Merit Aid Question

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
1

<p>I got my decision today, and I was accepted. However, I'm still a little disappointed that I don't seem to be in the running for any merit aid. My situation may have been a little complicated, because it took them until early December to find my transcript, even though I sent it in mid-late October.</p>

<p>I suppose I'm wondering the following: </p>

<p>1) Can you ONLY get merit aid if you got a letter for Scholarship Day? Is there any general institutional aid, or only aid through specific programs? </p>

<p>2)Will there be a second chance/later date to get scholarships? </p>

<p>3) Of those (if any) who see this and HAVE gotten a letter, could you post your stats, just so I (and others who might be curious) can have an idea of what UNC is looking for in their scholarship recipients. </p>

<p>My stats are below, for purposes of full disclosure/comparison</p>

<p>Academic Info:
- Un-weighted GPA: 3.92
- Weighted GPA (advanced/honors/AP are all out of 5 points): 4.62
- Have completed the following APs: AB Calculus, US History, US Government, Comparative Government, English Language Composition
...and will have also completed the following by graduation:
Computer Science, Physics B, Psychology, French, Literature
-All core classes have been advanced or honors through all of high school; only a few electives weren’t advanced/honors/AP</p>

<p>-SAT(superscore): 800 CR, 790 M, 770 Wr.
-SAT IIs- US History- 780; Literature 770; Math II 720
-5s on all APs taken so far (English Language, US History, US Gov’t, AB Calc, Comparative Gov’t)</p>

<p>Extra-curriculars/ Experiences/ Community Service
-Leo Club
-> Treasury in 11th grade
-> President in 12th grade
-School Publications
-> Editor of Freshman Section in Yearbook (9th grade)
-> Editor of Features Section in Newspaper (10th grade)
-> Editor of Mini Mag Section in Yearbook (11th grade)
->Editor of Opinion Section in Newspaper (12th grade)
- Youth and Government
-> Member of PA House for 2 years, now in the Justice department as an Attorney this year
-> Committee Chair Candidate from State College last year
-> Chief Parliamentarian of State College club 12th grade
-Active member of Girl Scouts for 4 years (helping with a lot of community projects in this context
-Volunteered 80+ hours for Obama Presidential campaign in 2009
-Founded a non-profit organization, Janis’ Angels, to deliver gift baskets to cancer patients during the Christmas season. We’ve given about 100 baskets a year to patients over the last 5 years.
- Individually designed and sold a calendar to benefit the non-profit advocacy and charity group “The HP Alliance” – raised about $700 last year and have begun to sell the second version of the calendar I designed for 2010
- Traveled as a People to People Student Ambassador to Australia the summer before 9th grade</p>

<p>** Work Experience **
- Worked as a busser at a breakfast restaurant for a year before offered a more desirable job as…
-…A cashier at the local grocery store, where I’ve been working for almost 2 years now. For the past year or so I’ve worked between 15 and 22 hours per week.</p>

<p>Honors/Awards
-Selected by NCTE in 8th grade as a “Promising Young Writer” and in 11th grade for the “Writing Achievement Award”. In both cases I was only one of 4-5 nominated out of a class of 700, and in the latter I was one of 712 chosen nationally out of ~1800 nominated.
-Selected as the only one out of my sophomore class to attend HOBY (Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Seminar)
- Bronze Pen award- given to the best writer out of the class in 9th grade
-Won Kohl’s “Kids Who Care” award for work with aforementioned Janis’ Angels
-Reached state level in American Legion Oratorical Contest (11th grade) and won state level for American Legion Essay Contest
-Recognized and asked to read a piece I’d written for the PSU African American Write-in in 10th grade
- Won the Carnegie Science Fair in Behavioral Science division in 8th grade.
-National Merit Commended Scholar
-Youngest female to finish 4.4 mile Chesapeake Bay Swim in 2008 (at age of 15)
-Given local award in memorial of our late mayor Bill Welch for excellence in Journalism through the Young Writers program
-Candidate in the Presidential Scholars program through the Education department</p>

<p>Recs/Essays/Etc/
-Very good recs, I think, but everyone probably thinks that, so who really knows?
-Everyone who has read my essays so far has loved them, and I still think they’re sorely lacking, but you’re your own worst critic, aren’t you?
- The head of the LE/Gifted Department asked me if she could please personally write my counselor recommendations after reading something I wrote, so I think that will be a fantastic rec since she was so excited about getting to write it</p>

2

<p>Is the Scholar Day letter supposed to come alongside the acceptance letter? Does it appear online or will it only be a hard copy with the acceptance letter in the mail?</p>

3

<p>Scholarship day letters were sent out a couple weeks ago. I didnt get one. :(</p>

4

<p>I know that they have another Scholarship Day for RD applicants later in the year, but I’m not sure about your situation.</p>

<p>However, on the Scholarship Day invite, it says that they only invite 130 students. That’s 130 out of THIRTEEN THOUSAND. Insane. Merit aid must be really hard to come by… eek!</p>

<p>Good luck, though! :]</p>

5

<p>There is a post on the admissions blog that talks about merit aid. You should read it and the comments.</p>

6

<p>I didn’t get a letter either. They must be hard to get, considering many of us here didn’t get one.</p>

7

<p>No one should be surprised to not get merit aid. It is extremely, extremely difficult to get invited to Scholarship Day.</p>

8

<p>I guess I didn’t realize how difficult it was at UNC compared to most other schools, especially since I was under the impression that UNC had a good reputation regarding merit aid…oh well.</p>

9

<p>Also–you have INCREDIBLE extracurriculars, but when it comes to Scholarship Day, UNC is looking solely at academics. The leadership, teamwork, and whatnot is saved for other scholarships such as the Robertson and Morehead-Cain. Basically, they’re just looking for those students who have grades that are through-the-roof and have taken the hardest schedule as possible. </p>

<p>Did you apply for the Morehead or Robertson? It looks like you would have been a GREAT fit.</p>