UMD Banneker Key Scholarship and Other Aid - 2019

You are not alone. I was told the same this. My son to is a NMF. We are OOS. My son did get honors college, but not his first choice (2nd choice). He also only received $5000 per yr (20 total) scholarship. Due to these reasons & not recognizing NMF (which Maryland is listed on NMF page for some award) he probably will not attend. Every state school, except maryland has offered my son additional $. All large top 100 schools.

@lovemycats @learning19 - I also have a NMF. UMD was my sonā€™s long shot for the merit required to attend. I hope that both of your students have used their NMF status to their advantage to apply to schools that provide generous NMF funds. In addition to his long shot at UMD and a couple of other publics, my S19 has been offered full rides at three other schools solely on the basis of the NMF status. If merit money is needed, I suggest you have your students follow up on some of the merit out there for them. S19 continues to get NMF scholarship offers from schools he didnā€™t even show interest in.

UMD is great school that attracts an extremely well qualified applicant group. It does not need to shell out lots of money to attract these students. You can have perfect stats, etc and not get anything. It is what it is.

Thank you. It is not that merit add is required, but to attend an OOS it would be. We are in NY & my son has applied to all schools in the surrounding NY area with the exception to 1 in the midwest, that has offered instate ( which is about even to ours) but is pulling that out do the weather , travel expenses & distance. He will be CS & only wants the top schools in the area. We are waiting on the private & stem schools still. So we donā€™t know yet. I know all there schools he looked at will offer him a great education with a good future. In the end he does plan on pursuing his masters & who knows where that will take him next.

I donā€™t know anything about National Merit Scholarships, nor have I ever claimed to know anything about them. I do know that UMD gives out a very limited number of merit scholarships (BK, Presidentā€™s, and Deanā€™s) and that the evaluation process is Holistic.

That is the only point that I try to make.

Every oneā€™s child will do well wherever they go

@lovemycats @learning19 ā€¦My son is a NMF and goes to UMD(freshman) He did get a 1000 dollars/yr. You should call the National merit office and make sure if UMD is still a college sponsor. When I called UMDā€™s financial aid office last year, they gave me the run around about the NMF moneyā€¦they were not very knowledgeable, but then somebody on the UMD FB parents page told me to contact the NMF office. The money will come in only late September or so.Hope this helps.

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Son , also NMF got President but not B/K. Only $12k/ year possibly additional $1000 for NMF. Other schools offered full ride. Donā€™t know if UMD is worth going into debt. Feeling same day way about UMich. OOS. Son top GPA allowed in district 4.8/ 4.0 UW. 36 ACT. Will have 13 APs. So far 7 5s & 1 4. Valedictorian , Varsity athlete -2 sports, leader and great EC. & community service. Wonder what B/K kids are like

feeling the same as you. My sons grades are just a little lower & also NMF. Offered only $5000 per yer. Just got the financials & not a penny in aid. 2 in college & that so called EFC is much lower then what they gave him. My son has also received free instate tuition & pOOS have gone down to instate rates. He did not pick any free ride schools. (that would be free tuition, room & board), the schools that offered it where not where he wants to be. He is now disappointed looking at the financials & just said stats not happening now.

Iā€™m curious if those who are disappointed with their aid packages from UMd ran the Net Price Calculator before their student applied and if they did run it was the NPC result close to what you actually got? If not, it seems like that would be grounds for a call to the Financial Aid office.

Thatā€™s an interesting point you brought up, the Net Price Calculator grossly over-estimated how much aid I would receive.

I could be mistaken, but I believe financial aid is at least partially first-come, first-serveā€¦? So, the later you submit the FAFSA, the less likely you are to get the full amount you could be eligible forā€¦?

Well, I submitted the FAFSA on October 2, the day after it opened, soā€¦

Thank you @priya2015.

@Jwoyal - oh, well, I guess that answers thatā€¦ I am definitely mistaken thenā€¦sorry.

Yay! Daughter received a Presidentā€™s Scholarship today! We couldnā€™t be happier! >:D<

My impression of the Banneker/Key interview and tour is that the interview was really not that important. My D had maybe a ten minute interview with around five questions. It seemed like the real focus was getting the kids on campus to entice them into coming to Maryland. I thought they did that very well and we came away quite impressed.

@FriarDad - Did you just receive the notification about the scholarship yesterday?

Did you get an email about financial aid or does it show up on the Coalition App portal orā€¦? We havenā€™t recevied any email about it.

@Jwoyal Yes, our daughter found out yesterday 3/7 via email and it was also posted in the checklist on the Coalition portal.

I wonder if that could mean theyā€™re not quite done giving the merit scholarships outā€¦

Does anyone know when the Banneker Key results come out? Anxious to see if my D got the full scholarshipā€¦