Hi. If one does not attend the merit weekend, does that make it less likely that a student will receive merit aid? Thanks.
@DullesAcheson … Unless something has changed from a few years ago, Merit Weekend is not the time/place where UKy makes decisions on merit scholarships. It’s basically a chance for students who have already been awarded some form of merit scholarship to visit the campus, meet with an advisor, early register for fall classes (with no commitment), take placements tests, and get their ID if they choose to. We viewed it as more of a recruitment tool for UKy to woo the high stats kids they had already made offers to.
For any student who is strongly considering Kentucky (or has already decided to attend) I’d definitely recommend attending one of the weekends if possible. If you choose to attend UKy, you will have already completed your freshman orientation and will be able to register for and get the classes you want before the vast majority of the incoming freshman class. You won’t need to go back to campus until K-Week starts in August.
What @Wolverine86 said.
Does anyone know what level of scholarship students they invite to Merit Weekend? Just curious if only the competitive scholarship students or any of the automatic ones too.
@huddy17, I think the “Merit” in Merit Weekend has more to do with grades than money. Your student probably has a pretty fair chance of getting an invitation if they’re in honors program, even if they’re not getting a dime.
Thanks for the info. I asked because my daughter has not received any word on scholarships. She seems to meet the criteria but we’ve heard nothing, yet she got the Merit Weekend invite.
@DullesAcheson, if your student attends and they’re in Honors Program, make sure they’re registered for an honors course. My daughter got to campus in August and had to change her schedule. Not an earth-shattering deal, but mildly annoying.
Our D is at UK on the automatic Patterson and received an invite Merit Weekend.
I highly recommend attending one of the Merit Weekends if UK is on your short list.
My D received the invite as well and she is just an automatic Merit not an Honors one. We are not attending only because she has decided to enroll at another school. If we did decide on UK then we would have attended. We are attending events similar to this one at the college she is going to enroll in. These type of events are always good to go to if you can to network and make connections.
My D has been accepted into the Honors Program, but she hasn’t received an invitation to the Merit weekend yet. She is stressing so much because other incoming students she knows in the same situation have received theirs.
Congrats to your D!
Please encourage your D call and ask about Merit Weekend! No need for her to get stressed out about it. 
Sometimes things slip through the cracks. Seems reasonable to double check all is well.
Everytime we had a question or just needed clarification, we lucked out and found the staff at UK to be friendly and helpful.
The only time we got inaccurate info was from our area rep! From then on, we went right to source, and no problem.
@acdaisy you may also have her login to the website admissions portal and check to see if she has Merit Weekends as a choice for orientation. Things happen with mail, but perhaps the option exists there. My son just logged in and changed his last night from summer orientation to Merit Weekend orientation.
My son is also an accepted Lewis Honors student at UK who hasn’t yet received an invitation to Merit weekend. However, we also logged on to his UK account and saw that the option to change his orientation dates was there. We switched a few days ago. We will fly in from New Hampshire for the first weekend. Still waiting on the formal invitation.
D’s formal invitation finally came yesterday. Apparently it takes almost a week for mail to travel 40 miles
LOL…In that case, how long do you think it will take to reach New Hampshire?!?
Considering it seems like they are sending in by carrier pigeon, a good while. What part of New Hampshire? I know people in Concord.
Hudson. The invitation finally arrived today! And he also received word that he’s a NMS finalist today too!
Congrats!
To anyone looking to attend one of the merit weekends: Make sure that your student completes any pre-work by the timeframes given so that they can get all of the benefits from this process. Some may need to take a math test for placement assistance, etc. It will all be in the package. If your student has decided on UK, this should be a great time. If they are un-decided, hopefully it will help them make that decision.
we’re going to Merit weekend soon !