My son also got the initial offer letter but he’s waiting to see if he advances with stamps/presidential. I believe students are notified by the end of the month.
If my understanding is right, the total scholarship won’t exceed the COA of LSU. That is why STAMPS is $33590 for in-state.
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Why would LSU send out scholarship letter for students who are semifinalist for stamps and presidential. Any thoughts.
Receiving a scholarship letter now doesn’t imply that your son won’t win a Stamps/Presidential scholarship. Merit scholarships at LSU are awarded *almost automatically in a process separate from the competitive scholarships. I say almost because 2 years ago, LSU went holistic when awarding merit awards. They subsequently removed from the website and catalog all of the minimum criteria for the various levels of awards. However, we can assume that the merit awards are still mostly based on test scores and grades. Most, if not all semifinalists for the competitive scholarships will qualify for the Flagship Scholars award(around $4000/yr in state and $21000/yr OOS), if they don’t win.
My son called LSU Financial Aid Friday and found out he had been offered Flagship(along with the student aide job that goes with it), $1000/yr LSU Legacy award for being the child of an alumnus, and of course, TOPS. He was also told that the Flagship award was LSU’s top merit award outside Stamps/Presidential and not to expect any further merit money. Of course, there are a few small departmental and honors college scholarships to be had.
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@Caragaral. Thanks for the explanation. That’s what I was thinking. The offer was for flagship plus Tops and campus job. I was hoping that the merit portion would be higher for those students that are semifinalist and finalists. Just seems 4K per year is a slap in the face.
Can you advise process for the Flagship scholarship? We received the Merit Aid letter this past week. Thank you
The process is simply a holistic review of the application for admission. There are no additional steps. The award is then listed in the merit aid letter(still waiting on the letter here). Until 2 years ago, the criteria for Flagship were a minimum ACT of 33 or SAT of 1490, along with 3.0 GPA. Now, this information has been removed from the LSU website and catalog. (For what it’s worth, you can still view old LSU catalogs online.)
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Thank you for the explanation. She likely didn’t get flagship. Nothing was mentioned other than merit aid. Best of luck to everyone
My son (OOS) was accepted into the honors program in October and finally found out about merit $ today. He did not receive anything in the mail (or an email)…at least not yet. But, the merit awards were posted to his portal this morning. He received a little more than we expected, a little less than we hoped for, but enough for us to justify giving up the Zell Miller scholarship here in GA…especially since he has wanted to go to LSU since he was a little kid. 
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Just checked my portal also and got a merit scholarship. Very excited!
I also got a president’s student aid job for $1500 a year. I assume it is basically LSU’s version of federal work-study for international students, but does anyone happen to know anything about this?
If it helps any prospective students, I got $19k with a 4.0 UW and 1420 SAT which was exactly what the calculator predicted.
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D (OOS) admitted to Ogden in Oct finally received a merit offer in the mail today. She’s going to have a lot to think about.
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Yes, LSU portal has been updated to show exactly what we received from an email last week. Not sure if that is the final number or not.
My oos daughter applied 11/12 still has not heard back did request test optional early December when that came out not sure if this is a bad sign - she is uw3.6 w 3.8 any advice would be great
@DianeMartin2025 i wouldn’t be too worried. My daughter (with a good ACT and a 3.75 UW GPA, 4.5 weighted) applied in Sept and heard at the end of Oct, but didn’t hear about scholarship until yesterday. With the intervening holidays and likely a larger volume of applicants applying in Nov, I think it’s reasonable to expect them to take longer. Good luck!
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My D requested TO as well and has not heard back. She contacted admissions about a week or so ago and they said they are working on her application. Still waiting.
Thank you
I believe she will be admitted for sure. I have been living within 10 miles from LSU for the last 20 years and I have many LSU professor/student friends.
Here is the so-called initial award, shown in D’s portal. Asked several friends with kids in LSU already. They said this amount may or may not change. As D is in-state, so this amount covers ALL tuition&fee. There will be some $ left if she lives with us.
| Award Name | Summer 2021 Amount | Fall 2021 Amount | Spring 2022 Amount | Annual Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| President’s Student Aid Job | $ | $775 | $775 | $1,550 |
| Flagship Scholars Resident | $ | $2,000 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| Anticipated TOPS Award | $ | $4,132 | $4,131 | $8,263 |
Bottom line, she will graduate with debt-free if she wants to accept this schoool.
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@FeiXing. Debt free is huge of course. My sons initial search was mainly oos top 20 schools but after realizing that if he would get in the cost would be outrageous, regardless of test scores and gpa. So we have come full circle. Most likely stay in state for undergrad and see what grad school brings.
Good luck deciding.