<p>Trixieann, same here for my S. He was accepted EA, but no offers of merit aid (we would not quality for much need based aid).<br>
He got an invitation to the open house.
I'm assuming he did not meet the stats threshold.</p>
<p>Well, I'm more puzzled than before. Why did they bother to accept my D back in November through one of those "Priority Apps" they sent her if they didn't intend to contact her again? Perhaps they assume from past experience that kids admitted through Priority App who do not accept right away are unlikely to accept at all? It's true that she does have pending decisions with:</p>
<p>Dickinson
Muhlenberg
Oberlin
Amherst
Swarthmore
Wesleyan
Lehigh
Brown
Cornell</p>
<p>and has already been accepted at Penn State-University Park where she was invited, after she was accepted, to apply for a full four-year merit scholarship, but she did really like Ursinus. It was the first college she visited.</p>
<p>I recieved 20,000 as well. We'll see what happens...</p>
<p>at the scholarship day thing they said that everyone would receive something--
keep on the look out.. i am
but im not sure about ursinus anymore as i got into williams and swarthmore early write</p>
<p>I do understand that the scholarship day invitees all receive an award, but am not sure if it means that accepted students who were NOT invited can expect anything.</p>
<p>Plainsman -- Did you submit a FAFSA and CSS/Profile to Ursinus? I know that was required last year in order to be considered for any aid....need-based or merit. We knew we wouldn't qualify for any need-based aid, but filled out the paperwork before the deadlines solely so D1 would be considered for merit aid.</p>
<p>When you say your D has not been contacted since being accepted with the Priority App...do you mean not at all? Last year after D1 was accepted thru Priority App (early October), she periodically received postcards from Ursinus letting her know what was happening on campus. If your D has literally recieved nothing, then I would wonder if her name got leftl off a mailing list or something.</p>
<p>My D was accepted with a VIP app and se went to the scholarship day. We were told on that day that onlt the top 5% of the accepted students had been invited and that the students were guaranteed between $5000 to $20,000 for a merit scholaship. She got eh $20,000 but we are still waiting for the entire financial offer.</p>
<p>Plainsman---
My god, unless money is an issue do not pass up anyone on that list for Ursinus...save...perhaps Dickinson. PLEASE!</p>
<p>Yup, we submitted CSS and FAFSA on time. But I guess her SAT/ACT score was too low to qualify her as top 5% and get an invite to Scholarship Day. Thanks soozi1.</p>
<p>Interestingly, though, probably more than half of what Ursinus considers the top 5% won't enroll at Ursinus, just like Ontheradio said. The college admins know they'll get "back" a lot of those offered merit dollars because of defections to more prestigious schools. </p>
<p>mrsref: My D has been contacted two or three times with letters, etc. And my wife and I received some literature and a cover letter in attempt to persuade us that Ursinus was the place for our D. I'm sure the parents of every accepted student received that mailing. But there has been no contact about financial aid or even about housing. Penn State sent a huge envelope with details about how to accept the offer of admission, housing selections, dining options etc. It was a wonderful packet, although we had to go online to understand some of the various options. But all she got from Ursinus was congratulations and you have until May 1st to let us know if you're coming. Just a thin letter.</p>
<p>So last week, I called the Ursinus admissions office to inform them that we'd heard nothing from their school since November (nothing useful or actionable). Then yesterday my D gets an email from Ursinus inviting her to something called Capstone 2009, on April 3rd. I suspect others heard about this event a lot sooner? Where is the financial aid decision? We're not going to Capstone without a financial aid decision. What would be the point?</p>
<p>My S too received nothing after the thin acceptance letter. We, as parents, received a glossy brochure, and S got an invitation a few days ago to the Capstone event. </p>
<p>If they truly only gave merit aid to the top 5%, they may be in trouble with yield this year. I don't think they claim to meet full need, but I'm not sure on that. My guess would be the yield on their top 5% wouldn't be close to 30%, as those top students will have other, more prestigious options.</p>
<p>As we won't qualify for any FA and he's apparently not going to receive any merit aid, Ursinus is, unfortunately, no longer an option for us.</p>
<p>Plainsman--The thin letter is all anyone gets from Ursinus...there is no big acceptance package. you get all of the housing/dining info after May 1st (in a small envelope). I think the FA decisions should be out soon. You have to remember that Ursinus is much smaller than PSU, and they do things on a much smaller scale.</p>
<p>cpeltz -- Ursinus probably has a good estimate of their yield from the top 5%. While those students might have more prestigious acceptances, they might not have gotten merit aid at the other schools. (Example: D1 acutally preferred Lafayette over Ursinus, but she was offered $0 aid at Lafayette, $16K at Ursinus.) Like you, we don't get any need-based aid, so the merit aid at Ursinus was the tipping factor. I completely understand why Ursinus is no longer an option for your S.</p>
<p>I would not despair yet...I think there were posts from last year - people who did not get invites to Scholars Day who got merit aid. I looked at statistics on IPEDs, and it looks like a large percentage at Ursinus get 'institutional grant aid'. Whatever that means!</p>
<p>As an aside, we did not submit FAFSA or Profile for Ursinus. My daughter has gotten the scholarship info, so perhaps this year, that is not a requirement.</p>
<p>And I completely agree that UC will have a hard time with yield this year if they are not offering money to the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th....etc percentiles!</p>
<p>My D got her acceptance today from Muhlenberg College. It was a business size envelope but it contained more information than Ursinus sent. UC and MC have almost identical admission standards but MC gets a more impressive yield, 32% to only 20% for UC. Only 1% of waitlisted students at MC are admitted versus 82% of wait listed students at UC. It's true MC keeps a larger wait list, 400+ to 200+, but the number of students who manage to get in off their lists are dramatically different. I don't know why, but it appears a lot more students apply to UC strictly as a safety than MC. That said, my D will probably visit both schools one more time but only AFTER receiving an acceptable (hopefully) FA award.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what she is going to do other than wait until the FA picture for every school to which she applied shakes out.</p>
<p>We are still waiting for Ursinsus's financial aid package. Bard does not send them out until early April. Got a package from Drew but they expect us to pay double what the expected family contirbution was on the FAFSA website. The whole thing is pretty scary.</p>
<p>Need based aid is better at the Mule than at Ursinus.</p>
<p>plainsman: MC has a higher yield because they accept more of their class ED (deadline is up to Feb 15th this year), therefore 100% is averaged in with whatever RD yields....</p>
<p>How are the expenses at muhlenberg as compared to ursinus? My husband was very impressed with the way mc was laid out and all buildings were modern and well kept. My daughter doesn't remember liking it. We are making her go back again as after awhile all the colleges run together. We say too many schools so it is a blur.</p>
<p>rodney is correct, Muhlenberg is heavily ED and also quite different
from Ursinus. Large Jewish population and big into music dance and I
think business. My D got a huge award from M several years ago,
although it was dependent on keeping a 3.0 cum. She went elsewhere,
too close to home but between the merit and need based aid they
met her efc 100%. I think of M as Penn lite.</p>
<p>speedo: haha....Penn Lite!! laugh of the day......</p>
<p>soozi1, this is so true. After so many different visits, they do run together, especially for a teen. My D can only remember the most recent campus visit, which was Muhlenberg. We visited eight of the eleven schools she applied to. After each visit, the new one was the best. LOL. We're going to have to go back because Ursinus was the first school she visited, unfortunately. Ursinus is like a dim memory with her after visiting other LACs, including Oberlin, Dickinson, Swarthmore, and Muhlenberg. Penn State-University Park, Cornell, and Lehigh are easy to distinguish because they were so different, especially size-wise, and Lehigh has all those steep hills that are impossible to forget. My legs are still hurting. :)</p>
<p>Speedo: My D didn't apply ED anywhere, and so far it hasn't hurt her.</p>