<p>Merit Scholarship offers to EA candidates are in the mail.....D got hers today :)</p>
<p>Astrophysicsmom, wow that's really great and interesting! Would you mind sharing with us the specifics of your daughter's award? And, maybe her stats? Congratulations!!</p>
<p>Col. Robinson -- $2500/yr for In-state (too bad---out of state, it's tuition+room/board). From what I could tell at the scholarship day event, most everyone there had very similar stats.... hers are 4.0 uw gpa, (almost 5.0 weighted), 2250 SAT, Class Rank #1, etc. We're very proud of her, of course, and she's still waiting to hear from 4 other schools..... good luck, everybody!</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing astrophysicsmom! You should be very proud! It's smart to wait on the other options that she is sure to have! If one has the luxury, $ shouldn't rule this decision. Just my opinion.
Why is it that OOS students seem to get such a better deal with the Carolina merit scholarship system? It doesn't seem fair to NC residents that pay all the taxes. Anyone else agree, or am I missing something basic?</p>
<p>umm..i dont think instaters should be complaining..considering they have one of the cheapest tuitions in the nation.</p>
<p>Yeah, really. UNC in-staters already have TONS of benefits. Why complain about the one benefit that a VERY SMALL NUMBER of out-of-staters get?</p>
<p>No, I guess I understand why UNC offers the full ride to OOS students>>>it increases diversity of students who otherwise would not come to Carolina. Guess I'm just jealous!</p>
<p>I could be wrong but I thought that they give big $ to just a small # of oos to make them come. But they give smaller awards (still a good % of tuition) to lots of instate kids - kind of spreading the wealth to those who pay the taxes. They figure those instate kids will still come because the cost is so low compared to going elsewhere and more instate kids can benefit this way.</p>
<p>As a resident, I complain because UNC offers 25 or more full-ride merit scholarships to out-of-state students each year, but not a single one is awarded to an in-state student--regardless of how great a candidate he is. </p>
<p>Yes, we are fortunate to have a highly-rated public university, and we pay the taxes to support it, but top resident students would be far better off if they lived out-of-state. Non-residents are fortunate that they are able to attend UNC for significantly less than they would pay at a comparable university, and a number of those will do so without paying anything for tuition, fees, room, or board for all 4 years that they attend at taxpayer expense.</p>
<p>I can understand your point of view. If I were the top rated instate student, I would want the free ride also. Our state u, Rutgers, no longer gives free rides due to budget problems. My son was offered the Presidential scholarship ($17,000/yr) that covers most of the $20,000+instate cost - but he wasn't offered a penny from UNC (but was accepted into the honors college).</p>
<p>You know, to play the devil's advocate, when an in-state student gets a meager merit scholarship and watches while OOS students get the "full-ride", it really defeats the ego, and blows the wind out of the sails for NC parents who are paying taxes to have such a great Public University in the state in which we reside.</p>
<p>as an OOS student who's paying ~$30k a year, it really makes me angry to hear in-state students complaining about what they're paying.</p>
<p>if you needed the money, they do give 100% need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>yes, UNC does give out- what was said above?- 25 full rides? that's pretty minute in the grand scheme of things.</p>
<p>honestly, it's a little ridiculous. OOS pays 2 or 3 times what IS pays, and there aren't very many opportunities for scholarships. it's especially ridiculous with the new tuition hikes that, by the way, virtually ALL OSS students protested and were ignored.</p>
<p>to logosprincipal, i'm sure the 30k being pay by most OOS students more than compensates for the free ride that a mere 25 get.</p>
<p>Astrophysicsmom, thanks again for posting.<br>
I, too, was there on Scholarship Day and was hoping to hear word from them yesterday, but didn't. So I guess I'll get the letter on Monday. I'll post when the letter comes.
Please keep us updated about your daughter. Sounds like she's got a bright future!!</p>
<p>^^ Under my impression, what most instate kids are confused about is that even if you have the most brilliant instate candidate in the world, he cannot get a full ride like maybe a less qualified out of state candidate, which is confusing b/c the role of a public school is in fact to mainly attract students from instate. We know that out-of state kids have to pay more and are generally disadvantaged in the admissions process, but we're just confused why there are practical full rides for Out of State students (this is from what i've heard, I don't know that much about it) and In-state students can't get something even close to a full ride no matter what they do.</p>
<p>I'm not sure why you're paying 30K, fromdistantstar, but the cost of out-of-state tuition is $18,104 per year. All other costs are the same for residents and non-residents. UNC costs far less than any comparable university for both residents and non-residents, and both are being subsidized by the taxpayers of North Carolina. Also, that 100% need-based financial aid is for both out-of-state and in-state students.</p>
<p>what fromdistantstar means is that OOS students pay a TOTAL of 30K per year, whereas instate pays a total of 15K</p>
<p>Actually, I would have thought there were a lot more than 25 full freight merit scholarships that UNC offers to OOS, when you consider the athletic scholarships, the Pogue, the Davie, Carolina Scholars, and the Col. Robinson funds ($10 million?) given to UNC in 2005, I think, earmarked specifically for scholarships. I assume these (Robinson) are all full freight to out-of-staters and $2500 to in-staters. The Robertson and Morehead, of course, offer full rides to both in-state and out-of-state, and are really administered from private foundations, not directly from the University. Not including those, though, I would have thought there were more than 25 per year offered to OOS. The Col. Robinson alone offers about 10 [full-freight] to out-of-state freshmen each year, no?</p>
<p>Yes, there are many other full-rides available to out-of-state students at UNC besides the merit scholarships that come directly from the university. There were 24 academic merit full-rides given by UNC to out-of-state students last year, but not one to in-state students. I expect that more than 24 will be given this year. Of the money from Col. Robinson that was given out last year, 75% of it was given to 6 out-of-state students to provide them each with full-rides. The other 25% was given to 10 in-state students at $2,500 each. I don’t know how these students compared, but I do know that in the past, the stats of the out-of-state and in-state recipients of the top scholarships were similar.</p>
<p>This topic was discussed on CC last year, so I'll post a link for those interested in finding out more. UNC didn't utilize the legislative scholarship provision as aggressively as expected last year, so the 23% of out-of-state students isn't accurate...yet.</p>
<p>There was a bill in the General Assembly last year to repeal the scholarship provision, but it was killed because too many powerful legislators opposed it. I would encourage North Carolinians who object to this provision to contact your state legislators and let them know how you feel.</p>
<p>Actually, the way that Carolina gives out scholarships is strange in itself. </p>
<p>For example, the Robertson scholarship. I know four people who were given it. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>A girl from my boyfriend's (in-state) high school. She wasn't the smartest person, but she worked hard. Always got A's and B's, but mostly got there by studying hard and not just getting the information right off the bat. Had an SAT score of 1300's (old). </p></li>
<li><p>A girl from an organization I'm a part of (again, in-state). Not really the brightest girl either. I think she just was a part of a lot in high school (ie: teen court and movie productions, etc.) I looked at her schedule the other day, and she was still taking a lot of introductory classes (and suggested to me that she didn't place out via SAT scores).</p></li>
<li><p>A guy from England. Really good at tennis and had fairly good marks throughout high school. Very uninteresting person, and didn't have good essays.</p></li>
<li><p>A guy from Virginia who was very involved in writing. Had an SAT score of about 1400. We were talking about it one day at lunch, and my friend (who is hispanic) said that he had gotten a 1480 on his SAT and wondered why the Virginian had gotten it and not him.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In a lot of ways, it feels like they just hand them out at random.</p>
<p>My friend from California is in the Honor's Program, validictorian, straight A's, 2380 SAT's, played 3 varsity sports, and took (and passed!) AP tests that weren't even offered in his school. Didn't get any scholarships from Carolina (only 1,500 from National Merit or something).</p>
<p>Another from Oregon who got in to all the Ivy's except for Yale. Clearly just an all-around bright kid. Didn't get any money from Carolina except for financial aid. </p>
<p>Furthermore, the Roberston scholarship is offered to BOTH in-state and out-of-state students. It's a free ride. This year, 7 of the selected people were from North Carolina. The Morehead scholarship does virtually the same thing.</p>
<p>So yes, people do get free rides to Carolina from in-state.</p>