<p>When does Penn State send out notifications concerning merit scholarships? Can non-honors students receive one?</p>
<p>First question: it comes with your financial aid package.
Second question: i think so.</p>
<p>Academic $ will vary by college. Some will hold their money for jr and sr, other will splurge on their fresh and soph. There are also several uni wide merit awards if you are deemed qualified for them.</p>
<p>do you know when we would recieve the fin aid package?</p>
<p>I received mine late March 2 years ago.</p>
<p>bump. anyone hear anything yet?</p>
<p>I’m confused. I submitted my FAFSA on January 12th, right? Ok, now after that I didn’t receive any notification about PSU getting my FAFSA at all. My mom filed her taxes I think…like March 7th? A few days later after we put in the real information instead of estimates, I received an e-mail from PSU saying that they’ve received my FAFSA. So, like, does this mean that they didn’t get it at least a week after January 12th?</p>
<p>I think when you first submitted it on January 12th, it was “processing” by the FAFSA people. After you get the email, it mean’s PSU finally got it.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about University-wide scholarships, but I got a letter saying I got the Braddock Scholarship from the Eberly College of Science on 3/14. I guess scholarships from your college can come independently. They probably run on different timelines too depending on your college.</p>
<p>Bahamut277 - congratulations on your Braddock. I hear it is VERY prestigious. I have heard conflicting criteria on how they award the scholarship. Some say it was based on all of the Schreyer essays while others say it was based on high school grades and someone else told us it was SAT based. As a Braddock Scholar, can you tell us what exactly they base the award on?</p>
<p>Nothing I read in the application or the award letter really defined the criteria, but I think it was a combination of both. I remember that on the Schreyer application there was some disclaimer that said something along the lines of “I authorize the release of this information to any other review boards,” which I guess includes the scholarship committees. </p>
<p>I had heard somewhere that people who won the scholarship wrote their essays about science-related topics, so I wrote about the importance of scientific progress and its relation to the genetic testing, and the need for health care reform and more scientific research as the issue that I wanted to talk to the president about.</p>
<p>For the short essay about a book that influenced you, I wrote about The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas, who was a doctor and a biologist. His essays relate topics in science to parts of the outside world, and I know that some of his essays are in the Penn State science curriculum.</p>
<p>My letters were from math/computer science, chemistry, and English teachers, and I think the requirement is math, science, and someone who can evaluate your oral and written communication skills.</p>
<p>My GPA is about 4.2, 2270 SAT, so that may have helped, but I think that if they’re giving away tuition, room, board, a guaranteed lab position, $1000/yr for research and $1000/yr to go to a professional meeting, they would look at more than just numbers.</p>
<p>Via the PSU website, after digging for a while:
“Most first-year students will receive a 2009-10 Student Financial Aid Notification from the Office of Student Aid in late-March via e-mail. Your Aid Notification will list all the student financial aid programs (loans, grants, work-study, and scholarships) for which you qualify for the fall and spring semesters. You will be able to access your aid information—including any updates that may have occurred as a result of verification by selecting the Student Aid Summary option on eLion.”
[Penn</a> State - Office of Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.psu.edu/studentaid/applying/apply_step309.shtml?reload]Penn”>http://www.psu.edu/studentaid/applying/apply_step309.shtml?reload)</p>
<p>Looking forward to receiving my package as it will factor pretty heavily on whether I attend or not.</p>
<p>Bahamut277 </p>
<p>Outstanding, just outstanding. I am so tired about only hearing on the news about the kids who start fights or sell drugs in school (almost nightly here in Philadelphia). It brightens my heart to read about the highly accomplished young people either going to or already at PSU! Your family must be very proud. </p>
<p>Congratulations on what I’m sure will be a lifetime of achievement! </p>
<p>What year are you in at PSU?</p>
<p>I’m a high school senior so I’ll be a first-year next year, though maybe 2nd or 3rd semester standing though because of AP credit.</p>
<p>I did not submit a FASFA…does this mean I can not receive a merit scholarship? I got 8k from UMD without applying for aid…</p>
<p>You probably can get merit aid, the FAFSA is really for federal need-based aid.</p>