<p>"These are issues that have always concerned with this site - people think they know what a particular policy is, are actually incorrect about it, and then pass it off to other as fact. This is a good site if what people pass on is factual. "</p>
<p>Couldn’t disagree with buf87 more on this part of his/her post #16. This site is all about people who have a common interest sharing their opinions and experiences with others toward a goal of helping each other. You won’t find any UM officials posting here, so none of what you read could be considered factual as far as admissions and financial aid is concerned. Nor will any of the owners of the restaurants and hotels be posting here, just people who visited and enjoyed them - sharing their opinions of the experience. If you want facts, then visit [University</a> of Miami](<a href=“http://www.miami.edu%5DUniversity”>http://www.miami.edu).</p>
<p>My D is a Stamps recipient this year, so I will provide our experience. She did not visit Miami prior to the interview weekend. Her only expressed interest was applying EA (which is a good idea for scholarship consideration) and attending an info session at her school. In terms of finances, I truly believe they do not consider this at all for merit scholarships. My other D is full pay at any Ivy, so I don’t think they considered our finances. I think they just want the best students. By the way, she is loving Miami and having a great experience. If you can visit and show interest, great. But if you can’t, I don’t think it hurts your chances.</p>
<p>Dumbo, its like you said,they want to get the best students. By offering these kinds of scholarships they are able to attract them. If the scholarships weren’t important then there wouldn’t be the huge amount of early applications. I’m not saying that finances are a major consideration in the final decision, only that for yield management purposes, I don’t see how it can be ignored. If money wasn’t an object, then what is the point in offering them to entice the top students ? I do wonder though, since they do have so many exceptional students attending, and with the rep and ranking of the school skyrocketing, how much more competitive it can get! Yikes.</p>
<p>Malaml, I agree with you that Miami is on many top students’ lists due the merit scholarships. I just don’t think a student’s finances are considered when Miami is determining the scholarship recipients. More likely, they gauge interest during the scholarship weekend interviews. Most of the singer/stamps candidates probably had many offers to choose from. The Foote Fellow program, Stamps benefits, AP credits all factored into my D’s decision to attend Miami. You are right that as they rise in the rankings, the competition for these merit awards will become even more competitive.</p>
<p>“UM definitely doesn’t use a family’s financial situation when making a scholarship decision”</p>
<p>Pretty much correct, as the students credentials, not ability to pay is the basis for the merit scholarship decision.</p>
<p>I’m afraid your wrong about “tracking” student interest. Go to a college fair UMiami is attending and you will see a pad of contact forms; the rep will ask you to fill out one and give it to them. Trust me, the forms go straight back to admissions. It’s an effective technique to identify students who have an interest in the university and gives admissions contact info to follow up on.</p>
You’re still making an assumption. Did you ever consider the possibility that the contact form is actually just for what it says it is – contact purposes? Somebody just explained that their child, a Stamps recipient, hadn’t even visited the university. Obviously it’s not that important, or isn’t even considered at all.</p>
<p>The Common Data Set says that they use the student’s interest in the school as a factor in admissions decisions:
</p>
<p>I think it’s safe to say that once the student is worthy of being admitted, nothing more than academic/merit factors are used in determining merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Ok guys. This is my story and I’m sticking to it. :). I am relaying our experience not to suggest some grand conspiracy but to show how much of the decision process at colleges are outside of the students control, and how much goes into it that we can not be aware of. Our flagship university had courted my daughter through emails and mailings for their Honors program for over a year before the application deadline. After the application had been submitted and she was accepted the mailings and emails promoting the honors program increased “don’t forget to apply” blah blah. Well, the long and the short of it was that she was rejected.(Oh, I forgot to mention that she far exceded the requirements) This honors program offers special housing for these students and the housing is guaranteed.( I think)I saw red and because it was a public university felt that we were entitled to some answers. It did not hurt that I had saved all the emails. I contacted the directer via email and asked for an explanation. I received the usual rote reply. “we have to make careful decisions, there are so and so number of applicants and we can only accept the most qualified”. That was not going to wash with me, so I asked for a meeting. The director called me and was initially hostile. He had my daughters folder in front of him and said “what are the chances she is actually going to end up here?” I was shocked. Once we both calmed down, I explained that there was a very good chance she would “end up” there he became more open and told me that the data that they had on her indicated otherwise. He was apolegetic but said that because of housing limitations, they had to make careful selections so they could accomodate everyone.He said he could not put an appology in writing but would send her an email telling her of her acceptance. Which he did. Now, the question that has to be asked is what data? One more anicdote that I will relay to you. My neighhors daughter applied early action to UM. I think she graduated #2 or 3 from our community high school of roughly 700. Test scores and everything else were stellar. Her parents were both UM alumni. She was weight listed at one of the Ivys and and offered delayed admission at another. UM offered her the 24k but she recieved no Stamps or Singer invite. Why? My theory is that they did not expect her to attend UM. Or you could use the jargon that UM didn’t consider her a good fit.How they reach that decision I can only speculate. A lot of the decisions are out of the students control and it would have saved us a lot of heartache if we had known it before hand.</p>
<p>Just want to clarify. I see I wasnt clear. She was accepted to the university. THe honors application was seperate, and it was for the honors program that she was rejected.</p>
<p>ZincWiskers - There are admission officers on this site all the time - for many schools!! Some colleges are open about having admission officers post and others are not. Don’t be fooled!</p>
<p>So buf87, you’re saying that you know for a FACT that admissions officers are on this site all the time? You personally know some of these folks? Or, are you really just stating that it is your opinion/belief that they post here…</p>