<p>I noticed that the University of Chicago does offer some merit scholarships. Are these basically impossible to get unless you're a super genius (especially since everyone admitted is already quite intelligent)? Does anyone know what kind of criteria they look at when awarding the scholarships?</p>
<p>They're not impossible to get (though the full scholarship is pretty difficult). There aren't clear guidelines of how they're given out.</p>
<p>Merit scholarship recipients are chosen by a faculty committee. Admissions officers "nominate" applications that they feel are worthy of a second look for a scholarship. Then those applicants are considered in a closed-door session (i.e. no one in their except the faculty members and someone from admissions to take down the results), and the faculty members choose who will get which scholarships. So we really don't know how they're chosen exactly. </p>
<p>My guess would be that the faculty focuses on 1) students who they would like to teach, 2) students who would add to the campus environment, and 3) students who seem to show extra potential to do very well after graduation. In other words, they're looking for students who they want to attend the school. I doubt the committee is overly concerned with SAT scores or sports recruitment--though those likely play some role (minority status may as well). I would guess that they pay close attention to excellent and unique extracurriculars, telling recommendations, and essays that are in some way honest and special. I guess that they look for students who "come off the page," if you will, and may choose to attend another school (HYPS, Columbia, etc.) without the lure of a scholarship. All my own guesses, though.</p>
<p>I know 5 merit award winners out of the many that there are. All 5 that I know happen to be white and do not play sports, which I think confirms the idea that this scholarship is not for "hooked" applicants. The merit award winners I know are brainy, fun, involved, and, most of all, thrive at a place like the U of C. I have no idea whether or not they were admitted to other schools.</p>
<p>I am a merit scholarship recipient and am an incoming first year. I'm not a supergenius, nor a regular genius. I do not save orphans from burning buildings in my spare time. I am also white and do not play sports. :)
I can PM you more information about myself so as not to bore everyone else if you're interested. I know of four people (thanks, facebook!) including myself who received the 1/3 tuition merit scholarship, three of whom are matriculating and one of whom did not matriculate but IS a supergenius.</p>
<p>Hey gracello, I just happen to be curious too, so if you get a chance...ooh pretty please?</p>
<p>No problem, sending PMs out to anyone who's interested.</p>
<p>My curiosity is getting the best of me...do you mind PMing me too, gracello?</p>
<p>Gosh, I want to go to this school too much. :)</p>
<p>can you send me a pm to???</p>
<p>Yep. It would be really helpful if you could tell me what you want in a PM- I can just give a list of stats if that's all you care about, but I'm totally willing to send more of a description of myself/why I think I got the scholarship instead of pure stats if that's what you are interested in.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'd love the stats and a description of you and why you believe you won the scholarship, since we all know Chicago's definitely not all about stats!</p>
<p>Thanks a billion, gracello! :)</p>
<p>Count me in, gracello, too - please, PM about the qualities needed (my D is in love with UChicago and there is no way she goes there unless she gets some merit money ;)).</p>
<p>count me in to.. :D</p>
<p>Just wondering: will applying EA (or expressing inordinate amounts of interest in matriculating at Chicago) diminish one's chances for a merit scholarship?</p>
<p>My son received a merit scholarship last year, but decided to attend Michigan instead (for that great football team?).</p>
<p>He applied EA and visited 3 times, so in his case demostrated interest apparently did not have an impact on the scholarship decision.</p>
<p>You can find his stats in the attached link.</p>
<p>gracello! I'm interested in your stats and why you think you got it too. Were your essays amazing/risky/unique/etc?</p>
<p>OK ok... You guys peer pressured me... can you please PM me too gracello :]</p>
<p>To the best of my knowledge (SBDad and gracello can help me out on this one), the admissions committee nominates a handful of students for the merit award, and the winners are chosen by professors. Don't ask me when this process happens or what outcomes to expect from it-- I have no idea. The merit winners that I do know are not "bumped" applicants or 800 scorers-- they are just normal people who show an unusual amount of potential.</p>
<p>To answer an earlier question, I can't imagine that EA would diminish your chance for a merit scholarship. If you want the school very badly and you can strut your stuff in a way that appeals to the admissions office, I can't imagine why we would not want to have you.</p>
<p>Okay, this is too many PMs for a girl that also needs to pack. Here's the essay I sent to one person and my stats list. Ask questions here as well.</p>
<p>Stats are lame, quite normal:
3.95 GPA unweighted
33 ACT, never took the SAT
All of my SAT2 scores were embarrassing, except for 800 on German with Listening
AP Scholar with Distinction- 8 AP tests, 6 5's (English 2x, Euro, APUSH, Stats, German), one 4 (Bio), one 3 (Calc- had a bad day )- also took every AP class offered at my school, and supplemented with online AP courses for classes that weren't available
National Merit Commended (missed it by one point, dammit)
whereIlive Scholar (big deal locally) in Science and Fine Arts; 2nd place grant recipient in Fine Arts</p>
<p>150+ hrs community service, not required for graduation- tutored high school physics and German, volunteer with the Spokane Symphony</p>
<p>Principal cellist, whereIlive Youth Symphony
Principal cellist, HS chamber orchestra, 3 yrs, including State Solo and Ensemble win
Lots of regional/state solo cello awards
Founded own private string quartet, played weddings and private parties
Symphony protegee program in chamber music, 6 yrs
Have 10 years private cello instruction; 2 yrs work as private instructor for beginning/intermediate students
German Club 4 yrs; 1x president, 1x vice president
Math Club 4 yrs
National Honors Society president</p>
<p>I graduated from a decent public high school in a normal-sized city, but really maxed out my curriculum there- when I graduated I had taken every AP class offered (besides AP Spanish, but I don't speak Spanish, so it doesn't count) and honors variants of the classes that weren't offered AP. I'm sure this looked nice on my transcript, but the classes were all decently easy, so I also had good grades. However, most everyone applying to Chicago has good grades an a load of AP/Honors work. I was really active extracurricularly active as well, but I think a big bonus for the scholarship was that I had three solid things- cello/orchestra, NHS, and German Club- where I had a lot of centralized leadership and evidence of helpful participation, as opposed to being a member in forty thousand things with no leadership and little commitment.
Another bonus for the scholarship, I believe, is my cello and German. I speak fluent German but am not a native speaker, and teach German in the summers at an immersion camp. Before applying/getting this job I attended the same camp for 3 years, and also attended a pre-college program in engineering at the University of Notre Dame. (The ND program was competitive to get in to, but scholarship-based, and so not just a resume pad like the Harvard Summer School and other Ivy precollege programs tend to be.)
I am also a decent cellist and won a few local/state competitions as well as performing locally with a string quartet I founded. I'm also from the Northwest, which doesn't send a lot of people to Chicago, and the geographic diversity was probably helpful.
However, you are not me, and so I can't offer you advice based on the things that I did that don't fit you. However, I can offer some advice on what was probably central to my scholarship: essays and interview. I went to campus for an interview (this was expensive, but worth it- however, they do not dock you for the inability to come to campus, so an alumni interview would be just fine) and I think I really allowed myself to shine though in my interview instead of being some super-polished robot version of myself. I also put a lot of time and effort in to my essays and wrote them the way that I felt represented me best. I wrote them, edited them, and had friends edit for content and and English teacher edit for grammar and style. DON'T HALF ASS YOUR ESSAYS. They are important. That's probably the most important advice I can give you, both for admission and for scholarships.</p>
<p>Chronicidal- my main essay was especially unique, yeah. I did last year's Miles Davis prompt, and wrote a fictitious historical essay analyzing the history and importance of the party hat in history. Loved it and worked really hard on that essay, and apparently it worked. I thought it was funny and creative and that it let my... general essence and spirit shine through. I did get a comment from one of my english teachers editing it along the lines of
"Grace, this is an amazing essay, but... don't send this to a normal school."</p>
<p>Not that I'm advocating that YOU all write fictional histories of everyday objects, I'm just saying what I did.
My other two were pretty straightforward- for the "things I like" essay I did a compare/contrast of my three favorite pieces of music, Emmanuel Chabrier's "Espana", Mars from Holst's "Planets", and the 1st movement of the concerto suite for electric guitar and orchestra by Yngwie Malmsteen.
My "why Chicago" essay was my favorite to write. It was basically just exactly why I wanted to go to Chicago layed out in essay format- got a little personal, which is out of character for me, but it did detail exactly why and how badly I wanted to go.</p>
<p>And in my third post today I shall explain how scholarship recipients are selected and how being EA doesn't matter in a nicely numbered list.</p>
<ol>
<li>Scholarship recipients are chosen from the pool of admitted applicants. Admissions counselors pick some people they think should be considered for scholarships, and these applications go to a faculty committee. These people review the suggested apps and choose scholarship winners and which scholarship (full tuition or third tuition) the applicant receives. If you are an EA applicant, you get a scholarship notification in a lovely folder when the regular decision kids get their admissions decisions. If you are a regular decision kid, you will be notified of a scholarship if you receive one WITH your admissions decision. There is no "Sorry, you did not get a scholarship" letter for EA kids, unfortunately.
Which leads me to...</li>
<li>EA. I was EA and still got a scholarship. Don't freak out. If they want you to have a scholarship, it doesn't matter if you're EA or RD. Your name will go in the pile and sent to review by the committee if they want it to be, and being EA gives no advantage/disadvantage over being RD. Your midyear report goes in to the final package of your application regardless of whether you are EA or RD, I think, so they will also have your midyear grades.</li>
<li>That's it for now.</li>
</ol>