University of Colorado Boulder EA for Fall 2023

Ah I found it! It was the Honors College that says it invites the top 10%. In any case my D23 easily meets the merit criteria (even without test scores). They can either offer merit or not, up to the school administration. But if they want several of these top students to attend, merit will be a major consideration for many.

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I found what I think you are referencing, here is the relevant passage:

How to be a part of the Honors Program

Admission for first-year and transfer students is done automatically through their application to CU Boulder’s College of Arts and Sciences. Generally, students in the top 10 percent of the incoming class receive an invitation. This is based on numerous factors, including high school GPA, application essays, etc. Applicants to the College of Arts and Sciences are reviewed as the admissions process progresses and honors-eligible students will receive an invitation to the Honors Program after they have been admitted. We continue to send invitations through April of each year for the upcoming fall semester. If you do not receive an invitation by late April and would like to be considered for the program, you are welcome to request a manual review by emailing honors@colorado.edu. You will need to provide a couple sentences detailing why you are interested in Honors and how you feel it would benefit your academic career here at CU. It is also an opportunity to share any information you would like the reviewing committee to consider that you did not include in your CU application. We accept manual review requests even after you’ve started your first semester; there is no deadline by which you must reach out.

Continuing students in the College of Arts and Sciences (those who have been at CU past their first year) who maintain a GPA of 3.3 or higher are automatically eligible to participate in the Honors Program. There is no Honors Program application; in all cases, eligibility is determined automatically. If you have a major in A&S and a GPA of 3.3 or higher, your student record will automatically allow you to participate in honors and sign up for a class.

If you prefer to talk to someone in person or via Zoom about the program, you are always welcome to schedule a meeting by calling us at 303-492-6617 or emailing honors@colorado.edu.

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sone also accepted into exploratory studies but had applied to business school. what is the exploratory studies? not familiar with it.

We were on a scholarship session recently, and they were very clear that the criteria listed are the minimum for consideration. Not everyone who meets those criteria would get a merit scholarship. This seems to come up every year. There are plenty of schools that our D applied to that are known for not giving much merit aid – CU, Penn State and Indiana come immediately to mind. If you search any of the past years’ threads, that is evident, but people seem to be upset about this exact topic every year, that CU doesn’t give students as much merit as other places they applied. It seems to me that the schools that are most generous with merit are those that need to be to attract students.

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I agree. I see Merit Scholarships as something you hope for - but I would never bank on it. There are thousands admitted. At high quality institutions
you get lots of great students applying. No matter how AMAZING I think my kid is – I know they are not the only AMAZING kid being considered. They are one of many - and that’s a good thing. Seriously. Perhaps more scholarship notifications are still coming - and more students will have good news on the way. And it appears honors invitations will be coming out for a few months to come
so there’s that on the way for many as well.

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DS accepted into Leeds honors. Are honors programs at CU good?

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We def weren’t assuming we’d get merit from CU. But we’re also allowed to be a little disappointed/miffed that a school that was so high on son’s preference list hasn’t offered any (yet). We are also aware that there are a lot of scholarships that he can (and will) apply for.

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I disagree a bit. Not everyone is on the college forums and know the history of getting/not getting money that is posted from past applicants. It isn’t a matter of thinking your kid is better than others but rather, people obviously attending these schools and yes its hard to believe someone would actually pay sticker of almost 60k for a state school. So yes, why not be hopeful that there is money to be given? Not to mention things change every year. Plus I personally don’t feel its posted on the websites so cut and dry. Mine recently got accepted to a school that cost 80k but got so much in merit that it brought the cost down to high 20’s. Imagine not being on a forum such as this, is it unrealistic to be hoping/expecting money from other schools you apply to?

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Who’s Coach Prime?

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so hard to tell tone in posts. kidding, or do you not know who he is?

If merit is a deal breaker, don’t visit. Because if your kid falls in love with CU (and many do) and you decide that you can’t/won’t pay for CU, then you’re just going to have an unhappy kid.

What you can do right now is call the admissions office and inquire whether any more merit awards are forthcoming. The information they give you will allow you to make an informed decision.

ETA: The housing application for first-year students doesn’t open until March, so you have some time to determine whether visiting makes sense for your family.

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I just spoke with someone in the admissions office, and was told that there was no truth to the rumor that they were behind schedule in notifying of merit awards: If there was nothing on the letter, your kid is getting nothing. They reiterated that test scores were not considered when making merit decisions. However, they did say that - if your kid had new grades to share that showed improvement - you should have your kid email their AC and inquire about sending a mid-year report.

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Many people probably don’t think it’s a big deal, but when someone like this comes to coach, it attracts not only top caliber players, but it also becomes a major destination for students. Just look at Clemson acceptance rate today compared to 10 years ago (19k applicants vs 48K applicants). Same with Ohio State. With the ease of the common application, kids are applying to more and more schools and tend to be attracted to the big football student life aspect of it all.

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Has anyone found information on what percentage of kids get different scholarships? Like what percent get the Sewall scholarship? Thanks!

No experience directly but when we went to visit and had break out session with business school , they said there are 3 ways to get into bus school

1- direct admit as Freshman
2- Pre business- this option you still get to take core bus classes your Freshman year and need to get a 3.0 and then have guarantee admission sophomore year
3- exploratory do no get guarantee core bus classes and must earn 3.0 though sophomore year. Then must apply internal transfer to bus school.

No sure about the dorm but they do encourage bus students ( or pre- bus) to live w/ each other . There are even some classes that are within the same building. These are dorms on campus though , not Williams village.

The flagship public universities in a number of states have top 10 or top 20 programs in a number of programs, especially for engineering. Think Georgia Tech, UT Austin, Purdue, U Michigan, UIUC, etc. Many parents will pay full sticker-price to get their kid into one of these programs when their kid can’t get into their desired program in their own state schools. In California, the UC’s and Calstate’s no longer consider test scores - not test optional but altogether test blind. Calstate doesn’t even let you put down activities. While admission to a flagship school like UCLA or UC Berkeley was never guaranteed, it’s gotten a lot harder for a high stats kid. The number of admits for my DS’s competitive high school to the top-ranked state schools has dropped precipitously since the change in policy. All of these kids are taking the most advanced courses (Calc BC, Physics C, at a minimum, many are beyond that) and have weighted GPA’s way above 4.0. These kids have to apply OOS to be assured of getting into their desired major in a top-ranked school.

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Big news at CU Boulder!! Deion Sanders (aka Coach Prime) is the new football coach. Everyone is very excited to see what he does with the football program.

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100%. We live in California and my daughter has applied to OOS schools (CU, Utah, Univ of Washington) so that she has a chance to go to a solid public university with a great campus, amenities and a good Business program. We’d love for her to go to a top UC or CalState school, but those are very hard to get into even with solid grades and extracurricular activities.

So, no, I’m not dumb to pay full price to send my kid OOS. I don’t have much of a choice. She was admitted to CU directly into Leeds Business school, but without merit. We’ll wait to see what happens with the CA schools she’s applied to, but we’re really happy she has a seat with a great university like CU (I’m a CU alum, btw :slight_smile: )

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Exactly the same here!