It has taken a while, but yesterday UK updated their scholarship page for those applying to enter in Fall 2018. Much anticipated because they have been forecasting significant changes, shifting away from merit to more need based aid.
Patterson (automatic for NMFs) and the Singletary (competitive, 33+ ACT / 3.8 UW requirement) seem to be equivalent scholarships now. Big change is that neither are full ride. They are full tuition plus a $10k housing stipend for years 1 and 2 only.
Presidential scholarship (competitive) and Governor’s Scholar awards (automatic for GSP kids with 31+ ACT) remain full tuition.
Interesting to see the changes. I also anticipate a lower number of Singletary scholarships as well. They only had 20 last year. That was 27 fewer than the previous year.
I have no idea how they work out the number of Singletary scholarships they are going to give out, but I could imagine that there may be a inverse relationship between the number of Patterson kids they get and the number of Singletary scholarships they give out. If they have fewer Patterson kids accept awards going forward this would allow for more Singletary scholarships.
I am pretty surprised by what they did. Given their goals to distribute more need based aid, I thought they would lower the Patterson a lot compared to the Singletary, maybe equivalent to the Presidential full tuition award, or even drop it entirely. Allow themselves more discretion in picking off the students they really want, rather than having to take any and all NMFs that apply and choose to attend.
Apparently they still care something about the number of NMFs that attend.
For a point of reference, this was my kids stats from last year: 4.0 UW GPA, 10 AP classes, 33 ACT, 4 year varsity swimmer (captain senior year), SS honor society (president), NHS, English HS, German HS (secretary), Art HS, and a few other clubs. My kid did not even get an interview for the Singletary, but did get the Presidential and is in the Honors College.
My kids stats where not at Beachmum1 kids level but did get money, and is in the honors college. If you can get into the honors college I would take it over getting more money some place else (your finances may differ). I am very happy/pleased/impressed with this program!
The good, the dorms are incredible (the child’s first apartment after school is going to be shock) facility wise, the fellow students have a very broad cross section of the school, vary in majors, minors, along with race/ethnic/socio economic/location backgrounds, the kids are exceptionally bright but are not geeked out (even better than the dorms). The great, the child did not do well on his first physics test (along with the rest of the class), he was immediately scheduled for an adviser appointment to remedy this situation. This doesn’t happen at other schools! The honors class is incredible, he is busting his tail in it, the child love’s the professor, FWIW this is not an easy A or B for that matter. The best is the RA’s and staff really try to integrate the kids into a socially connected group and it seems to be working.
This may be a dumb question, but is the housing stipend for the Patterson scholarship a one-time stipend of $10,000 to be split over two years? Or is it $10,000 for each of the two years, for a total of $20,000?
If you are comfortable doing so, could you post your son’s GPA and ACT/SAT scores? Was he a NMF? We are waiting to hear if our daughter will get an interview.
From what I have read the Singletary would replace the Patterson if received since it is considered the higher level. But same financially so not sure if it even matters.
DS learned a bit more about the Singletary during his interview. Those who attend and accept the scholarship meet every other week during the school year. A one hour class each semester. There isn’t a lot of outside work. DS said they do “reflections”. Not sure exactly what that means. Perhaps a way for the university to hear about their experiences and ideas for enhancing the student experience?
This seems to distinguish the Singletary somewhat from the Patterson, which from what we know so far is perhaps less of a program beyond just the merit aid.