<p>I was accepted to the University of Arizona today and was offered the Wildcat Excellence Award which is worth $6,000 and a new iPad. I was a little shocked by how low the offer was seeing as I have a tuition waiver to the school (through the Arizona Board of Regents).</p>
<p>Looking at my credentials, I feel like I should have been offered more. I have a 4.29 GPA. 16 of my 22 high school classes have been honors or AP level courses. I received a 2050 (780 on Math and 650 on CR) on my SAT's. I got a 790 on my SAT Math 2's and a 630 on US History SAT Subject. I have 3 varsity letters, an internship, a job and tons of other extracurriculars. I mean, I'm apply to more prestigious universities than Arizona and statistically have a decent shot of being accepted. Also, I am raised by my single mother who makes $58,000 (meaning if I am accepted to Georgetown, UPenn, Harvard, Yale, or some other colleges I applied to, I will go full-ride).</p>
<p>My question is:
1) Can I ask them to increase the scholarship amount they are offering? If so, what do I do?
2) What other options do I have?
3) I wasn't accepted to the Honors College, so can I do anything to change that?</p>
<p>P.S. I am applying to U-San Diego and I should be offered a substantial amount, seeing as I am out of state and it isn't a premier school. I heard I can use some school's offers against each other. Could I do this with USD and Arizona?</p>
<p>If you’re getting free tuition plus $6k per year, isn’t that a lot? How much were you expecting?</p>
<p>*I am applying to U-San Diego and I should be offered a substantial amount, seeing as I am out of state *</p>
<p>USD is private so it doesn’t matter that you’re OOS.</p>
<p>I can tell you’d likely get from USD (since I have a relative with similar stats who applied)…a $20k per year scholarship. That may sound like more, but it’s not. It’s not even full tuition. USD is about $50k per year.</p>
<p>Are you a URM? If not, then getting into ivies will be hard with a 2050 SAT.</p>
<p>Tuition to Arizona is $9k, so I guess that part I don’t understand is this: I already have a tuition waiver from the state to go to UA without having to pay tuition. I would then have to pay for my own books, room and board, etc. I was hoping to get around $11k/12k, just a bit more than the $9k I will already have and some to cover room and board. I can’t get the free tuition and the $6,000 - it’s one or the other.</p>
<p>And I know that getting into the Ivies will be extremely difficult. Harvard and Yale are just stabs in the dark, hoping they see something in me. I am applying to Penn because I want to go to Wharton and I have designed my essays in a way to show why I should be accepted to Wharton. Georgetown is similar, with McDonough and because of the political aspect behind it. I hope my interviews/essays will show that, but who knows.</p>
<p>You’ve already gotten way, way more than most students. Be happy with your very generous offer - having to fill a gap of a couple thousand dollars is nothing when most students are maxing their Stafford loans every year just to get by.</p>
<p>You should probably check with the honors college to see what their admission criteria are and if you can appeal your non-admission. Otherwise, see what it would take to be admitted after a semester or two.</p>
<p>OP, of the $22K Cost of Attendance (which includes ~$5K for books, travel and miscellaneous) you have $15K covered. That leaves $7K total and the $5K listed above is something you can keep down through management. You can afford the school with a Stafford loan and a summer job. I don’t see the problem.</p>
<p>I can’t get the free tuition and the $6,000 - it’s one or the other.</p>
<p>This seems to be the problem and it’s odd. Either the student is mistaken or UAz is nutty. Why would they bother to award an instate kid a $6k scholarship for stats if they know that he has a $9k scholarship that, if accepted, means that he can’t accept the UAz $6k one. </p>
<p>Florida doesn’t do that with Bright Futures and I don’t think Georgia does that with HOPE. This student needs to contact UAz and find out if he can accept the state’s Regents of free tuition and the UAz award of $6k. If so, then that’s a very good deal.</p>
<p>There are some schools that only allow one scholarship per student. Maybe their way of spreading the wealth? I’ll have to retract my earlier post.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Yes, I’ve seen schools do that with their OWN scholarships…but the OP’s full tuition scholarship is from the state, not the school. It’s like HOPE or Bright Futures. UAz knows that any instate kid with good stats is going to have that scholarship, so why bother awarding the $6k if they can’t accept it.</p>