My S was also accepted into Engineering EA and their website says “merit scholarships” won’t be announced until late Feb early Mar. I have sent an e-mail to check on this but no answer yet. We knew he would not qualify for need based but sure hope for merit based. Otherwise he can not afford it.
So far the only award I have received is the $1500 CHP one. I heard that engineering offers are made later in the month, but does anyone know if all school wide scholarship offers have been made already?
I didn’t receive any aid (white/asian female, 35 act, 4.41 GPA weighted, all APs and honors classes, in state, applied and got in BME). I’m disappointed but should I be surprised? I know it’s competitive but how much so?
@diane11 Biomedical is one of the most competitive majors. Just being admitted to Bio, CS, Civil, Mechanical, etc is an amazing accomplishment- congrats! Consider that in many of these top-ranked majors, almost every accepted student has nearly perfect stats and admission rates are close to 10% or even lower. It’s also possible that merit awards are spread around to some extent, otherwise students in a few majors would dominate the awards both in Engineering and campus wide. That’s just a guess, but if true, would make it tougher to earn a merit scholarship in the most competitive programs.
School of Engineering merit awards have not yet been issued to my knowledge, but should be announced within the next 1-2 weeks. Their web page says around 100 awards are given each year. It also says over 500 applicants have ACT scores of 35 or 36. Good luck!
My son got the Presidents Award Scholarship $5000 per year. In state, 32 ACT, 3.85 GPA, Hispanic.
Congrats to him! What major was he accepted for?
Thanks!
He wanted business but didn’t get in so he’s in general studies. He’s thinking of going to Indiana though. He got direct admit to Kelley School of Business and has received multiple scholarships from IU.
I’ve not heard great things about DGS, especially for those who got put in there and wanted to do engineering. I’m not sure how feasible a transfer from DGS to business is.
Anyway, IU’s business school is great. Does look like the better choice for him.
My S18 was emailed last night with a $10K engineering freshman scholarship (non-renewable) for Engineering Physics. We are very thankful that his hard work was rewarded with any merit, especially given what I’ve read on how few awards are given. He has a 36 act with 4.0 unweighted GPA, 4.7 weighted with a full load of AP/honors, so we thought he had a chance at one of the top-tier renewable awards, too. I guess it shows what I’ve known all along: these are extremely competitive and/or other factors are involved. He is not URM and has no other connections or hooks, but did have a solid application overall.
This makes in-state costs at UIUC only somewhat more expensive than his offer at Minnesota-TC over 4 years, even when considering significant non-resident tuition increases at UMN and fixed tuition/room/board at UIUC. He received the honors program invite at both schools. He’s also waiting for other admissions/scholarships offers at various other schools. A couple more months and some tough choices ahead. As a UIUC Engineering grad myself, I hope it’s enough for him NOT to choose Michigan…
This was from an article link posted elsewhere.
UIUC is “…redirecting about $3.5 million from merit scholarships for out-of-state students to Illinois applicants, based on need (middle class: 48-110k) – so MERIT AND NEED-based.
Ah, that explains a lot.
Is there still a chance to receive merit based aid even if you already received an initial financial aid packet in early February? Specifically for Chemical Engineering?
I was told all engineering merit aid had been awarded. It can’t hurt contacting them, though.
So I didn’t get any aid, despite being in the CHP and supposedly top 125 students. I guess U of I doesn’t value high achieving students. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to settle for Columbia.
@cdhxyx don’t settle man. You’re better than Columbia. ; )
get out we hate high achievers
The discouraging thing about these scholarships is how Illinois gives very significant scholarships to certain students mostly based on their ethnicity. I understand how it’s important to keep a diverse student body, but it seems a bit extreme. Just my opinion though
I’m thrilled my son received a first-year scholarship, though it is a little discouraging when other seemingly less qualified students get better offers. He knows a friend admitted to the same program who was given a 4-year full tuition scholarship. From what I understand, the other student had somewhat lower grades and scores and no other apparent hooks/URM. Perhaps there were other factors, but it’s still somewhat disappointing. Plus, I gather that student had little intention of attending UIUC and accepted an early offer elsewhere.
In general, it sure would be nice to see more merit money from top academic institutions be awarded objectively, based only upon academic merit. The amount of money going into non-need based aid for athletes and URM is very commendable, but they should award similar scholarship money to scholars as well.