<p>D not a finalist. 36 ACT. 800 Math II. 800 Lit. 4.0 unw. 11 APs (all 5s so far). State champ athlete. Good essays. Not applying for financial aid box checked on application and not URM. Just a crap shoot with these top kids. </p>
<p>Interesting thread! Congrats to the finalists. </p>
<p>Villanova is quite selective, so I don’t think it’s fair to call it a C- place. </p>
<p>FWIW, D was quite disappointed with her non-selection. Disappointed enough that the school is not quite as appealing as before. It is so hard to find selective schools with merit aid, hence the huge demand.</p>
<p>momof2kids, been there. My daughter was admitted to her dream school, the one that she pined over since practically middle school, but it sure lost its luster pretty quickly after not being able to secure a one of their merit awards. She started rationalizing "Why go there when other schools are showing more interest? I made an attempt to explain the random nature of the process, but she still felt a bit jilted. I think we were all a little disappointed for her at the time, but she really could not have landed into a better experience than what she’s currently having at Nova; she loves it there so much. I think it works out that way for a lot kids going through similar scenarios - wherever they ultimately land.</p>
<p>A C-grade college is a C-grade college. There is nothing wrong with a C grade. Villanova is a C grade school. Villanova is an unethical school. You do not invite 800+ top quality students and ask them to write seven essays when all you have is 18 scholarship. At 12th grade, students particularly the good ones are very stressed and stretched thin and how can a school ask them to do all that work fully knowing that they don’t have sufficient number of scholarships. What do you call that? If Villanova were ethical, they would have chosen 18 students for P. scholarship very quietly without demoralizing a huge number of students. In academia you do not do that. Other local schools are playing very fair. Drexel, Weidner etc. are giving merit scholarships with the admission letter without asking for any financial information. No additional essay, interview etc. etc.</p>
<p>I agree momof2kids it is often a crap shoot with these kids. Your daughter has every right to be disappointed. With time maybe she will remember what drew her to Villanova to begin with…or maybe she will turn her attention elsewhere. The one thing all these students have in common is the ability to succeed almost anywhere. She needs to find a college that will embrace her as much as she will embrace them. Like flvadad, my daughter could not have chosen a better fit than Nova. Best of luck</p>
<p>momof2kids, it sounds like your daughter is a very, very bright young lady. I’m sure that there are many schools out there, including Villanova that would be happy to have her. These scholarships and how they choose students often make no sense to us, but I’m sure that the committee feels that they are choosing certain qualities in students that we just are not aware of. At the end of the day, she has to find the school where she feels the most comfortable and where she feels that she will succeed. Good luck to both of you:)</p>
<p>Thanks for the kind words. I know she will land somewhere great for her, possibly Villanova! She is having a crisis of confidence because of some peers with ED/EA horror stories and the reported huge # of apps to the selective schools. I have to believe these #s are inflated by kids applying to 10+ reaches. D is in at Villanova and her state school (with great merit $). Now she can relax until April 1 and see what her options are. Best of luck to everyone else!</p>
<p>Enough about/to Justin- he loves the attention.</p>
<p>AREWEDONEYET or anyone else who is a finalist…- have you received a phone call yet? My child is also a finalist and have not received any phone call, just portal notification ( Arts and Sciences) school.</p>
<p>nervous2, we received the phone call before portal notification. My S is the VSB, so they may do it differently. She did say that we would be receiving additional information in the mail. This is what we know so far. They are to check in on 2/16 between 4-6 in the afternoon. They spend 2 nights with a current Presidental Scholar. The scholars have alot of fun activities planned. They will interview with the scholarship committee on Friday morning. The interviews last about 1/2 hour. Friday evening everyone (including parents) are invited to a dinner along with the nominating committee. </p>
<p>That is all I know. If I get any additional info, I will be happy to share it with you. </p>
<p>If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me. Good luck to your s/d.</p>
<p>Arts & Sciences called me this morning. They said there would be more information coming in the mail, and also an email with forms, etc. Sounds like a fun few days!</p>
<p>Wow… I just happened to trip on this thread and it’s the first time I’ve read something so negative about Villanova. My daughter was accepted by Nova and a few others and just found out she got a $20K a year scholarship from Univ of Miami. She’ll decide in April. But, I feel the need to post regarding the negativity. I went to Nova for grad school and it was an incredible school and education. I know numerous students who have recently graduated who have landed great positions. I don’t agree with the “C school” assessment; the statistics suggest otherwise, as does my experience and the experience of others. I do think their small endowment may influence limited scholarships and it’s always hard when you’re not one who is selected.</p>
<p>I also notice that under Villanova’s scholarship descriptions that say “with preference toward financial need.” I guess every college does it differently. To me, once you introduce that preference, then it’s not a true merit scholarship.</p>
<p>I don’t know how much emphasis is placed on financial need. Unless the process has changed, I’m not familiar with anyone needing to file FASFA information as a component of being selected as a finalist. In other words, I have not seen them do any financial vetting as a component of the matierials reviewed by the selection committee. At most, they may just look to see whether or not the financial aid box was checked on the application. Even then, not sure anyone who says they are not applying for aid gets eliminated. I personally know a couple of scholars who certainly were not financial aid candidates.</p>
<p>We are not financial need and my son is a finalist. There is a statement on Villanova’s page that does state that a certain amount of scholarships will be made available to students who have a financial need. Last year, I think that 6 were given to students with financial need. This year, we were told that there will be a total of 18 recepients. I’m not sure if that number includes financial need. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Last year 6 scholarships were offered to URM’s which includeds but not limited to financial need. A URM could also be minority, first generation or other factors which students identify as a classification of URM. Students are asked to self identify themselves as URM’s.</p>
<p>I am a current Presidential Scholar at Villanova University. My question to you sir is how dare you even compare Villanova to Drexel or Rutgers when the quality of our institution (especially the business school) far surpasses any of the above? You clearly have no idea what you are talking about. What type of C level institution is in the position to reject candidates for merit scholarships with SATs in the high 2300’s? To a rational human being, that is a sign of a very selective university indeed. Harvard allows 30,000 top tier applicants to “get thier hopes up” for only 1,500 spots annually, yet I don’t see you accusing them of being a PR machine.</p>
<p>So the scholarship is selective. </p>
<p>It’s 54,000 dollars a year, including room and board, and books. That is a lot of money, and quite frankly, it deserves to go to the best of the best. The nature of the college admissions process is that it is competitive; get over it. If you hold a grudge like this against Nova, then I can only imagine what you say about Ivy league schools from which your “highly qualified” students are rejected. For the record, I had a pick of schools, including institutions such as Princeton and Colombia and I choose Villanova. Clearly that was for a reason. And while I agree, there are better schools than Villanova, there are also much worse places I could be going for free! And you can bet all of the money I saved at Villanova will be put towards an Ivy League Law School Education. </p>
<p>If anyone has any questions, feel free to contact me. Best of luck to this years candidates and sorry I won’t be on campus to meet you all!</p>
<p>Did Villanova actually invite 800 students to apply for the full scholarship, or is that how many applied on their own?</p>
<p>In any case, the types of students who are selected for the scholarship will receive many other offers, so they need to select more students than there are scholarships.</p>
<p>My son did not apply for the full scholarship because I knew how many were offered, and I knew he would not be one of the very very top applicants. Besides, he is exhausted from writing other essays and from all his AP classes. Anyone else could have easily found out how many scholarships were available and decided not to spend the time applying. Instead of “buyer beware” it is “Applier beware” .</p>
<p>Villanova makes it very clear that most of their financial aid is need based. They are not having difficulty attracting top students without offering half off their tuition to students without need, which many other private colleges do.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d rather that the University spread the merit money around a little more. I’d rather see more Presidential Scholarships, but with students responsible to pay for their own room, board and books. A student should fund a portion of their own costs. Otherwise, they will not have “skin in the game” and you may end up just subsidizing their new sports car.</p>
<p>The scholarship was just recently expanded to room and board (due to a large donation on behalf an alumnus), and the university agrees that it has seen much better results in terms of the caliber of student who choose to accept the scholarship. A few candidates were accepted to top caliber Ivies and choose Nova instead for the exact reason that they would not owe any money in the form of room and board (which is 12000 a year that could be put towards graduate school…). When the choice is between a school like Princeton and a full ride, it is easier to attract the best of the best with the promise of no money down. The hope, I imagine, is that we will all contribute once we graduate and enlarge the endowment (which I certainly plan on doing- generously at that). Hopefully they can raise endowment to a point where more merit money can be awarded but if you look at school of similar status and endowment, they offer even less merit based awards and certainly nothing close to full rides. It’s sad that college has become so unbelievable expensive, but that is the reality.</p>