Merit Award Formula

<p>For the DHS application, do they also want a full copy of the previous application that you’ve submitted for admission to the college. The application seems to want you to include a copy of the application along with all supporting materials. For those of you who have submitted your DHS application, did you send along a copy of your admission application also?</p>

<p>I see your confusion, it is rather ambiguously worded. No, they just mean if you have not submitted your regular application that, you have to do that by the same deadline as the DHS, Dec 15. That means even if you are applying RD, which usually means by Jan 15, if you are applying for the DHS it has to be in by Dec 15. If you already applied, whether or not they have acted on it, then you don’t have to send it again. It is in your file, and it will all be merged.</p>

<p>Fallenchemist, do you have any idea what the “Hermann John Janssen” Founder’s Scholarship would be worth? I got that one, but don’t really know anything about it.</p>

<p>TiptopTulane - I don’t, sorry. There are a raft of fellowships and scholarships named after people that donated to Tulane in a specific way to create these funds. Yours is specific for the School of Science and Engineering [Tulane</a> University - Endowed Scholarships and Fellowships](<a href=“http://tulane.edu/sse/about/endowed/endowed-scholarships-and-fellowships.cfm]Tulane”>http://tulane.edu/sse/about/endowed/endowed-scholarships-and-fellowships.cfm) My D, who is a DHS winner as you probably know since I brag about it all the time, got a letter telling her she was the recipient of some similar award but that there wasn’t actually any additional money involved (no surprise there since she already gets full tuition). So I think this is a way for you to be able to say on your resume that you won an additional, prestigious scholarship, even if there really isn’t any more money involved. Of course, I don’t know what scholarship you are currently receiving, if any. She said there was also going to be a lunch in March in honor of students that won these kinds of awards. Did you get that in your letter as well?</p>

<p>@Fallenchemist: Yep, also going to the March 17th Luncheon.</p>

<p>Well then, congrats on that. I noticed one of the Science & Engineering named Scholarships is the Professor Hans Boech Jonassen Memorial Scholarship in Chemistry. I worked in Professor Jonassen’s lab as a freshman and sophomore, and when I could not make it home for Thanksgiving sophomore year he had me at his home for Thanksgiving dinner. He was a wonderful and gracious man. Just seeing that brought back a lot of memories.</p>

<p>I wonder if zip code could be included in the calculation? Afterall, this is a business too and the school must take an educated guess as to the ability of a student’s family to pay something closer to the retail price of $50k. Somewhere between the super achievers and the financial need students is the sweet spot to maintain the average net price for university.</p>

<p>Judging by those that got them in the past I would say no, zip code had little to nothing to do with it. Have things changed this year? Not likely in that regard, but I certainly cannot say 100% it isn’t true. I just know it couldn’t have been true in the past or people that I know that are very affluent and/or live in zip codes considered affluent whose kids got top awards would not have.</p>

<p>Well, since I started this thread, I thought I should give an update on how my son fared in terms of merit awards. The letter came yesterday: $15,000/year. So there is now one more New Yorker who will be heading to NOLA come August!</p>

<p>I have a question that I hope someone can help me with. My daughter was offered the Presidential award of 25K. Based on the online calculator our estimated family contribution to college is around 27K. I started wondering if the Presidential award would take the place of our expected contribution. I called the school and they said it would not. We would still have to pay our share. On the surface it seems reasonable but when I started thinking about it it struck me that in our situation there is no real advantage to the Presidental award. If she didnt get the award and we submitted our financial info to the school, they would offer her a package for the difference(we would pay our 27k and the difference would be made up in financial aid). I realize some of that would probably include loans but the rest would be scholarships grants work study etc. So …is my reasoning correct?</p>

<p>Ok. I called back and questioned this. Basically I asked what the advantage was. I was told that based on the number I gave her regarding our estimated family contribution she said my daughter would not have recieved any financial aid other than loans. So, I guess thats my answer. With the scholarship she would have 100k less in loans over the four years! I know this isnt the forum for this discussion but that financial aid forum makes my head spin!</p>

<p>It does make sense in a few ways, actually. First, EFC is what they figure you can afford to pay, so getting a merit scholarship does not reduce that, unless the merit scholarship is large enough that your EFC exceeds what is left to pay. That would be the case if she wins the DHS or gets the Community Service Scholarship. Even though you can afford $27,000 (at least according to the EFC calculator), there wouldn’t be $27,000 left to pay. But as it stands now, in essence the scholarship is a new asset so your EFC is $27,000+$25,000=$52,000. It’s just that now $25,000 of that $52,000 is in “Tulane Bucks”. Second, as you found out, now there is less or nothing in the way of loans, a huge advantage. Third, the scholarship is guaranteed for all 4 years, assuming she keeps up her grades and the like. This is different from FA which can vary from year to year depending on income changes, etc.</p>

<p>Private schools obviously depend on tuition income for a large portion of the budget. If they subtracted the merit scholarships from the EFC, they would be broke!</p>

<p>I understand. It was just that I was shocked to know that the difference after the EFC is paid, is given all in loans. I think I ought to jot off a note the the Yahoo guy. Maybe he will write another big check. I hear hes pretty plump in the pocket. I have another question but I will post it on the DHS board. Thankyou.</p>

<p>David Filo. Yeah, he must have a few bucks, there was a rumor (unfounded as it turned out) that he would buy the Hornets. $30,000,000 is pretty generous to say the least, but naturally any more would be wonderful.</p>

<p>I have a 35 on my ACT and a 2210 on my SAT and I got 25,000 with my acceptance letter. Also, I am a valedictorian candidate at my high school. However, I live in New Orleans and my high school is supposedly well-connected with Tulane because many of our students go there, so my stats might not be helpful.</p>

<p>nola15 - I don’t think it would matter if you went to Podunk High School in Timbuktu, those tremendous stats would have gotten you a Presidential. I hope you applied for the Hainkel.</p>

<p>I applied for the Hainkel and the Deans, but Tulane isn’t my first choice</p>

<p>do a lot of people get the founders scholarship? what percentage of people applying would u say receive scholarships?</p>

<p>Tulane doesn’t say what percentage of people get which scholarships. It would really be a wild guess to speculate on the numbers. Maybe 3-5% get offered the Presidential, 5-8% the Distinguished Scholars, and 8-10% or so the Founders. But that is just me having fun guessing, it has no basis in anything other than the observations made on here and from talking to other students, which is a highly biased sampling. It also makes some sense in that 10-12% get invited to the Honors Program, and in the past only the Presidential and some Distinguished Scholar winners got invited.</p>

<p>I really doubt Tulane has any “formula” for merit money.
I have a 32 ACT and 90/100 unweighted gpa, and I’ve gotten zero dollars from Tulane so far (I was accepted back in mid-October). My admissions counselor Mollie Montelaro said that I would have to improve my stats before they could re-review my application for merit scholarships/</p>