<p>D received Trustee scholarship notification yesterday. We live in Southern Indiana.</p>
<p>Well, son never received any notification for any scholarships from Purdue. He was accepted on Dec. 5, so I'm sure we would have received it by now. I thought he would have.....But there's a catch. His school is heavily tracked, and all of his classes are at the honors level, which is 2 levels above the 4.0 level. That is why his weighted GPA is 5.114 out of 4.0, and his rank is 7 of 940 at a competitive high school. HOWEVER, his Unweighted GPA is 3.8, and if you take out any non-core classes, it's 3.775 (below 3.8), which apparently is the below the minimum to receive a scholarship. Doesn't seem right.</p>
<p>d101, I am so sorry to hear your story. I agree, that doesn't seem right. :(
I hope that you will find comfort in the knowledge that your son appears to be extremely well prepared to succeed academically. I do suggest that the counseling department at your high school should be made aware of this situation so that others may benefit from this. If I had six children I would have this college search, application, and scholarship thing down by the time I was through!</p>
<p>A similar thing happened with my youngest. Had too many 92's in some classes, which is a B according to our high school's grading scale. If the grading scale had been 90-100 = A, the 3.8 GPA requirement would have been easily met. But because our grading scale is 94-100 = A, my youngest falls short of Purdue's 3.8 unweighted GPA requirement for a merit scholarship - despite earning a 33 on the ACT, taking a total of 11 AP classes, and being very highly ranked.</p>
<p>Youngest was offered $9,900 per year in merit scholarships from Ohio State, though, so... YAY Ohio State!</p>
<p>Purdue's merit scholarship criteria could use some flexibility and tweaking, IMO. :(</p>
<p>Thanks! It sounds like Purdue is losing out of some very amazing kids with this policy. Besides being so highly ranked, s also scored 36 on ACT and 1600 on SAT! He was offered great money at Pitt and MSU and even a nice scholarship at in-state UIUC (unexpected), so great options. What's frustrating is that if he had decided to take just one class at accelerated (and got an A) vs. honors (and got a B) he would have easily gotten his 3.8!</p>
<p>I'm OOS and just got my scholarship offer. Purdue is giving me $7,000 a year over 4 years. A little less than I expected. To top it all off, I found that this is the cap. Any department scholarships I receive apparently go toward funding the $7,000. Oh well...</p>
<p>S received Trustees Scholarship notification today.</p>
<p>Has anyone received merit scholarship notification
with their "you're a boilermaker" packet? or is it
sent out at a later time?</p>
<p>^It's sent out at a later time.</p>
<p>Thanks, Modulation -
by the way, is that for the Trustee's scholarship that
it would be sent out later on after admission letter?</p>
<p>Yeah, both Presidential an Trustee's. They started mailing them the week of Jan. 12, I think.</p>
<p>d101parent --</p>
<p>I truly sympathize with you. My son in same situation, 3.7 unweighted, all honors, 6 aps,
2200 sat, no merit $ at all.<br>
It's not fair to kids that work so very hard in high school and are penalized for doing so --
Are you still going to consider Purdue or take it off your list?</p>
<p>Sun...Thanks for your sympathy, and I'm sorry for your situation too! We have crossed Purdue off our list completely, and it was just by chance that I saw your message to me today. He continues to be offered great packages by other schools, and was just named a National Merit Finalist...Also a candidate for the Presidential Scholars Award, which I guess is a pretty big deal... I am a bit perplexed by Purdue's lack of insight, but I suppose it makes it easier for us to narrow down the list a bit. How bout you? Are you still considering Purdue?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I truly sympathize with you. My son in same situation, 3.7 unweighted, all honors, 6 aps,
2200 sat, no merit $ at all.
It's not fair to kids that work so very hard in high school and are penalized for doing so --
Are you still going to consider Purdue or take it off your list?
[/quote]
no one is being penalized. you merely are not given a scholarship. unfortunately, there has to be a cut-off somewhere. It is very fair, because everyone is assessed by the same standards.</p>
<p>@d101parent
National Merit Finalist should get you money to pay for Purdue...</p>
<p>d101parent -</p>
<p>Yes, my son also was named NM finalist. He has had offers from other schools, still waiting to hear from others until we completely cross it off the list.
It was a perfect fit for him, unfortunately.<br>
What other schools is he considering?
By the way, what is a presidential scholar award?</p>
<p>ExplorerCY,
I totally disagree that it's fair. You're not comparing the same course load, more difficult classes, honors, advanced placement, class rank. All the schools I've dealt with don't have a hard and fast rule about scholarships without looking at the whole picture</p>
<p>I think Purdue should take another look at its merit scholarships, but you also have to realize that not all high schools are created equal. My high school only had AP calculus my senior year (they dropped other AP classes because not enough kids signed up...whatever). I'm glad that I wasn't penalized for this and still got a scholarship.</p>
<p>No matter how financial aid is structured, some deserving kids are always going to miss out. It's too bad that Purdue is potentially losing some seemingly standout students, though.</p>
<p>Does anyone know, can Trustees Scholarship $$$ be used for housing cost on campus?</p>