<p>^^thank you</p>
<p>Adding onto jbrown's question, are those who are picked as semifinalists but don't make it to the finalist round likely to get any merit scholarships? Even a little bit? I realize that's a pretty large pool of people, and it probably differs from student to student, but I'm still curious.</p>
<p>Hello all--</p>
<p>Sorry to take so long to reply to your questions. We're a little swamped here these days. </p>
<p>If you were not selected as a semi-finalist, the odds of merit money are quite low. If you were selected as a semi-finalist but not a finalist, the odds of merit money are a little better, but still not outstanding. Sorry to give you discouraging odds. </p>
<p>I think it is important to point out that institutions all use their merit money in different ways. Some schools give modest awards to lots of people. We give giant awards to fewer people. We would say that everyone we admit has "merit" and the truth is that most of the people we admit will be offered merit money somewhere else. They are all outstanding! We wish we had deeper funding for merit aid but of course there is always a fine line required to balance need-based and merit-based funding. Our need-based aid policy is highly generous (and requires an incredible institutional investment each year) so those eligible for need-based aid will see that our packages are likely to be better those offered by other schools. </p>
<p>These are all complicated issues. I wish we could make it much less expensive for every family. . . .</p>
<p>(sry, wrong location :D)</p>
<p>(right location this time) Finalist!! Science Designation. I can't wait to visit Richmond (provided I get my visa in time, of course). Very happy right now.</p>
<p>UR Admissions, could you please explain the "RESX, Covington's online self-booking system"? Do I need to contact them or will I automatically get an e-mail from them over the next few days? Thank you.</p>
<p>OK, I got the e-mail from RESX. Gotta love the promptitude.</p>
<p>Lamassu, CONGRATULATIONS! That is very exciting!! Did you find out by email? I wonder if internationals are informed first.</p>
<p>Thanks kelliebm; yes, I received a long-awaited email :D Don't worry, I'm sure they will notify all finalists very soon. Good luck!</p>
<p>yay! I just got the finalist email- Oldham designation.
I'm out of state. The email came at 3:00 pm ish.</p>
<p>Science scholar here. I'm really excited about this too!</p>
<p>Congrats to the both of you as well! I can't help but wonder, though.. since you guys got your emails, I bet the fact I didn't get one today means I didn't get chosen. :( Oh well. I guess I shouldn't jump to conclusions until I get the email saying no.</p>
<p>At one point, in another thread, I got the impression that Finalist decisions were e-mailed to internationals but snail-mailed to domestic students. Perhaps I was mistaken. Good luck to all. I am excited for those who have already heard.</p>
<p>Look likes all finalists get e-mail. In the 2nd post of this thread: </p>
<p>""" Finalists will be notified by e-mail and postal mail (only domestic addresses will also get postal mail) by the end of February.""""</p>
<p>so does anyone know if all the emails have been sent out yet for the richmond scholars finalists? i hope not :-( and also, does anyone know if all semi-finalists will get the email saying yes or no?</p>
<p>Hello all--</p>
<p>The e-mails to all finalists have now all been sent. US finalists will hear both by e-mail and by postal mail. International addresses will hear by e-mail and by FedEx. </p>
<p>Decisions about the Presidential Scholarships are pending. </p>
<p>We will e-mail those semi-finalists who are not advancing tomorrow. The delay is related to several other internal decisions that are still being made. I'm sorry that we weren't able to synchronize the two communications. I really did try to make that happen. </p>
<p>I know that this will leave many people feeling disappointed. As I've said before I deeply wish we had many more awards to give--everyone who was a semi-finalist and many more students beyond that are absolutely worthy of awards. </p>
<p>If you are a US citizen or permanent resident and you have applied for need-based aid, please follow up with the Financial Aid Office to be certain that your aid applications are complete. If you are eligible for aid, your package will meet 100% of your eligibility and will include very little loan, so our hope is that need-based aid will put Richmond in a position to enroll you. </p>
<p>If you are not a US citizen or permanent resident, your aid applications are being reviewed by our international specialist in the admission office and aid decisions will be made and extended around April 1 along with admission offers. Unfortunately, our international student aid budgets, while generous by the standards of most American institutions, come nowhere near meeting the needs of our outstanding international student applicant pool. So we will have very difficult choices to make about aid for international students, and we ask for your patience. </p>
<p>Good luck to all of you. This is a stressful process and we are pleased to have a chance to work with you all. </p>
<p>UR Admissions</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p>i'm actually kind of in shock. i thought my art was good enough that i would be a finalist. it was good enough for wake forest!!! i'm one of 5 finalists for an art scholarship there...</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p>Same shock here - my daughter is "good enough" to be finalist for other scholarships at "more prestigous" schools but for some reason she really like UR and thought she would have a good chance for merit scholarship</p>
<p>She has 4.0 unweighted gpa, national merit finalist, full load of AP courses for last 2 years, 6 AP freshman and sophmore year, 2 sport varsity athlete with regional and state honors -</p>
<p>And she didn't make the cut for Richmond Scholars Finalists. </p>
<p>I am shocked to think that there are so many students with better stats who are interested in attending UR and made the deadlines for the Richmond Scholars that she didn't make the "cut" to finalist.</p>
<p>Annap, I remember that admissions said a while back that some 220 materials were admitted for arts scholars. Not sure how many are selected, but I'm sure it's not more than a handful, so don't take it personally.</p>
<p>Mom, I think what you've found is that UR's reputation is a few years behind the actual quality of education/students. This is also a year of record applications for the university, so there are even more quality students applying for the same scholarships and, not to speak for the group selecting the scholars, I imagine you have to have something that makes you stand out from the competition, as it is the best of the best. The academic side of your daughter sounds fantastic and being a former athlete and a huge fan, I'm impressed with the athletic honors, but there are also others, just like her, competiting for the scholarship. Perhaps they also are all-state musicians or nationally ranked in chess or started a non-profit for children in the community. 128 out of 802 freshmen in the class of 2011 were named all-state in their respective activity. Extrapolating that out to all the applicants last year, that would be over 1,000 All-state selections. This year had over 7,500 applicants, so extrapolating that, you're looking at nearly 1,200 All-state persons competiting for 50+- scholarships. </p>
<p>I guess what I'm trying to say is that I hope you realize that there are a ton of very talented (in various areas) individuals shooting for a small number of scholarships and that your daughters omittance doesn't diminish what she's accomplished.</p>
<p>I am grateful to have been selected as a semi finalist for the Science scholar designation and have received $15000 as a Presidential Scholarship award. I am excited about being able to visit the campus and my interview of course.
However, I am also a bit saddened at the fact that it might very well be the case that I might not get a visa in such a short time.</p>
<p>UR Admissions, help?</p>
<p>And Mom, I speak from personal experience. In 2001 I was selected as a semi-finalist but not finalist. I scored a 33 on my ACT (1480-1510 equivalent on SAT), member of MENSA, was nationally ranked in chess, was a two-sport athlete, finished in the top 8 in my event at the state track meet (3-time state qualifier), was captain of my state championship track team, won two state championships in football, was an actor in a local community theatre, was a member of the Junior Red Cross, had two published poems and had all honors/AP's from a school that has received 3 National Blue Ribbon of Excellence Awards. It's a tough group of students you're going up against.</p>