard grinds, so it pushes you.
Now the bad, the administration. We pay our bill balance out of pocket, so I dont have to deal with financial aid, but it is a nightmare. The infrastructure is poor, they dont do a good job cleaning sidewalks when it snows, so be careful. This whole admissions process this year is evidence of the poor management. I just spoke to my girlfriend whose child applied from a top private school in NY, and Howard never responded to her application. The internet is poor so be prepared to use your data from your cell phone.
Unfortunately the hospital is bleeding money, and the school lost a lot of money when sequestration happened with the federal govt a few years back. I will be curious how the budget looks for next year. They have alienated a ton of kids who dont require financial aid, and were top performers.
Having said all of that, I dont regret sending my child there. It has been a great experience for her, as she came from a upper middle income district, and she definitely needed to be around other high achieving kids. She was always the only in her accelerated classes, so she has thrived at Howard. Actually because so many things there are a struggle it has made her stronger, lol. However, I am not paying full price for the lack of services, so we are looking at other options for my hs senior.
@partyof5 said it best. I agree with her whole post. I also have a child who’s only struggle up until now had been being, often, the ‘only’. Yes, that was a true struggle but it has made her really learn, grown from and LOVE HU. In addition, the struggles she has faced at HU have in fact made her stronger…but are unnecessary and the result of poor management.
I would not (and could not) pay over 50k+ given the issues. But I know some who have and believe the HU pride, the wonderful experience they had there, the alumni network, contacts and HU grind (great point made above) made it worth it. I hear this too from Morehouse, Spelman and A and T folks as well. For my next one, if he can’t hit the mark for Founders full ride (and actually HEAR from HU admissions which apparently is hit or miss!), then he’ll have to let go of his HU dreams.
@returningfavor, yes, I forgot to mention the alumni network is awesome. They truly believe in reaching out and giving job opportunities. I feel that some of Howards problems however stem from alumni not giving back in the financial sense. They have a dismal record with giving back to the school, and it goes back to the school. They dont seem to have a robust fundraising person. For example they have the homecoming which is second to none, you would think while everyone is at the game, they would do something like,“ëveryone take out your phone, and text XXXX for a $10 donation” or something like that.
My oldest child graduated from a PWI, and every year a student would call and ask for a donation. Howard has never called and asked for a donation, and they have a TON of well off families willing to give. I have a friend who is a doctor, whose kids attend Howard, and no call has ever come for a donation. Its quite pitiful actually.
Has anyone on this thread applied to NCAT, if so have you heard anything about merit money?
@seattlefinest206 They emailed me on Monday around 3 PM I think
@partyof5 The big A and T scholars are the Dowdy scholars (Lewis and Elizabeth Dowdy Scholarship). My D applied (this was a couple of years ago) and found out about it in January or February. We also went and talked to their honors program. She really liked A and T and felt she would have been as happy there as she is at Howard. They people were very kind, very friendly.
We liked the Honors program but did not like the fact that some of those classes were online.
Also, she felt that DC and HU in general provided more opportunities and a wider range (geographically) of people to meet. Still, A and T in my book is a great one. Best of luck with the Aggies!
@ReturningFavor my child doesnt like A&T, but I forced an application because you never know. Unfortunately I decided to do that after the big scholarship deadline. We are going to Spelbound next week, and we will make a decision afterwards.