My daughter was admitted to Temple recently but doesn’t appear to have received any merit scholarship money. She applied via the Temple Option because she didn’t do as well as she hoped on her SATs/ACTs. Her weighted GPA is a 3.6857. She takes mostly all honors and AP classes and has never gotten below a B. Even after Temple takes out her non-academic classes, I would think she would still qualify for a merit scholarship. The way I understand the Temple Option is that SATs/ACTs do not figure into the scholarship determination.
Am I misunderstanding? Or should she be eligible for a merit scholarship?
There is no info anywhere about my daughter getting any scholarship money, because she didn’t. I can see on the Temple.edu website scholarship page that, with her GPA, she should qualify for $10,000/year.
Further to my earlier question, I spoke to an admissions counselor. Apparently, with the Temple Option, the GPA is considered and the essay questions are scored. According to the counselor, my daughter’s GPA is way over the minimum for merit scholarships but her essay score was not quite good enough. So, she will not be getting any money! Sounds to me like the Temple Option has a giant loophole. Instead of rewarding students with a good GPA (which is what the Temple Option is supposed to do), there is the loophole of scoring their essays and therefore not having to actually give merit scholarships! I have seen students with lower GPAs get scholarships from Temple.
Oh well. And we were counting on some merit scholarship money in order for her to go to Temple (which she loves). She has gotten nice scholarships from several other schools. I’m very surprised, and disappointed in Temple.
I understand your frustration, but think of this side of the coin: An instate student (I assume you’re instate ) with the same exact GPA as your daughter but only a 1270 SAT score would only get $5000. Would it be fair if a Temple Option student is rewarded with an extra $5000 for not submitting scores? In my opinion, the purpose of test optional schools level the playing field for the purposes of admission.
how much would she be eligible for if she submits test scores? there is still time to appeal scholarship. deadline, i think is jan-15 so it is not a lot of time.