I was recently accepted to UCONN about a week and a half ago. I received my acceptance letter in the mail simply saying I have been accepted. If I was rewarded any merit based scholarships would they be included in that letter? Or will a separate letter come at a later date with that information? I have good grades and would be very confused if I was not rewarded some type of scholarship.
My merit aid came with my acceptance letter, and I am fairly certain that the letter is how they notify you for scholarships. If you’re SAT or ACT scores were not that good, then that can explain why there is no aid.
@vermonter17 We were in the same situation a few weeks ago. I called Admissions…I thought for sure with a GPA of 4.17 there must be a mistake…I was informed $ is only give in 2 cases. #1. if you are in the top 10% of YOUR high school…my daughter’s 4.17 places her in top 12%….so we just missed….or #2. if your M & R SAT are over a certain #…it was well over 1300 or 1350…we just missed that as well. If you happen to call and get different answers I would love to hear about it. I have seen many kids with a GPA lower than 4.17 post about getting $…it seems unfair to me, as some high schools are more competitive than others….top 10% at 1 may be easier to achieve than at another.
@TLD1267 By that same logic, getting a 4.0 or 4.17 may be easier at one school than another (not attempting to insult your daughter or school system). Taking the top 10% allows them to easily gauge how well a student does within his or her own environment against peers that are all generally given access to the same resources. I definitely think it isn’t fair to just base these decisions off of numbers, but I will say that using class rank or % is probably better than taking numerical GPA.
Not insulted at all…that was my point exactly, as I posted above " some high schools are more competitive than others…top 10% at 1 may be easier to achieve than at another" … I agree it is probably not fair to use just numbers…if my daughter never took an AP or Honors class her GPA would have been higher and she would have been in the top 10%. So speaking strictly in the case of my daughter….I would think that when evaluating her for Merit $ , rigorous coursework putting you at top 12% would be more impressive than a less rigorous schedule putting you in the top 10%….which, again, supports what you said, it isn’t fair to just base these decisions off of numbers.
I’m in the top 5% of my class and haven’t received any merit aid. My SAT was somewhat below average, though. I’m wondering if you must fit both criteria to get it.
@TLD1267 Haha sorry I mis-read your intentions then. I think they can only base these things off of numbers due to the high volume of applicants, it would really be a hassle to have to judge who should get merit based on ECs (Things that actually count for more later in life). Judging by the fact your daughter didn’t meet the criteria for class rank or SATs, I will just assume that she is not in Honors. In that case, she can apply for Honors after year one. I would also tell her to ask if merit is then given upon admissions to Honors.
@SoPAHusky I would say that SAT holds more merit than GPA in these decisions, although a decent GPA is still required. Our school actually doesn’t rank beyond number 1 and 2, of which I am neither, but because my SAT was a 1550 for Math and Reading, they were willing to overlook my GPA, which actually wasn’t too strong, and as a result I received a lot more money than people in my school who had higher GPAs but lower SAT scores (They can judge using GPAs without class rank because they can compare between one school). However, this extra money may have been a result of getting another scholarship beyond just Honors.
That’s how I assumed they were awarding aid. Thanks for the explanation! I wasn’t expecting it anyway just because I scored 1160 on math and reading. I also didn’t know you could apply to Honors after freshman year.
When I applied a few years back, the merit aid was included in your acceptance letter. Yes, you can apply to Honors after freshman year. I would definitely recommend it! You will miss out on the freshman housing community in Buckley but all of your core Honors courses for your major will mostly be completed during your junior and senior year.
@SoPAHusky and @aPandaa…it is just frustrating. The way it was explained to me, was either top 10% or SAT score…NOT both, so SoPAHusky, if you are in the top 5% of your HS class you should have gotten something, according to the lady I spoke with. I wonder if I called tomorrow and got a different Admissions employee if I would get a different answer. There have been many posts that seem in direct opposition to what I was told. Thanks for the info, good to know that my daughter can apply to Honors after freshman year!
@TLD1267 I certainly understand your frustration. We selected some schools based on stats as they relate to merit scholarship potential because we have a high EFC so don’t qualify for need based aid. According to the websites, my daughter is in the top 75% of accepted student stats for applicants at most of the schools that she has applied, and theoretically an excellent candidate for top merit scholarships, however while she has been offered some level of merit scholarship at all of the public schools that she applied to, most have been good but not the top level offered. At UConn we were thinking she might get something but it probably wouldn’t be enough, and we’re surprised to get the STEM honors and scholarship offer. And today my daughter was completely rejected by Northeastern, when her stats were definitely at their high end, so go figure. So it just goes to show that admissions is a bit of a black box as is the whole scholarship scene.
Do you mean top 25% of admitted students? What were her stats?
I was referring to the academic profiles that many schools post on their websites profiling prior years admitted class. She has great stats, above the middle 50% on SAT and ACT across the board presented on the Northeastern website, a pristine transcript, rigorous course load, high class rank, and a research internship as a senior that is equivalent to a half time job in time commitment where she has been given several high level projects. On top of that she is an advanced musician. But she was not what Northeastern was looking for and without one of their larger merit scholarships we would not be able to justify the high cost of the school. She will do great wherever she lands.
But this thread is about the difficulty trying to figure out why some get scholarships and some don’t, not about Northeastern since this is a UConn discussion, I was just using it as an example of the unknowns or intangibles of admissions and or scholarship offerings.
@NothernMom61 Funny story at our HS… 2 girls probably close/ equal rank, ACTs…, extra circulars etc. Both got into Northeastern. 1 got $1500 in Merit/Scholarships and the other got $10,000. Parents are baffled!
Northeastern does not give a $1500 merit scholarship. The minimum is $5000/year. Someone is lying.
http://www.northeastern.edu/financialaid/grants-scholarships/undergraduate.html#merit
And that is another part of what makes this difficult to figure out…and the lady I spoke with from Admissions did tell me that…flat out…some kids lie about getting $…
@TLD1267 So true. I have learned a lot from this website-- and a lot of what I have learned here makes me feel kind of sad. The college admissions process is not as clear cut as all of the glitzy brochures, the bozillion emails, and fancy websites would lead you to believe. It is a rather cut throat business and there is a lot of strategy and gaming that goes into it for some schools and some applicants. If I have learned anything from this process, and by hanging out here at CC is that the college admissions process is not for the innocent!
I appreciate this website as a wealth of information about the process, financing, etc. and for the fact that I don’t do Facebook or Twitter or other social media and I have been able to keep up with when notifications and things are occurring at the schools my daughter applied to. At the same time, I am glad that I didn’t find CC sooner than I did, and we took a straightforward approach in our selections rather than all the gaming and strategy. Maybe we lost a little in taking this approach, especially scholarship wise, but that’s okay. My daughter added Northeastern to her list late (applied in December), and had she been able to visit or interview (not a possibility for us, we live overseas) and had she applied EA and more assertively highlighted the fact that she pioneered the internship opportunity that she currently has for future students in her high school, then the result may have been different. But we weren’t that strategic.
We are grateful that UCONN admissions actually looked deeply at her application and offered her the STEM Honors and scholarship which she is very likely going to accept. And, I think once the last couple decisions come in and we make our final decisions, I won’t be hanging out on this website so much anymore.