<p>Hi everyone has anyone received any info on their FASFA or Merit Scholarships for the fall semester ?</p>
<p>I’m also attending UTK in the fall and I haven’t received anything about financial aid or merit scholarships yet either. I hope it comes in soon though.</p>
<p>How can one commit without knowing FA ? Afterall i figure they will have some idea about monies before the actual date May 1…I hope so!!!</p>
<p>We haven’t received financial aid info yet. (We are Middle Class so not expecting FA anyway) You should have heard something about merit scholarships. We have received a University Merit Scholarship - the Volunteer Scholarship for $6K. Got the letter in either late Jan or early Feb. The University, Chancellor and Haslem Scholarships have been awarded. The only merit scholarships left are the Department Scholarships. I spoke to Engineering last week and they don’t expect to award those until after April 1. </p>
<p>S’s #2 school has already offered him free tuition and $2,500 Engineering Scholarship. We are suppose accept or decline by April 1. Not sure what to do. UTK has a better engineering program and a scholarship from the department would tip the financial scales toward them. I am guessing we may not be attending UT since we don’t know the outcome of scholarships.</p>
<p>I’m going to receive a three year scholarship through the military and I had to go head and commit to the school of my choice. Scholarships will pay for most of my first year, but I would like to see what financial Aid Offers. I come from a lower middle class family and we should receive some form of FA.</p>
<p>I called last week and discovered that my DD’s high school transcript was in the admissions database but not in the financial aid/scholarship database. They got it straightened out this week and got us her scholarship information. They also said that need-based aid should be coming out later this week or next.</p>
<p>Anyone get accepted for the Ned McWherter scholarship from TSAC?</p>
<p>No Ned McWherter acceptance here. I called and asked and they said only 59 scholarships were awarded and each recipient had an unweighted GPA of 4.0 (State Recalculated) and an ACT of at least 33. A co-worker’s daughter has those stats and didn’t get it either. My S has a 3.9 and 34 ACT.</p>
<p>If you don’t know your result, log into your TSAC account and it will tell you if you got it.</p>
<p>OMG I got a letter today saying I got it!! Whoo!!</p>
<p>Congratulations rxllrn. Not many got it this year.</p>
<p>Should I call admissions ? is it possible they may have been mixup ? Need some type merit to attend .West Virginia offered 22K (Four years) may switch mountains soon ha ha .Lets wait and see…# fingers crossed. Would hate to change orange white to blue gold</p>
<p>Orangewhite, UT is not very generous with the merit aid. S has been offered $25K (tuition plus $2,500) at another SEC school. So far UT offered $5,000 - barely 1/2 tuition. At least you won’t be trading in orange and white for Crimson. (its killing me). Without a department scholarship, we will be Bama bound.</p>
<p>What are your GPA and ACT/SAT scores. S has a UTK calculated GPA of 4.3 and an ACT of 34 - total scholarships so far $5,000. Our only hope for more is the department.</p>
<p>@Galaxyfigment thanx for response ,money or not Knoxville is so awesome …applied/accepted to other schools here in northeast The towns are kinda run down …no vibrance. to me Knoxville ,Gainsville etc are really nice places to spend 4 years or so. Just the thought of say Syracuse (which is gloomy,cold and out-dated) although a great school is numbing. Climate is what it is</p>
<p>Alabama is way less selective in general than Tennessee. They accept anyone with a 21 ACT and unweighted GPA of 3.0. Also they are trying hard to increase their undergraduate enrollment by about 5000 over the next several years. They have built incredibly nice dorms – much more impressive than Tennessee’s, which quite frankly aren’t great. Alabama is not as academically impressive as other state schools from the South, specifically less so than Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Auburn. They are much more aggressive about recruiting good students like your son and apparently are using revenue from their sports program to do it. So I’m not surprised that your son got a great offer from them. The only problem is that it’s Alabama…'nuff said. The Hope scholarship did for Tennessee what it did for Georgia, which was to increase its admissions standards and the overall quality of people who attend. I am not saying your son can’t get a great education at Alabama – I’ve got two nieces who were in the Honors College there, and they’re doing great – just that the global academics aren’t quite where Tennessee’s are. This isn’t because Tennessee is perfect but because of increased competition from in-state students due to the Hope and other TSAC scholarships. Tennessee doesn’t have to offer as much as Alabama does to get quality students. No brag, just fact. Good luck.</p>
<p>Oinick, while I do wish my son would choose UT, I do have to disagree with you about your facts.</p>
<p>The quality of their academic program at Bama is documented as being better than UTK by independent sources. I will use USNews for this example. Bama’s overall program is ranked at 77. Higher than UT’s ranking of 101. Georgia is 63; Florida is 54 and Auburn is 89 so Alabama is closer to these schools than UT. But all schools are basically in the top 100 - an excellent score.</p>
<p>Specific programs may differ. For example UT’s ranking in Engineering far exceeds UA. </p>
<p>Either school will provide him with a good education. </p>
<p>That said, the decision is not mine. It is S’s. We did make one requirement, the school had to be ranked at 100 or better on USNews. He is also responsible to pay any cost difference over UTK. He has chosen to pay the extra 3,000 to go to UA over UTK. </p>
<p>The deciding factors in choosing Bama is 1)dorms 2) the campus is mover inviting and less “institutional” feeling. 3) the honors program is more organized and detailed. and 4) Bama wants him. UTK acts as if they could care less if he comes.</p>
<p>Had UTK made the gap larger with a decent merit scholarship, it would have been a different story. He liked UTK, but Bama made him feel wanted. He admits that had they offered him as much as $4,000. He would be wearing Orange and White.</p>
<p>I take no issue with anything in your reply, and in fact I said some of the same things you did. My post was just directed at why UT didn’t offer your child more. Let me offer a few more comments, however. No matter the metrics the source you quote used to make their rankings, I maintain that UT is generally a superior school at least from the standpoint of its minimum average requirements for admission. In addition, the catalog for UTK is more broad than UA’s, meaning it offers a wider range of degrees in all types of fields, and this may depress its overall ranking. I fully concur with the assertion that UA has a good Honors college; it has invested a lot into getting good students to attend and in doing so has offset some mediocrity as it relates to minimum standards. Have you attended any graduation ceremonies at UA? When you do, you’ll appreciate the vast range from top to bottom I’m talking about. Having set the state scholarships, Tennessee attracts a better qualified student in general - in no way do I mean a rock star like your child - and thus doesn’t have to offer as generously as other schools must. Being a state school, UTK is a bargain for good students who just aren’t as good as yours. I disagree a bit on comparing the campuses, especially that Tuscaloosa is nicer than Knoxville as a city and a campus, but that is a matter of preference. Your student will excel at UA and has made a good choice. Like you I am surprised his offer wasn’t more and am sorry he will be in Alabama this fall, especially with your natural proclivities toward Tennessee. All the very best to him; I hope he returns to Tennessee after college since he sounds like the kind of person who’s an asset to our state. He’ll definitely benefit from stronger football teams over his time there! Just relax and be proud of him and happy the uncertainty is over.</p>
<p>I am glad you took no issue as no disrespect was intended. I love UT and do wish he would go there. I just wasn’t sure what you are basing your opinion on. I just want to throw out what the CDS says about ACT</p>
<p>Bama - First year students
ACT
30-36 25%
24-29 35%
18-23 40%</p>
<p>UTK
30-36 22%
24-29 60%
18-23 17%</p>
<p>UT does pick less new students that score below 23 on the ACT. But Bama does choose slightly more “higher scoring” students. But we will choose to disagree that this makes Bama an inferior school. It is not who a college brings in, but what they do with that student and who they are after they leave. I respect your opinion and trust you will be happy at UTK - I know I was.</p>
<p>As for the catalogue - I believe that has a lot to do with majors. UT’s education program (S’s original major) is lackluster. But UT’s engineering program is definitely more robust. They are one of a few schools to offer Nuclear Engineering.</p>
<p>The intent of my post was to express my disappointment and surprise. </p>
<p>I believe that the Lottery has hurt TN students when it comes to scholarships. I feel they think the lottery takes care of TN students and therefore, they can give the money to OOS. (No proof, but it is what I think) If you compare the out of pocket expenses now (tuition - lottery) to those of pre-lottery days, we are paying more now (with the lottery funding) than we did before. Yes, I realize that cost have went up, but I believe that has to do with the State reducing funding to schools as a direct result of the lottery providing funds. The gap between OOS and instate is becoming smaller.</p>
<p>Does UTK take superscore into account for competitive scholarships? Galaxy, when you said your son had a 34 act did you mean super-scored or single-sitting ?</p>
<p>He had a superscore 34 and a single sitting of 33 (33,33,33,34). I asked the same question and was told they take superscore into consideration for all scholarships.</p>
<p>Just chiming in to back up Galaxy’s opinion on UTK’s dollars likely going to OOS students instead of attempting to retain high stats in state students. I saw posts two years ago commenting on UTK’s lackluster offers to high stats instate kids, experienced it in person last year and now have seen posts about it again this year. Also wanted to reinforce Galaxy’s feel that UTK does not show any real “love” for the high stats kids that many of the other schools show.</p>
<p>DS had attended UTK for the Govenor’s School for Engineering the summer between his Junior and Senior year of HS and had enjoyed his time there which had UTK reasonably high on his list of safety schools. As his merit offers started coming in it became apparent that UTK just didn’t seem to have it together as far as their offers and how they were managed. He kept getting letters with a small scholarship here that would be followed by another letter with a different small scholarship, nothing that really tied their offers together and painted the complete picture. In the end UTK’s offer just didn’t compare with the packages from the other schools on his list, not to mention that there was never any direct contact from anyone at UTK that made him feel that they really wanted him there. At the same time he was getting direct calls from the administration (up to college Presidents and Deans) from other schools to make sure that all of his questions were answered and that he knew that they would like to see him at their schools.</p>
<p>I agree with Galaxy that it is a real disappointment to see that our state flagship is allowing some of the top kids in the state “get away” and attend other schools when many of them would have liked to stay if there had been some effort applied to retain them.</p>
<p>Just as a point of reference DS was a NMF, single sitting score of a 36 on the ACT. He ended up at Bama due to their very generous NMF scholarship and hasn’t looked back. Is actively involved in nano-particle targeting research as a freshman, has a paid research internship lined up for this summer and is very happy with his final choice.</p>