@cc2709 I understand how you feel. Yet I strongly suggest your D make her decision more about fit and weighing pros and cons for each school, than about which school seems to want her more and sends her more mail during the application season. You have noted yourself that TCU has informed you that scholarship info will begin to get released in mid January. So not much longer to wait to have that piece of your D’s decision puzzle.
My belief is that TCU is enjoying an overwhelming number of applications - in part due to their rise on football field i.e. “school spirit” and in part due to more academic reasons.
@MollyN is in an entirely different situation than your D as she has stated she is an international student in need of institutional aid to attend a university in the US.
I think that TCU just utilizes a different method to conduct merit scholarship reviews. In fact they also give a holistic review to merit scholarships, whereas some other schools use standard criteria that they push. i.e. you make a 31 on the ACT and Baylor give 16K. That’s how you get merit notification so quickly. While the holistic review takes longer to produce results, it will mostly will lead more to your favor. The wait does drive most people crazy.
For the most part the majority of the communication you get from any college is from marketing programs like constant communication. They produce mail for the schools on a constant basis that will stop around May. There are also many schools that don’t send anything out until you have been accepted into the school. With TCU, they sent out a tremendous amount of information via email and post before acceptance letters went out. After the acceptance letters went out things have been quite. I think after merit letters go out, you will start to see an increase in communication.
Most folks received notice of acceptance mid-Dec 2014 and received information that they would find about merit scholarships four weeks later. From what I hear, letters are going out on Monday, Jan. 19. Sure it is a very long wait, but that’s how TCU operates. You should have a letter from TCU 1-5 days later depending on your location telling you what your merit award will be.
@cc2709 TCU has been the most involved with me out of the 6 schools I applied, maybe the other ones she applied to are just exceptional. TCU sends out mail on a monthly basis and you get holiday cards and handwritten things, they truly show that they care. And scholarships should be out pretty soon.
if it says “no financial aid awards available” does that mean I didn’t get any scholarships. I’m just a little shocked but If someone could tell me that would be great.
@15aflynn A twitter account with the handle @TCU19 emailed an admissions counselor and asked if all the awards had been offered. The counselor replied that the first round went out, but there are still more rounds to go. The counselor also said that all recipients’ online portal will be updated towards the end of the week, and that students who did not qualify for the first time around will not be notified if they received anything or not.
Just keep waiting! I know it is hard. I am in the same boat as you.
My D received the “Dean’s Scholarship”. She was notified by mail in December. The financial aid tab in the portal DOES show this amount. There is not other FA listed there. Hope that helps.
@15aflynn. Unfortunately my d portal says the same. I reached out to her admissions counselor and his response was she was not selected for a merit scholarship. When asked if this was final he said “not necessarily” she could resubmit her scores if she retakes the tests but scores had to be in by Feb… Nothing mentioned about considering later without this. So disappointing news. Our counselor was candid that the ACT (26) held her back despite her 3.9/4.6 GPA, 2 sport 4 year varsity letter, 8AP… Good luck to you I hope you fare better.
@BLUEJAY1518 The Dean’s Scholarship and invite to Chancellor’s weekend was in the same letter. Honors Invite came in a separate envelope on a different day.
S received the TCU Scholarship notification letter yesterday. His GPA is average, but he attends one of the rigorous private preps in the state. His SAT was fairly high, and he had numerous APs with 4s/5s. I believe his essays and recs were very strong which might possibly have helped. He also did something fairly creative for the optional essay where students were asked to do anything on an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. Again, I’m not sure if that played a role or not. I do believe TCU reviews holistically which is encouraging. Good luck to those still awaiting notification!
@MOMOF5TX, he received the TCU Scholarship (actual name of scholarship) which carried a value of $12K/yr. He had a 2100+ on his SAT and 700+ on his SAT IIs.