Regent’s Gold NMF scholarship changes to competitive award for 2019

Changes to Baylor’s national merit finalist scholarship for 2019+ seniors.

“*NEW for 2019-2020 (does not apply to current seniors entering the 2018-2019 class): National Merit Finalists who select Baylor as their first-choice college for the 2019-2020 freshman class will also be required to attend Invitation to Excellence. There will then be a selection process to determine the recipients of the Regents’ Gold Scholarship.”

https://www.baylor.edu/admissions/index.php?id=934970

I wonder if the full ride Faculty scholarship is being retired that is currently part of I2E with the Regent’s Gold taking over as the I2E competitive award.

Does that mean someone could get NMF, choose Baylor as their first choice, and not get any scholarship money? Because damn that sucks

I would guess the Presidents awards would still be available. This year the I2E notification was March 1st. NMSC first choice designation deadline is May 31st. But if they are changing Regent’s to a competitive award for NMF not sure what type of commitment BU would want from I2E NMF’s prior to giving the Regent’s scholarship.

They added more

“*NEW for 2019-2020 (does not apply to current seniors entering the 2018-2019 class): National Merit Finalists for the upcoming academic year are announced by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation in March of each year. Baylor offers a limited number of full-tuition scholarships to National Merit Finalists who are admitted to the university and select Baylor as their first choice with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation by the published deadlines. In addition, the full-tuition award is augmented by the recipients’ SAT or ACT scores. These finalists will also be required to attend an Invitation to Excellence event. There will then be a selection process to determine the recipients of the Regents’ Gold Scholarship.”

Now I’m confused. If you get full tuition for NMF and more $ on top of that for SAT/ACT scores, what do you get from being selected at I2E?

I have only read what you have pasted above. but the way I read it full tuition, Regents scholarship for NMSF will no longer be guaranteed as it has been in the past, students will now need to attend I2E and then be selected to receive scholarship.

My guess is that this is a result of the rise in applications and a desire to extend the offer of full tuition to students that are actually interested in attending the school and are willing to demonstrate that by attending I2E. Again, only guessing.