<p>Daughter got in to UVA and NYU. Wait-listed at Brown and Boston College. Who knows what will happen in the next month but she did make deposit at Granville Towers (UNC) just in case she decides UNC. We have to have more money in order for her to go to other schools. We don’t qualify for financial aid but that doesn’t mean we have the money sitting around. Don’t want to sell house or business. Her grandparents house in mountains is in the grandchildren’s names so that is a negative for daughter. Are there any suggestions? NO DEBT for undergraduate degree. That is our motto. I have a friend whose daughter could not decide between Wake Forest and UNC and at the very last minute (May 1st!), Wake came up with money for her so that is where she is and is costing her the same as UNC. I guess it is because she played the wait game until the last second and some scholarship money designated to certain students who at last minute didn’t go to Wake became available. I can see private schools having more freedom to play with their scholarship money. I can’t see UVA or NYU doing that for OOS students. Does anyone have some suggestions?</p>
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<p>Isn’t NYU private?</p>
<p>Waiting for FA money at the last minute is a risky proposition because unlike admission decisions, they do not over-offer as much FA because on the rare chance that it’s all accepted, they could have a budget shortfall. I’m glad you have covered your bases with the Granville deposit. I know people who tried it at UNC in the past only to learn that there was no more money available.</p>
<p>Have several friends with kids who went to NYU…the “real” cost of attendance is a lot higher than most estimate because with NYC as the campus, anything they do for fun costs significant $$…it’s also a very different experience than either UVA or UNC .</p>
<p>One of our friends has a daughter who went to NYU four years ago after being accepted into Tisch then realized after a while that theater life wasn’t what she anticipated or truly wanted which surprised all who know her…this girl is stunningly beautiful and extraordinarily talented and had attained her dream of getting into Tisch. After making her decision to get out of the theater program she realized that she wanted a more “traditional” college experience and transferred.</p>
<p>Hope she knows what she’s bargaining for with NYU…all the others offer a more comparable undergrad experience…each is unique in and of it’s own, but still far more traditional.</p>
<p>Carol -</p>
<p>I had an EXTREMELY similar experience to your daughter. Four years ago I was nominated for the Robertson and I totally agree. They wine you and dine you (well not wine) and make you feel like there is just absolutely nothing like being a Robertson. So then when HALF the people there don’t get it you just wonder… why didn’t they like me? </p>
<p>I am so glad I came to Carolina, and honestly, I’m extremely glad I wasn’t a Robertson. I don’t like Duke and I needed to do summer school. I went to London after my first year for most of the summer. Couldn’t’ve done that with the scholarship.</p>
<p>If your daughter loved UNC when she visited for the weekend, then she should go. Carolina is Carolina is Carolina. If you’re a Morehead and a Robertson, yeah, you do get some special treatment, but you don’t need anything to have an incredible education here. There are people starting record labels and founding scholarships and starting study abroad programs in Vietnam, blah blah blah, who weren’t even accepted into the honors program. Feel free to PM me and good luck.</p>
<p>And also, I am sure your daughter is an absolute super star. This comes from my heart because you sound so much like my own mom. This rejection simply doesn’t matter. I promise.</p>
<p>Have to again agree 100% with cloying 
…although my son did attend UNC because of the Morehead, it really didn’t have much, if any, impact on his day-to-day campus activities and certainly not on his classroom experience at UNC or his Chapel Hill experience overall.</p>
<p>Most people aren’t even aware of who the Moreheads are because they just don’t “wear it on their sleeves”…there are no tee shirts or car window stickers to announce their Morehead status and it’s certainly not something they talk or brag about, in fact, quite the opposite. He had friends as late as junior year who were unaware of it.</p>
<p>His circle of friends was wide but he honestly had more non Moreheads in his close/inner circle of friends. Interestingly, several of his close friends were people he met at Finalist weekend that didn’t win…not winning the award certainly didn’t lessen their being brilliant, amazing people. </p>
<p>He absolutely loved his time at UNC and in Chapel Hill and has returned often. As I have already said, he’s planning to apply to both UNC and Duke for his residency.</p>
<p>Without trying to sound to weird, UNC is a very special place and one that for most, is difficult to leave.</p>
<p>If she truly loved her time there, not having a “name” scholarship isn’t going to impact her daily Carolina experience at all.</p>
<p>CarolMerrill – I, too, want to say how sorry I am that your daughter was hurt by not getting the MC. I’ve often thought about the finalists that don’t get the nod (some of them get it later, as others choose other schools – you’ll notice that the final list can be quite different from the first list released after finalists’ weekend). And it is definitely weird to be selected for the MC before you have gotten your acceptance! Along with EADAD, as a MC parent, I’ve worked some with the MC staff on some projects, and I may bring some of this up with them to see if perhaps it could be improved – but a big part of it is that fact that the MC is a completely separate and independent organization from UNC-CH. Still, perhaps some extra coordination could be introduced.</p>
<p>What we noticed through our UNC-CH tenure (our son graduated last spring, two years after EADAD’s son) is that UNC-CH has quite a bit of merit money. My son was offered a different scholarship that he turned down when he got the MC, and he had a lot of friends freshman year who were Carolina Scholars. Just just because you don’t get the MC or the Robertson doesn’t mean you won’t get assistance – and even generous assistance.</p>
<p>EADAD is right, it’s a very special place. I’m jealous that his son may be back there again for his residency. I’m pressuring my husband to try to get a guest lecturing spot! Having said that, my daughter, currently a college freshman, desired something completely different. Mostly it seems the kids end up at a place that sings to them – or if it doesn’t at first, it does after a year or so – and different places sing to different people. If I were doing it again, though, I’d want to be in Carolina Blue. It seems to have everything good one might want in a college experience.</p>
<p>I know three people personally who were nominated and were semi-finalists for the Morehead scholarship at my school, and all of them had GPAs over 5.0 (weighted, of course), and were all really involved with extracurriculars. One of my classmates who I know personally actually ended up winning the Morehead scholarship - she is the student body president, has an excellent GPA and extracurricular record, is involved with dance, and has done a hell of a lot for the community. </p>
<p>Some advice: just take the most challenging courseload available to you - all three of the people who I know were semifinalists for the Morehead took six or more AP courses both junior and senior year.</p>
<p>One thing to remember about the MC, and to console yourself over if you’re a finalist and don’t get it, is that the odds of winning the MC are actually much lower than even gaining admission to a Ivy. When you count all the nominating schools, and the fact that many of those have more than one student competing at the school level for their single nomination, and then the fact that of the school nominations, only a small percentage become finalists, and then of the finalists, only a fraction are offered the MC, the percent yield is quite a bit lower than Yale’s this-year acceptance rate of 7.35% So as always, it’s less about having the “best resume,” because we can assume that all the students being considered for the MC have very strong resumes, Ivy-level resumes, and more about the MC building a class of 50-odd unique individuals who complement each other. As a friend of ours said who’s an admission officer for an Ivy, “We could go down the list to the next 1,250 students, and they’d look just as good.” Read the posts of students accepted at HYP, and you’ll see plenty who were rejected at two or three wonderful schools, and then accepted at one of the “top three.” Some people think that’s strange, but it’s not like algebra – it’s inexact. It isn’t personal, so don’t take it personally. Take it as a huge vote of approval that you were selected by your school, and an even bigger vote of approval if the MC folks named you a finalist.</p>