merit scholarships at UD

<p>Does UD give out merit scholarships to attract OOS students and if so how much is the typical award?</p>

<p>Does a student have to be admitted into the "honors" program in order to get a merit award?</p>

<p>My D is a B+/A- student with a rigorous academic program and a superscore SAT 1920 (CR 570, M 640, W 710). Any thoughts on whether she could qualify for any type of merit?</p>

<p>We are PA residents- and so UD is about $12,000 more per year than our in-state public universities- wondering whether some merit aid might be expected?</p>

<p>I’m from PA and was admitted to UD non-honors with a 4.12 weighted gpa, 1940 SAT (CR 600, M 710, W 630), and a rigorous program of study, and received no merit aid. I did, however, receive a $9000 Delaware need based grant. I did not receive any need based grant money from similar institutions where I was accepted, and where the COA was comparable or even higher. From what I remember reading on the College Board, I believe UD may use academic achievement as a criteria for awarding need based aid.</p>

<p>thanks ashley!</p>

<p>I also just found this information on the UD website relating to merit scholarships. They say that about 1/4 of the accepted students are offered some kind of merit aid with most having an A/A- average SAT in the 1300 range (CR/M). </p>

<p>I would be interested to hear from other OOS applicants on their merit scholarship experience at UD.</p>

<p>[Scholarships</a> - Student Financial Services](<a href=“Additional Scholarships | University of Delaware”>Additional Scholarships | University of Delaware)</p>

<p>"Freshman applicants who are outstanding academically may be eligible for academic scholarships awarded solely on the basis of merit without regard to financial need. All freshman applicants whose applications for Fall admission are complete by December 1, 2010 will be automatically reviewed for academic scholarships. A complete application includes the UD Application for Admission (or the Common Application and Supplement, which we also gladly accept), an official high school transcript and Secondary School Report, a letter of recommendation, and officially reported SAT-Reasoning or ACT scores with Writing. Unless requested, you do not need to send us additional information or a separate application.</p>

<p>The University of Delaware offers an unusually larger number of academic scholarships. For the Class of 2011, roughly one-quarter of the students who were offered freshman admission were also offered an academic scholarship that was based solely on academic merit without regard to financial need. Amounts ranged from $1,000 per year for four years all the way up to full scholarships (known as the Eugene DuPont Memorial Distinguished Scholar Awards, 10-12 full scholarships, including tuition, room & board, and books). Most scholarships awarded were in the range of $2,000 to $4,000 per year.</p>

<p>There is no set of “numbers” (SAT/ACT scores, GPA, class rank) that will guarantee a scholarship or scholarship amount. Rather, we look at the whole of a student’s record, especially the rigor of the course selection in high school and the trend in grades from freshman to senior year. For the Class of 2011, most scholarship winners were in the top 10% of their high school graduating class, with many in the top 5%; most had A or A- high school GPAs, and most had SATs of 1300 or higher.</p>

<p>But some students with lower scores in one or two of these categories were also offered scholarships when the Committee was impressed with the unusual rigor of their high school or the curriculum they pursued. Outstanding out-of-class accomplishments and leadership, strong endorsements in letters of recommendation, a background or heritage that would lend diversity to our campus, a parent who is an alumnus/a of the University, and exceptionally strong writing samples also play a part in our scholarship decisions; the strength and excellence of the high school record are always the most important considerations, however.</p>

<p>It is equally true that some students whose “numbers” looked good did not receive scholarship offers from the University: the reasons often had to do with such factors as a weak senior year course selection or a downward trend in grades or a weak essay. The quality of our applicant pool also affects your chances of a scholarship. For the past few years, the quality of our entering class as measured by SAT scores and high school GPAs has increased significantly. This has made our scholarships increasingly competitive. For information about the academic qualifications and background of our current freshman class, see our freshman class profile.</p>

<p>My D probably fit into the penultimate paragraph category. OOS (NY), 26 ACT, 3.3 UW but from a dual curriculum religious school, so a rigorous load but only a couple of honors and AP classess with good ECs, sports and Comm Service. Don’t know really if teacher reccomendations and writing helped but I think it might. She’s not in Honors and we didn’t apply for FA. We were surprised when she got a $4k merit award.</p>

<p>PAMOM, My advice, based upon exprience, is to have your daughter take the ACT. ACT and SAT are very different, and your if your daughter goes to a school with a strong curriculum and she is a good learner, she may do much better on the ACT in terms of percentile performance than she has done on SAT which is more a measuree of reasoning (IQ). Check Wikipedia for easy charts that compare SAT and ACT and show percentiles. Once she takes the ACT, you will know your baseline on both tests and she can focus on prepping and retesting on the one that puts her into the highest percentile. DO NOT DISCOUNT THE ACT. The old “its a southern thing” is bogus. In college admissions one rule is paramount…show yourself in your best light. That is what wil get you admitted, into honors programs, and merit aid. Yes, UD gives lots of aid to PA kids. It is impossible to predict how much as it is a moving target each year, but if your daugheter can get the SAT up to 1350-1400, or the ACT to 31 or 32, I think you could reasonable expect both Honors and significant aid. Another strategy is to apply to schools that UD competes with for talented students. If you get merit aid offers from them, you will have the opportunity to show them to UD, which might choose to “compete”. Finally, UD is very easy to fall in love with, and it is hard to find anyone who will say a bad thing about it. If it is high on your daughter’s list, it is a great school to use as a stake in the ground to which you can compare all other schools.</p>

<p>My daughter received $6000/year. Her SAT was (710 M, 590 CR, 620 W). She had a weighted GPA of 4.1. I think Delaware looks at the entire picture grades, ec, test scores, essays.</p>

<p>We are OOS and D received 23,000 / year. She scored 2260 on SAT and had a 94 average at an honors public high school. She is in the honors program and received a named scholarship. I heard of many other OOS in honors receiving around 11,000.</p>

<p>and an aside to the PA parents … D got in to Schreyer at PSU, but she was offered nothing there beside the 3500 they give all Schreyer admits, and NO need based grant, which we were offered literally every where else … we really liked PSU but they were so much further below every other school when it came to recognizing both merit and need (W&M, UMd, UNC, UMass … all were much much better)</p>

<p>crobinpa- unfortunately there is no chance of D being motivated to take another standard test, after prepping for SAT and taking it twice already. She did take and SAT/ACT comparison early on, and it did not show any advantage to the ACT in her case. so we’ll just have to see how things shake out with the scores she has. I like that UD looks more at grades and rigor than SAT scores- their criteria should work to her advantage. :)</p>

<p>S got a $7,500 merit award–3.9 weighted, 1960 SAT, from Mass. We were pleased, but he decided he wanted to be closer to home so is going to UMass Amherst.</p>

<p>PAMom, was the $23K offered by UD a combination of need and merit? You say in the second post that literally everywhere except PennSate offered need based aid.</p>

<p>The 23,000 at UD was all merit. We also received some additional aid in the form of subsidized and unsubsidized loans, which we really do need (the subsidized portion of that got larger when they increased tuition this summer). At other OOS schools (UNC, UMd, William and Mary, UMass, etc), the offered package was a mix of merit aid, need based grant, and need based loans, totaling somewhere between 20,000 - 25,000, leaving a “gap” of about 10-14,000. At Penn State, it was 3500 in merit plus the loans (no need based grant or additional merit aid), totaling only 9,000, leaving a “gap” of about 35,000.</p>

<p>My D’s SAT was 2060 and she got $7000 merit at UD. She also got a few thousand in need based aid, which was unusual since we don’t really have need. She also got work study after we asked nicely that it be included. The work study component was gratefully received, let me tell you! She worked all last year and we didn’t have to send her a penny.</p>

<p>zoosermom- wow that’s great to get need based aid when you don’t have need? I have done the financial aid calculators and we don’t qualify as needy. I had not thought it would be worthwhile to fill in the FAFSA- am I missing out on something?</p>

<p>Some schools (and I’m not sure about UD) don’t give merit scholarship consideration unless there is a FAFSA on file and don’t give consideration for need-based aid in future years if one isn’t filed in freshman year. Which means that if a student’s financial situation changes from one year to another, they are out of luck. We filed FAFSA because my D applied to some colleges that were almost twice the cost of UD, so we would have had need there, and I was too lazy to figure out which specific schools wouldn’t give merit consideration without a FAFSA. I believe it is a large percentage.</p>

<p>wow- why would a college need to see your FAFSA to determine a merit award that is by definition non-need based?</p>

<p>UDel must not be one of the schools which only grant merit aid if there is a FAFSA on file. We started college funds for our kids when they were born and had some lucky years. We filled out a FAFSA and applied for our eldest but assumed it would not be worth it for this D. Even though we never submitted a FAFSA, she still got a merit aid award. </p>

<p>And in case anyone at UDel is reading this… even that small award had a big effect on her choice of where to attend.</p>

<p>I have no idea pamom, but it is true of some (many) schools.</p>

<p>I received $11000 as a “Community Service Award.” I’m OOS.</p>

<p>I believe the FAFSA is needed before receiving merit aid b/c the school does not want to award funds, even merit funds, that would be covered by some type of federal or state grant. This leaves the maximum amount of money in the merit “pool” for other students. So, for example, if a school was going to award a full scholarship but the student was eligible for some sort of grant in the amount of $5000, the scholarship would be reduced by that amount, but the student’s expenses would still be covered in full.</p>