He was offered zero scholarships. Not departmental or university. Admissions counselor didn’t encourage him to apply for Hunt based on his SAT score.
Oh, that’s interesting. I’m sorry he didn’t receive anything! It seems to be entirely random though, if that makes you feel any better. Seems like test optional was the way to go…I honestly wish I would have done that to maybe have been considered for presidential.
I don’t think they really award anything else so you’re probably stuck with that cost unfortunately.
Yeah good to know for kid number 2. To be fair he didn’t speak to an SMU admissions counselor before applying which he should’ve done. His dad attended SMU for his MBA which was mentioned in the acceptance letter…not sure if that has anything to do with it as well. Agree a lot of it is arbitrary.
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That’s what I thought at first too. But we were advised by two different people there to submit a request to go test optional and request her SAT score to be withdrawn from consideration (it had already been sent to them) while we were still in the early stages of the application process-before her app was in review for admissions and scholarships. Which we did and she got a $15K scholarship. High GPA with lots of rigor, honors and extracurriculars. We are waiting to see what the meadows art scholarship offer is in March/April but unless it is large enough to make up the difference in tuition, she will be going to A&M. The meadows art scholarship is academic blind. It is based on the art portfolio.
That’s great I’m so happy you did that! Congrats to you all.
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I’m sorry to hear about your experience. I share what we learned for future reference. Sounds like you have another child who may be applying in the future.
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He got an excellent scholarship to OU and is waiting to hear if he is accepted into the Honors program there. If so, that may be the better route even with OOS tuition.
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Maybe the admissions counselor can recommend something. I believe they know you’re son’s school very well and would guess where test scores would be relative to class rank/GPA.
About 25% of SMU students pay full price. Quite a few full pay parents out there and SMU needs more of them to pay for need based scholarships.
I ran the estimated financial calculator at U of Miami for my son and said he couldn’t apply because if he got in it would be full price.
I wish you the best in your decision.
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Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. The admissions counselor could retake the SAT and resubmit for consideration. But honestly he’s so burned out I don’t think he’ll pursue that.
We did not do enough research as well. Submitted 1440 and got deferred. Most likely we will withdraw tomorrow. Not sure there is any merit for RD folks. Son has other options so he is ok.
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@raj_125 Deferred for admission of scholarships?
Deferred to RD
Wow really sorry about that. That’s a really good score. Glad there are other options for you all as well. Exactly why we encouraged DS to apply multiple places. Good luck!
Same situation here. Smu has been his top pick since he was five years old. Zero scholarship offers. High act and GpA and tons of EC and leadership positions. Black belt in Tae kwon do and started his own charity. Applied for the Hunt but not sure. He was accepted to 16 other top engineering schools w merit and is having a difficult time choosing since SMU gave zero merit. Not sure he will be considered for anything from this point on. We sent in his semester grades which were outstanding but no word yet if anything. So hard. Full price is crazy.
My oldest son is a junior at OU. Journalism and loves it.
I’m so sorry to hear that. It’s incredibly frustrating on the kids—they work so hard just to apply to these schools and it’s so difficult to reconcile disappointing outcomes. Covid + surge of applicants this year has taken a toll. I’m glad your kid has other options. I don’t feel good about paying full tuition to any school for many reasons…we’ll see what other decisions come in over the next month.
Glad to know your other kid loves OU!
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It’s my understanding that Provost/Distinguished/2nd Century group of merits go out with offers. Others are different.
Hunt and Presidential are in a totally different grouping, but Presidential seems unlikely without a Provost/Distinguished. Hunt is its own separate application and was due yesterday.
University Honors is a separate acceptance…some have come out already, but not all probably.
There are also school-specific merits that are from different endowments, and many of those have not yet been awarded…I’ve seen some BBA in Cox, and I’ve heard of a few others here and there (like maybe Discovery, iirc?), but Dedman Scholarships and several other of the school-specific awards (including Engineering) haven’t been done yet from what I’ve seen on this board…I gather this school-specific stuff is typically much smaller than the more prestigious awards…but there is other stuff still to come.
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Good to know thank you for the clarification
I have a S23 that will be applying next cycle. Probably to Cox. Does anyone know if ED applicants are eligible for any merit scholarships? Or are those only rewarded in EA? Does admissions assume that you are full pay if you apply ED and do not apply for financial aid?
Absolutely ED applicants get the same merit scholarships as EA applicants. They might even lean in a bit more because they the student is committing.
For Cox, note that BBA Scholars in the entering class of 2020 had an average SAT score of 1496 and ACT score of 34. Reported scores, anyway. Only 120 students out of 500+ students in the SMU Cox freshmen class are selected to be BBA Scholars.