My son received the package but no information on merit. It seems odd that the WUE decisions came out last week but not merit.
So do we think the package is an indicator of a scholarship or just an admission package? My D was accepted EA but hasn’t received a package yet…
I can’t see them releasing merit awards after dorm selection starts. That would lead to a big mess.
My nephew didn’t apply for any scholarships and would not automatically qualify - yet he got a swag package. I’m sure the mail is just delayed if you haven’t received anything.
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We also received the package in the mail today. Hat, phone battery, some other items. It was thoughtful, but no letter regarding merit. Perhaps that will be an email tonight.
If there truly is no merit, that would be a shame as it wouldn’t be a competitive offer evaluated next to other (higher rank) schools - so we would need to move on.
If the merit awards truly aren’t coming out until mid April, they run real risk since they wouldn’t be providing enough of a window for people to schedule flights to come out to visit.
I don’t know of any other schools that took this long for merit offers. Seems like it’s a total disaster in management this year?
I emailed financial aid this morning about something else but also inquired about merit and all the dates floating around. This email came a few minutes ago in response…
Hello,
We are finishing all scholarship awards for incoming freshman by the end of the month, thank you for your continuing patience!
-OSFA
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I’m pretty sure the processes are completely decoupled since HRE is a separate department from Admissions (which is itself apparently not at all coordinated with SFA). HRE has been relatively efficient this year, it appears that SFA is mostly responsible for this merit aid train wreck.
So I think the LLCs may well be scheduled to pick before merit aid is confirmed. Fortunately at least the $200 room deposit is refundable, but this really is a mess, and I feel sorry for kids who may be looking for roommates without any idea if they will attend.
It sounds like Admissions may be handling WUE whereas SFA is responsible for the “auto” merit. I think Business Scholars and Eccles don’t come under SFA either, as they are departmental awards and will be on their own timetable (in our experience there was no coordination of Eccles and auto merit in the past and SFA doesn’t even have a clue about these scholarships, the bill has to be retrospectively adjusted every semester).
It is just a guess but if you were entitled to WUE and didn’t get it, I assume you were nominated for a merit award and now that is stuck in SFA (probably to the immense frustration of Admissions if they had coordinated Friday’s packages to be sent out at the same time as merit awards). But that doesn’t help much in terms of knowing where you stand if you aren’t from a WUE state.
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Dd was notified via email that she received a WUE award last Friday, and a swag package arrived in the mail today.
The WUE award doesn’t show up anywhere in her portal. We went ahead and put down the housing deposit since we won’t have time to visit before April 1.
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Admissions is doing a live question and answer now. They said WUE went out Friday and freshmen merit scholarships will go out this week and transfer scholarships in April.
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Thanks. Do you know if “freshmen merit scholarships” might be given on top of WUE discount?
You might have to confirm enrollment to see it in the portal. Here it the email we get on 3/19.
Based on your outstanding academic credentials, I am pleased to present you with one of the university’s merit awards, the Western Undergraduate Exchange Tuition Discount.
This top academic award is renewable and worth at least $56,000 over four years contingent upon meeting the renewal and enrollment requirements. Please review the terms and conditions document for additional information about your scholarship.
If you have not yet confirmed your intent to enroll with the Office of Admissions, please do so at admissions.utah.edu/confirm. Your enrollment confirmation is necessary for us to reserve this award on your behalf.
No, you get one or the other. If you’ve already been offered WUE then it’s very likely you haven’t been put forward for a higher scholarship (unless it’s a departmental scholarship that is handled separately).
Does anyone on here know what stats would be the cut off for merit scholarships?
My son asked in the scholarship chat room during the live session whether a WUE award means they will not receive any other university merit awards, and they said yes, that’s what that means. This doesn’t apply to department scholarships or Eccles from what we understood from the session.
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Very different for OOS and instate. Last year the Presidential OOS was 4.0/36 ACT, the 4 year full tuition OOS was 4.0/33-35 and 1 year full tuition OOS was 3.96/32+. You can probably map the three main OOS scholarships to around that level, though how they translate course rigor to ACT scores is unclear.
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Anyone know about instate?
Presidential instate was 4.0/32-33, not sure about the others.
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Here is the part of the webinar where they talk about when scholarships will be released.
I don’t know the cut off, but I can tell you my son’s stats. He was only offered WUE, which surprised me. We are OOS, computer science major, homeschooling.
GPA: 3.93UW, 4.16W
ACT: 35
3 APs, all 5s (AP Comp Aci A, Physics C, Calc AB)
SAT Math level 2: 800
Calc 2 taken at community college: 4.0
ECs include paid internship related to his major, lots of experience making and publishing computer games, currently working with college level student run game development club
Utah CS department emailed to offer him direct admit to CS department, but the $ just may not work for us. Utah had become his top choice so this will be a tough decision.
His stats seem high enough to get merit in prior years. 