@veryapparent My guess is that they may try and spread out these scholarships. Meaning that since she is a candidate for music scholarship, they’ll give Buntrock invite to someone else? My daughter has 34 ACT composite, 4.0 unweighted at a competitive high school that has sent a number of kids to St Olaf, excellent essays and recommendations, varsity swimmer, lifeguard but only modest ECs outside of swimming. Best of luck to your D (and @katespeare ) at audition.
@Veryapparent and @katespeare, do your children have admissions decisions yet, or have they just been notified about being music finalists? My DS is a music finalist as well; we’ll be there the first weekend in March. He applied RD and has not yet received an admission decision.
LOL she just got it tonight! She got the Presidential scholarship. She is very excited! Fingers crossed for music scholarship!
Congratulations, @Veryapparent!!! I hope the audition goes well!
Congratulations, @Veryapparent! That’s great news.
Congrats @Veryapparent ! Just to clarify, is your D RD or EDII?
@MOMom3XYs My D18 got her admission decision yesterday via portal. She is a music finalist as well.
Any international applicants who received an acceptance already?
For RD.
@chippedtoof
Yes she applied RD. Very surprised at the early acceptance.
@Veryapparent That is exciting 
I had it in my mind that for RD, only buntrock candidates were notified early, but it seems that is not the only case. Congrats again to your D and to all who received notifications.
I would have thought, even though it stated on the music finalist paperwork otherwise, that being a music finalist means an acceptance is likely or coming. For people who live very far away, traveling for the audition is a commitment (both timewise and moneywise). Hard to justify without knowledge of acceptance. It might be different for those who live closer and can drive. Mine did not get Buntrock but did get Presidential though not sure which factor if any triggered the early acceptance. But I will mention 2 other candidates from her high school received the early notice. One is a Buntrock and the other is a music finalist of course all with the same travel requirements.
From this vantage, Presidential sounds great. Early notification would be a stress reducing perk as well. But yes, it is a little opaque what initiates an early notice. Perhaps the adcom has already noted those who pass the bar, but are choosing to dole out awards as each case dictates (the previous comment seems correct that stacking a music and a buntrock may easily exceed the ~28K limit for scholarships w/o need)
Some of our other schools feel a bit more transparent, but they each seem to have a way to show their love.
RD decision tonight, Music finalist.
My DS received his RD admission decision last night as well!
Just for everyone’s info, I was looking at last year’s St. Olaf admission thread and it seemed as though in 2017 many merit award recipients received their decisions early; sometimes the merit awards were detailed in the initial emails, sometimes in the mailed admission packet, and occasionally the information arrived in a separate letter altogether.
i’m a bit confused. Should i assume that these early RD admission notifications only apply to those who are attending the scholarship day as either Buntrock or Music finalists? Has anyone whose child is not invited/attending received an early RD notification?
@CroissantMiser My son received his admission decision a few days ago. He applied RD and was not a Buntrock or Music finalist. He did receive the Presidential scholarship.
@Tadtown thanks–i was afraid of that answer!
For anyone else who is a Buntrock finalist or knows anything about how the program goes, do students attend all four information sessions, or does our personalized itinerary allow for fewer than that? Thanks!
Where ya from bud?