<p>My daughter, a HS senior, was admitted to regular Penn State, main campus, last month, a week after applying. She awaits a decision on the Shreyers Honors College app there. </p>
<p>"Regular" Penn State just awarded her "$12,000 over two years". I Googled this Provost Award and nothing came up.</p>
<p>I'm wondering it if affects her chances for need based aid, other scholarships, and how common these are.</p>
<p>Cost is a big factor to us. He choice will come down to the bottom line.</p>
<p>funny thing. I’m a professor at PSU and my daughter received the same award and I knew nothing about it. Found out by googling and visiting this site.
Contact PSU student aid to find out the effect of this on aid. If aid is important apply for aid as soon as possible. PSU cannot meet all needs and people who apply late could receive less than those who apply early (although attempts are made to give out as much as possible to each student).
good luck with the SHC application, it is fantastic and the scholarship is nice too!</p>
<p>It seems pretty stupid to announce a new scholarship program on December 14. Many students will have already submitted applications and wouldn’t be inclined to suddenly add PSU to the list at this late date. There don’t even seem to be any indications of how much, how many, or what the stats requirements are.</p>
<p>*I’m wondering it if affects her chances for need based aid, *</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>What do you mean by that??? If you still have need after the merit scholarships is applied to need, then your D will still get some aid…maybe a loan, work study, or maybe a small grant. </p>
<p>The scholarship would be part of her FA. Is it $6k per year for two years? or is it $12k per year for 2 years? </p>
<p>What is your EFC? </p>
<p>ARe you instate for PSU? </p>
<p>That said, PSU doesn’t meet need, so it may mean that she’d get more aid then she would if she hadn’t gotten that award. </p>
<p>Are you saying that the award is ONLY for 2 years? If so, I’d be more concerned about what her aid would be after that award went away. it could be kind of deceiving…a student might think PSU is affordable and then 2 years later not be able to afford the school. </p>
<p>Usually every Shreyers student gets about a $4800 merit scholarship. You need to find out if the scholarships will stack.</p>
<p>I just got one of these scholarships the other day too. I did not apply to Schreyer’s though so I don’t know about the stacking of scholarships; I’m guessing they would.</p>
<p>The $12,000 is for two years, divided evenly ($3,000 per semester). I’m guessing the reason it is two years is because they want to make sure you can obtain a 3.0 before giving you more. It wouldn’t surprise me if they handed out more if you continued to do well academically, but then again I’m not making the rules so I don’t know.</p>
<p>The scholarship stipulation is that you must be enrolled with at least 12 credits per semester and maintain a 3.0.</p>
<p>I should also add that non-honors admissions at PSU is strictly a numbers game- SAT and GPA. They are very clear on this point. I bet they count the number of AP and honors courses too, but I don’t know. Other components may come into play only with a few “bubble cases”. This scholarship was almost certainly awarded based on SAT and GPA.<br>
SHC selection is very different. The other factors play a very significant part in who is selected and who is not.
A few years back I was a faculty reader for the SHC admissions. The applicants are evaluated by multiple advisors to honors students (professors). First thing you need to know is there is no magic formula and serving as a reader provided no “insider information”. I guarantee you, the information you can obtain on the website is exactly what they told us to use in our evaluations- but read below.</p>
<p>I’ll extend a bit of advice to students and parents on this forum using my experience evaluating applications for SHC and knowing a few honors and AP teachers at the local high school. I was drawn to this site by a google search for this scholarship. Out of curiosity I searched around a bit to see what people are writing and, frankly, obsessing over. I do not mean to imply this is directed at anyone responding to this thread specifically. This is just something that struck me when I searched around this site.</p>
<p>May be this has been covered before, I don’t know. Here’s my two-cents.
I see many posts about what courses to take, what ECs to get involved in, value of taking college courses and attention to the essays. Here’s a little secret. If some of those applying spent 1/5 of the time they do preparing essays towards “grooming” (poor word, but I think you know what I mean) your referees, you’d be in much better shape. A significant difference between those that are selected and those that are not are the letters. The “poor” letters are those where it is clear the teacher does not really know the student (re-writing the student’s dossier) or doesn’t like the student. Teachers don’t come out and say bad things when they don’t like the student or know them. In these cases, they don’t write personal and enthusiastic letters. It is very clear when you read these letters. Teachers who write letters to honors colleges and Ivy schools sort of tell a similar story. It’s nice to be motivated and driven, they like that. But at what expense? Are you helpful to your classmates? Do you critique their work respectfully during group exercises? Does your ambition lead to grade grubbing? (think twice about confronting a teacher over that 3 points on an assignment out of a total of 300 that will determine your ultimate grade). Do you interact with them regularly? (more than just courtesy, this is how they get to know you). Do you actually give off arrogance when interacting with them? (if they were as smart as I am they wouldn’t be doing this job).</p>
<p>Another item. You have a lot of activities, but do you demonstrate COMMITTMENT to community service or helping others REGULARLY? Nice to check that box by helping out with Special Olympics one day a year, but that doesn’t cut it.</p>
<p>See the common thread? It’s great to be motivated and driven, but don’t forget to be a good person, student and classmate in the process. After all, what school wants to load up on cutthroat, grade grubbing opportunists?</p>
<p>Hi! I received the provost award for 6k/year for 4 years (24,000 over 4 years)</p>
<p>I had a SAT of 1820 (superscored) and an ACT of 27 (superscored). I also have several different NHS memberships and extra curriculars. I am also out of state.
I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Your insight and advice are spot on and helpful, especially for those of us who are awaiting an answer from the SHC. Our HS GC told us back in the tenth grade that quality and continuity of EC’s is much more important than quantity. Which we took to heart. My child received the Provost four-year offer this weekend. Which brings brings me to the point that someone else brought up, in the press release and everywhere else I look everything references two-years, nowhere can I find anything speaking to the four-year offers. BTW, in-state, 4.0 unweighted, 4.15 weighted, 2050 SAT.</p>
<p>My son has a few classmates who have received this award in the past few days. He has not, although he shares the same grades and standardized test scores. I called PSU today and was told that these are not strictly merit based awards but was given no further insight. Curious if anyone knows what the criteria for the award is. Does a parent being a PSU alum make a difference?</p>
<p>I’m not up for sharing specific information, but my child’s stats are higher than those getting 4 years. That’s ok, and probably fair, because if she goes to PSU there is a tuition discount for us. So, they are trying to use the $ as effectively as possible. The goal of this scholarship is to increase recruitment of the best students. They must have a computer program based on a formula to predict what is needed to entice recruitment. It may consider the potential for other scholarships, cost of attending, in/out of state and admission credentials.
For example, they might offer less if the candidate has high potential to get other scholarships or if a parent works at the University (tuition discount) or is an alumnus (tradition). Make’s sense to me.
I look at it this way, it’s 12K we didn’t have 5 days ago!</p>
<p>was told that these are not strictly merit based awards</p>
<p>That can mean that the awards also considers how the student adds to their diversity for ethnicity, region (home state), intent of major, gender, talent, etc. </p>
<p>from another thread</p>
<p>*Accepted w/ scholarship
Accepted to the College of Engineering at University Park 12/1/12, and just received $3,000 per semester scholarship in the mail today!
*</p>
<p>Collegebound…what state are you from? Are you a URM? What is your major? Any special talent? Are you male or female?</p>
<p>My daughter just received the Provost award over the weekend. It is for 6K over 4 years ( 24K). To say the least, we were thrilled since we are out of state. She has a 3.7 GPA not sure if that is UW or W and SAT super score of 1870. She has a variety of EC and wrote a nice essay on her film photography hobby. Penn State is her #1 school but we are still waiting for some other college decisions before deciding. My guess is Penn State is trying to entice students to attend maybe OOS in particular- but that is my opinion. I read that only 10% of the students at UP will receive this award- that is about 750 students out of 7500.</p>
<p>Hello! When did your daughters/sons apply to Penn State? I’m applying to PSU and I am in need of financial aid as I’m from a low-income family. I’m very surprised and happy to hear of this new award they’re giving, but I’m worried that I may have had to apply by a certain date (like most schools dec 1st). My profile:</p>
<p>I was born in Santa Cruz, Bolivia but I grew up in Spain, did my high school in Boston, MA. So I don’t know if I’m URM. I’m a permanent resident. Female.</p>
<p>Major: Science, possibly biology or neuroscience (Pre-med)</p>
<p>STATS:
GPA 3.73 unweighted, 4.2 weighted
SAT 2100
SAT II Chemistry 730, Biology 760, Spanish 800
AP Biology 5, Psychology 4, Art I 4, Art II 5 (also honors)</p>
<p>EXTRACURRICULAR:
Volleyball 4 years (captain)
Ice Hockey 2 years
Art club
Private Tutor Middle School students (spanish, chemistry) - Work
Babysitting </p>
<p>AWARDS
School awards (chemistry, math, foreign language)
Principal honors list (9-12)
National AP Scholar with Distinction (12)
High Honor Roll GPA over 90%
National Art Honor Society
Art Exhibited at 2 local museums (11-12)
Most Valuable Player Volleyball season (11)</p>
<p>Not much community service to be honest though I’ve been volunteering now at a hospital as a patient representative in the ER for about 13 weeks and in Pediatrics for 6 weeks one day per week. Also a couple of months/weeks work experience shadowing doctors and surgeons (I’m planning to become a doctor) but I don’t think that will make much of a difference? Not sure.</p>