Scholarship day

<p>The brochure we received today said that if you win a scholarship you need to enter into that college but you can change colleges after one semester and the scholarship will follow you.</p>

<p>Neonzeus, the 95% you speak of are the Ignatius/Magis scholarships which require no separate application. Your daughter will be notified of her award of these by mid-Feb. See additional threads on this topic, but the max is about 10-13k, it appears. My sense is that this is indeed Marquette’s primary means of awarding merit aid. Beyond that, you have the competitions (ie, “scholarship day”) which are competitive testing situations in which winners receive $5000 scholarships for each of 4 years. These are quite competitive - the engineering competition last year yielded 12 winners out of 400 kids. It’s all or nothing – either 5k or zero.</p>

<p>Additional scholarships (Pere Marquette, alumni, etc) are called out on their web page but if you read the fine print you’ll conclude that these are accessible only to a few kids. Check the deadlines on these, but it’s likely that these are the ones that require application before admittance, as noted on your postcard.</p>

<p>Conclusions I’ve made: hope for the best in your Ignatius/Magis award because the chances of getting more are limited to kids in somewhat exceptional situations. I have heard of NO cases of kids getting half or full rides at Marquette, although I’m sure it happens.</p>

<p>As for acceptance, I guess I think those letters are going out presently and you should receive word by approx. Jan 25.</p>

<p>My D is trying to decide what test to take in the Scholarship Competition. Does anyone have any info on which tests are the most popular to take? It would be nice to go to one that she would have the best shot at. I know she should go with her strengths, but there are several she can choose from. Bio, English, US History or Business, Communications. Any input from those who have taken these tests? It would have been nice knowing our ignatious/magis award prior to this. Winning one of the scholarship competition awards would make her decision to go to Marquette an easy one:)</p>

<p>nkl, I’d suggest you call admissions to find out how many students test for the various scholarships. Although my S did not fly out for the scholarship weekend, I did make a call, and, IIRC, I was able to get information on how many applied the previous year for various departmental awards.</p>

<p>Just tried that… unfortunately the admissions counselor was not helpful at all. All she would tell me is that there are usually 100-200 students at each sitting. I asked specifics from last year - like US history vs. English and she wouldn’t give me any info.</p>

<p>She also told me that if you won an award, you would have to stay in that college for a year. In the scholarship competition brochere, it said only 1 semester!</p>

<p>I also asked about the deadline for national merit finalists to declare Marquette as top pick, and she was clueless on that too, although I remember speaking to a different admissions counselor who told me either April 1 or March 1st! I felt like asking to speak with someone else. Maybe I’ll call back tomorrow and hope to speak with a different counselor, or ask for the admissions counselor in charge of national merit scholars.</p>

<p>sorry if this has been already said, but i was wondering about the scholarships i have to take a test for because i haven’t been accepted (but i think i will be), but i am wondering if these scholarship are just based off how well we do on the test? the reason for this is my gpa is probably not good enough for any scholarships, but my act would be maybe, so if my gpa is taken into consideration for the scholarships i probably wouldn’t get one.</p>

<p>The merit scholarships are a combination of gpa/test scores. My S didn’t have a great gpa, but a nice ACT and got an Ignatius scholarship.</p>

<p>The scholarship weekend competition, however, is, I think independent of gpa/standardized testing, but very competitive.</p>

<p>Sorry you didn’t get better results from your phone conversation. Do you know if you have a specific admissions counselor? Sometimes they have students working at the various offices, and they are definitely not as knowledgable as the admins themselves. I wouldn’t be shy about asking for a different person, particularly if you’re talking about an NMF applicant!</p>

<p>^would you mind me asking what her gpa and score was? mine is a 3.0 (school doesnt weight, but a very difficult class load), a 30 act, 1890 sat.</p>

<p>A couple things learned in the last year–</p>

<p>You can attend more than one scholarship comp if they are not held on the same day. You go, sign in and hope for the best. Exam results are the only criteria for selection, no GPA or ACT. To receive one, you must have applied by Dec. 1st. You don’t have to know if you are accepted to attend, although you probably will know depending on your selected test date. </p>

<p>Last year there were more than 400 kids at the Engineering testing day. Very competitive, very difficult test. School official said they were going to try and find funding to offer a few more scholarships at lesser amounts due to the unprecedented turnout; I don’t know if that ever happened. S didn’t get one.</p>

<p>I know a Burke scholar. Good student, (above average, but not Doogie Howser) very nice kid, graduated from a public high school of maybe 240 kids. Now attending MU on a full tuition scholarship. </p>

<p>These scholarships do exist, Virginia! Don’t give up. Try for them. Good luck!</p>

<p>Thanks for the clarification on the different schools. Since we are coming from a long distance and want to see an engineering specific open house, we’ll come for that one. </p>

<p>Thanks for the heads up on the National Merit. Goodness, it’s already January, and I know we have to tell what school we’ll go to by May 1 as far as admissions, but I totally spaced out on when we have to do our NMF decision. It can’t be too early, since we won’t even find out if we’re finalists for a little while, right?</p>

<p>I talked with a different counselor ( I called back) and she also told me we just notified National Merit whenever their deadline is for declaring a first choice. National Merit notifies them. This is all IF our kids get NMF. I think we should find out this month sometime. There are so many dates to keep straight- just didn’t want to overlook that one:)</p>

<p>Does anyone know how long these tests take. Are they 1 hour tests, 2 hour, 3 hours??</p>

<p>The tests vary from an 1 hour to 2 hours in length. On the Marquette website they have schedules listed from the 2009 competitions. [Scholarship</a> Competitions | Marquette University](<a href=“http://www.marquette.edu/student/ugrad/scholarships_competitions.shtml]Scholarship”>http://www.marquette.edu/student/ugrad/scholarships_competitions.shtml)</p>

<p>Just got a brochure from Marquette today about the scholarship competition with some more details. Good luck to all!</p>

<p>Hi, as a Marquette '83 Eng. graduate and father of a freshman Eng. student at Marquette let me clarify some of the questions in the thread:</p>

<p>1) It seems everyone is invited. My son was invited before acceptance, and my daughter has applied and was invited</p>

<p>2) Bio. Eng. is very hard and highly regarded at Marquette. Marquette was one of the first universities to offer it as a major back in '79 when I attended (I’m Civil). Also Marquette has an excellent COOP program and that means you can work in an engineering firm during a semester and get paid. They usually have a seminar about the program during these events. I strongly suggest you assist.</p>

<p>3) When my son took the test last year there were over 500 kids taking the test, and that is why they discourage people from outside the Midwest to go just for the scholarship competition. We went because my son was also accepted to UW-Madison (his first choice) and he wanted to see both schools. He ended up liking Marquette a lot more and is very happy so far (only one semester). So use this opportunity to get to know the school. Make sure you go to the Eng. open house and tour Milwaukee (a great “small” city). Most likely it will be very cold (we had a 5" blizzard hit during our tour), so if you are not use to the cold (we are from Puerto Rico) you will know if it can be handled!</p>

<p>4) This scholarship can be combined with any other. Only scholarships that offer full tuition can’t be combined or if the combination results over total cost then they will deduct the amount. My son was offered an excellent financial aid package and it was increased substantially once he made his choice known to the school.</p>

<p>If any one has any other questions please lmk I’ll try to answer best I can.</p>

<p>nkl811–
I emailed admissions and they told me that if you leave the school you won a scholarship for (education, engineering, etc.) you will lose the scholarship. If someone has heard differently, please let me know.</p>

<p>Admissions told me you need to stay in the school u won the scholarsip in for 1 semester. A different admissions counselor said 1 year. The brochere says 1 semester. It would be nice if they could get on the same page!</p>

<p>I just emailed them again with the same question. They now are telling me the same thing nkl811 has written above. I sure wish they would get the story straight from the beginning. My son can only compete on one day because his swimming conference and sectional meets are on the days of the tests. He can make the last one, but wasn’t interested in those particular schools. This is now better news!</p>

<p>We are now unable to make the engineering scholarship competition. Really wanted to go for the engineering open house, as the odds were likely son would not get the scholarship. Once the admission and regular scholarship decisions come in, we’ll try to make a trip up on a school day to see the engineering facility and maybe sit in on classes. Glad we did go a couple of summers ago, so at least have an idea of what the school looks like, though not in the winter. So, when does it get hot up there? Will son get to experience the cold as late as March, if we can’t make it up there until then? Maybe we can go on Destination Marquette Day. Anyone know when this is yet?</p>

<p>That is a pity that you can’t make it to the open house. March can be cold but can be warmer since it is a transition month. I do not know if you read my previous post. You should be hearing about admission decision very soon. My daughter was called last Thursday to inform her she got accepted, but I think they only do that with legacy students. I understand admission packages should be arriving within the next two weeks. My son has been able to handle the cold at Marquette, but I have another one at Iowa who is not too happy with the weather. If you have any other questions (do not know when destination Marquette is yet) lmk and I’ll try to answer.</p>