Scholarships

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
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<p>The difficulty in being awarded a merit scholarship from UNC, like many highly ranked state flagships, is well documented within UNC’s website. From a 11/10/10 UNC news release ([UNC</a> News](<a href=“http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4085/75/):%5DUNC”>http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4085/75/):)</p>

<p>“The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill awarded more than $965,000 in academic merit scholarships for 2010-2011 to 161 first-year students – 136 from North Carolina and 25 from out of state.” </p>

<p>The news release stated “Academic achievement was the chief selection criterion for 148 of the scholarships”.</p>

<p>Per UNC’s 2010 class profile ([First-Year</a> Full-Time Undergraduate Student Profile, Fall 2010 - Office of Institutional Research and Assessment](<a href=“http://oira.unc.edu/first-time-freshman-class-profile-fall.html]First-Year”>http://oira.unc.edu/first-time-freshman-class-profile-fall.html)), the SAT scores (CR & M) were as follows:</p>

<p>Distribution by Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) Scores
In-State Out-of-State All First Year Undergraduate
Score Intervals Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
1300’s 994 31.7% 147 23.9% 1,141 30.4%
1400’s 557 17.8% 179 29.1% 736 19.6%
1500’s 149 4.7% 54 8.9% 203 5.4%
1600 4 0.1% 1 0.2% 5 0.1%
Scores Available 3,134 100.0% 614 100.0% 3,748 100.0%
Scores Not Available 88 2.7% 110 15.2% 198 5.0%</p>

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<p>I was trying to clean up my draft above and I somehow posted it before I was done…</p>

<p>Again, per UNC “Academic achievement was the chief selection criterion for 148 of the scholarships” in 2010.</p>

<p>There were 710 in-state students in 2010 who scored above 1400 on the CR & M sections of their SAT. Typically students who score at this level also have very high GPA’s and take a rigorous slate of courses in high school. I would assume that those within the 710 group were awarded the majority of the 136 merit scholarships last year. </p>

<p>Lady Di, in a “chance my son” thread you started, you indicated your son scored a 2100 on his SAT (1390 CR & M). As you can see, last year this would have put him behind these 710 students when SAT’s were factored into consideration. I don’t know how home schooled students are graded and I don’t know how universities compare such grades with non-home schooled kids, but I suspect it puts home schooled kids at a disadvantage, so perhaps that hurt him. As for EC’s, which schools sometimes use to distinguish high academic achievers, you said his “relatively few ECs” was “the huge fly in the ointment” in his consideration for merit aid.</p>

<p>Are PSAT scores considered by UNC? I have no idea, but I would be comfortable in assuming that if they are considered, they are given less weight than the SAT in light of when the two tests are typically taken in one’s high school career. I doubt a high PSAT score (you said your son had a 224) alone would pull an applicant into merit scholarship consideration if one’s SAT score has them below other applicants.</p>

<p>So, should UNC offer merit aid, like UA, solely based on NMF status? I sure wish they did. I wish every university did, in light of my son’s likely NMF status next year. But UNC does not, just like many other fine institutions don’t.</p>

<p>Lady Di, I understand the anxiety that comes with middle class families who don’t qualify for need based aid who are trying to figure out how to afford college, I am feeling it now despite being a full year away. But I don’t understand why you were surprised, and are now seemingly embittered, at the outcome regarding your son’s merit aid at UNC. I read everything on the UA board, in light of their NMF scholarship program, as it could make sense for my son. Having been a big fan of your posts all over CC in the past, which I felt were so very positive and encouraging to others, I am disappointed to see your swipes at UNC and posters here carry over to that board. I see no point to a UNC vs. UA debate. They are two different options and the positive or negative attributes of one school don’t enhance or detract from the the positive or negative attributes of the other school. </p>

<p>I do wish you the very best. Celebrate your son’s acceptance into UNC. If you can’t afford it, going somewhere else by no means diminishes your son’s achievements. Your son has great options in UA with their honors program, other North Carolina schools and it now appears you are looking at Auburn, another fine institution. </p>

<p>Accentuate the positives of where you are in this process. Your son, due to his hard work and yours, has many great options that others do not have. Don’t waste your time, energy and emotion bemoaning one institution’s policy and practices regarding merit aid or anything else. I have yet to find the perfect university with regard to size, cost, location, scholarships, etc.</p>

<p>Good luck to you and your son.</p>

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<p>Thank you for the above response to Lady Di. I too am very disappointed in the comments against UNC on the UA forum.</p>

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<p>Great Post! Our son was accepted UNC-CH Honors OOS with no scholarship. Did get in-state Scholarship offer from UGA-Honors–looks like our son will be going there.</p>

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<p>Sorry, I meant to link
02-09-2011, 02:13 PM #47
cloying’s post.</p>

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<p>Good luck to your son! I’ve heard great things about UGA’s honors program and had several TAs who went to UGA for undergrad. Bull dogs are a proud bunch. It’s a good thing.</p>

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<p>Forgot to add - last weekend I was at an interview for a full ride to UNC Law and there were I belieeevee two UGA alumni interviewing (there was at least one) out of about 20 people. Just goes to show - get the GPA, make connections and be involved, do research, and you will do well. If it were possible to make a recipe for success for college that would be the mantra. I’ll say it again. GET THE GPA, make connections and be involved, and do research. oh… and enjoy. :-)</p>

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<p>Thanks Cloying–I’m going to show him your posts!</p>

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<p>This may be a tad off topic, but at my DD’s highly regarded public high school in Illinois, 6-8 friends applied to UNC-CH. All had the expected ECs. The one with the highest ACT score (35) was accepted; the next two (including my DD were wait-listed); the rest declined. Even though I am a legacy (according to the alumni association which keeps asking for money! - I attend one year) as is my father (who taught while working on his PHd), I had warned DD she might not be accepted and certainly wouldn’t get any $$ with “only” a 32 ACT and 25/850+ class rank. But at UNC we are OOS. What I whine about is the cost of in-state tuition at our equivalent UIUC. Next year just tuition and fees will be around $15000 and engineering/business and select other majors will be $18,600! She has been given a James Scholar designation, but there is no $$ attached. From what I can figure, there are no scholarship $$ except for those at the very tip-top of the class and athletes or URM. DD is looking for warm weather and a Greek social scene. We are thrilled that at Bama and USC she is considered academically elite and qualifies for significant scholarship $$. And being in an honors program and being required to maintain a minimum GPA to keep the scholarship will, no doubt, be a good thing for my social butterfly.</p>

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<p>GCBMIB;</p>

<p>I don’t think your post is off-topic. I think it is best to not to count on admittance or competitive merit aid from top universities until the offers are firmly in hand. </p>

<p>Congratulations to your daughter on her success to date. Good luck to her re the waitlist at UNC if that is what she wants.</p>

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<p>So excited! got my email today and I am a finalist for Robertson. Wooooooooooooohoooooo!</p>

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<p>Congratulations daphdaph!</p>

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<p>hey daphdaph in case you didn’t get my message (i checked and it said i didn’t send anything, which is wierd) i am also a finalist and i was wondering if you knew if/when we have to sign something saying that if we advance to the next stage we will accept the Robertson and for sure attend UNC? thanks!</p>

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<p>LOL, I check back here after a week or so, and it’s the same-old same-old.</p>

<p>Y’all really need to read Crazy U. It’s an eye-opener.</p>

<p>The problem I see in this and similar CC threads–and in Real Life, too, among several of my acquaintance–is that many of us never examine our assumptions. There are much larger issues involved here–issues involving philosophy of education–but so many of us just buy the hype and never question, never examine the assumptions we’ve been spoon-fed. Myself included. That’s why Crazy U has been so enlightening for me.</p>

<p>One amazing thing I learned from Crazy U is that the obsession with ECs–a preoccupation that’s supposedly so progressive and “holistic”–actually has its roots in racist eugenics and antisemitism. When American colleges first started using supposedly objective, “meritocratic” admissions criteria such as (early) standardized tests, they found that The Wrong People (i.e., Jews) were scoring well and qualifying for admission. Well, 1920s-vintage Harvard and Yale (et al.) couldn’t have that, now, could they? So they started expanding their selection criteria to include highly subjective means whereby they could screen out The Wrong People. They required personal interviews; they started emphasizing ECs, including sports like rowing and tennis; and so on. That way, they could ensure that their entering classes would still be dominated by The Right People: WASP, blue-blooded, privileged, with easy access to the Right Sports and the most impressive ECs.</p>

<p>Such blatant bigotry has largely (although not entirely) vanished from college admissions. But it lingers, IMHO, in another form, in the merit-scholarship processes employed by UNC and certain other schools. Today, it’s not Jews or Irish or Slavs who are being excluded. It’s rural kids, poorer kids, and home-schooled kids–kids who do not have the same opportunities to rack up hundreds of “service hours” and “leadership” what-the-heck that kids in Wake or Mecklenburg’s plusher schools enjoy.</p>

<p>As Andrew Ferguson observes in Crazy U, the term “holistic” translates as “completely subjective.” Like the racist eugenics that originally spawned the ECs craze, “holistic” has to go.</p>

<p>So much is so wrong about the college-app process today. But, if we never examine our assumptions, how can we begin to see, much less address, the problems?</p>

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<p>GCBMIB–congratulations to your daughter! Isn’t it wonderful to be wanted? :)</p>

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<p>Congrats to daphdaph and daffodil, too!</p>

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<p>Blah - blah - blah!!</p>

<p>So LadyDi, you have now chosen to spin this “unfortunate” predicament that you find your child in as a product of racism and antisemitism - nice!!!</p>

<p>Gimmeabreak</p>

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<p>

LOL! That’s funny!</p>

<p>LadyD - My son, who received a merit scholarship from UNC, did not have hundreds and hundreds of service hours. What he had were ECs that reflected who he was and where he had passion. He played a high school sport and, in a continuation of that interest, he volunteered as an assistant coach for Special Olympics in the same sport. He worked as a part time referee in the same sport to earn money. Our experience with Special Olympics is that they are always looking for volunteers, they don’t ask your parents income, and don’t care if you are home schooled. You don’t have to have hundreds and hundreds of ECs, at least not for UNC, but being strong in academics and showing passion in something is important</p>

<p>Congrats daffodil66!</p>

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<p>After reading several posts on this forum, I am curious about something. LadyD, you are constantly talking about your son, who was home-schooled. Is there any particular reason you chose to home-school him rather than send him to a public school? And now you want to send him to one of the largest, most liberal public universities in the state? I think it is impressive that he was accepted to UNC after having a more limited access to classes and extra-curriculars (such as high school sports teams)- you apparently have done a good job with his education. If you really want to send him to UNC-CH, perhaps you could consider loans. I know they have to be repaid, but that is an option if you are determined that you want him to go there above all else. My son, too, has been offered lots of scholarship money to attend other schools, but UNC CH is his first choice. We are not bitter about that, we just realize that the competition is much stronger there than at the other schools to which he applied, and we knew that from the beginning.</p>

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<p>LadyD, please look at this link. [UNC</a> Admissions Blog: First Generation Student Wins Scholarship to Cambridge](<a href=“http://unc-admissions.blogspot.com/2011/02/first-generation-student-wins.html]UNC”>UNC Admissions Blog: First Generation Student Wins Scholarship to Cambridge)</p>

<p>A student from a small rural NC town won the Morehead. This clearly shows that they do not discriminate against students from poorer rural areas. If your son did not have many extracurriculars, that is not UNC’s fault. Even as a home schooled student in a rural area, you can find opportunities to volunteer and build leadership skills if you want to. I don’t care where you live, there will always be people in need. You can not blame the school. Although I imagine that you don’t have any problem with the holistic approach at any schools that are giving your son money.</p>

<p>I live in Wake county, and even though my “plush” school gave me more opportunities, I am not getting any scholarship money, and almost nobody else I know is either. If you are so set on going to UNC, you can make it work. Like southernbred said, you can always take out loans. You don’t seem to be willing to pay much for your son’s education, even though you said you are out of the bracket that will get need-based aid. Obviously you do have some money. There is also the possibility that your son could look for outside scholarships (as most students do) and that he could get a job during college to help pay for his education. There are SO many other options out there besides merit aid, which the majority of students do not get. </p>

<p>If you refuse to listen to anybody else on here who is trying to give you more options, please go post on the Alabama board about how excited you are that your son will be there next year.</p>