And if she gets the Pitt big merit award, the work on this application will be time well spent. Betting she can figure out the application again herself.
Oops-- meant to clarify-- Pitt doesn’t read the Personal statement of the CA. What I meant earlier is she has to do essays in addition to that one, but Pitt won’t read the CA personal statement.
GTech app deadline for scholarship is early. And early matter for Pitt awards too. My son did the GTech app at the very last minute before that Oct deadline and i seem to remember some issue. He didn’t get the award or anything from them, though he was admitted. Didn’t hear peep from them till end of season. I remember wondering if something didn’t go wrong in the process , it was so quiet.
The best thing to do with GT is get on Rick Clark’s blog. Not only is it an entertaining read, but he keeps folks abreast of things at GT. Stamps scholarship semifinalists (President’s Scholars) are notified in Mid January, after acceptances are announced. Interviews are held in February and the scholars weekend/additional interviews are in March. If you are a semifinalist and invited to interview, you will hear.
She has been filling out the Pitt application via the Common app, and couldn’t find those 3 short answer questions. She had selected Honors and found the 2 honors college essay questions. I logged into her common app today (for the first time ever, so to answer another commenter, yes, she is doing all of the app work) and couldn’t find them either… I guess we’ll take a look at the Pitt app.
In a related question, is there any real difference to the school between submitting the common application or the school’s application? For some schools (like RIT & RPI), they have already notified her that they are giving her a streamlined (with some parts pre-filled) school application to fill out, or they say she can just use the common app. In these cases we think it’s better to use the pre-filled school app.
https://oafa.pitt.edu/forms/apltn_sa.php
Re: Pitt short answer questions: After you submit the Common App, fill out this form and they will match it up with your application. Give it a couple of days for the Common App to upload into their system. They will send an email with portal access, and I think maybe even a link to this page.
Did she scroll down all the way after selecting “yes” to do the honors application now? All 5 prompts are there. I looked earlier today.
@KevinFromOC in post 616, I quoted the info from Pitt. You can google this yourself. They take three different kinds of applications and there is no difference in how they view them.
One of my kids has a fast application to his first school. No LOR, no essays, and self reported SAT scores and grades. A transcript was required later. Got accepted December 1…with merit aid. The school had a long application too. But my kid didn’t do it.
If a school offers a shorter application, and sometimes no application fee…go for it!
However, if the threshold GPA to renew the scholarship is very high, like 3.5 or higher, the student could be in a situation like pre-meds where s/he may feel the need to grade-grub and avoid grade-risks (i.e. interesting, but hard, electives), which can be limiting to his/her educational experience.
It is theoretically possible that a college that uses “level of applicant’s interest” in admissions may see use of its own application instead of The Common (or Coalition or Universal) Application as an indicator of higher “level of applicant’s interest”, but I have not heard of actual use of that in this way.
So, I’m looking at the Alabama application, and I’m filling in the mundane information so my daughter can concentrate on her essays. Turns out it’s all mundane information. The first page asks for name, address, and high school, and a few other basic questions. The second page asks about felonies, and then there’s a submit button, which asks you to pay the $40 application fee. The website indicates to have your ACT test score sent to the school, and to have your high school send transcripts (apparently they can only be snail-mailed).
That’s it? They don’t care about what classes your’re taking your senior year, your extracurriculars, whether you were a nation merit finalist or NHRP recipient or had any other academic honors or school activities? They don’t want any essays or letters of recommendations, nothing else? I gotta be missing something here. Surely there’s a lot more information they want (yeah, I know, and don’t call you Shirley)
Once your daughter is accepted by Alabama you’ll be able to access the additional applications where you’ll be able to include academic honors and school activities. Here’s some links to explain the different applications.
Honors College application
https://honors.ua.edu/admission/apply-to-honors/
Competitive Scholarships application
https://scholarships.ua.edu/freshman/
University Fellows Experience (this is a very selective program for elite students)
https://honors.ua.edu/programs/university-fellows-experience/
I believe there is no separate scholarship application for the automatic engineering scholarship. More information at link below.
https://eng.ua.edu/admissions/scholarships/
If @mom2collegekids or @Mom2aphysicsgeek can think of anything else please feel free to add to this list.
Just noticed also that your daughter would qualify for the National Hispanic recognition package at Alabama:
https://scholarships.ua.edu/freshman/national-hispanic-recognition-scholarship/
That would mean…
Presidential scholarship $26,000 per year x 4 yrs + $1,000 per year x 4 yrs + 1 year of housing+ engineering scholarship $2,500 per year for 4 yrs
Just remember Kevin as you “help” " her out to put in" her "Act scores and not yours… Lol?. Seems like your doing fine and follow the above advice.
@KevinFromOC Lots of schools’ apps are that easy. It is why posters keep saying to crank out the easy ones. Similarly, you often can’t access the honors or program apps until you finish the main app.
This is the app where she would need to put in effort: https://honors.ua.edu/programs/randall-research-scholars-program/
If your considering Iowa /Iowa State get it done and you will know like next week with merit. You have to put in your class schedules from like 9-11th grade and self score it. Have that information handy. No essays etc. Just have to get over 245 regent score for merit.
https://www.admissions.iastate.edu/freshman/index.php
@KevinFromOC have your daughter fill in this mundane information on the Alabama application. NOT YOU (and yes, this time I am yelling…because colleges frown on dishonesty…parent completing even the mundane info is NOT the student). As you can now see (and as we have been telling you since August 22) this is a very short, and very quick to do application.
Let her do it…it is going to take all of 30 minutes.
If there are other similarly truncated applications, she should be able to get those done too…herself.
Again, colleges frown on dishonesty. They really do. Applications for admission are supposed to be completed by the students, not the parents.
I’m sure you mean that the daughter should complete that Iowa application…not the parent, right?
We didn’t bother with the “streamlined” applications. D already had all the information done on the CA and it was easier to do it that way. In her opinion, it created unnecessary work, not less.
@KevinFromOC make sure your daughter has an acceptable number of schools that she can apply to on her own…without your assistance (other than to ask a question for clarification purposes).
My recommendation is some variation of the following:
3 (at least) schools that are automatic for huge merit and acceptance
4 schools with significant competitive merit (schools like Pitt and Ohio State)
2-3 schools with ultra ultra competitive merit (Jefferson Scholars etc) that are also competitive for acceptance. These schools are hyper-reaches.
2 competitive schools that might give significant FA based on the NPCs. If there are none…keep them off the list. These are also reach schools…despite being a strong student and a superstar hockey player.
This gives her 11-12 schools…and 3 “easy” apps. Will she have enough time, stamina, motivation etc to do them? If not…remove 1 or 2. We are already heading into mid September and I am sure your daughter is incredibly busy with senior year.
Being nominated by her school for Jefferson Scholars…does not mean she will be invited for a first interview. She will have to put in a lot of time doing the app…and will then have to wait and see if they invite her. Some committees invite everybody for a first interview…and others don’t.