That was not my daughter’s experience at all. She was personally contacted by admissions, and also the music department where she wanted to continue studying as a non-major. She received multiple correspondences including personal holiday and birthday cards. When she could not attend the scholarship weekend the scheduled date, they arranged a private scholarship weekend for her the following week and saved all the goodies for her.
Of all her acceptances, U of South Carolina won the prize for reaching out. My kid got the McKissick Scholarship. The costs for her to attend would have been $10,000 a year.
She declined the acceptance and matriculated elsewhere. After that she received a letter from admissions saying that they would welcome her scholarship and all for sophomore year if things did not work out at her first choice.
Update: Last week, dd visited Ole Miss and U Alabama. She loved both schools! Learned a lot about the scholarships, honors programs, and academic offerings. Dh was very impressed with the honors programs.
Both schools also indicated they offer competitive honors college and departmental scholarships beyond the automatic merit. Hopefully, she’ll win additional scholarships, but as it stands, she has 2 affordable safeties that she would be happy to attend, along with UT Dallas, which is in easy commuting distance. I’m really excited for her!
So she’s applying to those 3, as well as:
-UT San Antonio
-University of Houston
-University of Arkansas
-UNC Charlotte
-Texas Christian University
-Abilene Christian University
-Baylor University
-UT Austin
Mostly reaches due to our budget, but she might get a couple of surprises (as our oldest son did during his process), and this is a mostly different set of schools than our oldest applied to, so it will give me more info for the next kid.
The Apply Texas app isn’t working, but as soon as that’s fixed, she’ll have all of her applications in and can focus on the honors college and scholarship apps.
I’ll update with results as it has been very helpful for me to see how things have gone for others.
Yes, she submitted all of the apps through goapplytexas, but for some reason, there is a glitch getting the app to the schools.
Her apps were all submitted the first week of August, but she is not getting emails from the schools to create a login ID, upload transcripts, etc. With the old Apply Texas app, we received these emails within days.
UT just sent an email saying it will all be fixed by Sept 1 and please don’t apply again thru another app. I agree that this change has been handled poorly.
Have you thought about applying to any of the combined BA/MD programs? Your daughter would have a good shot. Avoids the stress of normal premeds.
Northwestern was one of the most well known, but they recently discontinued. Brown PLME is another well known program. If you are in TX, take a look at the Rice/Baylor program as well.
We looked at some BA/MD programs, but the main issue is cost.
For instance, with Rice/Baylor, we can’t afford undergrad tuition at Rice. We have a very high EFC, and with 8 kids, we can’t afford to spend that on undergrad for 1 kid.
OOS med school tuition is much higher than in state here in Texas. She considered applying to UAB’s early acceptance program, but med school would cost $90,000, whereas instate here is $40-50,000.
So we’re hoping to do undergrad as cheaply as possible, and throw as much money as we can at med school. We’d love to help her get thru with little to no debt.
But she is going to apply to Baylor2Baylor. I have a close friend whose son had much lower stats and is going to Baylor for $2,000/yr. I’m not sure how much is scholarship and how much is financial aid, but we’re hoping things will shake out well there.
Your strategy makes a lot of sense. Best to keep the undergrad debt as low as possible. Medical school is indeed expensive. The delayed earning potential due to residency/fellowship also compounds things.
Have you thought about a ROTC scholarship? A friend of mine did undergrad on ROTC and then went to USUHS. He graduated debt free, but with military obligation afterwards. It can be a good choice for some students.
The Wayne State program looks good. We will take a look!
We have not considered ROTC. We don’t know much about it. But we will check it out. Our next kid in line is only a high school freshman, but says he wants to be an orthodontist, which is even more expensive than med school!
I’m having a hard time figuring out whether or not schools are actually interested in my dd or just marketing. She got an invite to attend a local dinner hosted by The University of South Carolina to learn about scholarships and honors programs. Does this mean she might have a chance at some of their top scholarships? Trying to figure out whether or not it’s worth applying.
Since the dinner is local, I say…go. She may get some good information. South Carolina has a bunch of scholarships, none guaranteed, but they have a lot of different awards. Some give instate tuition plus a stipend. Some are more generous.
Go and enjoy the dinner and info session, and then make a decision.
If she does apply, she really needs to complete the honors college/scholarship application which is a doozie and is due early in the application season (you will need to check what it is for this year).
Some of their scholarships are based on the strength of the application, but their honors college is well regarded and has some good perks.
It’s marketing. But it gives you a chance to learn more about the school and aid. They are aggressive. Not sure how home school translates. Would be a good question to ask.
They are trying to tempt you into applying. And all schools want you to apply. If you get on interest lists you’ll be amazed at how many schools will send you app waivers. For some you have to attend info sessions…Pitt for one. But we got from WUSTL, W&L, SMU, Chicago and more.
Congrats on Ole Miss. they have decent scholarships. Of course you knew up front you were a slam dunk. Still nice to get the acceptance.
With your GPA You should target Bama and u of Arizona as well.
W&L is still awesome as 10% get a full ride. It’s one of the top LACs. Try SMU too
Hi jazzy mom. I think we’re in the same boat or same storm! We’re also Texans. My son has 1440 (and not taking it again!) ranked 1/600 in his class. We’re Hispanic, and he’s thinking premed. We also don’t qualify for any need based aid. I’m scouring the threads for merit aid.
Our list so far to apply is UT, ATM, SMU, UAlabama, Ole Miss, UFlorida, Indiana, Auburn, LSU.
The maybe apply schools are university of Louisville, Vanderbilt, North Carolina state, UHouston. UHouston gives very good merit aid, but he doesn’t like it. Incarnate word in San Antonio has a good bio chem scholarship offer, but my son says the school is too small for him.
He also disliked Tulane! He found Vanderbilt snobby.
His best friend’s brother got a full ride at Mississippi State last year, but I don’t see any scholarship info on their website.
We’re not bothering with the top named schools since we’d have to pay full price.
You want to hit U of Arizona - he’d get at least $35K a year out of $38K. The Honors program is being enhanced and the Honors dorm is unreal.
NC State is tough merit wise. Interesting he disliked Tulane. It’s “LOVE” by most who go - but my daughter thought it was a dump. She loved LSU but didn’t apply - strong aid.
Vandy is nice - WUSTL is nicer and both have full rides possible but not easy. Check, if he’s ok with an LAC, W&L - the Johnson scholarship is AWESOME and it will prep him well as a top LAC. And it goes to 10% of those who enroll. I would do UK over Louisville - great merit and a better “campus” life. UTK is another and perhaps Florid State where you’d get great aid. U of South Carolina Honors too.
Considering adding UNM to your son’s list. He’s eligible for LUE Plus scholarship that will give him instate tuition rates. (UNM’s tuition, fees, housing and meals come to under $20K)
If he qualifies as a National Hispanic Scholar (thru College Board), there’s a scholarship for that too.
UNM’s med school & hospital is directly across the street from UNM’s main campus so your sone ill have easy access to volunteering and shadowing opportunities.
