<p>jkeil911, sorry if you’ve already told us this (I’m having trouble keeping everybody straight!), but were you (your child?) invited to interview for the Fellowship before the Scholarship was awarded or did it just come with your acceptance? Thank you and congratulations!</p>
<p>Marquis Fellowship candidates were invited to come to Lafayette to take part in a dynamic assessment coordinated by the admissions directors. This took place over two weekends, and I participated in the evaluation process (I am a current student). Afterwards, the fellows were decided upon and notified when accepted.</p>
<p>@captainclueless - That doesn’t entirely answer LucieTheLakie’s question. Were there other students, who were not selected as finalists for the Marquis Fellowship (and who thus did not attend the finalists’ weekends), who were still in the running for the smaller Marquis Scholarship, and who ended up being awarded that scholarship? Or were all the scholarship recipients selected from those students who were Fellowship finalists?</p>
<p>And another question for you: Clearly the Fellowship award is for a significantly larger amount than the Marquis Scholars award, but are there any additional advantages to having been selected as a Marquis Fellow, rather than as a Maquis Scholar?</p>
<p>One does NOT have to be a Marquis Fellowship finalist in order to receive the scholarship. The Marquis Scholarship is offered to roughly 15% of our <em>accepted</em> applicants, whereas the Marquis Fellowship is awarded to only 25 students. While the Marquis Fellowship finalists who did not receive the fellowship do receive preference for the scholarship, they comprise only a portion of the Marquis Scholars.</p>
<p>As for your second question…as far as I know, the difference in money is the only advantage. The Fellows receive $40,000 per year, plus $4,000 for studying abroad. The Scholars receive $24,000 per year, plus $4,000 for studying abroad. The Marquis Scholarship has been in existence for a very long time, but the Marquis Fellowship is brand new with the Class of 2018. There are a couple of Marquis Scholar events during the year, and I imagine that starting next year there will be exclusive Fellow events as well. For the most part, however, the Marquis Fellowship and Marquis Scholarship are just monetary awards.</p>
<p>Hope that helps,</p>
<p>Taylor Brown '15</p>
<p>Also, one thing I forgot to add…according to our website, “Marquis Fellows are assigned a faculty mentor, and are expected to take leadership roles in special events and cross cultural opportunities”…I do not know the specifics of these events, unfortunately.</p>
<p>Thanks, dodgersmom–that’s exactly what I’m trying to find out. Essentially, the question is: Did one have to be considered for the Marquis Fellowship to be in the running for a Marquis Scholarship?</p>
<p>Based on their net price calculator, Lafayette (sadly) will be completely off the table for us without merit aid, and my understanding is that the Marquis Scholarships and Fellowships are the only merit awards Lafayette makes. </p>
<p>I don’t know how accurate their NPC is, but the cost for our son to attend Lafayette was anywhere from $14,000 to $18,000 more a year than the other (more selective) LACs he applied to.</p>
<p>LucieTheLakie,</p>
<p>I encourage you to read my previous response. The short answer to your bolded question is no. However, I think most Marquis Scholars and Fellows have been notified, so you probably did not get either if you have not been notified by now. </p>
<p>NPC may or may not be accurate, so I encourage you to contact the Office of Financial Aid to get better information.</p>
<p>Also, what does your son intend to major in?</p>
<p>Taylor</p>
<p>Also, just to make a note on selectivity—Lafayette has become significantly more selective in the past 3 years, and we are expecting an acceptance rate of about 28% this year (a 6.5% drop from last year). We had a 15% increase in applications from last year, putting us in the top 1% of colleges in the US in terms of application increase. Unfortunately for the applicants, this means that merit scholarships are more difficult to obtain as well.</p>
<p>My son just received his acceptance and was awarded a Marquis scholarship today so don’t give up hope if you haven’t received anything yet. It came via US mail.</p>
<p>Thanks, Taylor. Looks like I was drafting my post while you were responding to dodgersmom’s. </p>
<p>My son was interested in majoring in engineering but really wanted to study it in a liberal arts environment. That’s why he was so excited about Lafayette, visited the school on three separate occasions, and made sure his RD application was completed early. </p>
<p>He was originally planning to apply ED, but the school’s materials were very clear that if you needed a Marquis Scholarship in order to afford the school, you needed to wait and apply RD.</p>
<p>I hope you’re right about the NPC being off, but my understanding is that Lafayette is not one of the schools that meets a family’s full unmet need; that’s why we needed the scholarship. </p>
<p>Oh, well, I guess we’ll find out soon enough if he’s even been admitted!</p>
<p>Thanks, again, and congratulations to everyone who received an award.</p>
<p>@suzthorn – congratulations! What kind of GPA and test scores did your son have (if I can be so bold to ask?) I am trying to get a sense for the GPA and test scores that are required to get a scholarship at Lafayette. </p>
<p>@Joanne1967 - Not sure if it’s as simple as test scores and GPA. As captainclueless described above, there’s a rather rigorous interview/selection weekend for the Marquis Fellows, and I’d suspect that the Marquis Scholars get similar scrutiny, even if it’s not done in person. In other words, I’d think that essays, recommendations, etc. would also count for a lot. But I could be wrong!</p>
<p>I think with Lafayette, as with any college, the trick is to look at the average test scores and GPA of the incoming students, and then target those schools where your student’s scores/GPA are well above that average. You can find this info by looking for the most recent “common data set” for each school. (Generally, a google search for the school name and “common data set” will bring it up.) Here’s the most recent one for Lafayette: [url=<a href=“http://oir.lafayette.edu/files/2013/04/CDS2012-2013.pdf]2012-13[/url”>http://oir.lafayette.edu/files/2013/04/CDS2012-2013.pdf]2012-13[/url</a>]. Look at sections C-9, C-10, and C-11 to find test scores, class rank, and GPA.</p>
<p>About the Marquis Fellowship…</p>
<p>dodgersmom is correct. While test scores and GPA <em>are</em> very important, many other factors are important as well. Contribution to the community, extracurricular activities, letters of recommendation, and performance during the Fellowship weekend (which includes group activities, a group presentation, and an interview) are all considered. Think of it in the same way you think about what it takes to get accepted to Lafayette–just with significantly higher standards. Same goes for the Marquis Scholarship, minus the Fellowship weekend.
__</p>
<p>Luciethelakie, </p>
<p>Lafayette guarantees to meet 100% of every accepted applicant’s demonstrated need…if they were unable to meet that need, they would simply not accept you. You are correct in saying that it was helpful to apply RD to receive a scholarship, although that is not completely necessary. Early Decision applicants <em>are</em> considered (and I remember a number of ED applicants who were Marquis Fellowship finalists), but RD applicants are given preference. About engineering, please send me a PM and I would be more than happy to discuss Lafayette’s unique qualities that make it a great engineering school (I’m not an engineer but I’ve given hundreds of campus tours and know a lot about the programs).</p>
<hr>
<p>As for average academic stats for Lafayette, please refer to the Class of 2017 profile (link below). It gives you a good idea of where our academic stats lie, although the stats for the Class of 2018 may be a bit higher. </p>
<p><a href=“https://www.lafayette.edu/about/lafayette-at-a-glance/entering-class-profile/”>https://www.lafayette.edu/about/lafayette-at-a-glance/entering-class-profile/</a></p>
<hr>
<p>Good luck to all who have yet to receive their decisions!</p>
<p>Taylor Brown '15</p>
<p>@captainclueless - Cool link . . . thank you!</p>
<p>no, Lucie, you didn’t forget. D wasn’t invited to interview. The Scholarship came on its own with the personalized admissions letter. D had a nice talk with her AO today. Interesting that there have been only two other confirmations of Scholarship received since my announcement.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 - My daughter was awarded a Marquis Fellowship and her friend applied RD to Lafayette, was not a Fellowship candidate, however did receive a letter of admission and Marquis Scholarship offer on Monday via US mail which was unexpected.</p>
<p>^^^congratulations to both of them! that’s great! will both of them go to Lafayette with these merit scholarships?</p>
<p>Here’s one thing to consider about merit at Lafayette. The business people running the College are quite obviously risk-averse, which is not a bad thing at all in a college administrator as we saw what happened to over aggressive endowment investment when the recession hit. However, this is not necessarily good in the short term for the parents of merit winners. The Marquis (plural) are not tuition or half tuition merit; they are fixed sums that (a) don’t have to respond to tuition increases and (b) leave the Fellowship awardee short by a significant amount of full tuition. After all, the board of trustees might say, “who’s going to raise much of a fuss about $5230 when we’re giving them $40000?” I do believe we’ll see more such merit thinking in the near future. It allows the BOT to increase merit disengaged from increases in tuition and disengaged from the merit awards already given to enrolled students.</p>
<p>jkeil911,</p>
<p>You make a good point. However, I’d like to note that Lafayette does pay close attention to the relationship between the Marquis Fellowship/Scholarship and the tuition. In a recent email from the College, President Byerly made it a point to mention that the increased value of the Marquis Scholarship (20 to 24k/yr) and in financial aid overall for next year is proportionally greater than the increase in tuition. The rising tuition and declining relative value of the Marquis Scholarship was one of the reasons why the admissions office initiated the Marquis Fellowship this year as well. While the two merit awards are given concrete values, those values are not static over many years. The Marquis Scholarship, which will be 24k/yr, has been 20k/yr for the past few years, and before that it was 16k/yr.</p>
<p>Taylor</p>
<p>@jkeil911 - Not sure yet. I can say both are very excited about Lafayette and are considering the offers seriously. Also, my daughter thoroughly enjoyed the Marquis Fellowship day and was really impressed with and genuinely liked the students who attended with her. She left the day with a very positive impression of the school and staff. As a parent, I thought the day was very enlightening also as I was able to speak with current students and faculty. I too thought that the student introductions provided a good view into the caliber of students they are looking to attract and agree with another commenter who said that Lafayette is a hidden gem that seems to be attracting more highly-accomplished students year over year.</p>