<p>What can I get for a 34 ACT and 4.2 GPA?</p>
<p>What else can you tell us about yourself? URM status? State of Residency? NMF status? Unweighted GPA? Intended Major?</p>
<p>Don’t count on merit aid from UW just for your stats. btw- only unweighted grades are used- ceiling is therefore 4.0. You can look at the scholarship page and see which scholarships you might compete for. A complaint has been the lack of pure merit aid, especially for incoming students.</p>
<p>Unweighted is around 3.8. I’m from Minnesota so its instate costs. Intend to do biomedical engineering. EFC is aroung 80k.</p>
<p>Same question for me. The Scholarships website says that there are only 40 scholarships available to freshmen, what could I expect to receive:
34 ACT
4.0 unweighted/4.5 weighted
NMSF
Wisconsin Resident
Intended Major: Pre-Med or Business</p>
<p>Don’t count on anything. Need based aid is the only funding most will get. Consider this- even with your stellar credentials there are bound to be more than 40 with equal or greater records, or who meet the restrictions placed on some merit aid. Maybe you’ll be one of the NMS at UW.</p>
<p>btw- premed is an intention, not a major. Business and medicine are radically different directions to take. Figure out if you want the math/science or the math/business related courses. Freshman year the big difference will be deciding to take a chemistry course, there is overlap in math and courses that can be used for breadth requirements. Lifestyles in the two are also radically different. You won’t need to decide until in college, but something to think about. Consider WHY you would choose either- the daily work, not the money earned.</p>
<p>UW admissions are school wide- your intended major will not affect getting accepted to UW as a freshman. Most students go from undecided or change majors once there.</p>
<p>[Scholarships</a> | Student Academic Affairs](<a href=“http://www.lssaa.wisc.edu/scholarships/criteria.html]Scholarships”>http://www.lssaa.wisc.edu/scholarships/criteria.html)</p>
<p>See above link for selection criteria for College of Letters and Science scholarships. Generally, students must display two or more of the following attributes:</p>
<ol>
<li>Academic Merit </li>
<li>Creative Accomplishment</li>
<li>Financial Need</li>
<li> Diversity of Background</li>
<li> Unusual Force of Character</li>
<li> Community Service</li>
<li> Leadership</li>
</ol>
<p>I don’t think any incoming freshman can ‘count on’ any scholarship.</p>
<p>With your stats you are a good candidate for direct freshman B school admission. They DO admit select ones right to Business now starting last year. Also Business has more money for merit aid than many others on campus. If you are interested contact me directly through CC as I have some good contacts in the B school. I think we would love to have you at UW Business.</p>
<p>[Undergraduate</a> Program myBiz](<a href=“http://www.bus.wisc.edu/mybiz/20100709/important-information-regarding-wisconsin-school-of-business-admission/#more-2600]Undergraduate”>http://www.bus.wisc.edu/mybiz/20100709/important-information-regarding-wisconsin-school-of-business-admission/#more-2600)</p>
<p>I was pleasantly surprised that my daughter got any merit aid from UW, she was OOS with no financial need per FAFSA, but she certainly did from the school of engineering!! Comparable academic stats and lots of leadership and service relative to the discussion. State schools tend to have less aid but also lower costs, and many tell you up front they have less for out of state than in state in many cases based on what the source is. One school in the big ten told us at a parent meeting during the second visit for accepted students if you are out of state you will not get any merit aid period. So, overall we were happy and it made her feel wanted.</p>
<p>One word of advice, the new (I think) on line scholarship system was a bit different than a lot of (OK all we dealt with) other schools. Many just use your application. It took some work and really irritated one of my daughters teachers who had to re send letters of recommendation for multiple scholarships the site said she should apply for at UW after sending the stuff for the application, etc. Most of the info was about the same. So, unless it is changing be prepared to work through that and follow up. And not all scholarships in engineering were on this web based system it seems, my daughter missed applying for one with an early deadline. The alumni one was also completely different and came via her listed email on her application. So, be prepared to earn your money, but it’s worth the effort especially if you know it’s where you want to go. </p>
<p>By the way getting the money credited was automatic, no issues.</p>
<p>Yes, despite efforts to get all the money listed in one place there still are things kept by the individual schools, colleges, depts, alumni etc. Engineering is seeking women and minority kids so not surprising they you found some for your daughter. The info is there but you have to look at each school’s website too. It can be worth it.</p>
<p>Another thought. You are not owed anything for doing a great job in HS. When applying consider that the places least likely to offer you merit money may be the places with the most people academically like you- a large peer group to enjoy. You may get substantial merit offers elsewhere, but think about the intellectual level of the peer group you will join. Be sure you choose based on more than money.</p>
<p>Wis75, UW isn’t a school “with the most people academically like” the original poster here. The average UW student has much lower credentials tha this student. And there are plenty of schools that do offer merit aid to students like the OP whose academic profiles are at least as strong as UW’s. </p>
<p>You’re basically making a case for the OP to go elsewhere.</p>
<p>■■■■■ alert, folks. </p>
<p>OP- you WILL find those students with similar credentials/abilities at UW. There are many instate students in each state for whom their flagship is the best overall option. Not all top students attend private colleges or go OOS. Percentages also do not equal numbers- schools like UW with many thousands of freshmen will have the numbers to populate the Honors classes you will be interested in. </p>
<p>Consider this- with a middle 50 %ile ACT top score of 30 there are 25% of the students with an ACT above 30. As to the gradepoint- many students who are smart/gifted do not always get perfect grades despite knowing more in a class than those who also do the work. Plus the cumulative gpa- some wake up and get better grades after a year or two of HS. Then the courses taken- some with a 4.0 will not have taken as rigorous an academic schedule. Good job both with the high test score and getting the grades- not trying to take away from your accomplishments but pointing out you can find others smarter than you. But then, you probably already know students in your HS classes whose abilities you respect despite their gpa not being perfect.</p>
<p>The warning about choosing a school based on merit aid offered. It can be hard to not mention specific names. Some public and private U’s try to improve their student body stats by offering merit money. Who doesn’t want the best students one can get? Their overall student body stats will be lower than UW’s. Other schools will have both the top students and give money- unfortunately for you UW is not one of them. Choose your school on more than where you get paid for HS accomplishments with merit aid. Consider the rankings for grad programs in majors you are interested in. By the time you have junior/senior standing your courses will reflect the strengths of the department- and you may even be taking some grad level courses before you finish. UW may be an excellent choice, or some other school for the fields you are interested in may be a better choice. Also check on the details of any Honors Programs/Colleges. See what is truly available for your coursework and other options such as research.</p>
<p>Hope this long winded post helps you. You likely have received many unsolicited mailings from schools trying to entice you with merit aid. Some of those offers are from schools trying to recruit top students. Others may not come through with money since others will get it instead of you. It may be worth your while to pay more out of pocket for the school you feel is the best fit than to take advantage of the merit aid offers from some schools.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Not very nice, wis75. Just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t make her a ■■■■■.
The top quarter of UW students have a 30 on the SAT. The poster here has a 34. There will be far, far fewer than a quarter of the incoming class at UW with the OP’s credentials.</p>
<p>The fact is that there are schools out there with higher quality student bodies than UW and better reputations that award generous merit aid. The OP being from the midwest, the two most obvious examples are University of Michigan on the large school end and Grinnell College on the small school end. There’s no reason why the OP can’t have his or her cake and eat it too. When it comes to aid – be it merit or need-based – UW just doesn’t compete with the top schools.</p>
<p>Michigan and Grinnell offer no advantages for studying life sciences pre-med as UW has among the best life sciences faculty and facilities in the US if not the world. For business it would depend on what area. If you are set on Wall Street there are some others that are better–UM would be one. For accounting, corporate finance, real estate, actuarial science, and marketing UW is as good as anywhere.</p>
<p>Barrons, my point isn’t so much that either of these schools is a better fit (although I wouldn’t be surprised if the average Grinnell student did better getting into med school than the average UW student), it’s only that there clearly are excellent schools out there that offer merit aid and that wis75 is wrong to write them all off as inferior. It’s a typical ploy for UW boosters to attempt to cast a UW weakness – lack of merit aid – as a plus. It’s not a plus, and it probably explains why UW isn’t overrun with students with 34s on the ACT.</p>
<p>I think I could probally get around a 5000 dollar scholarship from university of minnesota</p>
<p>UW is large enough that there can be more students, absolute numbers, with top stats than at a small school with higher percentages of top students. The quality of the students in the Honors program would be the peer group. There will be students with higher ACT scores- 10% of roughly 6,000 entering freshmen is 600, so there should be a peer group with similar scores even with a bell shaped curve for scores. The quality of grad programs and research also counts when taking upper level courses. Small LAC schools generally can’t offer the same variety of upper division/grad level courses in all majors, especially in the sciences. Medical schools assign different scores to colleges- such as Wis medical schools give more points to UW than other area schools.</p>
<p>Twins127- you may find yourself attending U of M simply to save money.</p>
<p>Twins127, the Trustee Scholarship at Grinnell is a merit scholarship for up to $15,000 p.a. The class sizes, including the into bio and chem courses are 25 students or fewer. The facilities are state-of-the-art. The science faculty, in particular, are outstanding. S has personal relationships with all of his profs, which will be very useful when it’s time to get letters of rec together for med or grad school. If you can see yourself at a rural LAC, check it out.</p>