UVM EA Class of 2023

@FreshBizParent There are only so many slots for their freshman class, and too many qualified students to fill them. It’s not that your son is not “good enough”, just that they would not have space until spring. Other colleges do spring admits through fall study abroad programs (e.g., Northeastern NUin), programs where they take evening classes first semester (U Maryland Freshman Connection), etc.

The letter online (just received yesterday) does not mention any merit. Does merit always get included in the acceptance letter with UVM, or does it typically come second? If there is no merit, UVM would be out of play since they would be 15-20K more per year than all other options.

The merit is the second paragraph in the letter. If it doesn’t say anything…

Accepted! Trustee Scholarship! Deffered EA posted my stats when I got deffered

@nj927303 ouch. If that means no merit, I’m surprised they accepted her at all, since full price would be insane/non-competitive, and other students with similar stats got 15k merit numbers. Also, the site net prIce calc said her numbers would qualify for 15k merit. Will wait this out a bit and see, and follow up after a bit if we hear nothing.

Has anyone been notified about honors AFTER the first wave went out? So since then?

EA Deferred, now wait listed @ UVM. Accepted U. Michigan, Clemson, Colgate and others. HUH? UVM trying to up their game I guess. Withdrawing application. Who needs em.

@Gman1001 Sorry to hear about UVM, but glad that you have a solid list of choices. Out of curiosity, what program was the application for?

We were accepted, but not a penny of merit. This is despite being accepted and getting merit from higher ranked schools. I reached out to admissions, and was told they had an “amazing pool of candidates” this year, and could only offer merit to the top of that pool. Having said that, I think there is something to your point of UVM trying to up its game. That is entirely their right.

The challenge as I see it, is that UVM is priced as expensive as many top-tier PRIVATE schools, and far more expensive than the nearby public state flagship schools that are ranked higher (Uconn, Umass, Penn State, Delaware, Maryland). I’m not sure how UVM comes in at 10K more than those schools being so far away from anything geographically, but they do. I have to think that Burlington/Skiing must afford them a base of applicants with tons of extra cash to spend.

As for us, we will be moving on as well. I wish the best to those who are going to choose UVM with (or without) merit. I always thought it was a very nice school.

@gman1001, would you mind sharing your stats? Sorry if you did already. I’m just seeing your post now. Thanks! Can’t believe you were waitlisted at UVM but accepted into all those other schools like U Mich and Colgate. Doesn’t make sense.

My daughter was waitlisted at UVM and had very large scholarships from: Manhattan, Ohio Wesleyan and Drexel. She was also accepted at: Denver, San Diego St and Western WA. She has a thin envelope sitting from USD which is the only likely denial so far. Waiting on Cal Poly SLO but doubt she will get in.
Her schools are not as impressive as Colgate and Michigan but I think they are as competitive or more so than Vermont historically.

@JBSeattle , congratulations to your daughter! “Bloom where you are planted” is something someone on CC quoted and I couldn’t agree more. I feel that was my own experience and it’s something I encourage my kids to embrace.

Thanks RJA
My daughter had moved on from Vermont after being deferred EA as even with an admittance, aid was unlikely and the school is way too expensive without it.

Good luck to you and/or your son/daughter!

Yes. He did apply for financial aid. Got small additional grant of around $6K, but only for the first year. Apparently, they reevaluate that grant every year based upon the current FAFSA. I don’t like the uncertainty and even with the $6K, it’s still out of range when compared to the SUNY schools

My son was deferred EA, then got accepted RD, but to his second choice major. He wanted to major in Business, but they emailed him saying he was not competitive for that major. He got accepted as a Film and Television Studies major. He did get an $8,000 per year scholarship. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about this major? He has been accepted to several other schools for business, just not sure what he will decide…

@capecodcran Ummm … I have some experience with a film major. I married one. When we met in college, I was an English major, she was a Film major. We had grand visions of our creative futures …

Then, half way through my sophomore year, I had a light bulb moment, and switched from English to Computer Science. She remained in film. No career panned out, and she ended up having a four year degree that is virtually useless. As a result, I make about 90% of the income, and it’s taxing on both of us.

Film - much like professional sports, art, dance, rock stardom and video game design - is a hobby. Many people love these things, and only a very few are paid well for them. The odds are terrible … the options limited.

I would never allow my child to major in film (on my dime of course) unless it was a dual degree and the other degree was a career with options. A business degree has a limitless number of options - it allows someone to use it as a base for a masters degree in many other things (finance, economics, etc), or a career in business, or as an advantage as an entrepreneur.

Now, I am sure that I will get roasted a bit on my strong stance against the whimsical liberal art degree options that are out there. I am sure that I am at least partially jaded by my family’s first-hand experience. I also have a sister-in-law who majored in English and has been starving for income her entire career, and miserable.

There are certainly kids who have such a passion and such ability that they will transcend the norm and rise to some level of success, or even greatness. But again, the odds are very small. It’s more likely the person will end up in a lower-middle-income paying job as a camera person for a local TV station, or editing commercials, or struggling to make ends meet as a blogger that reviews movies.

Apologize for my strong stance on this one, just trying to be real about this one. $200K is a tremendous amount of money for a career that averages 35k-45k per year in salary (before taxes). https://learn.org/articles/Film_Production_Majors_Your_Career_and_Salary_Questions_Answered.html
Note: the higher paying (60K) median jobs for film are those who are directors and producers. You can bet these are hard to come by, limited in number, and often more a product of who you know than what you can do.

I’d look long and hard at those other schools.

@FreshBizParent- congrats! After seeing something similar, I was told that some students who applied for fall were admitted to the spring semester even though they applied for fall. I recommend giving them a call for more info: 802-656-3370.

@HankCT hmmm- maybe they had some stats wrong. call the office to discuss with admissions.

@BreezeEaze I don’t think that was the case. I exchanged a few emails with her admissions rep. They claimed that their scholarship applicants had a 3.7 unweighted GPA. This seems hard to believe to me, considering a 3.7 unweighted GPA in AP/honors classes would put a student at a 4.0 to 4.4 weighted GPA. We’re talking Duke (4.08 weighted average) /MIT (4.16 weighted) type GPA there.

My daughter had a 3.3 unweighted GPA in all honors, AP and ECE. Our school is harsh on the weighting, her weighted GPA is only a 3.5. They only give 0.07 for an AP, and 0.05 for honors. Considering the courses are twice as hard, 2 points on your GPA is not a large move. I believe the other schools were aware of the rigor - which is why they all offered substantial merit, and the fact that her school doesn’t award on weighted GPA as most schools do. UVM did not seem to notice this - either that, or they truly are just uninterested in her - which is their choice of course. Sending out an acceptance along with a 56K (and rising) per year bill is essentially a decline to just about anyone, especially when better schools are beating the price by 15-20K per year.

The real shame for us as parents is that (A) we really liked UVM as a school she could thrive in, based on the kids, the course work a decent match and not overwhelming, and campus and facilities … and (B) because as parents we selfishly would have liked to visit Burlington =)

We were surprised for our son to receive an offer of additional merit aid directly from the Grossman School of Business a few days ago. Is this common? Do all of the schools do this? This was totally unexpected.