<p>The 2011 40 Acres Scholars have been announced.
<a href="http://www.texasexesscholarshipfoundation.org/scholarships/forty-acres/current-scholars.aspx%5B/url%5D">http://www.texasexesscholarshipfoundation.org/scholarships/forty-acres/current-scholars.aspx</a>
Congratulations to all ten!</p>
<p>Doesn’t look like many of them were national merits, which I thought was one of the criteria.</p>
<p>givings, the scholarship rubric says NM Scholar status is one of three “recommended but not required” standards for selection. See
[Forty</a> Acres Who Can Apply - Texas Exes Scholarship Foundation](<a href=“http://www.texasexesscholarshipfoundation.org/scholarships/forty-acres/apply.aspx]Forty”>http://www.texasexesscholarshipfoundation.org/scholarships/forty-acres/apply.aspx)</p>
<p>{ooops! I’m editing to add the fact I just saw your editing comment that you did look at this link and realized NM status is not required!}</p>
<p>Per the bios, I do count four NM finalists and I think one commended. (A finalist is the highest distinction you can achieve. The term is changed to “scholar” if a NM scholarship is awarded. UT quit funding NM scholarships a year or two ago; some of these finalists could have attained “scholar” status post-40 Acres application based on their on receipt of a corporate award or the $2500 NMSC award, which are granted over the spring into June.)</p>
<p>Congrats to all ten of these amazing young people! They set a high bar for all future classes of Forty Acres Scholars.</p>
<p>Actually I’m bitter that the NMS semifinalist wasn’t a requirement. My two cents.</p>
<p>Seems like a lot of them were from Texas. I’m sure they are all pretty smart</p>
<p>It’s good to see one poster retract denigrating remarks.</p>
<p>This is not a scholarship based on one test score on one test day in October. It’s about the whole person, which is a lot more than can be reduced to a paragraph bio or your CC stats “chance me” profile. These young people wrote compelling essays and wowed the selection committee in interviews. </p>
<p>And it’s not a scholarship given by the school; it’s a privately funded scholarship given by the alumni association to further UT’s mission as summed up by the motto, “What starts here changes the world.”</p>
<p>[Forty</a> Acres Scholars Program - Texas Exes Scholarship Foundation](<a href=“http://www.texasexesscholarshipfoundation.org/scholarships/forty-acres/]Forty”>http://www.texasexesscholarshipfoundation.org/scholarships/forty-acres/)</p>
<p>Yes, ohmygosh, all ten inaugural scholars are from Texas. I don’t see residency as a stated requirement, so it may be a coincidence or a decision to signal encouragement to Texas students applying to their home state flagship this first year of the scholarship program. Because the legislature caps enrollment of of out of state and international students at 10%, I would be surprised to see too many awardees who aren’t Texan.</p>
<p>I disagree that one test (PSAT) taken in a given day should not matter. Would you hire a lawyer that didn’t pass the bar the first time?</p>
<p>In my view, you should have to be in the top one percent of your class and a NMS semifinalist. Surely there were at least ten of these students that were also very involved in school activities. I know for a fact there were dozens.</p>
<p>There are really so few merit based scholarships. Several of my kid’s friends are going to A&M because they are getting lots of scholarship money, merit based. It kills me that my alam mater no longer gives a tuition waiver for the NMS students.</p>
<p>UT is losing good kids to Alabama, OU and others who do give full ride room and board, stipends, laptops and money for a summer abroad.</p>
<p>Frankly, I have sour grapes and was unimpressed with some of the recipients.</p>
<p>A TexasEx Lifetime Member and Littlefield Society Member</p>
<p>Honestly, no one test should not determine your worth as a student. But, getting NMF is not all that hard, and I think that it is a much better indicator of a student than his or her GPA. Classes and rigor vary school to school, but the PSAT is the exact same test for everyone. And, the PSAT is a fairly good indicator of overall intelligence, IMO.
For a scholarship that is supposed to be uber competitive, I would think that NMF would practically be a requirement.
And, yes I did apply for this scholarship, and I am a NM Scholar. (239 PSAT) I am also out-of-state (sort of). So, I wish the 40 Acres Scholars the best of luck, but I have to agree with the previous post on some points.</p>