Are LDS students given preference for many of the merit scholarships at The University of Utah? How about the top scholarships? I know it’s not a religion affiliated school, but given the location and demographics, probably many alumni and donors are LDS?
It’s a secular state U. While there may be private scholarships that target LDS students, there is no advantage in scholarships given to LDS students vs non-LDS.
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Did U of Utah previously have a scholarship for non-resident National Merit Finalists? I swear that used to be listed on their website, but no longer see it. Their website currently only lists the “University of Utah Merit Scholarship with Presidential Honors” for residents. DD applied their last fall as a NMSF because we thought they offered large scholarships for NMF, but now that she is NMF it doesn’t look like they do. Its probably OK because she’s pretty sure she wants to stay closer to home anyway, but if I’m correct that they used to offer it, that’s a little bit frustrating.
There was $500 extra for NMF on top of any scholarship you were offered. Unclear if that still exists. But the main money (now Presidential, Flagship etc) is tied to GPA (very heavily dependent on 4.0UW) and course rigor (full IB or lots of APs). That part doesn’t depend on NMF status.
Did she get offered anything (most merit scholarships came out this week)? What were her stats?
Just the $10K/year Utah Academic Scholarship. Maybe I misread their page last year related to NMF. It’s not where she wants to go anyway, but we probably wasted some time and a little money on the application - oh well
I think this is the archived page you were referring to: Merit Scholarship - Financial Aid and Scholarships - The University of Utah
“A scholarship for resident entering freshmen who are National Merit Finalists. Winners are identified by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation: Annual Award Minimum: $500 - This is a cash stipend awarded in addition to any tuition waiver the student might receive from the University of Utah”
They have changed the scholarships substantially (unfortunately very late in the day), in order to incentivize students to gain residency. But the four year tuition waivers required a 4.0UW GPA (plus a high ACT score in previous years, now lots of course rigor) - those have now been moved over to the President’s scholarship ($20K+$5K room and board credit in the first year), which will cover full tuition in years 2-4 after achieving residency. Sorry you missed out.