wordddd i just checked the 2016-2017 site (NOT THE INCOMING STUDENT PORTAL) and my shit was up! 22k to RBS and SEBS, 19k to SAS!
Wow!
Great job, you guys. I still haven’t received any notification 
@kayswim23 @Fambruhghini
Awesome! What site exactly did you go on? Can’t seem to find it
Go to the main discussion thread called ‘Rutgers C/O 2021 Admissions Disccusion’. The link has been posted there several times.
@ByteZz
Right, have been trying that, but it says “Service Unavailable” so I was wondering if there’s another way.
I don’t think so. We will just have to wait until the site is up.
How did you login? I tried to use my SSN and birthday and it won’t work.
On the Go Rutgers site, someone asked if the scholarships were out yet. Jennifer Hollis of the Rutgers staff just responded: “Hi! No they are not yet! We are expecting them about the end of next week. I know everyone is really anxious, but hang in there just a bit longer.” Not sure what that means, if anything, for the numbers some people saw earlier this morning.
Don’t believe anyone who claims they got their financial information. I just called the Office of Financial Aid and they said they were significantly behind on applications. They are still working on the financial packages for the Spring semester and haven’t even downloaded the FAFSA information for Fall students from the FAFSA server. It will be a couple of weeks before they will finish financial information for the Fall semester.
I believe people. Scholarships have zero to do with FAFSA, they are merit based and they do not have to download any FAFSA to process this. Not a single person is reporting that they found out about financial aid. They found out about Scholarships earned by themselves or kids. The portal for scholarships was definitely open because I had access to see Camden info even though the page heading was labeled last year’s dates. My son rec’d written letters from Camden. When someone reported that they had NB data on the portal, individuals flocked to the site and some had info. The entire site was then blocked or taken off-line. I think Rutgers did this because the work was not done. They can not make or record decisions in a day. It takes time. I think they realized from phone calls that people had “found” the data. Some people saw their info before it went down. Is it possible it will change, yes. I really doubt that. On the other hand, some people did not learn about it until it was down and could not check. Others checked but had no info. I do not think no data is a no, as I do not think they were done. I know for a fact that I could get in, saw the Camden data and saw “no scholarships” and “no honors” for SAS. Wednesday my son received a link to the honors portal and did receive a NB invite. This is why I am optimistic for others. Regarding the couple of weeks comment. The Admission rep on Go Rutgers indicated Scholarship data would be sent within a week. This was earlier this week. She indicated that because of the new FAFSA dates they were hoping to issue the Scholarships and the Financial Aid offers at the same time. In the past this was not possible. I do not if they will meet these goals or if per your info they need more time than the admissions rep thinks. Either way, some people do know and are not lying. Maybe something will change and the final data will not match what they saw, but I doubt that.
@Njmom224 Rutgers admission offfice emailed someone that “Scholarship decesion will be sent out by end pf this month to EA applicants who completed FAFSA before Dec 1st.” I read that on one of the board here. That statement clearly indicates that purely merit based scholarship has left Rutgers few years ago. You definitely don’t need FAFSA completion for Merit. My son got merit scholarship from other universities before he completed FAFSA. NJ education has been looted by political interest. Everything is need based in NJ. Hopefully someone can “Make Rutgers Great Again”. Obviously, I am in state parent paying NJ tax for last 25 years, hope to see something in return if Merit Scholarship is still around at RU
@Kenchan24. Don’t necessarily disagree with you. In general I think the fact that so many schools (not just Rutgers) require the FAFSA for Merit aid, does suggest that there are non-merit factors involved. I also know that Rutgers has a reputation for low merit aid. Don’t know enough specifics about the politics of it to comment. I do know that they came out separately in the past. I do know that people are not lying and did see information. Those that posted seemed to mostly have the large scholarships and have very strong statistics. Maybe in some cases, the merit is/was so clear that FAFSA is not relevant and TPTB quickly recorded an award. Maybe on the more boarderline cases it is relevant and that is part of what they are working through now. Thinking out loud, I wonder which way it would go. Are they saying person A needs aid and they are a good enough candidate that we will meet it anyway so let’s keep the merit money for someone else or are they saying they need aid so let’s give a merit award and save the need for someone further down the list. It comes down to a question of how badly do they want those that financially could be full-pay but would get Merit aid somewhere else versus how badly do they want to to keep those with need that would be met somewhere else. I imagine it is a balancing act. I have no way of knowing, so for now will take them on their word that merit is merit based.
During the campus visit we were told that FAFSA is not required for merit scholarship. My daughter was offered honors for all her choices, but without scholarship it is useless, as we are out of state.
@Njmom225 My son’s Stats are excellent. 34 ACT, 4.25 gpa, 9 AP and 2 college classes in the senior year. NHS, National Merit Scholarship…lots of EC…I can go on and on.
I got glimpse a week ago with glitch too. He had nothing from pharmacy and $3500 from other 3 schools. That is not what I would expect on pure merit base decision. What are stats for your son?
@Kenchan24. To be clear, I am purely speculating and have no inside info. Just based on this thread, your award does seem low. It is so hard to compare total strangers based on limited info and there are so many tangibles and intangibles. Even if Merit aid is truly need blind it is not circumstance blind, demographically blind, geographically blind, gender blind,etc. I still think that they were not 100% done at the time you went in to look, so maybe you have more to come. I would speculate that the fact that you had a number from the schools does imply that was final, but maybe Pharmacy was still processing. You never know, maybe he will get bumped up at one of the other schools??? My son’s stats seem lower, 1430 SAT, 3.8W GPA, 5 AP. Good EC’s but nothing spectacular. I think the essay was good, but have no comparison. He does attend a school with a high reputation. I am not expected any scholarship, but I have been pleasantly surprised about a few things, so maybe we will both get a small surprise next week!
Good luck. I love the way you are helping threads. Keep us informed.
I know how you feel. I was absolutely stunned to find out that I was not selected for the honors college or honors program. I am an International Baccalaureate student who takes Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics at a higher level (Almost all IB courses are considered more rigorous than their AP counterparts). While my school has no system for GPAs, I can tell you that my grades are pretty good when my extreme course rigor is considered. For example, if I convert my final GCSE (British education system) grades to a GPA, it comes out to be 3.93. I cannot do the same for my IB grades because I haven’t received my final grades, and conversions are just unreliable for the IB.
My SAT is 1580. According to the official concordance tables, that’s a 35 on the ACT. Moreover, I have a set of great extracurricular activities. For example, my best EC is an international STEM competition I represented my ethnic country in. Other ECs include being a developer and moderator for an online community with more than 1.7 million viewers per month, or single-handedly refreshing my school’s publishing. I didn’t make the cut for National Merit Semifinalist, but I did get recognized as a commended scholar.
During last week’s glitch, I logged in to the portal. All I saw was a box that says there are no records for me. I’m still hopeful, but my tightening gut is starting to make me forget all sources of optimism. Rutgers keeps telling me that because I was not among the best admitted students to the School of Engineering, I was not extended an invitation to any honors opportunities. I refuse to believe them. While I know that I’m coming off as arrogant, I strongly feel there are other - more obscure - factors being used for these decisions.
@ByttZz
RU has advantage of good NJ public school applicants. NJ is one of the top “brain drain” state for out of state (non NJ)universities, they steal good applicants from NJ with better scholarships. International students merit scholarship at RU should be minimal per my guess. I would go with better engineering school like Georgia Tech or Cornell because you don’t have to worry about being closer to home.
Here’s the catch: I’m domestic and borderline in-state. This means that I am an American who just happens to be studying abroad for a variety of circumstances. Before leaving the U.S. for the country I currently reside in, I lived in New Jersey. My parents are still residents of New Jersey, and continue to pay NJ taxes. Also, we still own a home in NJ. It’s currently being rented out.
I understand that international and OOS students face more restrictions. It’s NJ tax money, after all. However, judging by the fact that I’ll most likely qualify for in-state tuition, I’m as close as it gets to being an in-state student.
It’s interesting that you mentioned the NJ brain drain. I want to return to NJ when I go back to life in the U.S.A., but Rutgers’ weird decisions for honors and scholarships are tempting me to ditch home and go to California, Massachusetts, Illinois, or Michigan for university. It’s funny that I, in a way, will also be a part of the NJ brain drain.
@ByteZz Are you a legal NJ resident ? Please find out from Rutgers.