<p>My son is considering SMU - he'll be a senior next year. What have you learned about the SMU application process? About the scholarship/merit process. Would anyone share stats if their DD/DS received one of the major merit scholarships? Any advice appreciated.
Thanks.</p>
<p>I do think it’s important to apply early, show interest and conduct a personal interview. A girl in my son’s high school class had excellent stats and was denied. Apparently they told her that since she didn’t interview, she didn’t show much of an interest.</p>
<p>My son was offered a more generous merit scholarship from SMU than from other private universities. However, SMU requires that he maintains a 3.0 in order to get it each year. Other colleges did not have that caveat. </p>
<p>I know other people accepted to SMU that did not receive any scholarships at all. I do believe that SMU is trying to really build up their Engineering department, and are giving more generous scholarships to engineering applicants?</p>
<p>My son received very generous scholarships from SMU. We both love the school and the people. SMU is genuinely a good match for my son, and he’s a good match for them, I think – so maybe that’s why they “found” each other the way they did.</p>
<p>He found the application process to be very easy. As I recall, he just applied for admission, and then the scholarships were awarded based on the admission applications. In other words, if I’m remembering right, there is not a separate scholarship application - which is nice. I do know that the whole process is all laid out for you on the website, smu.edu. You can find everything there that you need to know.</p>
<p>I agree with BRUIN ALUM’s comments. If you live within a reasonable driving distance and your son does not go for an interview … well, I’m guessing, but I think that wouldn’t look too good.</p>
<p>I’m hesitant to share my son’s stats here - privacy issues. But, in general, he is top 10% with high SATs, pretty high ACT (science portion weighed him down a little), 4.0 unweighted GPA, two major ECs with very heavy involvement and achievement, and one community service project that he’s consistently participated in for 6 years with a top leadership position for the past two years. He will be a music major and has received a lot of attention for talent, plus he’s held THE student leadership/talent position in one of his ECs. </p>
<p>We have the grand total of one-year’s experience dealing with the college application and scholarship process. In other words, not much experience at all! But if I had to make one meaningful observation about my son’s scholarship experience at “his” schools across the board, I would say that he carefully selected his schools to match his gifts. He applied only to schools that truly offered exactly what he was looking for in a school. In that way (but not by calculated design, just by genuine interest), they wanted students like him, and he wanted what they had. He did not apply to schools based solely on their reputation or prestige, but rather on the qualities they offered that matched his interests and talents. In fact, there are schools that are more “coveted” and hold more prestige for his particular talent and major, but they didn’t match all of his criteria as well as the ones he applied to. And, lo and behold, he was accepted to each school he applied to and offered very generous awards at each. We feel very blessed. If I were to guess the reason for his relative success - of course it’s only a guess - I would say this is why he fared so well.</p>
<p>Oh, and I forgot to give credit in another place where credit is due – teacher recommendations. My son’s teachers and counselor apparently wrote some pretty great letters for him, because every single school mentioned them along with a few other things when they notified him of scholarships and acceptance.</p>
<p>It seems that his recommendations set him apart. He did have very good relationships with the teachers and counselor, which he built over the years. To this day, he stops in their classrooms and offices to talk every now and then. So they really knew him. We saw a few of the letters, because they gave him a copy in addition to sending to the school, but we didn’t see the other letters at all.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the feedback, it’s appreciated. We are going for a visit this summer - it will be on a Saturday morning, when they are open. We should also request an interview - with whom?<br>
SimpleLife - would you say your son’s ap had a religious or church influence? I’m wondering how much that counts as well.<br>
Thanks again.</p>
<p>You just call the admissions office prior to your visit and add anything you want, within reason, to your itinerary. If they can accommodate you, they will, or they will advise you how to go about getting what it is you want. Summer visits and Saturday visits often do not have the range of options that school year visits have, but that’s okay. They’re still very worth your time. There will be other chances during the school year once your son narrows down his college list.</p>
<p>Tell them that you’d like to set up an admissions interview - and they’ll match your son with the right person. If your region’s admissions officer is in the morning of your visit, your son would likely visit with him/her. But it doesn’t matter - they’ll take care of those details.</p>
<p>My son’s application did not have any church influence. I don’t think it counts for much scholarship-wise at any of the schools my son applied to, including those with names that might suggest otherwise, like Texas Christian U or Southern Methodist U. All the schools we toured that had some religious reference in their name made a mention during the visit that the name of the school did not at all imply a religious preference for attendance. Of course, there are schools that DO have a preference and are very religion-based. SMU is not one of them.</p>
<p>If your son has an academic, athletic, leadership, community service, or other EC record that makes him a standout, then that will count more than anything else.</p>
<p>Thanks Simplelife. Would it be OK if I sent you a direct message to ask a couple questions?</p>
<p>thanks again.</p>
<p>Sure, KansasGirl. I’ve added you to my contact list. Go ahead!</p>