<p>Son was invited to Presidential Scholars Day, and it will be his first visit to Auburn. Will he be able to get a tour of the campus on that day, or is it mostly information sessions? Will the parents be able to get a tour then as well?</p>
<p>Long time no chat. We finally booked a flight and will be there as well that day. We will see you in February! By the way, the Auburn University Hotel has a special deal if you call them and say you are there for Presidential Scholar’s Day-$95/night. Here is the link for the agenda that day:</p>
<p>[Auburn</a> University Admissions - Presidential Scholars](<a href=“http://www.auburn.edu/admissions/presidential_scholars/agenda.html]Auburn”>http://www.auburn.edu/admissions/presidential_scholars/agenda.html)</p>
<p>Mustang2000: Has your daughter heard back on the Elite Scholarship yet? I don’t know when they plan to notify semi-finalists if they are a finalist or not.</p>
<p>Hi Montegut…We went on the Pres. Schol. Day in October, I think it was. It was our first visit to AU, as well. It was really well organized and informative. We went on a walking campus tour with our son. They took us to Talon Hall, which is an Honors Dorm in The Village. very impressive! We also checked out the quad, in one of the honors dorms where a friend lives. Make sure you stay for the whole day, if you can. They have a nice reception at the end.
Our son went with one of his friends, also a Pres. Schol., to the student information sessions. We went to the parents’ Q & A, simultaneously, which was really helpful and made us feel like they see our son/honor students as more that just their academics.
I think the information sessions provided great access (easy to have 1-on-1 conversations) and information for those who needed it.
I think this was the first college tour, although this was waaaay more than a college tour, where our son seemed genuinely pumped afterwards! Enjoy your visit. :)</p>
<p>Proud mom, no word yet on the Elite Scholarship. What about you? I think they said they would notify kids by the end of January. Feedback, thanks for the aditional info on the day. Now I am really glad we are going. It sounds like it will be a good day!</p>
<p>We haven’t received any word back. I will be a little surprised if they wait until the end of January as those who become finalists have to make travel plans. Oh well, they do need time to review the applications. We are still only planning to attend if the Elite is in reach, other that that she has visited the school and knows that she loves it. I will let you know if we hear anything.</p>
<p>I just found the letter my daughter received about the Elite. It says that finalists and non-finalists will be mailed a letter on Wednesday, January 20th notifying them of results.</p>
<p>Thank you Mustang2000. That makes more sense and I should have looked at my daughter’s letter but I have been too brain dead lately. Well I guess this week will determine if we revisit Auburn next month or not. I wonder if my daughter will make it as they might only want to reward high SAT/ACT scorers who aren’t NMF because they don’t automatically get the extra money that NMF get, but the NMF status isn’t officially known until early February, after finalist selections are made. Good luck to your daughter.</p>
<p>Mustang2000: My daughter called Auburn today and was told that Elite Scholarship letters were sent “snail mail” and should be at everyone’s home by Saturday, Monday at the latest. My daughter didn’t ask them to distinguish between the letters for finalists verses non-finalists, so I assume both of us should know sometime soon, no matter which way the ball bounces. At first we weren’t planning on going to Presidential Scholar’s Day unless D is a finalist, but know we have changed our minds. My husband has not been to the campus yet and our D decided today that no matter what Auburn is where she is going. She is so relieved to have made this decision.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. We have been checking e-mail and regular mail hoping we’d hear something soon. I guess they weren’t kidding when they said they’d send notices out Jan 20th. We are going to visit no matter what since we haven’t been to Auburn yet. The Elite would just be gravy, but my daughter said the Presidential is worth so much I should buy her a new car. In a moment of weakness, I said if she wins an Elite I just might. I then realized the Elite Scholarship is probably worth less than a new car, so maybe it that wasn’t such a good deal! Anyway, good luck and I will let you know either way.</p>
<p>The Auburn merit awards are really nice. We live in Florida and Bright Futures (our state lottery sponsored scholarships) continue to be reduced. A 100% tuition is now ~80% tuition. My daughter did apply to three Florida schools and two have offered a lot of money, but Auburn is her favorite and I am not going to deny her after what she has earned. She has now been aggressively seeking outside scholarships to supplement her Auburn awards and she got her first $1000 the other day. Her goal is to completely finance her undergrad without loans, help from us or even without dipping into her college fund. She plans to save her fund for grad school. I hope she meets her goals!</p>
<p>Thanks for the Pres Day info. Heard that 300 people were going to be there and almost cancelled out. Reading these posts encourages me to go. Son’s best friend just got back from a visit to Auburn and now has a tough decision, since he wound up loving Auburn as much as his former favorite. Both are excellent schools, though. I’m in Birmingham on business this weekend, and everyone here says both schools are excellent, whether they’re wearing orange or red.</p>
<p>Well we received the Elite Scholarship letter today and my daughter is not a finalist. I wasn’t surprised after reading that they had over 250 applicants and she already has money on top of the Presidential from NMF and we aren’t need based. We also won’t be going to the Presidential Scholar’s Day in February because it is full. My husband will see the campus when we take her up to Camp War Eagle. Hopefully your daughter made it to finalist. If not, I hope she still seriously considers Auburn. It appears the economy has pointed a large number of strong students to colleges with guaranteed merit scholarships and I am anticipating this year’s freshmen class to have a lot of well-prepared kids attending.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear your daughter was not a finalist, but to be in the top 14 out of thousands of applicants is incredibly tough. She has to be very talented just to be a semi-finalist for the Elite, and to be a NMF gives her a fantastic package at Auburn. I’m glad she loves Auburn, and I hope my D does likes it as much as yours. My D did not receive a letter today from Auburn-dang, now we have to wait out the week-end. We did have an ice storm last night here in Minnesota, so may the dog sleds carrying the mail didn’t get through.</p>
<p>Hopefully you won’t have any more ice storms between now and Monday so your daughter will get her letter and I will pray that she gets positive news. I think for my daughter her disappointment is rooted in that she has been top dog at her school, which is a nationally ranked school, without any major effort and she has to get used to competing on bigger playing field. Personally, I am very happy with everything she has accomplished and being NMF is going a long way for her. Even with Auburn’s let down her week has been good because she did win a ComCast Leaders and Achievers scholarship and her school selected her as one of two seniors to be recognized by a local Rotary Club. I am sure she will win a few more scholarships before May and I hope your daughter is also able to nail a few. In any case, if your daughter decided to attend Auburn, I am sure our daughters will meet up with each other.</p>
<p>Dang, I posted a long reply last night, but it somewhow didn’t get posted. I had to laugh when you said your D is top dog without any major effort. It sounds more and more like our D’s are alike. My D said she feels guilty sometimes shen her friends study two hours for a test and get a B and she studies a half hour and gets an A. She said, “I just get things easily.”
I’m not expecting D to be a finalist for the Elite. To get in the top 14, you would need almost everything to be perfect. My D’s teacher rec’s were kind of disappointing. Despite my wife and I both being teachers in the same school our D attends, our colleagues wrote the generic rec’s they write for kids trying to get into local colleges, which aren’t very difficult in which to get accepted. Maybe we should have told them our D was applying to some schools with very low admit rates and their rec’s would need to be more detailed, but what’s done is done.
I envy you that your D has made her decision and she is getting such a great package. She shouldn’t be disappointed at all. You/she are in a better position financially than 99% of others!</p>
<p>Regarding those who get things easily, some teachers seem to almost resent it and some seem to admire it.</p>
<p>Well, Montegut and Proud Mom, the Alaskan Huskies finally got through with the mail today. Good new and bad news on the Elite. She was not selected as one of the 14 finalists, but she did get selected as one of the four alternates. The letter stated that if any of the finalists can’t make the interview, she would be contacted on February 1. First the Vikings loss yesterday and now this-SO CLOSE!!
I guess it means that Auburn liked something though, so I hope she got their attention for General and Departmental Scholarships.</p>