<p>Yes, Iderochi, I was talking about out of state students and the Moorehead.</p>
<p>Carolyn:</p>
<p>OOS students who apply early can qualify without going to a "participating" school. It is probably rare that they would get chosen, but it can happen.</p>
<p>From the Morehead website: </p>
<p>"There are three ways an out-of-state student may become a Morehead candidate: </p>
<p>by attending a participating school
by participating in a nominating affiliate program
by applying to UNC by November 1 and being nominated by the UNC Admissions Office. "</p>
<p>I stand corrected. :)</p>
<p>sokkerman: While your information is correct, I think to be nominated for a Morehead by the Admissions Office is, as you say, pretty rare. As for UNC using the Morehead to "diversify the student body.." I don't think that's entirely true either. For one reason, both the Morehead and the Robertson Scholarships are, in fact, not actually administered by UNC itself.</p>
<p>Hi Jack. It's sokkermom. (not man) LOL :)</p>
<p>We can only share our story. S was the sole nominee from his OOS "participating" school. GC stated that he was the best nominee in years. blah, blah, blah. "The Morehead was made for him". Kids from his school who have been nominated have historically been offered the award.</p>
<p>Fact:
The kid who was nominated and offered the Morehead from his school the year before S was a great hispanic kid (low income) from LA. He declined and went to Stanford. He was a good friend of S.</p>
<p>Fact:
The kid who was nominated and offered the award two years prior was a great african american (low income) kid from PA. He declined and went to Harvard. He was also a good friend of S.</p>
<p>Fact:
S was nominated as an upper middle income caucasian kid from New England. He never even made it to the first round interview! </p>
<p>Did he get denied the chance for the award because UNC thought he would matriculate elsewhere? or.... Was his ethnic and or geographic residence considered? We will never know........</p>
<p>Hi sokkermom: Oops...sorry about that--a complete typo! I know you're sokkermom...of course. But that's a really interesting story about your son's experience with the Morehead. Maybe you're correct. I do know that, traditionally, both Morehead and Robertson Scholars usually do have lots of other offers, including Ivy's, to turn down, so I doubt he was denied because they thought he would matriculate elsewhere. They know these kids are made other offers. But I can see how the geographic residence/ethnicity does make one wonder, based on your experience. I will add that our high school regularly sends nominees, but since a kid turned it down some years ago for Harvard, they have seemed not to pay much attention to our Morehead nominees in the years since. So I do know that when our high school interviews students to be considered for the Morehead nomination, they stress that they do not want anyone going forward that wouldn't take it, if offered. The high school just feels that this hurts the next year's nominees for that particular program. That is based on pure speculation, but it sounds like your son may have felt the brunt of the two kids who went before him, who turned it down. Again, just my guess.</p>
<p>Here is a link to the merit program at the University of Alabama. UA has for the last several years had more students chosen to the USAToday All American Academic Team than any other college - they take very good care of the students at the top of the heap. They have, I think, 3 different arms to their honors program, which is different than the scholarships, but open to scholarship students - the most competitive is the Computer-Based Honors, which is quite selective, and might be of interest to a math/science/ engineering person.
Alabama is not the traditional engineering school in the state, but they have had a small, good engineering program for years, and recently a big injection of Mercedes money has made automotive engineering a specialty. If one of their areas of expertise is of interest, he can get good money. One of the smartest people I know is an early graduate of the engineering program who went on to Stanford on a NSF fellowship for design engineering. Check it out</p>
<p>Also do not overlook the Honors Program at Maryland - there are 200 free rides, for which out of state students are eligible, also many (don't know exact number) full tuition awards. (See the UMD thread for my detailed post about it last summer). This option was my son's second choice, and it can be wonderful, especially if your student has either a math/science research bent (Gemstone 4-year research program) or a strong humanities bent, writing/english/linguistics/philosophy/performing arts (Honors Humanities 2-year research program). </p>
<p>They accept 4/5 AP scores for credit as well as college credits earned while in high school. My son would have entered with 56 credits but they wouldn't have made him graduate early - so it would have been four years for free, to double major, do graduate courses, study abroad, etc. Like being in Willie Wonka's candy store, just about anything you want, and plenty of it!</p>
<p>Anyway, I really liked it, and believe me, I became quite discriminating in my tastes after 3.5 years of intensive research. Very friendly campus too, with a terrific student union and a fabulous new state of the art indoor exercise center. All of my son's friends who went to UMD this year are quite happy thus far, and that's been the consistent reaction over the past few years with those ahead of the class of 2009.</p>