<p>Just want to add something to this thread. As our daughter is our oldest, this is our first trip down the road to college for our children and the volume of information is overwhelming. </p>
<p>I have spoken extensively to friends who are parents of students at Chapel Hill as well as other NC schools and what I hear over and over is that merit aid is very stingy for freshman and access to merit dollars increases as the student proves themselves to the university and to the department of study. </p>
<p>They say that they want incoming freshman to make the choice to attend the school without necessarily factoring in financial offers. I guess it is another weeding process. Most of them were offered nothing for their first year and were happy to find that their kids earned scholarships for subsequent years. </p>
<p>I may be disappointed down the road, but for now, I am going to keep my fingers crossed that the information is accurate and she’ll have more opportunity later.</p>
<p>threegirlsmom: What you say dovetails with my DH’s experience at his undergraduate alma mater, Holy Cross. Although he had high stats and National Merit Scholar status, he received crummy merit aid at HC. The reason, perhaps, was that he was an unknown quantity. Once his professors got to know and appreciate him (he worked his tush off and excelled), they recommended him for other $$$ opportunities. The merit aid was still crummy but a little less so. (That was a long, long time ago, though; maybe it’s better now.)</p>
<p>I agree with threegirlsmom. I know a few people who didn’t receive any significant FA or scholarships before enrolling, but once they were in college they did enough work to get grants and scholarships in their field that made things more affordable for them. This is probably the exception and not the rule, but I think it’s something to consider.</p>
<p>Anyone know about the Robertson competition and when the annoucements go out? D was accepted to UNC Honors college + applied to Robertson but we don’t know when decisions are made.</p>
<p>The Robertson semifinalists are notified in late February and will set up a time for a Skype or phone interview. Around mid-March or so, the finalists are notified and will attend a scholarship weekend type event. The recipients are chosen like two days after that.</p>
<p>I can’t verify this, but I think I read at one point that if you are not notified by March 6th, you have not been chosen as a semi-finalist. Good luck to your daughter! I applied too, and I’m really hoping for at least an interview!</p>
<p>Sorry if this has been already asked, but I received a letter a while ago saying I was nominated as a finalist for “a merit-based scholarship” at Chapel Hill. The letter also said I was one of about 100 chosen… Is there any way to verify what scholarship I was nominated for or do I just have to go to the Scholarship Day and hope it’s for a big one?</p>
<p>You just have to go to Scholarship Day and hope you get something good. I’ve heard that most people who are invited get scholarships, and the day is just for them to decide who gets what.</p>
<p>is it common for morehead cain semifinalists to not receive an honors college/ scholarship day notification especially if they have good essays, excellent ecs and awesome teacher recs?</p>
<p>yeah, I’m not sure how this works, but when I was at Robertson finalist weekend four years ago there were only two of us who had won Carolina Scholar awards (out of like 100 people). They’re just looking at different criteria, I suppose. Don’t worry about it!</p>
<p>Yea, my friend is a finalist for the Morehead and she hasn’t heard about the Honors College or other scholarships… I thought it was a little weird too, but remember, the Morehead’s not too shabby lol</p>
<p>I second the question about the Pogue Scholarship. Do we get a separate notification for that or is it also included in the scholarships offered at scholarship day?</p>
<p>Honestly, after having 2 kids get into Carolina and go through the whole scholarship thing I believe that it is less predictable at Carolina than at any other school I know. My first child got into the Honors program but got nothing else (always kind of wondered if the fact that he got a NM scholarship hurt his chances to get anything else). My second child got invited to scholarship day and got into the honors program, but only got offered a small scholarship at scholarship day. She got full ride offers from 4 other elite schools, and accepted one of those. Bottom line: I think Carolina has limited scholarship funds and so tries to spread them around and use them to recruit for certain things, which vary from class to class. Can’t blame them for that, in these tough economic times. So don’t beat yourselves–or Carolina-- up if you didn’t get an offer. You can’t know what they are looking for from year to year and there isn’t much money to go around!
Good luck to all!</p>
<p>So, if a student was admitted by the early deadline and was not invited to scholarship day, does that mean he will not be getting any scholarships? I thought they said we would hear about other scholarships two weeks after acceptance, so I am thinking there will be no scholarships offered. . . but I guess I am hoping someone will tell me I am wrong!! Did get invited to the honors college, but OOS so the cost is pretty steep.</p>
<p>Here is what UNC posted yesterday on its Admissions Blog:</p>
<p>"Merit-Based Scholarships. First-deadline applicants who are being considered for a merit-based scholarship have been invited to campus for Scholarship Day in late March. At Scholarship Day, students take part in discussion sessions with faculty members and other scholars. After the event, final scholarship selections are decided. This year, we were able to invite about 100 first-deadline admitted students to Scholarship Day, and these invitations were mailed on January 26. Invited students are also able to view information about Scholarship Day in the Events section of their MyUNC. We will mail Scholarship Day invitations to a select group of our second-deadline candidates by mid-March.</p>
<p>“Almost all of the merit-based scholarships offered by Carolina are awarded to the students who attend Scholarship Day. A small number of additional scholarships are awarded outside of this event; these scholarships are smaller in amount and for North Carolina residents. First-deadline recipients of these scholarships will be notified by early March; second-deadline recipients will be notified in late March.”</p>
<p>^Of these 100 or so people invited to scholarship day, does anyone know the breakdown of how many of which scholarships are awarded? i.e. how many of the carolina scholars scholarship go out?</p>