<p>Wow, I am so amazed at all the responses. You guys are all amazing and a wealth of information. I can not thank you all so much for your words of advice and encouragement.
Yes, it is intimidating to read the"chance me" posts, but it is also disheartening to hear of very smart kids around here getting very little in the way of merit scholarships at UofM. I really haven’t looked around too much but I just figured that everyone wants to go to the big schools and are willing to pay the big bucks to go there. I just figured that she would have to “settle” for a second tier school because no money is available at the big schools. Again, I have not fully researched this but I was starting to worry. We were very excited about the 34 ACT, but it seems like it is not as special as we thought it would be when it comes to getting scholarships.
She plans to go into engineering but she is a very good writer (although that did not show on the ACT) I think she could write something very appealing. She is very well liked by all her teachers, but how do you know which one will write the “winner” reccomondation?
I can’t remember which poster talked about her daughter baking the cake from scratch, but that is my daughter to a T.
Just a couple more questions, for those who recieved merit awards. Did they offer them when they accepted you? Or after you accepted them? Do you send out your ACT scores now, in anticipation of applying later? Do you send them out randomly hoping a school offers you a scholarship? I am not American so this process is all new to me, and you would think my husband never applied to college before.(he went to a small Lutheran 2 yr before transfering to UW Madison, so it was a different process).
Again, thank you all so much for taking the time to write down all your thoughts. Writing is like pulling teeth for me so I truely appreciate anyone who takes the time to put their thoughts in writing. I am sure that I will have many more questions in the coming months</p>