<p>Hello! I'm new to these forums. UNC seems like an amazing place!</p>
<p>I'm out of state (Texas) and received a likely letter in mid-december and a Scholarship Day invite shortly after Christmas. I'm wondering what goes on, exactly, at Scholarship Day. Is it worth the trip, especially since (for me) it will be pretty far for a one-day visit? </p>
<p>For what it's worth, I really love UNC and am looking at it as one of my top choices, but I also have an offer from a top private university and would only turn it down for merit money elsewhere.</p>
<p>From what I've heard about them around here, basically, if you go you have a fantastic shot at merit money. In fact, I've heard it's not so much to decide who gets the merit but to show off the campus and kind of woo in those kids that might choose other higher ranked colleges. If you don't want to go, I mean, I could take your spot :)</p>
<p>I just wrote out a really detailed response about what goes on at Scholarship Day and how it worked out for me, but it got deleted. I guess I'll just post in installments now, haha.</p>
<p>I'm OOS and I got the scholarship day invite last year. It was really important to me because even though I got into some great private schools (at that point I knew I was into BC already), I was going to end up at UMASS Amherst unless I got some merit aid.</p>
<p>I ended up getting the Carolina scholarship - a four year full ride to attend one of the best schools in the nation. My scholarship (because I'm OOS) covers tuition, fees, room and board. All I pay to go to Carolina is the cost of flights and books (and even books tend to be covered because I get money back every semester for living in a cheap dorm with no AC).</p>
<p>I don't know if my participation in scholarship day made a difference (showing up from OOS shows major interest and commitment and getting the opportunity to show how I would do in a classroom style discussion was nice) but I like to think so. As my mom said, if the couple hundred dollars that it cost for us to fly down, stay at a hotel and eat for those 2 days got me more than that in scholarship money, it would be worth it.</p>
<p>It was worth it for me.</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any questions about Scholarship Day or about UNC in general. I hope you get good money and decide to become a Heel!</p>
<p>It sounds like a great opportunity, but I for one was not fortunate enough to receive an invitation. Do UNC scholarships only go to Scholarship Day students? Should I stop hoping now? :P Thanks so much.</p>
<p>Pannaga - I'm not sure what this means, exactly. How do I know if my school is listed as a nominating school?</p>
<p>Thanks, UNCgal! The Carolina scholarship does sound amazing! I'm thinking it would be worth it for me to go if there's even a small chance that I could end up with that kind of money. I'm in basically the same situation as you were -- unless I'm able to get some merit aid, I'm going to end up at my state flagship. And UNC > UTexas. :)</p>
<p>I just have a few more questions, sorry: </p>
<ul>
<li>You said there was an opportunity to show how you'd do in a classroom discussion. What did you have to do?</li>
<li>Do you know if the scholarship invite has any bearing on honors program selection? UNC is great, but I jump at the chance for some smaller classes.</li>
<li>I'm considering an English or Comp Lit major with a writing minor, do you have any experience with courses in either department? :D</li>
</ul>
<p>Pleas check if your school is listed in this link below and were u nominated by your school for this scholarship?. My guess is that u would have known by now "If u were nominated" </p>
<p>Yes, my school is on that list, but I have not been nominated. However, I'm under the impression that Scholarship Day is used for scholarships separate from the Morehead and Robertson; they have separate processes.</p>
<p>The Morehead and Robertson conduct completely separate processes and do not participate in Scholarship Day. They each have a separate Finalist weekend in late February to early March. In the case of the Morehead, you arrive in CH on a Saturday and depart on Tuesday after your final interviews.</p>
<p>This Scholarship day is to try to determine who will be awarded things like the Davie and Carolina Scholars etc.</p>
<p>Thanks eadad.
One final question: Does this mean by now all the categories of invitees are covered [by getting invitations]. I mean the Robertson, Morehead, Davie,Carolina etc.. In conclusion, those who have NOT received any communication can "Rest in peace" and look at other college alternatives unless they are willing to shell out the 30K fees [if admitted] to UNC.</p>
<p>Pannaga, even if there are no other scholarships awarded, there is still a chance that the UNC admissions committee will recommend you for the Morehead, in which case you should get a letter from them soon (according to the Morehead website, at least).</p>
<p>If the program is set up like last year, about a week or two before the event, you will receive a reading that will be discussed in small groups with a university staff member. I had a history/theology professor lead our discussion. It’s run a lot like the type of discussions I’m sure you’ve have in high school – people throwing around ideas, sharing incites. As much as the other students may think so (some of the kids who get invites can be a bit on the arrogant side, haha) it’s not a competition. You don’t have to try to outsmart everyone else to win a scholarship, just be yourself and try to relax. There will be an admissions person sitting quietly in the corner taking notes.</p>
<p>We discussed a University of Chicago commencement speech about the importance of college education. My group was all out of state kids. Our table (the people who you sit with for the lunch with are the people you discuss with) had about 9 kids. I see about 5 of them around campus all the time, which I think is a good number of kids who were offered and accepted their scholarships.
After the discussion you write a brief SAT style bluebook essay about your discussion. Everyone will freak out about that too, but don’t worry about it. They just want to give you another chance to ‘speak’ after the discussion. After the essay they’ll offer tours of the campus.</p>
<p>Scholarship day is a VERY good indication (wink) of acceptance into the honors program, but I’ll leave some stuff for the admissions folks to explain. I took 2 honors classes in my first semester and it was good to have those small classes. One had maybe 20 kids and the other had about 15. The size of your class at UNC really depends on the subject and level. A math or a foreign language class will always be small. Every language class at UNC is capped at 19 students (if I remember my stats right) and my non honors French Conversation class was even smaller than that. Intro classes, especially sciences, will be larger.
Last semester I was lucky and had 3 small classes and 1 big one with a lab. Next semester I have 1 small, 1 medium and 3 larger classes. Writing classes will be small though, which is great.</p>
<p>I actually do have experience with the creative writing department. For one of my two honors classes, I took Intro to Fiction Writing with Professor Daniel Wallace (the guy who wrote Big Fish!). It was a great small class and getting feedback from a successful published author was amazing. If you do come to UNC and he teaches it again next year definitely try to get in his class! I haven’t taken any English classes (AP credit and SAT scores pretty much made it so I don’t have to take any if I don’t want to) but I can tell you there are a LOT of classes to chose from. </p>
<p>If you or anyone else on this thread has any more questions, just let me know. Good Luck!</p>
<p>Oh and to answer someone else’s question: There will be another scholarship day in March I think for students who applied regular decision, so Carolina Merit aid isn’t gone yet! Also, some students receive partial merit scholarships without ever hearing about scholarship day.</p>
<p>I'm not sure about invitations to Scholarship Day.</p>
<p>After today, everyone who is under continuing consideration for the Morehead-Cain program should have been contacted. The Morehead-Cain foundation notified direct applicants in December if they were moving forward for possible selection. Additional candidates who never applied directly to the program but were referred by UNC admissions are supposed to be notified today.</p>
<p>The Robertson program, however, has yet to notify anyone who applied or has been referred by UNC or Duke admissions about their status -- that should happen in late February.</p>
<p>hey all! I just got my email invitation from morehead-cain. I'm not from a nominating school, so others should be getting their emails around now too.</p>
<p>So, this may be a stupid question, but the selection process for Carolina Scholars, etc. is not solely based on this Scholarship Day, right? I'm applying RD and cannot afford UNC without aid money...</p>