<p>For current students, or anyone who knows, how does chicago choose who receives scholarships? Is it based on who has the highest stats, or do they take everything into consideration, like the application process?</p>
<p>chicago is my first choice, and I am very grateful that I was accepted, but unfortunately money is going to play a large role in whether or not I attend. Based on who has posted here, I have lower test scores than most of the people who were accepted, so I was wondering if I had any chance of getting one of the partial scholarships.</p>
<p>The merit scholarships are chosen by faculty and are chosen among students the admissions committee nominated. (To my knowledge, you're not informed if you're nominated, but only if you're chosen).</p>
<p>Of the merit scholarship recipients I know, I can most certainly say that selection is NOT based on standardized test scores or even transcript, but rather qualities like intellectual passion and motivation. They are people who are, to me extremely "Chicago," and I guess they stood out to the committee for similar reasons.</p>
<p>The chances of getting merit aid are not that high, so you are more likely going to consider your financial aid package as a whole without merit aid.</p>
<p>Good question. What I guess I meant is that somebody who is extremely "Chicago" is academic without being overly obsessive. If I were to line up all the merit award winners I know and say what they have in common, it would be that they all love to learn and love to challenge themselves (such as putting themselves in honors calculus even when they intend to major in political science). They take the opportunity to attend a school like Chicago and really grow from it, and seem to be very happy, good-natured people.</p>
<p>The merit awards aren't always academically-based, either. A friend of mine (I don't want to offer too many details here, because he's a relatively well-known person on campus) was offered money from Chicago for what I imagine were various reasons-- a combination of personal circumstances, intelligence, and character.</p>
<p>My son was the recipient of a honors merit scholarship. I think unalove is exactly correct. For instance, we are from a small (<300) rural school which has no history of sending students to selective schools. My son took four years of Latin online, by himself, and got a 5 on the AP Vergil exam. I think things like that really mean something to Chicago.</p>
<p>I agree. From the way you present it, it sounds like your son wandered into it on his own, and was not looking for anything more out of it than acquiring the grasp of another language.</p>
<p>when do accepted applicants find out about merit aid- would it have been included in the original letter of acceptance or in Thickenvelope.com or what?</p>
<p>Scholarships notification is sent out when RD decisions are released; RD admits who are given scholarships are informed in their admittance package. I do not believe they are told through email, though I could be wrong on that.</p>
<p>EA acceptance letter said a financial aid offer would be mailed within 2 weeks. Would this include any kind of Merit aid? S is NMSF. Back in May, Chicago was one of the two top choices they asked for.</p>
<p>Does anyone at Chicago know people who were deferred EA but then got in RD with a merit scholarship? Or does getting deferred, even you are later accepted, mean that you're probably not the kind of person they're looking to give a scholarship to?</p>
<p>The National Merit awards come from National Merit, even for the college-sponsored awards. You can check the date on line, it's later than the regular merit awards which come at the time of RD decisions.</p>