Hi CC.
Are UA’s merit scholarships, like NMF/NMSF and the Presidential scholarships, guaranteed for all who meet those qualifications? What would happen if you meet the criteria for both? Would you get a combination of the awards?
Any insight would be great! I’m trying to convince my family to let UA be my safety over the schools in my state, as I am not a big fan of them.
Yes the scholarships are automatic. No you can’t stack them. You’ll receive the best one that you qualify for.
(My DS was awarded Presidential automatically when he was accepted, then it was replaced by the NMF package later when he became NMF.)
No you can’t get both the NMF and Presidential.
You can stack the eng’g on top of Presidential.
Why won’t your parents let you apply to UA?
Are you a likely NMSF?
What is your major and career goal?
What are your other safeties?
UA presents wonderful opportunities for students like yourself. You and your parents would be wise to give it a deeper look, as a safety, and a target.
Yes, you have to choose between the big automatic scholarships (although nothing tops the NM package, does it?), but you CAN stack other scholarships on top of that. In addition to the four-year engineering scholarship, my son also receives a nice scholarship for an extracurricular. It’s not big (although it’s bigger than the engineering stipend), but it’s a really nice benefit.
And FWIW, my son (now a fifth-year senior, having completed a co-op where he made a really nice wage), had ZERO desire to go far from home, especially to the South! We wanted him close to home too, but unfortunately (actually FORTUNATELY), we were forced out of our comfort zone due to the high cost of higher ed and my husband’s having had a catastrophic medical situation, which left him disabled during my son’s junior year of HS. Applying early to UA to have that in his back pocket (so to speak) while applying to more competitive-for-admissions schools, where we sought need-based aid, was the best thing he could have done. He KNEW he was going to college SOMEWHERE regardless of how the rest of the application process turned out. He also applied to our state flagship (Penn State) and had that admission early as well, but we knew that was not exactly a financial safety for our family.
[Get your safety applications in early, and make sure you would be happy to go there. This will allow you to focus your time and energy on your reach schools. We didn’t waste a lot of time with “match” schools, since we already knew they weren’t going to be affordable after running the net price calculators. (And we didn’t even visit UA until late in the spring of my son’s senior year, when it suddenly seemed like one of the best options.) Too many students scramble to find a suitable safety late in the game, and that’s not the ideal way to go about it, although it can often work out. You want to feel like you had some agency in all of this. OP, I know you get that, but for anybody else reading in the future, and if your parents are reading here, it’s the best advice I can offer.]
In the end, my took the money at UA and has NEVER looked back. Five years of a virtually free education, a full-year PAID co-op job, and amazing extracurricular opportunities leave my husband and me feeling like he won the lottery in many ways. I’m not saying he wouldn’t have had a fabulous experience if he’d been admitted to some higher-ranked schools and the aid packages truly covered our need, but I can honestly say my son feels like he has lacked for nothing at UA.