Merit Scholarships

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Maryland - College Park
1

<p>Hi, I was hoping for some information on criteria for merit scholarships and approximate amounts.</p>

<p>My son is in-state with:
SAT Math 770 Verbal 760 Writing 700
No subject tests taken
Weighted GPA 4.35, 4.0 unweighted
Took only one AP course through Junior year, but took multiple honors courses and is taking 4 AP courses senior year, and will likely finish with a 4.0 unweighted.
Average extracurriculars</p>

<p>I know the Banneker Key is the premier scholarship. Is he likely to qualify for that?
If not, how much does the Presidential or other scholarships provide?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>My son has almost identical stats. There is no guarantees but your son would be in the running for B/K. Presidential, I believe is 2k-8k for in state. Then there is Dean, 1-1.5k</p>

3

<p>Here is info on the three scholarships.</p>

<p>Banneker/Key Scholarship: The University of Maryland seeks to identify and select some of the brightest high school seniors in the nation to continue their education as Banneker/Key Scholars. There are two award levels for Banneker Key Scholarships. The first award level covers the costs of tuition, mandatory fees, room and board, and a book allowance each year for four years. The second award level provides a partial scholarship to go towards tuition and a book allowance each year for four years. Scholarship recipients will also be admitted to the Honors College and will be afforded many other opportunities as they participate in intellectual enrichment programs. For full consideration, students must submit an admission application, application fee, official transcript, essay, recommendations, and official copies of SAT or ACT scores to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions by November 1 for the following academic year. Selected semifinalists are given a personal interview by the Banneker/Key Selection committee. Factors such as a candidate’s involvement in community service, talents or skills, leadership, and character all play a part in the final awards.</p>

<p>President’s Scholarship: This award provides talented prospective freshmen with scholarship support for four years. Awards ranging from $2,000 to $12,000 per year are offered to incoming freshmen. Students are selected through the admissions process with primary consideration given to academic performance in high school (high school courses and achievement), results of standardized test scores (SAT or ACT), extracurricular activities, awards, honors, recommendations, and the essay. For full consideration, students must submit a complete application for admission by November 1.</p>

<p>Deans’ Scholarship: This award provides talented prospective freshmen with scholarship support for one to two years. Awards ranging from $1,500 for one year to $4,500 for two years are offered to incoming freshmen. To be considered, students must submit a complete application for admission by November 1.</p>

<p>For comparsisons sake, my daughter is in the Honors College and received the President’s Scholarship. Her stats were:
ACT 33 (1440-1480 SAT equivalent)
4.0 UW GPA/4.6 W GPA
Ranked 1/420
12 AP classes</p>

<p>She came in as a freshman with 35 credits.</p>

<p>She had many EC’s,was a varsity athlete, had hundreds of volunteers hours, and a part time job.</p>

<p>Hopefully this helps give you an idea of what your son might expect.</p>

4

<p>terpmom, nailing it again! I found this thread from last year’s Banneker/Key Scholarship. It will give you some idea about the stats of the winners and about the interview process and timing of announcements. You have to dig around a bit: </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-maryland-college-park/1457327-2013-banneker-key-scholarship.html?highlight=banneker[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-maryland-college-park/1457327-2013-banneker-key-scholarship.html?highlight=banneker&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>Thanks to all, especially Terpmom7 for your thorough answer. I’m curious - how much was the Presidential scholarship?</p>

6

<p>terpmom told you: between $2K and 12K.</p>

7

<p>I think srcoghlan was asking terpmom how much her daughter received, given her stats…</p>

<p>Just to clarify a little further about the range on Presidential awards, I believe it based is a percentage of tuition only (no other fees), so top amount awarded for IS is 8,000 per year for 4 years and 12,000 for OOS students for 4 years. So, while on the surface it seems OOS can get a higher award, it is actually an equivalent amount because of the higher OOS tuition. </p>

<p>There is no predicting what kind of award, if any, you may be awarded based on stats alone. There are students invited to honors that got no award at all and there are students invited to scholars that got the top amount possible for Presidential. There is a huge range of every amount possible for every stat posted, so honestly no threshold or predictive clues based on stats.</p>

<p>Just bear in mind that it is a public, state university, so they don’t have the kind of money from endowments that private universities have. They honestly do the best they can, given the sheer volume of students that attend with meritorious stats (which keeps increasing with every application season). Just being accepted these days is no sure thing! </p>

<p>Here’s a thread from two years ago that demonstrates what I mean:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-maryland-college-park/1293664-presidential-scholarship.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-maryland-college-park/1293664-presidential-scholarship.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Also, I want to draw attention to davenmame’s post #63 on page 5 of the thread jkeil kindly posted. There are indeed lots of other scholarships available after you matriculate!!! So, keep that in mind…here’s a list of departments/schools that have additional scholarships. </p>

<p>[List</a> Scholarships](<a href=“http://advancement.umd.edu/celebration/listScholarships.php]List”>http://advancement.umd.edu/celebration/listScholarships.php)</p>

9

<p>Thanks maryversity for posting the thread from 2012. I am amazed at how crazy smart these kids are. I consider my daughter to be incredibly smart, but of course I am biased. In reading these old posts it makes me even prouder of my D for getting the President’s Scholarship. I think she has impressive stats, but hers almost seem low compared to some of these other students. It really is awesome that there are sooo many really exceptional students applying to UMD. I couldn’t be happier that she is a Terp!</p>

10

<p>No problem! I couldn’t agree more with being happy about the choice of Maryland!:)</p>

11

<p>Would a 1400 on the SAT get me any money?</p>

12

<p>Read the link from my post #7 - you have to go through several pages to get the info on stats and $. I think you will see there is no predicting, especially with just a test score.</p>