<p>I was on the chat last night that dealth more with the Honors College and Engineering. It was not about scholarships and how many are given out or disbursed. No one asked about how many scholarships are offered etc. A question was asked about how students are invited to Honors college since some student who have been awarded Presidential scholarships have not been invited to Honors College. There are two committees with different criterias - one that awards merit scholarship and one that offers Honors College invitations. Not all of the 500 invitees to the Honors College have merit scholarships and not all Presidential scholarships are invited to Honors college.</p>
<p>I truly believe that the “disbursed” numbers posted on their website (161 Trustee plus 939 Presidential scholarships) is the denominator. I agree with inquistive1 that this is kind of a marketing to potential applicants and their families. This type of listing is similar to when colleges and universities post ACT/SAT scores of “accepted students” rather than the actual ACT/SAT scores of students who actually matriculated to their school.</p>
<p>@RedYellowBlue, I was asking those questions last night, and was pretty much ignored for the most part…too many students asking softball questions like “what’s a co-op?” that the moderators probably didn’t have time or feel a need to really respond to my questions.</p>
<p>My belief is that any college, including Purdue, will put themselves in the best light, so they will try to talk about how much $$ was offered as much as possible. But disbursed means paid out, and I don’t believe they would misrepresent that.</p>
<p>Where I feel “played” is if the 15% is not evenly distributed across disciplines…it may be that engineering (where my son is accepted) has a much lower percentage, and other disciplines where Purdue is struggling to attract students may be higher than 15%…so you think you’ve got a good shot, but in reality it is quite a bit more competitive…</p>
<p>@DieselEngineer Yeah, I couldn’t believe those questions from prospective engineering students! Really? You don’t know what a co-op is? I’m not even an engineer!</p>
<p>I think you are absolutely correct regarding more competitive merit scholarships for Purdue engineering candidates, especially in light of the 46% of the 500+ Honor college invitees are engineering students! I would bet 8-10% (or maybe lower) of engineering students get merit scholarships. </p>
<p>^^At Purdue departments help to fund the scholarships of students in their majors. (I know this b/c I have acquaintances that work at Purdue.) This way every department has an equal opportunity to attract high achieving students relative to their general student profile. (For example, the college of education usually has lower achieving students, and wouldn’t be able to attract any students with good scholarships because all of the money would go to high achieving engineering and premed students.) The larger a department, the lower the financial aid percentage. From the university’s standpoint, it makes sense to offer a higher percentage of merit aid to try and grow a program, not inflate a program that is already incredibly well known, like engineering. But call me biased if you want (I probably am - I got merit aid). </p>
<p>After some reading and research, I have come to believe that the word that allows them to make any of us or our kids feel played is “holistic”. On the Families of New Purdue students Facebook, anytime there was a question about merit aid, scholarships, etc from one of the parents, there was always one answer from the admissions staff and it was “we use the holistic approach of looking at each student.”</p>
<p>Apparently, a few years ago, that’s not how Purdue scholarships were given out, but now, with the holistic approach, they can defend giving or not giving a scholarship to anyone and nobody can question it. It is the same with Honors College invites. </p>
<p>Of course it is their right to select a freshman class whichever way they see as most beneficial to Purdue, but I think realizing this provides some answers to those of us who just don’t get how national merit finalists, perfect GPA kids with great ECs etc., can be not given a scholarship or invited to honors college. </p>
<p>Well the parents and potential Purdue attendees will have to do their own holistic reviews of each college that has made offers. My son was certainly surprised and a little hurt that he did not qualify for Purdue honors, unlike most of the other colleges he is considering. Is it a deal breaker? I doubt it, but it will be a factor.</p>
<p>Not being offered Honors College or even a small scholarship is a deal breaker for us. My son got nothing. I’m puzzled as he was offered honors and full rides at other places. Purdue was his first choice but he will not go there now. He is what many consider a good candidate, URM, NMS, APScholar, published researcher, national awards, international awards, he even worked on a patent. SAT and GPA is ivy range. So… the next few weeks will determine where he will go, but it will not be Purdue it seems.</p>
<p>@researchperson, where else are you and your son considering?</p>
<p>How do you question taking a “wholistic” view. Colleges use this to minimize the second guessing.</p>
<p>FYI, According to Amanda, a Financial Rep who posted on the Purdue FB, “The plan is for financial awards to be available online for students to access through their myPurdue account tomorrow evening (3/14). An email will be sent to students when it’s available. Parents who supplied a parent email address on the FAFSA will also receive an email notification. Letters will go out in the mail in the days following.”</p>
<p>She then added that it’s the plan (no guarantees), so hopefully tomorrow night we’ll have more information about everything.</p>
<p>We applied for the School of Engineering scholarships as well and those will be included in the financial aid package. I’m not too hopeful, but we’ll see what happens.</p>
<p>My D got a message yesterday at myPurdue that she is awarded a need based scholarship in addition to the Presidental scholarship. However, we could not find any details regarding that. I guess they will update her account this evening as ThisLoudMorning said.</p>
<p>@Rocketdamus, I would agree completely, as I am guess most others would, that awarding merit scholarships based on a “holistic” view of a person is reasonable vs. just looking at GPA and ACT. I think the frustration of many on various threads is that no criteria is published as to what this “holistic” view is. Not even general guidelines. Further, many who have posted who didn’t receive merit awards or Honors invitation would seem to fit the profile of having the total package as most reasonable people might view that. With a lack of any transparency whatsoever, this “holistic” position sounds more like worthless bureaucratic doublespeak which is likely why some have posted feelings about being “played.” I can’t speak for others, just my own conclusions based on the comments.</p>
<p>My purpose in adding comments here is to give future students and parents a better feel for the real story, which would have been very useful for us. Obviously, whatever is posted here isn’t going to change anything currently. As others have posted, Purdue or any other school can establish the process as they see fit. Conversely, students and parents are free to exercise that same level of discretion when choosing a school. Hopefully the information in these threads gives those to follow a more accurate perspective on the front end.</p>
<p>I agree with @collegedadx4 it has been very helpful following this process and it’s up to each of us how we process this information.</p>
<p>I just hate to think there are kids out there that are well prepared, feeling like these merit scholarships are within reach and they are now feeling like they don’t measure up, because they didn’t get merit!</p>
<p>In reality, they DO measure up! Not getting a merit scholarship does NOT mean that they aren’t qualified to be at Purdue, or in the more demanding programs, like engineering…it’s just “the system” and unfortunately, they’ve been “statistically” eliminated from the process. </p>
<p>Good luck to all…hang in there, it may be an interesting evening!</p>
<p>My son just got a letter from University of Illinois Champaign Urbana inviting him to the College of Engineering Honors Program. Of course, Purdue is his first choice, but that made him feel a little better. Just like you said @inquisitive1, not getting something that you felt you were qualified to receive does make one wonder about the reasons.</p>
<p>Just checked the Facebook page, some people already have their financial aid award up, so we can start checking. I guess they are not putting them up all at the same time. Hopefully we’ll see ours today.</p>
<p>Additional merit scholarships (from the February 1st deadline) and financial aid awards (including loans) are now able to be viewed on myPurdue. Maybe some of you that didn’t get the presidential got a few smaller scholarships!</p>
<p>My D got additional need based scholarships plus some loan today. However, the final cost is still 6000 above our EFC in addition to the federal loan debt. Basically, it is 6000 more than our in state cost after scholarship.</p>
<p>If Purdue disbursed 939 Presidential Scholarships in 2012-13, then that is likely over four or five classes. This would mean that they are paying out around 200-250 new PS each year.</p>
<p>^ So you mean the number is for all undergraduates, not just freshmen? In that case, there would be only ~40 Trustees Scholarship per year (169 total). Do you have any source or that?</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that more than 40 trustees are selected each year.
And probably more than 200-250 presidential. I know at least 2 other people (plus me) from my school (in state) that received the trustees, and I know around 10 that got the presidential.</p>
<p>I also think the numbers listed are for freshmen only, but I may be wrong.</p>