<p>...How amazing are you?</p>
<p>I'm assuming there's some in here, lol. Is it all about the essays? Personal background? ECs? Does anybody know? Is this a futile, dumb question at this point?</p>
<p>The wisdom of the board seems to indicate that scholarship decisions are based on recommendations of a faculty committee, not admissions. The sense is that the faculty choose students whom they would like to teach. </p>
<p>Just be sure to check the scholarship box on the application form and make your essays sing. S's "weak point" was his GPA, but that was countered to a decent extent (at Chicago and other schools) by an extremely tough courseload in HS. Other than that, all I can say is that S spent a great deal of time on his Chicago app, he made it clear Chicago was at the top of his list and it showed. As for the rest, I have no idea.</p>
<p>All the scholarship winners I know have some spark, and in many ways it's not even an academic spark.</p>
<p>One of my good friends didn't take the hardest courseload available to him and didn't get the highest grades, but with killer performance on standardized tests and an epic essay that demonstrated his love for learning, got himself a merit scholarship and was able to indicate that he wasn't sufficiently engaged in high school. He's taking the hardest classes available to him here.</p>
<p>Another of my good friends just really really really likes learning. Didn't achieve anything special in high school (at least not that I'm aware of) and comes from very strong family and financial background.</p>
<p>And I have another incredibly high-achieving friend, the do-everything straight-A friend, who was not awarded a merit scholarship.</p>
<p>My impression is that the faculty committee chooses students whom they want to see attend the school.</p>
<p>I agree with Unalove. Looking back on my D's experience and friends who had scholarships, it is very hard to say why any one person received a merit award.</p>
<p>None that I could see went to academic stars, for example. </p>
<p>So I think it fair to say we just don't know what the "magic thing" is. </p>
<p>FWIW, my D won a merit scholarship AFTER she was at UofC, her 2nd year. UofC offered her nothing.</p>
<p>All the evidence I have is that it is all about something other than GPA, test scores, and quantity of ECs. I think it has to do with quality of something -- maybe ECs, maybe academic interests, maybe just the essays, maybe mix and match.</p>
<p>Other threads have asked whether showing too much love could hurt your chances for merit money. But like CountingDown's S, my D's application showed--in fact said--that Chicago was at the top of her list. I'd figured she had no chance at merit money when she applied early, sent in the deposit immediately, and canceled all her other apps. Of course they didn't necessarily know she'd canceled all of them.....</p>
<p>One thing I will add: S got in EA, but did update his admissions counselor in mid-Feb. with things that happened since December. Don't know if that made a difference, but if you have some <em>really great stuff</em> happen after you submit your app, let the admissions folks know. That doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a national award "great," but something that happened that would support your strength as a great candidate for Chicago. Can't hurt, might help.</p>
<p>BTW, S did not deposit immediately (though I think he wishes he had, if only to have gotten his first choice dorm). We were waiting to see how $$$ played out at other schools, though in reality we would have made it work regardless of $$. </p>
<p>NOTE: You can deposit to get your place in the housing queue, but still get your $$ back if you decide not to attend by 5/1.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses! (The UChicago FAQ topic, by the way, is one of the best topics I've seen here about a college.)</p>
<p>Another question--I'm thinking of taking a gap year, and maybe postponing most of my applications except maybe two or three till next year. That means I'll be applying after I've already graduated high school, of course. Am I still eligible for scholarships at UChicago, or no?</p>
<p>If you are applying a year late but as a first year, your application is the same as all others. If you were to apply and defer, I think you're entering a gray area and would have to discuss it with the University. They don't provide a whole lot of info, even to the students with scholarships, but in general the requirement is simply that you remain a student with good standing. How that's interpreted for students who defer enrollment (or those that take a year off) is a subject for individual discussion.</p>
<p>Another thing for you to remember--there aren't a whole lot of these merit scholarships. CountingDown, newmassdad, and I happen to have lucky winners in our families, but I don't think there's anyone who can count on getting one of the ~130 scholarships they say they offer each year.</p>
<p>seashore,</p>
<p>Actually, Chicago did not offer my D a merit award. She won one her 2nd year in a national competition So I guess you could say we know what it takes to not win one. :)</p>
<p>There you go, newmassdad. Just what I'm saying.</p>
<p>No one should count on one. I sure didn't expect it for my (remarkably talented, lovely, etc., etc.) offspring. If she has anything like the success of your (remarkably talented, lovely, etc., etc.) daughter, we'll all count on the undergrad experience as a great success. Greater, in fact, than it had to be.</p>
<p>The success of exceptional young people at Chicago also demonstrates that the opportunities for amazing accomplishments are there for those who are willing to put in the effort.</p>
<p>How rare would it be for 2 people from the same high school to get one?</p>
<p>Happened at L's HS last year...</p>
<p>Counting Down,</p>
<p>My D is applying EA to Chicago. Of course, nothing's a done deal in terms of admissions, but I was curious about your comment that you can put down a refundable deposit to hold a place in the dorm queue. Do you mean that if you had it to do over, you would have done that as soon as you had a positive response (even if you weren't sure that you would actually be able to go)? Would that signal to Chicago they need not give you any financial aid?</p>
<p>While S is thrilled with his current house assignment, if he had it to do over again, he would have deposited to get on the house list. The deposit goes directly to Housing -- I don't know if they share that info with Admissions or FA.</p>
<p>Chicago will give EA accepted applicants a FA estimate in December (you have to submit 2007 actual numbers and 2008 estimates by early November -- be warned!). They told us zero FA when he got his EA letter and then gave him merit $$ in April. </p>
<p>I called FA after he had gotten the scholarship and asked what they calculated our EFC to be. (I wanted to know because S2 is a HS junior and we are trying to get an idea of what we might be expect.) We would have indeed gotten FA if he had not received a scholarship. However, the merit money was more than the financial need, so we got no FA. I don't think they took our special circumstances into account until they did the springtime calculation, though.</p>
<p>I have never seen numbers (here on CC or on the Chicago website) about how many people make housing deposits and actually matriculate. Unalove or some long-time posters might know.</p>
<p>Any idea on how many people that got scholarships actually matriculate?</p>
<p>CountingDown-- I don't know.</p>
<p>J'adoube-- That would be difficult to measure, but given that about 100 are given every year (if 100% of the merit kids matriculated, than 1/13th of the incoming class would be merit), and given how many students I know who are merit winners... I would say that 1/20 or 1/25 would be winners. That would be 1 for every hum class, in my estimation :-)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the only one who really knows who received a merit award is the person who got the letter, and anyone who saw it. Not that people lie or exaggerate, of course - this is not part of a presidential campaign.</p>
<p>Still, given all the uncertainty around who gets what and why, I think we're parsing this waaay beyond the point of value. </p>
<p>Bottom line: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>We don't know who gets these, unless our kid did.</p></li>
<li><p>We don't know why they got one. We know that good students sometimes win them, but we know of better students who did not.</p></li>
<li><p>We do know the awards are rare. </p></li>
<li><p>We should know to not count on them.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>We didn't send housing deposit early and he loved his dorm, back for seconds.</p>