<p>My OOS child was accepted Nov. and has not sent in a deposit. 3 friends of hers (2 of which are her best friends-so she knows their stats) received a scholarship letter mid Dec. Knowing her stats were WAY above the friends’ she kept going to the mailbox to check but to no avail. In comparison, DD has tougher schedule, higher GPA and test scores, and much more in the way of EC’s/community service (and her grandfather went to PSU). So as a previous poster said, it just caused her to feel “unwanted” and yes there are sour grapes. Is that a practical way of thinking-no-but she is 17. Her decision will be between BC and PSU. Now that she is feeling “stiffed” she is leaning towards BC (yes a much costlier option anyway). DD went to visit PSU campus twice and has a third visit scheduled, went to 2 local events, etc. and her best friend has never even visited campus-just threw the app in. Out of the 3 friends, 2 are minority females (South American descent) and one is Caucasian male. None have hooks or are legacies. And one applied to the School of Ed just like DD. Was thinking of calling to inquire but I see others have beat me to it and didn’t really get clarification. Maybe there was an upper cutoff as far as GPA?</p>
<p>Out of the 3 friends, 2 are minority females (South American descent) and one is Caucasian male. None have hooks or are legacies</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>None have hooks? …uh, two have obvious hooks. The two Hispanics have hooks for that scholarship. PSU is likely trying to protect its diversity numbers. Note the AA male who got it with an average SAT 1540/2400 SAT (previous post).</p>
<p>And, frankly, being a legacy is probably an anti-hook…PSU probably thinks you’re “in the bag”.</p>
<p>As for the male…what’s his major?</p>
<p>I don’t blame your D for being annoyed. I would be. I think this is (another) PSU mistake. </p>
<p>To those who seem to think this is ok, this isn’t an award that is being handed to 10-100 kids like those that are typically awarded using holistic methods. This scholarship is being handed out like candy to a bunch (2000 awards), while leaving out a bunch. No wonder people are feeling slighted.</p>
<p>Lest anyone think I’m singling PSU out for this, I have been similarly critical of my kids’ school for doing something like this with one of its honors program’s scholarships. In that case, there are usually about 25-28 students admitted to one particular honors program. But, then 10 of them are selected to get a very generous scholarship. I think it hurts morale when over 1/3 are getting it while the others aren’t. </p>
<p>I think people can handle these “holistic awards” better when only a few are awarded rather than than a large number. With numerous awards, the message is: “well, we looked y’all over and think that many of you should get this, but some of you shouldn’t.” How are others supposed to feel when many others got it and they didn’t when their stats were just as good or better? </p>
<p>Imagine yourselves at a large company dinner and the CEO stood at the front calling name after name to come up for a bonus check. In the end, a good % of the attendees were called up to receive a substantial check. You think you wouldn’t feel bad if you hadn’t gotten one --especially when you knew that you worked harder than a number of the recipients?? You could handle it better if maybe only 3-5 people were awarded checks…but when the numbers are significant it’s going to cause hurt feelings.</p>
<p>Most merit awards work this way, however. Pitt does the same thing when it comes to awarding its merit and honors college admissions. Straight stats is not the way it is done. Yes, some kids get disappointed. Yes, it’s much nicer when it is a straight stats cut off. But, from what I have seen with merit awards, many of them do pick and choose and the critiera are somewhat mysteries. So it is with a lot of selective admissions.</p>
<p>From my limited experience with Pitt, they seem more oriented toward stats. My older son got a full merit scholarship to Pitt, but had outstanding stats and is now at an ivy with great financial aid. It would have saved us if he went to Pitt, but needed more academic stimulation that he is getting where he is, so he made a better choice. However, we are so grateful that Pitt was so kind and generous in their offer. From what we heard from others, though, they only gave offers to those with exceptional stats. And he is a white male, in-state, with no hooks.</p>
<p>As for PSU, I would agree that the wide-spread, seemingly random offers may breed distaste. I am actually more concerned that it reflects some sense of chaos or desperation to improve their image after the scandal, but is not being handled appropriately.</p>
<p>I’m just curious what the bottom line will be. How many of the students offered this scholarship will actually enroll? My son received one, but still isn’t much more likely to enroll than before.</p>
<p>There have been murmurings and complaints about some PItt awards too. It used to be a sure thing with certain stats and now there is a holistic element to it. Also some heat on who gets accepted there as some stats are not adding up. </p>
<p>As to who ends up going there, it’s never 100%. I think they are hoping to get kids that may otherwise go to Pitt and also some OOS kids, is what I hear. OOS apps are down more drastically than in state thus far, and there is a fear that a lot of instate kids may end up going to PItt instead of PSU.</p>
<p>As for who will actually accept.</p>
<p>Schools that award a large number of merit scholarships usually use computer models to determine how many they should award in order to get the desired response.</p>
<p>I have seen similar discussions and apparent “discrepancies” in merit awards on other forums. I just read of a student with outstanding stats, 2300 SAT, 10+ AP’s, etc. who received no scholarship while others on the thread with numbers not nearly as high received substantial merit aid (~ $20k/yr.). It is frustrating and maybe that student will go elsewhere. That is the cost to the school of their merit award decision. This is just one anecdote, but I see these conversations fairly often. Maybe PSU handled this poorly, I can’t comment on that as the data on this forum is very limited. I just think this happens a lot at other schools, too.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, when does PSU consider you for merit based scholarship? I applied to their accelerated pre-med/medical program and won’t know if I’m officially accepted until sometime late March or early April. Also, I was not allowed to apply to SHC because of my application to the other program. Does anyone know how scholarships work in this case then?</p>
<p>I agree VMT. This is typical of many schools. Just new for PSU. I think that these awards should be made late in the process as done by some schools, as the decision as to where to go is being made.</p>
<p>Returning to this conversation after a bit of a hiatus. We did not receive a Provost Award, but earlier this week, received a merit award from the College of Liberal Arts in the amount of $4k for the upcoming year. This was awarded based on having “achieved academically at the highest level” and for having an interest in the College of Liberal Arts at Penn State University Park. The award is renewable for the following 3 years and is contingent upon continuous enrollment in the College of Liberal Arts and on aspiring to and maintaining status as a Paterno Fellow. We await a decision from Schreyer as well and are wondering if there is any connection between this award and an offer from Schreyer. We did not apply for the award from the College of Liberal Arts, have not yet submitted financial aid forms, and have not accepted the offer of admission to Penn State.</p>
<p>I think some schools vary their merit offers based upon how much demand there is for certain programs. For example, I’ll bet Penn State is offering more merit money right now to College of Liberal Arts majors than engineering, business, IT or nursing majors. </p>
<p>For majors such as education, Penn State is competing for in-state students with state-owned universities that charge 50% less tuition and fees. Private colleges in PA also provide aid that brings them close to Penn State in costs. Meanwhile, a high percentage of Penn State students have traditionally been paying full sticker price. </p>
<p>As of a couple years ago, American University was offering more merit aid to people who said they wanted to be a science major, because their science programs were small and they wanted to expand them.</p>
<p>charlieschum-an admissions counselor I spoke with last week did in fact say that the award was, in part, “departmental”. He also said “family history” was taken into account, among “other criteria”. He said there has been alot of confusion over this award and that they have received many phone calls regarding it. He stressed that it was not a merit/academic based award (most of us already figured that out). Other academic/merit based awards that everyone is automatically considered for are coming out in March. There are also department-specific awards that students must submit applications for that have various award dates. To clarify, I asked if those notified of their acceptances prior to the award announcement (and also those who deposited prior to the award coming out) were considered and he said yes-the entire applicant pool was considered. I guess it is safe to say the intent of the award was not to solely raise the incoming freshman class stats (GPA/SAT/ACT).</p>
<p>Just bumping this thread, which originated this time last year, to ask if we can now safely assume that Penn State did not renew the Provost’s Award scholarship program for those now applying for admission in 2014?</p>
<p>Also wondering if anyone ever figured out exactly what criteria was used in dispensing those awards. As I shared in the PSU forum a few months ago, we know of one young man from an upper middle class family who received the $6,000 a year award, renewable for four years. He did apply early, but he was in state and never filed the FAFSA (although he did have a sibling in college at the time). His stats were in the 3.8 UW GPA, 1750+ SATs range, so a strong student, but not tippy-top and not accepted into Schreyer.</p>
<p>Penn State’s admissions are up 20% this year, so perhaps they no longer see the need to entice a certain percentage of students by dangling substantial merit money?</p>
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<p>^^^Sorry, meant to say APPLICATIONS are up 20%, not admissions!</p>
<p>Has anyone else applied to the Millennium Scholarship a week ago? Accepted PSU UP, premed, but declaring Biology and MD/PhD for Millennium qualifications. They said they will be finalized by 1/31, minimum $15K a year.</p>
<p>Please do not post to old threads. they are to be used for reference only. Feel free to start a new thread</p>