<p>I received both the Chancellor’s and Provost’s scholarships, worth $6000 and $8000 respectively. For my stats, I had a 3.8 UW GPA, a 1570 superscored SAT, and plenty of EC’s. Also, I’ve NEVER taken an AP class and have only taken one honors class.</p>
<p>^^ </p>
<p>Do you have a hook? URM? special major? </p>
<p>do you get both scholarships?</p>
<p>My hooks would be that I’m a first-gen student, an URM (Black), and I don’t know if this qualifies, but I’ve lived in a single parent household nearly throughout my whole life. I asked to major in pre-med, but since my acceptance materials only included Eberly and not my major, I guess I have a little flexibility. And finally, I did receive both. I will receive $3,500 per semester over two years. This is not including financial aid.</p>
<p>So… my son is in top ten % of class, 31 ACT, in-state, just about all AP or honors classes, lots of ECs, legacy, engineering major, and clear financial need (!!), and no scholarship. I guess it is what it is.</p>
<p>It’s threads like this that reveal/expose what an institution is doing that - in the long run - may hurt it more than help. </p>
<p>As those who didn’t get the offers learn who did get offers (with lower stats and no other obvious hook), the sour taste in their mouths will only worsen. Not many with other options will want to write checks for $6k+ more per year for four years knowing that their school overlooked their child’s stats and awarded someone else. the point of the merit seems to be “we want YOU,” so are those who didn’t get the offers are supposed to think…“um, they don’t want me.”??</p>
<p>Heck, I’ve seen parents get pretty upset when their child gets overlooked for a class award that has no money attached, so things like this will really upset folks.</p>
<p>Reveal/expose what they are doing???</p>
<p>What are they doing exactly? What needs to be exposed? They provided scholarship money to boost enrollment and increase affordability for students. Did they sell it any other way? Did they say it’s exclusively merit based? Exclusively need based? Did they publicize an SAT or GPA cutoff? Did they encourage people to apply describing criteria that they backed away from?
They made no advertisements of who they targeted or promises about these awards. Heck, if they decided to give it every tenth applicant, what does it matter? It could be as simple as some hit the lottery, others did not. Difference is, you didn’t have to buy a ticket or fill out a form.</p>
<p>People should read the articles
[UNIVERSITY</a> PARK: Scholarship funding for Penn State freshmen on the rise | Penn State | CentreDaily.com](<a href=“http://www.centredaily.com/2012/12/15/3437029/scholarship-funding-for-penn-state.html]UNIVERSITY”>http://www.centredaily.com/2012/12/15/3437029/scholarship-funding-for-penn-state.html)</p>
<p>“This awards program is about providing opportunities for more people to get a Penn State degree,” said university spokeswoman Lisa Powers.
“We want to serve each region where there is a Penn State campus in the most effective way possible,” Powers said. “In some areas, we are focusing on returning adult students. In other areas, the focus will be on specific curriculum for which the region needs workers, such as health care fields.
It’s only the obsession of people on this site who are trying to analyze for themselves who got the award and why. It’s only these types of people who will be upset.
Read more here: [UNIVERSITY</a> PARK: Scholarship funding for Penn State freshmen on the rise | Penn State | CentreDaily.com](<a href=“http://www.centredaily.com/2012/12/15/3437029/scholarship-funding-for-penn-state.html#storylink=cpy]UNIVERSITY”>http://www.centredaily.com/2012/12/15/3437029/scholarship-funding-for-penn-state.html#storylink=cpy)</p>
<p>PSU latest capital campaign is focused at students, a significant component being making it affordable for more families. This campaign has been underway long before before any scandal broke (even longer during the silent phase). </p>
<p>From the press release about the award:
“We recognize that the landscape in higher education is competitive, and our current capital campaign, For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students, has been addressing this for several years (<a href=“http://giveto.psu.edu/s/1218/start.aspx[/url]”>http://giveto.psu.edu/s/1218/start.aspx</a>). We are initiating a number of additional efforts like this to ensure that our offers are as attractive as possible,” Rob Pangborn, interim provost, said.</p>
<p>[Penn</a> State Live - Penn State announces new scholarship awards](<a href=“http://live.psu.edu/story/63228]Penn”>http://live.psu.edu/story/63228)</p>
<p>See another story in today’s paper .
Texas couple give Penn State $5 million to support scholarships
Penn State has received a $5 million donation from a Texas couple that will go toward scholarships for students with financial needs.
Read more here: [Texas</a> couple give Penn State $5 million to support scholarships | Penn State | CentreDaily.com](<a href=“http://www.centredaily.com/2013/01/07/3457450/texas-couple-give-penn-state-5.html#storylink=omni_popular#wgt=pop#storylink=cpy]Texas”>http://www.centredaily.com/2013/01/07/3457450/texas-couple-give-penn-state-5.html#storylink=omni_popular#wgt=pop#storylink=cpy)</p>
<p>Let’s see people find something to criticize them for this move. What’s the critique, someone from texas gave the $? Well, these people don’t wake up some day and decide to do this for this purpose. It is the development people who initiate contact, makes suggestions and secure these endowments.</p>
<p>I certainly disagree that a random lottery for merit aid is a credible approach, or one that will promote good will in the admit pool. </p>
<p>I manage a large group of employees in my office, and I can tell you it would not be very well received if I handed out raises and bonuses in a random fashion rather than based on merit criteria understood by the staff. Merit aid is no different.</p>
<p>if this was based only on merit (academic performance/community involvement), I see your point. It is not and PSU makes this case in its news stories or in their response to inquiries from parents and students. This forum wants to define it as merit-based and early indications may have suggested so, that is until PSU responded and you read the press releases.
PSU is not unique in making its own decisions on factors other than academic performance, financial need or demographics.
Some will get into a certain college, some won’t. Some will do so with lesser stats than those who are ultimately rejected. It’s all in the game we accept when we push that submit button.</p>
<p>Heck, if they decided to give it every tenth applicant, what does it matter?</p>
<p>In the world of money, it does matter. When people feel that they are unfairly being charged more for a product that others are getting at a lower price for no apparent reason, it is going to cause hard feelings. Those hard feelings will either cause the people to “vote with their feet” and enroll elsewhere (which I think those who are annoyed might do), or suck it up and pay $24k more (the price of some new cars). </p>
<p>People can understand such things as: Well, the merit scholarship was awarded to Susie because she had higher test scores, or it was given to Johnny because he’s a URM, or it was given to Billy because he’s from Alaska. But, when a higher stats kid from one high school has deposited, and another from the same school with lower stats hasn’t, to give the second child a merit scholarship is - uh - distasteful.</p>
<p>It’s all in the game we accept when we push that submit button.</p>
<p>but the rules shouldn’t change after the button is pushed. In the past, PSU-CP students who weren’t in SHC weren’t likely to get any merit. So, these folks had no fear of depositing after acceptance.</p>
<p>“In the past, PSU-CP students who weren’t in SHC weren’t likely to get any merit.”</p>
<p>and you base this conclusion on what? There were plenty of “merit” based scholarships at PSU before this. Offering money to students to entice acceptance is a long standing practice. They just haven’t dug so deep before in the applicant pool on a University- level or publicized it. Even if what you say is correct (and I disagree), do people feel that their chances improved that much more when the number of awards is 2700, out of 75,000+ applicants? How does a 3.5% success rate sound? Would this low percentage entice you to drop down another 65.00+ to apply (not including score reports) when you did not plan to? May be at the expense of another school you already chosen? </p>
<p>There’s a lot of conclusions being drawn from fragments of information from what, 12 different people in this thread and other unsubstantiated “stories of friends” might raise that number to, IDK 20 or 24? 24 out of the 75,000+ applicants or the 2700 who will ultimately receive them. People make conclusions about how PSU hands out awards from this miniscule fraction? </p>
<p>I sense more outrage from people who didn’t apply or don’t even have a kid applying. If there is a better value out there for what you get, with or without the scholarship, they will go to those colleges. Will some people not be able to attend who could have if they got award? Sure. Will some now go who otherwise could not without the award? Certainly. But to say people will walk away from an offer of admission or not apply next year because of how people THINK these were awarded, its just not a credible hypothesis/statement. If people end up making such an important decision because of hurt feelings or sour grapes, well, that’s not a good way to pick a university. I don’t believe people will. They are more practical than that.</p>
<p>I agree with Luvthej. Most all schools that distribute merit awards do using some methodology to target the students theymost want. PSU is not doing anything different. As far as in state PA goes, it is still one of the best deals for the money even at full price.</p>
<p>I’m getting too emotionally involved here, but for the life of me I can’t understand how people can find fault in giving people financial help or would want to create bad feelings.
PSU does not give a good discount to state residents compared to other states, this is true. People who live in the state and pay attention know that this is because PA has been cutting its funding for PSU for the last 15 years, much more aggressively than other states who offer significant in-state discounts. Furthermore, do people know that PSU gets a SMALLER percentage of their budget (operating costs) from the state than either Pitt, Temple or Lincoln do? More total $, yes, but percentage wise it is smaller. This larger total dollars has to educate (and provide outreach for) a much larger number than these other schools.
Is OOS costs really that high? I think not. Even this is indirectly increased by reduced state funding (economies of scale etc).
So, if PSU is so terrible, why have applications been rising (especially OOS students) and the quality of students steadily increased at an impressive rate? Why? it’s a good deal for what you get compared to the other options.
It’s time for me to move on. For those who come to PSU, I hope you enjoy it as much as the vast majority of its students do.</p>
<p>luvthej,</p>
<p>You seem to have a lot of concern about folks expressing reasonable questions and even some condemnation about how PSU is handling this matter. PSU has some PR ground to make up after the Sandusky scandal, and one would hope for greater TRANSPARENCY in how they conduct business in all areas of the school. </p>
<p>The articles you listed do not convey a clear sense of how or why they are offering the scholarships. Yes, of course they can do whatever they want. However, if they are vague and reluctant to give any clearcut criteria, it will reflect poorly on the school, especially if there is uneven consistency across recipients in terms of stats. </p>
<p>It’s one thing when a private LAC uses “holistic” admission criteria to entice certain applicants. It’s another thing when a large public U., which typically offers minimal need-based financial aid, suddenly offers “merit” aid without seemingly consistent criteria.</p>
<p>I haven’t read this entire thread but am wondering, has anyone contacted the financial aid office and asked on what basis these scholarships are being awarded?</p>
<p>People do get upset. My son has a friend who was at the very top of her class and with near perfect test scores and a phenomonal resume. She was accepted but did not get one of BC’s awards for the top applicants. Her father was outraged and wanted to know who the heck would have a better profile than she did. </p>
<p>Well, BC gets enough kids from our area that are maybe not quite as top drawer a this young woman, but close enough. The line to get into BC from here is around the block with many families begging to pay full freight for their kid to just get accepted there. So why should BC give anyone in that category merit awards to have them come there? The kids from other geographical areas, and with other hooks with maybe not quite the academic prowess got the awards because that was what BC wants. But it does cause some hard feelings, don’t think it does not. But for those who are PA residents and who whose choices are limited by cost, or if cost plays a big role in the choice, PSU even without merit money is going to be a strong contender. </p>
<p>For OOS, not so much. I’ve heard that apps are particularly down from OOSers which hurts because the extra they pay helps with the university budget. Even throwing a few extra grand towards that cost still brings the final figure lowere than what PA residents pay. </p>
<p>But this is ususally the case with merit awards. What’s a bit unusual is that PSU is offering these awards early in the process. Most of the time, these offers arrive at the 11th hour before the kids have to make the decision. Payment of deposit at a school like PSU does not a firm commitment make. Because housing choices go by the receipt of the deposit, in order to have a good chance at the better choices, it behooves acceptees to sent that deposit in early. A lot of schools are that way.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Doesn’t BC only award a small handful of merit awards, so the competition is very tough? Whle your son’s friend’s stats may have been tip top, if the school only awards 10 awards and they got 30 top applicants, then 20 won’t get the offers. </p>
<p>I think that deep down people understand that when there are only a small number of awards, the chances of getting one is slim. However, when an award like the PSU award seems to be quite widespread tuition discounting, then the over-looked students are going to feel hurt - especially if it appears that they were overlooked because they applied early.</p>
<p>As for the PSU deal…next year it’s going to be interesting. the word is getting out that you shouldn’t deposit early. So, next year, people will sit back on their heels waiting to see if any of these $6k or so offers come in.</p>
<p>While it is not clear to me how these scholarships are being awarded it is clearly stated that they are only for next fall’s incoming freshman class. I’m not sure that waiting around in hopes that a new scholarship program will be started next spring makes a lot of sense. At this point PSU’s discretionary spending is being funneled in other directions.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>I think you misunderstood.</p>
<p>What I meant is that next fall’s applicants won’t be in such a hurry to deposit early in the fall. they’ll wait til Dec/Jan to deposit to see if they’ll get a merit award.</p>
<p>those who deposited early this last fall are noticing that they’re not getting these merit awards. The awards are going to those who waited.</p>
<p>In terms of comparing BC with PSU, another difference is that one is a private college and the other is the state’s flagship U. BC also makes it very clear on their website that they only offer a few merit scholarships. This might be considered comparable to PSU in the past, where they were clear about Shreyer’s honors college scholarships and what they would offer.</p>
<p>Pitt offers the Chancellor’s award which is a very nice scholarship. You need certain numbers to be considered but those who end up getting that award are not necessarily those with the highest numbers. Once you are considered, other factors come into play, and, yes, geographics is an element. </p>
<p>I bring up the BC situation because I was in the unusual situation of knowing two young ladies very well who were candidates for the awards. The one who got the award lived in the midwest, and though she was a great candidated for any college her resume was not anywhere what this young woman’s was. The school admitted that she was one of their top 5 students in terms of academic stats–she had nearly perfect numbers, but being a female Catholic school girl from the NYC area made her a dime a dozen. BC, NYU, BU will go for the georgraphics when it comes down to a close pick because they frankly get a lot of high flying candidates within a three hour radius. </p>
<p>This PSU scholarship is new, so I would accept some “pains” in administrating it the best possible way. The Pitt Chancellor’s award has evolved quite a bit in 15 years. It used to be a lot easier and more possible to get a hefty award from Pitt. It’s become far more selective and they are giving out less money. My understanding and experience has been that PSU did not have as many merit awards out ther, and they were not as substantial. </p>
<p>It’s going to be interesting how this pans out this year for Pitt and Penn State. I have a close friend who has worked at Pitt for a long time, and they are a bit in a quandrey as to how many to accept this year as they are concerned that their yield might be higher than historical trends indicate. This is not the year to apply late to Pitt. IT’s always beneficial to apply earlier in a rolling admissions scenario, but this year, it’s even more important. One thing about PItt, you do not have to put your deposit down till the 11th hour because there is a room lottery and when you accept the offer an deposit does not come into the picture as long you do it by the due date. Penn State, it does make a difference and if you wait till the last minute, you can end up in a quad just due to the date of your deposit.</p>