<p>I've always had the impression that colleges tend to hand out scholarships to particularly qualified applicants to lure them away from other colleges. I live in Houston and have already committed to the information session, campus tour, and have registered for an overnight visit. Have I shown too much interest?</p>
<p>I really want to attend rice but my parents are demanding at least 10k in scholarships from rice a year if I manage to get in.</p>
<p>Oh, and can anyone chance?
I have:
2310 SAT (770M 740CR 800W(12))
800 Math II / Chem SAT Subject
35 ACT
Ranked 5 / 850 students in a semi-competitive public school
Mediocre ECs
REALLY strong teacher recommendations</p>
<p>The admissions department doesn’t have the time to play guessing games about who you’re interested in. For all they know, you may have shown that much interest to 5 other places. They offer merit money to the applicants who they think deserve it. </p>
<p>@Previous responders: This really isn’t the place to bash the OP for having a high family income. There’s nothing wrong with wanting a merit scholarship. Students at Rice have 100% of demonstrated need met, so his/her chances of a merit scholarship have no baring on the rest of the student body’s “need”.</p>
<p>Merit scholarships are based on merit. I agree that they don’t have time to guess your interest.</p>
<p>To those bashing the desire for 10k in scholarships despite a high income - income actually says very little about a family’s finances. The OP also did not indicate how many siblings will be in school at the same time. Just because a family has a high income does not mean that it doesn’t have to worry about other expenses, whether they’re educational, medical, or otherwise. Also, just because a family has a high income does not mean it always has a high income - a successful small business may have been in the red for years before becoming successful. A successful family may have started off with very little (and thus not have much saved for college).</p>
<p>Please know what you’re talking about before you bash people’s financial situation and chalk up what may very well be genuine need (or at least what may very well help a family’s financial situation significantly) to greed.</p>
<p>Plus, many families understand that it is wise to save on undergrad if you’re planning to spend money on grad, because even those who have saved a lot for college are unlikely to have enough to cover both undergrad and grad.</p>
<p>The other thing is, this is merit based aid. Therefore it is based on merit, and nothing else. If the OP was trying to get need based aid with the aforementioned income, that would be a different story.</p>
<p>Very hard to guess whether Rice will give a merit scholarship to someone in Houston. I know some who got it but did not go to Rice while others are attending with zero scholarships or FA. </p>
<p>If you can only attend Rice with merit money, then you should probably move on and apply to other schools. I agree with others that showing too much interest only means you may get in. It won’t change your chance at merit money oneway or another.</p>
<p>In general, Rice is trying to expand the student base outside of Texas since they are currently at 70% in state. So if they really wanted to target their target students, most merit money will go out of state.</p>
<p>For a school that lists demonstrated interest near the top of their admissions criteria, like American University, would a qualified applicant showing lots of interest increase, decrease, or have no impact on the amount of merit aid given?</p>
<p>I know this is basically identical to the OP’s question, but people are saying that schools don’t have time to gauge an applicant’s interest, but what about schools that care a lot about demonstrated interest?</p>
<p>thanks Premed. I live in Houston and pick up their paper on occasion. I am surprised they made such a blunder. Read the caption under the picture in this article.</p>