D23 received email acceptance to HC a few minutes ago.
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Yep - D23 received at the stroke of midnight last night.
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Merit decisions out via email.
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Is it possible this is a partial list? Our daughter received WUE and State award. Her brother attends UofUtah currently and had the same stats (4.0 unweighted, 34 ACT, similar sports and activities) from the same high school and received the Presidential.
@JD7777 I suppose you could call the Financial Aid office and ask. My D23 got the flagship in 2020 with a 3.95/4.3 and 34 ACTā¦this year my D23 got the Presidential with a 4.0/4.3 and 1480 SAT. It sounds like your kid has great stats so I am surprised as well at her result.
Isnāt the $$ amount of WUE plus state award nearly identical to the Presidential? Actually, re-reading the awards, if living on campus, the difference does grow to be quite noticeable in favor of the Presidential. The WUE however has a lower threshold to hold on to the scholarship vs the 3.5 required for the Presidential.
According to a post on the Utah Parent Page, the state of Utah moved more scholarships to need based so there are a lot fewer merit awards. This started Fall 2021.
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Hmm. Makes me wonder if they moved all WUE eligible students to only WUE for merit $ at Utah. Bit of a conspiracy but Iām not sure I can make sense of it otherwise.
Not everyone that meets the minimum requirements for WUE gets it. At Utah WUE is considered a merit scholarship.
My out of state son only got the WUE scholarship and Iām a little surprised. He has a 4.0 UW, 34 ACT, top 1-2% of his class, 10 APs (none are the āeasyā APs), 4 or 5 DE including MVC, a good mix of ECs and leadership (however, nothing āwowā by CCās standards). My husband is an alum and we considered the U a legitimate option (still technically is) but not the most tempting now.
Greatly relieved that S23 got WUE and sorry so many with much better stats didnāt get anything more. This is a strong choice because D18 loved it there, unless he gets a UC or CalPoly admission.
For reference he has 3.7UW, 5 APs (Calc AB, BC, Stats, Phys C and Latin), 1530 SAT (which we sent), NM Commended. Probably 20th-25th percentile in his HS class on GPA, but top 2nd-3rd percentile on test scores (has ADHD). Admitted for pre-Physics, didnāt submit an essay or apply to Honors College (he hates writing). No meaningful ECs (though I donāt think Utah considers that except for Eccles).
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Same! My out of state son is a National Merit Finalist (just found out he advanced last week, so technically he was a semi-finalist at the time of application), 1560 SAT (without superscore since they donāt superscore at the U), 3.91 GPA with incredibly challenging courses (multi-variable calculus as a junior, calculus based Physics as a junior, AP Calc BC as a sophomore, etc), and the only scholarship he got was a measly $10k per year. I was incredibly surprised and despite the school seeming perfect for him it has really dropped in terms of my excitement for the place. He did apply for the Eccles, so if he gets that (which is very competitive, particularly for OOS) that will change things, but it hardly seems worth relocating there for what he got. And since he could shift to in state after a year I feel like there is little to no pay off for the remarkable hard work heās done to date (not to scoff at $10k, but it feels like a very low sum, sadly).
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Itās unfortunate that Utahās top merit awards are mostly about UW GPA (like Arizona) and donāt consider SAT score or ECs. Rigor is considered but doesnāt completely outweigh GPA.
All the top scholarships are designed to encourage you to become a resident (staying for the summer after freshman year plus a few less significant things). The $10K non-resident Utah Academic Scholarship becomes $5K after you gain residency which is roughly half tuition, so not terrible, even though it sounds a bit disappointing. Certainly a much better deal than WUE for four years.
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Thank you so much for this response. I just presumed if he became a resident he forfeited the scholarship! I followed up with their financial aid office based on your response and youāre absolutely right - it becomes $5k. While still not a lot, that does add up over several years and still has a āhis hard work was worth at least SOMETHINGā kind of feel to it. Iām frustrated because he pushed himself sooooooooooo hard with course rigor. He certainly could have graduated with a 4.0 if he took the easiest courses he could find. A 3.91 with his crazy rigor is so much more impressive (and would have been impressive with no rigor!), so it really falls flat to me. Thank you again for your incredibly eye opening response!
Might want to compare the prices for your instate school vs Utah OOS - once we ran the numbers with the Utah Academic scholarship - itās only $6K more to go to Utah OOS vs. our flagship instate (where he did not get an academic scholarship) - and significantly less once he gains residency. Plus, the COL is less in Utah than where we live.
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Yes donāt underestimate this. Itās not just California thatās a lot more costly than Utah for food and housing. The U highlights that even WUE where you pay 50% more than instate tuition rates only makes the total cost about the same as a UC.
Dās now moved to Portland OR and (even though thereās no sales tax) complains that she could get a simple meal for $11-$12 in SLC but it now costs her $15 in Portland.
So true! With the scholarship he got heād have the same or slightly less than our in state tuition after obtaining residency. With only $10k until then, itād be $17k more than in state the first year, a pretty hefty sumā¦ and we live somewhere the cost of living is low (I feel for you in CA!). He was offered an amazing scholarship at another OOS college such that it would cost, at most, the same as in state (and he may get more - he will find out in about a month), so the $10k was very disappointing. But after the first year, if he obtained residency and kept the GPA requirement for the scholarship (which is a high required GPA, especially considering heās a STEM major - ugh!), it would be an absolute bargain!
Because Utah charge by the credit hour (and note there are premiums for certain courses, particularly in the business school), it is common to take a light load (minimum of 12 credits needed to get housing) the first two semesters then catch up during the following summer you have to be in Utah when everyone only pays instate rates. If you are taking summer classes then you can also get housing on campus.
Be careful about whether the quoted cost of attendance is for 12 or 15 credit hours. Better to look up the specific tuition tables:
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Utah are fairly generous with grading, as they donāt restrict the number of As. You can look up the grade distributions by course. Many honors courses give A or A- to 70-80% of students. D took honors Calc 3 first semester and IIRC 10 of 13 students in the class got an A, as every test was marked out of 120 and you still only needed 93 average for an A.
Just as an FYI for anyone seeking in-state residency you cannot use WUE during the 12 months time you are establishing residency in Utah.
Please note that per the Board of Regents and University of Utah Institutional Policy, no time spent on the following programs can be used towards residency reclassification requirements:
- Western Undergraduate Exchange
- Western Regional Graduate Program
- Professional Student Exchange Program
- Utah Tech Good Neighbor Program
- International Student Exchange
- Alumni Legacy Scholarships
- Other programs as specified by the state or institution
- More information can be found in the mandatory reading of the University of Utah Institutional Policy and the Board of Regents Policies, R512.
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