My son would not qualify for WUE and received a merit scholarship yesterday.
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I wouldnât assume that. The aspiration has been to get back to what happened pre-pandemic when merit was released at the end of January. But after last yearâs debacle, when the whole structure was changed at the last minute and nothing came out until late March, thereâs understandable caution on deadlines. And financial aid seems to operate in its own little bubble, which the people answering phones donât have much insight into. As such they are invariably unable to tell you if all merit has gone out (and generally it hasnât, since small amounts of departmental money may be awarded later)
There have always been lots of people, especially from non-WUE states, who end up disappointed by lack of merit at Utah, compared to say Arizona. Itâs important to realize that the biggest âmeritâ benefit has been the opportunity to get residency and pay instate rates after the first year. Thatâs intrinsic to the non-WUE scholarships (the $14K changes to $5K once you get residency, but you are still about $10K-$12K per year better off because thereâs a $20K premium for OOS tuition).
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Interesting. Wouldnât academic-based merit come from Admissions though, and not the Financial Aid office? Are the charts on their website showing OOS merit awards misleading? The CDS says a little less than half of students without a financial need received an average of about $8000, so yes I would be surprised to not receive anything.
The vast majority of OOS students come from WUE states. WUE is relatively easy to get and has been expanded significantly in recent years as Utah aims to increase OOS enrollment to approaching 50% of students. Thatâs likely what is showing up in the CDS.
The situation for the other merit is quite different, my impression is that hundreds of OOS students are offered it but the cutoffs last year were around 3.9UW (in many cases much higher) with a rigorous course load (to substitute for prior ACT scores which needed to be in the 30s). And I think the restructuring may have led to slightly more high level (Presidential) awards for top students and fewer lower level merit awards. There were several surprised and disappointed parents if you read last yearâs thread.
When D applied in 2018, we were told they made 1900 honors offers to get 600 acceptances, I guess at that point a third of those offers were OOS. And as I understand it, only a subset of honors students got merit. Back then the OOS premium was lower so getting residency was a better deal than WUE for most students and very common.
I believe financial aid deals with merit as well as need-based aid, not admissions. Some departments have their own scholarships (eg Eccles in the Honors College), but even then I think the formal letter comes from financial aid.
I believe the chart posted in this thread a few weeks ago is from 2020. I donât think youâll find anything official on the U website any longer. Things have changed dramatically since 2020.
They have issued at least some scholarships to non-WUE qualifying students. They came out in an email from the âOffices of Scholarships and Financial Aidâ. The merit scholarship my OOS son received matched the chart on this page: Freshman - Financial Aid and Scholarships - The University of Utah
I donât think so. I am a little confused on what WUE means. I am from New Jersey, so not from the west. Iâm not sure if that answers your question.
WUE stands for Western Undergraduate Exchange. Itâs a program where OOS students from some western states can get a reduction of OOS tuition. Tuition ends up about halfway between instate and out of state.
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OK, daughter received her merit offer yesterday - one of the packages listed on the link a previous poster shared. Decent but not enough to make her want to travel to Utah to take a look. We were viewing Utah as a financial safety and an alternative to our state flagship in the event that she didnât get good offers from her preferred smaller schools, but sheâs got options that sheâs happy with. Good luck to all!
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When should the scholarship show up in the portal? I got the email for the flagship on the 1st but im not seeing anything in the portal.
Attended West Coast Admits meeting last night. They anticipate the New Student Admit Days to be March 26 and April 16. Wait for confirmation, but those were the dates she mentioned.
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For anyone attempting a housing reservation today and making a deposit, the website is down. Not a great first impression.
You have until the March (LLC) or April (regular housing) deadline to get your housing application and deposit in. Everyone who does is then randomly assigned a date and time to actually reserve a room. There is no benefit to getting your application and deposit in on the first day.
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I understand. However, during the admits webinars and on their social media they are creating a sense of urgency and mentioning that âhousing is not guaranteedâ at Utah. They created a panic based on the scarcity and are not prepared for the web traffic. This is pretty basic stuff. They created this problem and it leaves a bad impression for new students and parents. Is this a glimpse of things to come?
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Theyâre not the best at communication, but housing tends to run really smoothly once enrolled. I definitely wouldnât recommend Utah if you need a lot of correspondence. Theyâre great when you call/email a question, but they donât send out weekly emails or anything like that.
I think the housing sign up is supposed to be a slow process over the next few weeks, but because they ran tight on housing last year people are freaked out. Itâs a good time to mention that first years that applied for housing by June 15th got a dorm. Honestly I think their mistake is allowing people to apply for housing that late.
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Because I was critical earlier, I feel obligated to return and say that the site is now working with just a few bugs in completing the process w/o getting kicked out. It does save at each screen so not much rework. Be prepared to sign a lot of waivers and such. Good experience to have my kid read through it all.
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Hi allâMy son signed up before March 10 for an LLC in Kahlert Village. He mostly wants to be sure that heâs in Kahlert for its location. I understand that he âchoosesâ his actual bed once the U sends him an appointment between Mar 28-April 1. My question is about how to search âroommate groupsâ. Do you have to create your own âroommate groupâ in order to look at otherâs profiles? He filled out his general roommate preferences while registering, but the U website says that the U does not actual âmatchingâ for students. If he doesnât do anything with roommate groups (the web also says this is optional), how will he know anything when selecting a random bed in a random room at his registration window? I assume that at least a choice would say âmale roomâ or something? Any insight is appreciated.
(Also, heâs not sure heâs attending the U, but still has to do all this!)
Youâll see who has already selected a bed in the room (those with an earlier registration time). If an existing occupant is male then a female student wonât be allowed to select a bed in there and vice versa. I donât think there are male and female only floors. The amount of info on existing occupants depends on how much of the profile they filled in (youâll see hometown and any listed preferences) but obviously you want to decide quickly before others grab the best locations. I think the locations available to select will be constrained to those for your LLC.
You can reach out to other students to find people who might want to share (searching based on preferences, state of residency etc), but Iâm not sure how common that is for OOS students who donât have a bunch of HS friends to share with. And because it is so early thereâs a lot of reshuffling anyway when people decide to go elsewhere.
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That is SO HELPFUL! Thank you!
So you are saying that he will be able to see some basic stuff about an occupant in a room. Thatâs great to hear. Or I guess he can just grab an empty room if one exists⊠Honestly, he is not wed to that LLC, but I heard that if you wanted Kahlert Village, itâs best to go the LLC route as KV might be full during âtraditionalâ housing preferences??
We are also planning to visit Utah for the March 26 admitted student day, so that should also give us some more ideas on housing. Thanks again!
Just expect lots of reshuffling. In 2018 D picked a 4 person honors apartment (MHC was freshmen housing back then) but 2 of the 4 went elsewhere and she also moved to another room later on.
Itâs particularly common for Honors since those will be the applicants with the earliest selection time (so are least likely to have made a final decision) and the most choices of admissions to other colleges.
But definitely do LLC to get the best choice of rooms.
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