I completely understand, especially with stats as high as yours. I’m wondering if you are a victim of Miami assuming you have highly selectives among your choices so assumed you likely would not attend Miami so didn’t throw the kitchen sink at you.
Either that or they want to direct kids like you to apply for the Presidential Scholars program for the full ride. But I get it, you have earned a shot at tons of merit, wherever you land. Beat of luck to you!
I’m sure we missed something but where should my OOS son be networking w/ other students to explore roommate options. He has Miami in his final 2 for Game Design+Simulation. It might be nice to find someone else in that major but certainly not a requirement. I am hopeful our upcoming visit will seal the deal.
My twin daughters are very similar… 4.42-4.44 gpas (miami’s scale) and 33/34 on the ACT’s and also each got the low end of the merit scholarship at 13k. One got into Honors so no addl $, and the other got into Prodesse so that’s an addl 2k. The Prodesse twin 34 ACT and 4.42 and National Merit Commended Scholar, and the Honors is 33 ACT with a 4.44. And their EC’s are practically identical as well. (No, I have no idea why one got into Honors and not Prodesse, but the other got Prodesse and not Honors.)
Once he chooses Miami then he will be added to an admitted student page. A lot of people find their roommates that way. You can also fill out a questionnaire and be matched that way. You then talk with that person and see if you want to be roommates. On the admitted page, the students introduce themselves. I know my student got into a lot of different group chats based on interests and in groups based on major.
I like that Miami puts published up front its merit scholarship amounts based this year on GPA.
But the difference in the top
OOS advertised level of between 21k minimum and a full OOS 36k tuition scholarship is a large range. And I get that folks think if the floor is 21k our student maybe will get more.
There is also the issue of Miami recalculating the GPA and how that can impact the top merit amount.
All that said for whatever reason my D fortunately got the full OOS tuition. But even if she only got the 21k it would have been the same as her going to our in state flagship. Also you have to keep in mind the Miami promise. Your tuition room and board will be the same all 4 years. I can tell you that my older daughter had increases each year. And if you look at most schools tuition increases 2-4% yearly school. So your 21k per year has more value than the same amount at other schools.
Good luck to all as you and your student make this important decision.
In the process of finalizing decisions, I just had a question regarding scholarships that I’m hoping maybe someone has insight to. If I use an external scholarship that I received towards my tuition and it covers enough that I have extra money from RedHawk Excellence Scholarship left over, would I be able to use some of those funds towards housing, meal plan, books, etc.
I tried searching Miami’s page but haven’t found an answer yet. I thought I’d get on this forum and ask before I reach out to Miami.
Thank you all in advance and good luck on finalizing your decisions!
Call the one stop office at Miami. You can get money back. You’ll need to know if your private money is paid to school or to you.
I have asked a similar question to LSU that if a student’s total awards/scholarship from all sources (college or outside) can be more than the published COA. The answer is no.
If you can get combined money from both Miami and outside more than $51160, for OOS as an example, please let us know. Thank you.
What is SRAR? thx
Self Report something something…
I think it stands for self-reported academic record? It’s something the students had to fill out so that Miami could recalculate everyone’s GPA and get them on equal footing for admission and merit money. For example, we live in a state where schools are not allowed to have a weighted GPA on a transcript, so it doesn’t matter if a student is taking AP, IB, Dual Enrollment, Honors, on-level, etc. An A is a 4.0. A B+ is a 3.3, etc.
My student’s GPA went from a 3.489 on his high school transcript to a 3.8 with the SRAR, which was very nice for merit money!
My D’s changed from 4.6 to 4.4 
that does not matter now.
https://blog.scholarshipjunkies.org/what-happens-if-you-win-more-scholarships-than-you-need/
Read this and then talk to the office that handles this at any university. Also, be aware of taxes on a portion of your scholarships if it covers more than tuition.
D21 made it official today. She’s very excited to be RedHawk!
We are excited to be done with this entire process.
Very educational, thank you!
That’s pretty decent for in state, I would say. We had the same numbers, OOS, at a very good HS, all AP and Honors, and received the minimum the advertisement said she could get (she got 21K, and the advertisement said 21 guaranteed and possibly more).
This puts it close to our in state school UConn cost, but Uconn is ranked 63 in the nation, Miami over 100. Just from pictures, I can tell the Miami campus is nicer and it isn’t close, but the academics at UConn are much stronger. Having said that, D2 isn’t interested in staying in state 
We also asked for more merit, and they said merit was final. We’re planning to visit in April, and there’s a chance D2 will fall in love with it, but right now it’s a little bit on the outside looking in.
I’ll give you our Miami merit for UConn in state! Lol UConn was my d’s #1 but got $0. We visited Miami and it’s a beautiful campus, was just hoping to keep her closer to home.
Can you imagine if one could barter and sell these “slots”? Would be insane!
Yeah, UCONN is a great school. D2 wants to get out of CT. It’s a small state, and she wants to experience new things and places, and she also isn’t crazy about regularly seeing HS folks she already knows (our HS sends a large number of kids to UCONN every year). Not so much because she dislikes them, but feels really strongly about going out on her own and starting from scratch. All 3 of my kids feel strongly about this (and I know I did too many years ago), so I guess the apples do not fall far from the tree.
In my humble opinion, let’s focus on how much to pay out of pocket, not on how much scholarship/award we get. 
I get it! D is in at one of our state schools (waiting on honors college decision), which would be about $20k with her merit. But she really wants to leave the state! I totally get it; we’ll just have to see what the final numbers work out to. Good luck to you!