<p>@3tallblonds one thing I found unusual is that my S received a $22,000 scholarship offer and I know there are higher amounts. Considering he was selected to attend the Stamps weekend, I would thing he would have been offered a higher amount. </p>
<p>Also, did you decide if you are going to attend the weekend?</p>
<p>highest I saw last year was $28,000</p>
<p>So far this year, I have seen 22K, 23K, 24K, and 25K scholarship amount being reported on cc. Anyone knows the criteria or logic in awarding such a spread out amount but in $1K increment? It seems to me that the higher $ didn’t correspond to the higher academic stats kids in the pool. Did they take in consideration of the factors such as department/school of study, first person in family to go to college, URM, etc…?</p>
<p>I got a 24k scholarship. Friend with similar stats but not a URM (which I am) got 23k</p>
<p>@FLstudent2014, congratulations! Which school(s) did you and your friend apply to? If you don’t want to share, did you two apply to the same school? </p>
<p>Last year the students with the highest scholarship amounts (28K) were not invited to Stamps/Singer. If I recall correctly 24K seemed to be the max given to the invitees. Not sure of the exact reasoning for this. </p>
<p>Well for the 2 point differential in ACTs between my 2, there was a $1K scholarship differential. But I can’t see any clear pure “stat” differential in some of the postings. Frankly, I’m still waffly on attending. I’m adding up the costs to attend and every $ spent is a $ not paying for college. Don’t expect much, if any, financial aid. Thoughts? </p>
<p>Oh, and I know I sound really guarded. I’m VERY GRATEFUL, but it’s just that $40K *2=$80K is still, well, difficult to think about. </p>
<p>Just curious if anyone who was invited to the stamps/singer weekends had lower than a 34 ACT?</p>
<p>3tallblonds,</p>
<p>I would think your daughters both have an excellent chance at the Singer or possibly even the Stamps with their stats. My daughter already had a BS/MD admit and 3 full tuition offers in hand when we decided to attend last year. At worst I looked at it as a weekend vacation from the snowy northern weather. D really liked the U and will be volunteering for the Singer weekends this year.</p>
<p>@READYTORETIRE, well… that’s what I am banking on, the chance. Plus, we haven’t been there since their sophomore year and have seen 20+ colleges since. Of course, we remember this campus distinctively though:) And with 2, our odds increase ever so slightly for at least 1 to come out with more. The girls loved the campus, the programs, the admissions officer, the entire vibe really. So different than the east coast schools. </p>
<p>And yes, getting out of the snow is great, but my girls are the leads in the musical (can you imagine my tears when I see them perform for their last time together like that?) and the director isn’t too happy to lose them for a weekend especially since their school show choir is going to NYC for a wknd competition in early Mar too (don’t get me started on that one… all 3 of my tall blonds are in the show choir and I really didn’t need that expense too this year) Geeeez I’ve become really cost conscious these days. </p>
<p>But you are right, it’s a great opportunity. Thanks for the insight. A current student also helped put it in perspective too. Many thanks for advice. </p>
<p>@3tallblonds, although I think it would be beneficial to attend, I certainly understand the financial/time constraints that make it so difficult to do. I think I read somewhere on CC where people have been allowed to interview over the phone. If you decide it is just not doable, perhaps you could give the Admissions office a call and ask if you could make such an arrangement. It doesn’t hurt to try.</p>
<p>@READYTORETIRE, maybe the reason that Stamps/Singer invitees received less was because they may be given some extra money just for attending. I think I read something about a $4,000 scholarship that they got. I don’t think that is guaranteed though.</p>
<p>@3tallblonds, I’d say chance for Singer Scholarship is very high, assuming they interview well. Are they intent on going to the same school? Regarding scheduling with HS Musical my son went through the same issue. The interviews occur between 1:30-3:45p. You don’t need to participate in the rest but you do need to interview. You could get down and back in a day…one long day.</p>
<p>I am still trying to understand this deal of being locked out of attending if you didn’t get the RSVP in under 1 hour. This makes no sense to me. The student works hard for 4 years (more of course, but 4 years that count towards the GPA), achieves excellence in both that area and on the standardized tests, shows years worth of leadership and community awareness, and getting a chance for one of these scholarships boils down to a race to get in the RSVP?? What if that student had to attend a wedding at that time? Or a funeral? Or lost power, as someone already pointed out actually happened? Or who knows what else? This seems like an insane policy for something so important and financially lucrative.</p>
<p>Any advice for these people?</p>
<p>who said it had to be in “in under and hour”??</p>
<p>Well @biocellar we could not RSVP around 6:15 last night. Trust me! We kept trying. Then this morning the site said they were at capacity already. Later this afternoon a waiting list form appeared. So, it did seem to be a race to RSVP. Had we known, we would have made arrangements with someone who had electricity to RSVP for us. </p>
<p>First of all, the exact time is hardly the point. But several people that tried to make their RSVP just after an hour had passed got a message that said they were no longer accepting reservations.</p>
<p>@grizzly32 Did you have better luck than me?</p>
<p>My son was at school for sports practice, in Fort Lauderdale (about 30 mins from UM), and a huge thunderstorm struck. Traffic in South Florida is horrendous, especially when it rains. He spent over an hour and a half just trying to get home and attempted to RSVP as soon as he got here. Was locked out. I’ve been trying to contact the admissions person from his email all day, but no answer. He emailed her last night after trying many, many times. Nothing. No answer to either email, no answer to phone calls. I called his school guidance counselor who says there are a few kids in his school alone that have now been locked out. She contacted the university and was basically told they should sign up for the waitlist! I can’t believe this! It is totally insane and does not present a positive impression of the university at all. How can they possibly limit the number of kids that attend the weekend from the invitations sent out? I’ve never seen this from any other school. It does not make any sense at all that they can spend months culling the applicant pool from 30K down to the 150 invited for the weekend, announce the admissions decisions late, make the weekend mandatory for the scholarship consideration, then arbitrarily cut off anybody who doesn’t RSVP with the first 1-2 hours of the site going live. We didn’t realize the invitation was more like an invitation to camp out for concert tickets! This is a completely unprofessional way to conduct this exercise. Why invite more than they can accept in the first place? Does not bode well for son attending. If they treat their “top prospective students” this way before they even commit, how will a student, any student, be treated once they enroll? Mind-boggling!</p>