<p>Hi,
I am a high school junior and I feel like Ithaca is the perfect college for me, but I am just so worried about paying for it. I want to go for journalism (probably) and I found the park scholar award. Although I am at the top of my AP english class and editor of 2 major productions at my HS (newspaper and literary journal) I wasn't that great of a student in 9th and 10th grade(mostly b's and some c's); some family issues were conflicting with school. I just get real worried and anxious when I find something that I really want, and I just basically want to know what the MAJOR deciding factors are for the scholarship, and approx. how many people apply for it/ how rare it is. If anyone here has recieved the scholarship, perhaps you could give me a general idea of what kind of student you were? That would be so great, thanks a lot, -K.</p>
<p>...Nobody?</p>
<p>Well I know nothing about the Park Scholar Award, but I am going to be attending Ithaca in the fall and I do know that I was satisfyed with my financial aid package. I received a Dean's Scholar Award (Dean's Scholarship? Not sure how it was worded) which gives me $4,000 per semester as long as I maintain a 3.0. Then we received sufficient parent and student loans alike. A lot of schools only gave me like 3,000 or 5,000 in loans- for a 4 grand a year total cost, essentially! Ithaca makes it possible, for sure. Good luck with next year :D</p>
<p>thanks! so it's pretty possible to attend there even if you have a lot of financial need?</p>
<p>the park scholarship is extremely competitive. you need at least a 1350 SAT on 1600 basis. youneed to be in the top 5% of class and have lots of EC's. my son did not get a park scholar, but he did get a leadership scholarship for 7k a year, which was not enough to make ithaca affordable. The park scholarship is probably one of the most competitive scholarships to get. It was a disappointment not to be able to afford ithaca, but my son found an equally as good cummunication program at Univ of Miami where he will be attending with a big scholarship package. you should have your HS counselor write a special note as to why your grades fell in your freshman year, this sometimes helps the school in understanding your circumstances. However, it may not help at all with the Park Scholars, for my son had a great application and did not get anything in terms of scholarships from the Park School. Good luck and do go for it, but consider other schools that have great journalism programs as well. it is surprising to see where you end up going to school after all is said and done, my son ended up at a school that was his reach school, and he applied there as an afterthought, and he got in and is going there. So dont limit yourself.</p>
<p>"so it's pretty possible to attend there even if you have a lot of financial need?"</p>
<p>I'm careful about making generalizations, but I can say that they gave me a ton more help than any other schools I was accepted to and we really weren't expecting anything. And anything is possible. Just make sure you have a school you love that you know you can afford, just in case.</p>