<p>(I posted this in college search before i realized this was here! sorry.)</p>
<p>Ok so I have been admitted to UW madison but so far haven't heard anything in the way of scholarships. I would really like to go but since I'm oos I would definitely need some scholarship help. As far as Tulane U goes, I was notified of a scholarship offer as soon as I was admitted. But the UW letter didn't say anything about merit based scholarships.
So basically I'm just wondering if anyone knows if UW offers merit-based scholarships to oos students, or if you have to apply for financial aid separately.</p>
<p>In case it helps to evaluate if I'd be likely to received a scholarship I have a 4.0 GPA, 30 on the ACT, community service and of course some extracurriculars.</p>
<p>When we were looking at Wisconsin for merit money, I didn't see much for freshmen that you didn't need to apply for separately. There were a couple small scholarships (a few hundred dollars) and one $5K or thereabouts one for which you needed to be a NMF. There are some other merit scholarships, but they require an application. I don't think UW awards merit money the way some of the other publics (like Alabama, Georgia, etc.) do.</p>
<p>UW does next to nothing for first-year students in the way of scholarships. However, nearly every junior/senior with good GPAs gets SUBSTANTIAL access to them. I agree with the system completely, we don't give a rip about what you did in high school: prove you're going to contribute to our community, excel here, and we'll reward you for your efforts.</p>
<p>I didn't even apply for any scholarships, did my fafsa like I do every year. I have a reasonable GPA, 3.2, and got $2000 my junior and about $2000 my senior year. These were completely no-strings scholarships that they just threw at me. There was no application for them. Those that SEEK OUT scholarships during their junior and senior years and have the merits to earn them certainly get LARGE ones. However, there is no "hub" for scholarships on campus. You'll have to speak with your school or college, dean of students office, student financial services, and various alumni associations to learn about the most opportunities.</p>
<p>I've known a few OOS students who bring their tuition down to that of an IS student just by putting in the extra work and applying for scholarships after their first year.</p>
<p>You'll have to apply for private scholarships or ones through your high school. Trade offs. Your experience at Tulane will be different than here, they'll probably give you more AID. Have to decide what's more important to you. Remember loans are a solid option.</p>
<p>Yes, UW is very strange in that regard. The depts control most of the scholarship money that was donated over the years and give it to upperclass students in the major.</p>
<p>UW doesn't need to offer money to attract good OOS students and private schools don't face potential instate tax paying parents who wonder why their public school is subsidizing OOS students. Donors who want their money to go to OOS freshmen can specify that, but most may give to their dept and incoming freshmen don't have the ties older students do. Try your local UW alumni club for scholarship opportunites, they have groups all over the country.</p>
<p>If you talk to UW officials I think they would say the lack of aid for OOS students is a big problem and they lose many of the less wealthy good students to other schools hence the very poor yield on OOS admits. Instate parents may also be angry, as we have seen in articles, that it's easier to get in OOS than instate when the biggest hurdle from OOS is financial.</p>