Does anyone know how many students typically apply for the Eccles scholarship?
How many people are accepted into the Honors College?
Three years ago they told us there were 1900 offered admission to Honors and about 600 of those attended. But it’s possible that yield has gone up since then.
Three years ago there were ~300 applications. At that time they shortlisted 60 for 30 spots (with a ranked waitlist for runners up since they expected 10%-20% to decline). 30%-40% of the offers were to OOS applicants. Since then they’ve cut back to 25 scholarships (so I guess 50 will be shortlisted), I’m not sure if the share of OOS offers has gone down too.
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Thank you for all you help and knowledge. My S21 will be applying for Eccles, any hints?? What exactly do they look for? Also would being accepted into Honors college pretty much mean that we should at least get a OOS FT scholarship freshman year or does that not matter. 34 ACT 4.0UW 4.7W IB diploma Swim team Captain ModelUN President
Eccles is based more on ECs and putting together a mix of majors and backgrounds that will form an interesting cohort. It doesn’t just go to the highest test scores (ie a 36 ACT could certainly lose out to someone with a 34), though there is definitely a fairly high bar to clear.
Main advice (just like other scholarships and tippy top admissions) would be to write an essay that is interesting enough to get you selected for interview. And then brush up on current affairs etc sufficiently to answer the questions they might throw at you. My impression is that they also like outdoorsy kids, though I guess that is very common in Utah (FWIW Prof Jack Newell who leads the program and the interview panel was formerly president of Deep Springs, his bio might give you some indication of the sorts of students he is looking for L. Jackson Newell - The College of Education - The University of Utah)
With regard to the auto-merit those stats would have been sufficient for the four year full tuition OOS scholarship in previous years but I don’t know how they are deciding in a test optional setting, presumably course rigor and perhaps AP/IB scores will be considered this year.
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Thanks - this is helpful. That’s a lot of applicants! But I guess that’s to be expected for a sizable scholarship.
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Honestly it’s way better odds than most competitive full rides, where often less than 1% of applicants win the scholarship.
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My son’s take is that Twoin18 is correct and that extracurriculars seem to factor in heavily. There seems to be an effort to add diversity to the cohort- racial, geographic, interests…
It is very competitive and many fantastic, high stat, interesting kids didn’t make it to an interview. Don’t let that dissuade you. It is a relatively low effort process to apply compared to some.
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On the Northern California accepted students call last night, it was announced that the WUE would go to all kids from participating states if they have an unweighted GPA over 3.0. This surprised me, as I thought the WUE was very limited at Utah. I am certain that we heard her correctly, but still wonder if it’s true. Did anyone else attend a call where this was announced?
For those of us in CA, this lowers the cost of Utah below most UC schools even without other merit.
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did they say when the announcement/award would be made? This surprises me too.
She made the announcement herself. She started the financial aid section with a statement about how she had really exciting news about the WUE and then announced it a bit later. There were a lot of happy kids and parents. She said that there will be a recording of the call posted. I will try to send a link when S21 is awake and can send me the link.
It looks like the website hasn’t been update from 2020-2021.
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They used to do a comparison of UC costs against Utah costs if you stayed for the first summer and got residency to show that Utah was cheaper anyway. Over four years getting residency works out about the same as WUE and offers more flexibility (for example WUE is limited to 8 semesters then you are stuck in OOS status).
Note that the year before last there was talk of moving to two years to gain residency rather than one. But that got shelved and there’s been a big push to get more OOS kids to help the budget. I’m guessing that is why they’ve extended WUE eligibility this year, especially as they may attract particular interest from CA if families are worried that the universities there will continue to be more restrictive with regard to in-person activities (eg https://www.sfgate.com/education/amp/Police-dorms-outdoor-exercise-UC-Berkeley-lockdown-15937294.php).
I completely understand that in the current conditions families might want their kids to come home for the summer if it’s perceived to be safer. But I’d encourage you to look at both options, since Utah’s a nice place to spend the summer and there are plenty of jobs.
Thank you for posting, this is could be a game changer for us.
I am anxious to see it in writing. I also really hope that someone else attended another session that said the same thing!
As I responded to @socalbg, I will send the link to the session when I get it from my son so that we can all see it.
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The residency option is an appealing one, for sure! The fact that they offer it is wonderful.
The idea of having DS at the U is really becoming more comfortable for me.
The whole vibe of the U really makes it seem like they want to students to come there and that they feel lucky to have the student. Very different than the UC vibe that often feels like the student should feel so lucky to be a part of the school. This is not a put down of the UC system. I have a child there who is thriving. There is just a different feel about it.
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The Wue is very attractive, mine was accepted to Honors college and with a plan in place for grad school I don’t think getting in state in Utah would be a great option for us. She has a lot of merit coming in from OOS schools right now so I guess we may be looking to add airfare into our cost of attendance, unless a UC accepts her.
Still need to see if UCs can actually come through for her, but I feel like all the UCs even with good stats are a reach for everyone when you consider most hovering around 100K applicants.
The wait is painful
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To me one of the best things is that I could see D living in SLC long term and the cost of living makes it very practical to do so. I can’t see my kids (who have no interest in working in tech) ever being able to afford to come back here to Silicon Valley unless they were to live at home for the foreseeable future.
It is interesting to me that D has characterized SLC as “home” since the summer after her freshman year, whereas S still doesn’t describe LA that way. That’s not just because of registering to vote, doing a Utah tax return and getting a Utah drivers license, but it probably helps.
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We were unable to attend last nigh. Thank you so much for the info. Game changer for sure… super interested to see how it impacts merit
My son has received $12K for Biz Scholars the first year, I assume that stacks with WUE or instate tuition? If you get WUE do you not get merit? just trying to remember how all of this works. Thanks
My D will be an OOS incoming freshman next fall. She will be a BFA-Ballet major. She also plans to dbl major in a yet to be determined degree ( Psych or Kinesiology ?). She was accepted into the Honors program as well. Can anyone share their experience with the Honors programming and how it coincides with a performance type degree. Is it possible to take the Honors classes alongside the schedule for someone in dance or another similar degree (ie: Musical Theater, etc)? Do the schedules work out?
Thank you for any advice or wisdoms .
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