The Baylor scholarship section lists specific renewal criteria for their NMF award but not for Regents scholarship recipients. What if you are NMF but also qualify for the Regents based on test scores as well? If NMF qualify for a “full tuition scholarship” that would be $39,610 correct? So it would be preferable to accept the standard Regents gold award which are more that full tuition? Also would the GPA requirement to renew the Regents for non NMF Regents be lower?
"Regents’ Gold Scholarship
Baylor provides a full tuition academic scholarship to National Merit Finalists who select Baylor as their first-choice college. The Regents’ Gold Scholarship is augmented by the recipients’ SAT or ACT score.
SAT/ACT Total Award Per Year
1520+/34+ $174,440 $43,610
1450+/32+ $170,440 $42,610
1390+/30+ $166,440 $41,610
For National Merit Finalists only. Renewal is contingent upon maintaining a Baylor cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher."
Thanks, I found a link to this chart http://www.baylor.edu/sfs/awardguide/doc.php/276156.pdf which shows the base Regents Gold starts at $39,610 which would be full tuition, then it can go up from there to $43,610. I had not realized Regents Gold was for NMF only, but it makes sense now.
A couple of other boxes to check. At some point before May 1, you need to be sure to select Baylor as your first choice on the NMF site…that is a requirement of these scholarships. Then, you will have a large Regents gold, and a small (like $750/semester) NMF scholarship listed in you Baylor account. You still need to go into your national merit account before June 1 and accept the NMF scholarship. Otherwise the NMF scholarship will be voided, and then the Regents gets disqualified as well.
Last thought. There is one scholarship, the Faculty Scholarship, that is even higher than the Regents (adds room and board and potentially some more). It has the same requirement as the Regents, but then you have to attend one of the two “Invitation to Excellence” sessions (one in the Fall and one in January) and submit an essay on the topic that they will give during that weekend. Everyone who attends the session also gets an “extra” $2000 one-time scholarship for attending. You have to apply and have your scores submitted a couple months in advance to get invited (if you are NMF you will get invited), so if you want to go to the fall session you need to apply pretty early.
@NashvilletoTexas - which program did your daughter attend at the Invitation to Excellence (I copy/pasted them below)? Am I correct in understanding that each program chooses the 2-3 ppl who will receive the Faculty scholarship, so some groups can be more competitive than others?
The Hankamer School of Business
The School of Engineering & Computer Science
The College of Arts & Sciences - Sciences Division
The Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences and the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work
The Honors College
I honestly don’t know how they pick them, but the weekend does have breakouts by department, and it is likely that they each choose their own recipients. My daughter attended the Honors College session, though it was a last minute decision between that and Health since she is likely premed. She is enrolled as a university scholar within the honors college…jury’s still out whether that was the right choice or not!
@NashvilletoTexas Can I ask how your daughter is doing pre med in Baylor? Is she happy there? Is she doing medical ECs in Baylor? Which schools did she consider before she chose Baylor?
My daughter is very happy and doing well academically. Only non-As have been in the Honor’s College Great Texts papers, and that is mostly a matter of learning to align her style with the professor’s. She is currently a University Scholar rather than technically pre-med, but med school is still her plan. She is working very hard, surrounded by others who are working hard, and still finding time to hang out in the common areas, play games on weekend nights, and enjoy being at college. She has no interest in sororities or “college parties” – just wants to have a lot of good male/female friends to enjoy being with who enjoy being with her.
One caveat: scheduling was not easy, and may become harder. Departments schedule their classes to make it work for their majors, but taking a multi-disciplinary schedule can be hard to make work. She likes neurology, but they have made it clear that the upper level classes will give preferences to the students in that major. She is currently a University Scholar with concentrations in neurology and music, but she may have to abandon that, sadly, to be sure that she can get into the upper level courses that she wants.
As far as ECs, I advised her take it easy her Freshman year, but she is not listening to me. She has joined two pre-health societies, and applied for and been accepted on councils in each. I still think it is too much, but she is an adult now and can make her own decisions…how else will she learn? It is very easy to get involved in pre-health ECs.
My daughter is a very bright, accomplished girl and mostly considered top schools that are non-Ivy (just no interest there).She was accepted everywhere she applied, but nowhere was nearly as generous with merit offers as was Baylor. In the end, the decision was heavily influenced by the scholarships, and we all had some trepidation about whether or not it was the “right thing” to save the $200K+ and drop the “top” school name. It’s an easy practical decision to make, especially when going pre-med, but is very counter-cultural and takes some self-convincing. So far, looks like a great choice all around. She is happier and doing better than her friends who went to those “top” schools. But to be honest, it is still way too early to draw any conclusions.
@NashvilletoTexas I know it may be too early to tell but does your daughter feel the honors program is worth it? I have a STEM kid and she is considering the “regular” honors program but I have some concerns about the additional workload. Did you D choose live in the HRC?
Yes he lives in the HRC, and that alone probably makes the honors program worth it for her. She specifically wanted a program of study that was not just STEM, since she knows that is where her career lies, but she loves English/History/etc. as well. The honors program requires a heavier workload and schedule commitment than just taking classes outside of her major, so only time will tell if it is worth it.
She was concerned with finding other “smart” kids when not going to an elite college, so the honors program and dorm were a must for her. The HRC dorms are some of the oldest-feeling and least nice residences on campus, but that’s not everything. They just finished the first semester round of “Humans vs. Zombies”, which is an HRC-only game of tag and nerf-dart shooting across campus. If she sends out a group text at 10 PM on a Friday to find others to join in an impromptu game night in the HRC boys’ commons, 15-20 people will quickly show up. That works for her!
@NashvilletoTexas Thank you so much for such great infos. DS had considered to go to OU till late of this summer but they cut a lot in OOS NMF fund and we felt disappointed but found Baylor and UTD recently. He applied to I2E and will visit UTD and Baylor during that weekends(11/3-4) and find which school might fit for him. He’s a premed and considering biology or history as his major but he feels he’s not that good at writing. I’m not sure he’ll be happy at Baylor’s honor program because I feel that program needs a strong writing skill and it sounds very challenging to premed. He really wants to go to medical school and we can’t afford to pay for twins and I have a sophomore also. His twin sister(a NMSF also) is for engineering and doesn’t want to go far away but our state(IL) doesn’t have NMF offers at all. So sad. I’m excited to hear what DS feels and thinks about Baylor through the weekend. Thanks again!