Hello all,
I was just curious as to how many merit scholarships are offered at UChicago and what the the varying tiers and respective rewards are (I.e. University scholar, presidential scholar, stamps, etc.)
Thanks!
I’m a University Scholar (10k a year) and incoming freshman. I don’t believe they have a set amount of them. They just hand them out to people they really want to commit or to people who might need a little more financial assistance. The process by which I got mine was very informal. I responded to an email from Nondorf saying that paying was going to be hard for my family, and he gave me the scholarship.
Does anyone know the amount (or range) for “Presidential Scholarship”? Just received a letter stating that S has been offered one (in addition to prior University Scholar award), but the letter does not state the amount of the new scholarship, and I’m not able to find any amounts listed on the U Chicago website. Thanks!
@myoldest I’ve heard previously that the max is $15k, middle is $10k and smallest is $5k. Congrats to him!!!
@elmejor21 Thank you! That would be great news from them.
My D is there now as a first year. So she is Class of 2020. She received a University Scholar for $30,000 a year. Last year someone on the thread received a scholarship and requested more assistance and it was bumped to $35,000. Additionally we know of someone who got a Stamps scholarship and it was a full ride but this was years ago. So it really does run the gamut.
@myoldest, don’t get too excited just yet.
I believe that is what my daughter received last year. I was all excited (“Presidential scholarship must be something really good”) until I realized it was $4,000/summer for 2 summers. Yep. Unless they’ve changed things around, that’s all it was. Well, at least it sounded good when they announced it at Awards Night at her HS 
@ihs76 Thank you! I had seen that description on the UChicago website, but it’s listed as President’s Scholar. The letter he received says Presidential Scholarship. But I think you’re right, and they’re using two similar names to describe the same thing.
But does any1 know like approximately how many people get these various scholarships
@jet601 Unfortunately, I don’t see anything published for number of awards given for each type offered, or set dollar amounts associated with most of the types. This link takes you to the basic types, but I know it isn’t an exhaustive list, and it doesn’t give the numbers you’re looking for. It doesn’t look like they publish that information, perhaps so that they have the flexibility to do what they see best each year. https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/costs/scholarships
In the not-so-distant past, there was a mysterious faculty committee totally separate from the admissions office that read applications and awarded a fixed number of merit scholarships, each with a fixed amount – a few full tuition scholarships, and the rest I think $10,000/year or $5,000/year (this extending back to when “full tuition” was around $25,000/year). There were also automatic National Merit Scholarships of $1,000/year (or $2,000 if you were on financial aid).
As I understand it, the Nondorf regime has replaced that system with a fixed merit aid budget that he essentially hacks up in much more variable (and often smaller) pieces in order to achieve admissions goals. Algorithms have replaced the faculty committee, although faculty may still be involved in awarding a limited number of big merit scholarships.