<p>My daughter applied ED because she was 100% sure UR was the school she wanted to attend. In my opinion UR is not in the same league as Stanford, Georgetown, or Cornell.</p>
<p>Traditionally students apply ED to schools they wouldn’t otherwise be very competitive applicants at. The students that get merit at UR are competitive applicants at the best of the best.</p>
<p>@Cassie-Not sure what your last sentence even means…but your first sentence is not true in many cases. I know many,many students who just decide early in the process that they have a top choice school. By applying ED and being accepted-they are done.</p>
<p>Well if your child was absolutely sure where he wanted to go and you were financially secure enough to apply ED, I’m happy for you. Many families can’t apply ed because they have to go where the money is.</p>
<p>My husband and I have worked very hard, lived within our means and invested and saved wisely for the education of our children. But maybe you are starting to see my point that merit money seems to be used as “financial aid.” Have you decided where you will attend college?</p>
<p>So cassiebreeze which is it: are “students applying ED to schools they wouldn’t otherwise be very competitive at”, or are students not applying ED because “they have to go where the money is”?</p>
<p>Depending on the family, both can be true. Around here, people often ED at a school that is a reach ( like an Ivy) for them, while applying EA to an in-state school like UVA . As long as they have run the NPC and can live with the estimated cost of the ED school, they figure why not take the gamble. </p>
<p>Some people ED at a school that is their one true love. That’s great too as long as they can afford it since they lose the ability to compare offers from different schools. Schools often use RD to fill out a class after the ED acceptances have come in, so by applying ED and therefore showing strong interest, a student gains an advantage over an RD student with similar stats by being considered first. In many cases the ED student would have been admitted RD anyway since they are strong students. No one gets in ED who isn’t qualified and accomplished. But there are usually more qualified and accomplished students applying than there are spots in the school.</p>
<p>Other people don’t ED because they want to be able to compare merit offers across schools. That’s fine too. We fell into the third group. Like you, we have saved diligently over the years and wouldn’t qualify for need-based aid. We set a firm budget upfront for what we would spend for undergrad and if a school didn’t offer enough merit to put it within the budget, it was out of consideration, no matter how much we liked the school. Within the budget, she could choose based on fit, strength of program, etc. She didn’t have to choose the least expensive school, just a school within the budget.</p>
<p>Like they say–different strokes for different folks. There’s no right or wrong way to make the decision. Every family has the right to make it their own way. And every school has the right to distribute their merit money as they want. Having compared merit packages across schools I can tell you that they vary widely from school to school. And some schools will call up to say how much they want your child to attend, and offer certificates and lunches with the dean, and send t-shirts and letters, but offer no merit $. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to parents, and it is exasperating, but it’s the way it is.</p>
<p>By next fall when the kids are happily at college, all the stress of this year will hopefully be a distant memory! Richmond is a great school and we’re happy that our D chose it. She loves the program, the professors, and all the students she met there. It is a wonderful fit. </p>
<p>We’re looking forward to meeting all the other new Spiders in the fall.
Hopefully Cassie will be there too!</p>
<p>I guess you were pleased with the merit aid you received at UR. Would you mind sharing the stats and the award?? Thanks.</p>
<p>She’s an Artist Scholar so it’s full tuition. Her stats are 32 ACT, 4.86 GPA 7 AP’s, won the state science fair in her category twice, is heavy in theatre (has done 16 shows in high school with multiple awards), lots of community service, internships, and leadership of a couple clubs.She’s top 5% of class of 400. I get the sense it was less about her numbers and more about her passions and accomplishments. Her friend with higher ACT (33), lower GPA (4.4), more AP’s (9), varsity sports, newspaper editor got waitlisted RD. </p>
<p>Our grading scale is a little different. Only 93-100 is an A, 92-85 is a B. There are no pluses or minuses, but AP and honors are weighted. I think the valedictorian has a 5.0.</p>
<p>With Richmond, the merit tends to be very specifically focused: some awards are art related, some are science related, some are on writing abilty, etc. There isn’t much for general all-around good stats. There are also departmental scholarships. Some are open to incoming students but some are only for enrolled students. Some consider need, but some don’t.</p>
<p>Thanks! That’s really helpful info.</p>
<p>VAmom1234 - how can the valedictorian have a 5.0 - was every class they took weighted or does your d’s school determine valedictorian by factoring in only weighted classes?</p>
<p>I will be attending the University of Richmond as a Boatwright Scholar. My merit award was full tuition, my financial aid award was almost total room&board. I’ll be paying about 6K a year in total.
2150 SAT (710/730/710) 33 ACT (35R 35E 32M 32W 31S)
3.8 unweighted GPA. 4 in APUSH (only AP I took)
Hooks: First generation college student. Twin. Single mother with low income. Half Colombian, half West Indian
EC: Vice President of student council, JV Volleyball, local teen talk show cast member and host, 1000+ hours of community service at a catholic camp, worked two jobs, volunteer at the local national park
Also accepted at: Williams, JHU, Middlebury, Bard, Wesleyan, Carleton, W&M, Vassar. Wait listed at Dartmouth. Rejected from none.
High school unranked. (graduating class of 22)</p>
<p>^^^not the choice that most people would make (U of Richmond over Williams or Middlebury), but I’m sure you have your reasons. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>I actually ended up choosing between Midd and UR (visited Williams, didn’t really like the feel). I was very very torn over Midd and UR. I actually got back from Middlebury today. But in the end UR ended up giving me a little more money, and with the cost of winter gear and VT-STX flights, Midd would have been just a bit too much for my family. UR is closer to home, near a city, and closer to family. It was a tough choice, and while I LOVED Midd. ABSOLUTELY LOVED MIDD, I felt UR would be better in the long run. But if I had gotten more FA from Midd, I would have been very happy there as well.</p>