<p>How realistic is my hope of getting a merit-based scholarship from Chicago? How many do they give out, and what are they looking for in the recipients?</p>
<p>Most of the merit based awards I've seen (my D just finished her first year at Chicago, and had HS classmates who got merit awards but went elsewhere) went to kids who were ivy admits in addition to Chicago admits. Chicago does not give out many merit awards, so you should be real solid in the app pool.</p>
<p>you have to be really outstanding in the applicant pool (like top 10-15). The merit awards at U. Chi are to try to lure away people who will also be easily admitted and sought after at HYPSM. Someone who is "merely" their high school's valedictorian with perfect grades and SAT scores would probably not qualify. They will be getting applicants with things like graduate courses in high school, significant nat'l level honors, published research, etc.</p>
<p>I believe that there are 30 merit scholarship offers made. 5 kids from my D's schools applied, 3 were accepted, and 1 was offered a merit scholarship. (That kid was accepted to 3 ivies, and chose to go to one of those instead.)</p>
<p>chocoholic is right, it's 30
<a href="http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level3.asp?id=67%5B/url%5D">http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level3.asp?id=67</a></p>
<p>(that's the number of offers made. The number of people who end up at U. Chicago with merit scholarships will obviously be less)</p>
<p>There is currently a major fund drive to raise an additional $100 million for merit and need based aid. Perhaps there will be offered this year. A friend of S's was offered $32,000, but a top Ivy offered $42,000, and that sealed the deal, though the friend really wanted to go to Chicago.</p>
<p>Some of the merit aid is offered to URM's too. My D received $9,500, and she was not a val with perfect scores.</p>
<p>Merit scholarships from places like U. Chicago (or Caltech) are not generally looking for kids who are "merely" vals w/ perfect scores. They are looking for kids who have excelled beyond what a high school offers. Like kids who have done significant research, or who have national honors in math/science olympiads, Siemens-Westinghouse, etc. Those kids may have perfect scores, but are often not val because they were bored by their classes, or unwilling to do busywork, or spent so much time on their passion that they gave short shrift to some subjects, or took a bunch of college courses that were not weighted for high school GPA.</p>
<p>I can't find the place on the app that lets you apply. Can someone point it out for me? Thnx.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that a big factor in merit scholarships is revenue management. And factors other than merit enter into the picture, too.</p>
<p>My D just finished her first year at U of C, and it was interesting to learn who of her friends received merit scholarships, what their background was, and how they were doing at U of C. Suffice to say I could not discern any relationship between academic promise, academic performance, and merit scholarships. </p>
<p>I have a distinct sense that merit scholarships are used by U of C to entice kids who can afford to pay most or all of the cost to attend when they sit on the fence. This is consistent with the Atlantic Monthly article of two years ago. I think a great way to avoid a merit award is to show too much enthusiasm.</p>
<p>texas137, you may have other knowledge, but I did not see merit awards go to the superstars.</p>
<p>there certainly may be partial scholarships, possibly based on Nat'l Merit, that serve the revenue management purpose you are talking about. Other colleges certainly do that. It's kind of like a $500 car rebate is meant to entice people who can then spend $30,000 on the car. </p>
<p>The merit scholarships I am talking about are full-tuition for 4 years, so they are meant to entice kids who will then only pay room & board. The 2 kids I know specifically who received offers were both top 10 or so math kids in the country. And when I asked about it at an info session with one of the admissions directors, it definitely came across that they were looking for the superstars. </p>
<p>Just because 30 full-tuition scholarships are offered, does not mean that there are 30 super-star recipients walking around campus. Kids like that all get accepted everywhere they apply, and may very well choose another school. There are only 10-15 seniors who go to the int'l math/science olympiads each year, for example, and they end up spread out over a half dozen or so top colleges. Caletch offers around 12 full-ride scholarships per year, but only matriculate about 2 recipients. If U. Chicago has the same yield, the 30 full-tuition offers per year would only translate into 4-5 actual students. (Maybe less, since Caltech's offers include room and board and U. Chicago's don't.) Also inferring from Caltech - it's hard to identify "superstarness" in 17-18 year olds. Full-ride scholars there may or may not do more glorious things than their peers when they actually get there.</p>
<p>My S's friend received a full-tuition merit award from Chicago and was quite enthusiastic about the school and planned to attend, but Yale offered much more, and given the friend's financial situation it was a good decision. The friend really regrets not being able to attend Chicago, but is hoping for grad school there. If the $$ had been nearly equal, Chicago would have been the choice. Not a math wiz, but a real solid person and student.</p>
<p>"Some of the merit aid is offered to URM's too. My D received $9,500, and she was not a val with perfect scores."
Was she a sal with near-perfect scores?</p>
<p>Not sure what they base their merit offers on, but the student i know, who was offered $9500, had a 1600 SAT, and 3.9 uw gpa. She is going elsewhere however.</p>
<p>The student to which I referred had a 1500+ SAT, very good GPA, but more importantly, showed a passion for an intellectual pursuit in an area often not attractive to many undergrads, which, I believe is the hook that attracted both Chicago & Yale. Applied to Chicago EA and to Yale RD, applied to one other school EA (a safety), but once Chicago admission came, only applied to one other school (Yale) just to see what they would say.</p>
<p>My daughter just finished her first year at Chicago. She was fortunate to receive the full tuition scholarship. She made it very clear that Chicago was her first-choice school.</p>