<p>Does Penn State offer Merit Scholarships to high-caliber applicants even if the applicant did not apply for a scholarship?
By this, I mean that if a Penn State admissions officer came across an application with a 4.0 uw GPA, 2400 SAT, great EC's etc, would that person be offered merit aid without even apply for it?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I believe they offer full-tuition/room/board to a few students. Maybe 4-5?</p>
<p>Yes, most Unversity merit scholarships (@ pretty much any college) you will be automatically considered for. These range from a few hundred $$ to full tuition. The latter being alot more competitive.</p>
<p>From what I have been able to ascertain, the majority of academic merit scholarship money seems to be distributed to 'in-state' students.</p>
<p>Yes, alot of PSU schoalrships are going to be reserved for PA students, it is our State Land-grant Univ of course, it would only make sense to give us in-staters some $$ for attending.</p>
<p>When are students notified if they received a scholarship? when they receive their admissions decision or later?</p>
<p>Later. I received notification of both my need and merit scholarships in Late february, when my financial aid packages came in.</p>
<p>There is the Honors college to apply to.</p>
<p>Correct, being a member of the honors college ensures merit $ from them and sometimes your respective college and dept. However, there are other merit awards for those not SHC scholars.</p>
<p>What would someone with stats like 3.85UW, 4.2 W, 32 ACT, Eagle Scout, Eucharistic Minister, School Ambassador, minor school leadership role, etc…
OOS, think I could get anything?</p>
<p>It says on their website that many top students do not receive scholarships their first year. I think Penn State does it more in later years. My d is #3 in her class of 300, 1960 SAT, with sports, leadership, etc. and received nothing. She is OOS. Regardless, Penn State is her #1 choice & is attending in the fall.</p>
<p>That is surpirsing that your D diddn’t receive anything for her first year. It was most likley the OOS label that made her ineligible for a lot of the first year $$.</p>
<p>I’m an in state student going into my second year at Penn State with a 3.91, 2150 SAT, undergraduate research, volunteering etc. They awarded me an awesome $0…</p>
<p>A lot of scholarships are reserved for non-freshman. There are a lot of scholarships to apply to after you are a freshman (at least in the College of Engineering.)</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that the current economic situation also is likely to affect scholarships.</p>
<p>Many departments have scholarship info. in their web pages. If you don’t look around you might have missed some that you could apply for. Sons science scholardhip was in the science web pages. He just needed to register his name and interest.</p>
<p>Definitely look into what the college you applied to offers in terms of scholarships, since you have a better shot at those than in something university-wide. And I think it’s true about PA residents getting more. I got a scholarship from the college of science and they sent me a letter in late may with the names and info of four other people that received it. All the addresses were in PA. I’m not sure if those were only the people that accepted it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the money was given to students in PA. Since Penn State is state-funded, it would make sense if it reserved some or most of it’s money for in-state students. But if someone’s really outstanding then they can probably get aid later on.</p>