How do the non-resident merit scholarships work at University of Arizona? Are they automatic if the student meets the gpa cutoff?
Have you visited the UA website ? It should have a section on scholarships that addresses non-resident awards.
To be fair, the U of A website currently says the details re the terms and conditions of merit scholarships are “coming soon”, whatever that means.
Here is the page with scholarship amounts: https://financialaid.arizona.edu/types-of-aid/scholarships/incoming-transfer
@AlwaysMoving Thanks but I’m not sure if that info answers my question. Just wondering if someone with a 3.9 will definitely get the amount on the chart, or is there a “holistic review”? The description of one of the scholarships says that it is highly competitive offered to a select number of students. So to me that is vague as to whether the merit award is automatic so long as the gpa is met.
I don’t think there is anything holistic about the scholarships in the chart section. It’s just the applicants GPA gets them this amount. My D was awarded the exact amount on the chart. I hope that helps.
@AlwaysMoving yes that does, thank you!
@AlwaysMoving One more thing—did your daughter choose to submit the Common App essay with her U of A application? I would like my son to submit his application this weekend without the essay, but not if merit awards are dependent on the essay.
She did the UofA application and entered her grades. It was kind of a pain to add the grades, but she heard back in 2 days so it was worth it.
Son received $35K for 4.0. Heard back in 2 days. Honors pending
@LollieW @AlwaysMoving Wow that’s great that your kids heard back so quickly and got the scholarship money. Must feel good to have an acceptance and money!
May be a bit late, but essay has no impact on merit. For this year, they removed SAT/ACT and it’s as objective as possible. GPA X.XX = Scholarship $Y
@johnny203 thanks–do you know whether there is any benefit to applying before the Nov. deadline to get merit? In other words, is the merit money guaranteed so long as you apply before the early deadline and you meet the gpa requirement?
Sorry, I took a 3 day break from the site! Waiting does not have any impact. You get the grades, you get the money - UA has the simplest merit program possible. Imagine - a college making things easier! As you said before, having acceptance and money is wonderful. My third time through and #3 is having it so much better than the first 2 by already being admitted to a top 3 choice school for her. The first 2 suffered all the way to April 1st - not fun.
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In addition to the auto scholarships, has anyone had experience with departmental scholarships at U Arizona?
my kid applied there last year, and they were true to last year’s chart. He had a 3.98 GPA; 34 ACT and good/high AP scores. (AP Distinction). A kid in his class didnt have any AP honors, lower ACT score, ranked less than my kid on weighted GPA, but had a perfect 4.0. . . . . and that made the difference of $5K per yea (20$K total. basically free tuition). S20 missed it by One B.
It’s all fine. I’ve let it go. really! But at the time, we were frustrated. HOWEVER, every school can place value on what they want for scholarships.
Extra money: We have two in college with EFCs around 20 apiece; and Arizona did offer my kid and extra 2-3K per year. It was something that was academic AND need based, and would go away if the EFC was over a certain amount (40+). It was really nice and unexpected of them. I forget the name. But -yes there was this. (not departmental).
@bgbg4us Your son sounds like mine…got one B+, which seems to make a big difference with merit not just at Arizona, but other schools too. But it’s good to know what Arizona bases its merit on, and the merit is one of the most generous I’ve seen, so I can’t complain. For once, an objective standard, rather than the opaque “holistic” process.
Maybe this is for another thread, but did your son choose Arizona, and if so, does he like it?
morseLewis - we are in the midwest; my son chose Alabama. Their engineering facilities and groups were really quite impressive. And the campus spirit was really infectious! (pre-covid visit I need to add). The end cost put AZ and Bama within a few K of each other. My son does have a roommate at Bama from AZ right now; thought that was funny. . The other kid from my son’s class is at AZ and really liking it.
My OOS daughter heard back about a week ago and got 20K merit based on UW GPA of core classes.
Would you mind sharing how long it took to get a response?
We are out of state too, and the portal says it will take 1-2 weeks to process the application, which is fine of course but doesn’t comport with what others upthread have said about it taking no more than 2 days…