<p>I completely understand that you are confused/upset that you were not at least a finalist for either scholarship...but your anger at the weight put into the actual application is rediculous...why should the university not consider your application as whole when offering you money? To base a huge scholarship solely on SAT score would be insane.</p>
<p>Sarah- My Daughter called the admissions office today and they told her she is not getting a Presidential or Trustee scholarship. She is feeling just like you, except USC is her 1st choice and without at least a half scholarship we can't swing the cost. She really is devastated. She has had her hopes set on USC for over a year now.</p>
<p>First of all, I want to tell all of you with those great academic stats that I really think you deserve a scholarship just from what the word implies. I have seen this situation occur a number of times with merit awards. About 5 years ago, my Son was friendly with a young lady who had stats like yours who was going to BC. When she did not get one of those Presidential scholarships, her parents and school counselor called to find out who the heck was getting them. Her resume was sterling, ECs, community service, APs, salutatorian at a difficult school. With many of these awards, the cuts are made by the academic review, then they no longer look at the academics--in other words if the cut was at 1400, the 1400 is now equal to the 1600. They are now looking at resume, but not the way you would assess it. The colleges basically "buy" the kids that they need or want the most, for geographic, unusual major, other things that they have on their wish list. The year the young lady did not get the BC scholarship, I knew someone who did get one from BC. She came from Pittsburgh, an area underrepresented at BC, which has no shortage of catholic school graduates from westchester. The entire top 20% of those schools apply to BC. CMU, in Pittsburgh, on the other hand, is stingy with Pittsburgher for any awards, and even in admissions. The Pittsburgh girl who got the award from BC did not get a dime of merit money from CMU. i am willing to be that girl from Westchester just might have gotten the Judith Resnick award from CMU had she applied there, as she was a physics major, rare for a female, and females are underrepresented at CMU. So if you are from an over represented country, applying for an over represented major, and have a resume that is very similar to many kids, and most importantly have nothing striking that UCS wants, well, they will give the money to someone who falls into that category. If you have plenty of rubies in your jewelry chest and want some more variety, you'll go for the pearls instead of another ruby.</p>
<p>These are merit-based scholarships, not need based...my famuily makes about $312K/yr. which means NOTHING in the burbs of NYC...we don't qualify for finanacial aid cuz we'd be rolling in $ anywhere else in the US except maybe SoCal and SF'; here, ya pay a million bucks for a basic 4 bedroom house. A merit scholarshio would be awesome for my family.</p>
<p>Schools are looking for diversity. They don't want a whole class of Top scoring SAT's and 5. and all that. They want a mix.</p>
<p>Dang! thats nice. I don't care where you live. Uve got $$$.</p>
<p>In cali its about 400,000 or 500,000 for a basic 4 bedroom</p>
<p>well then, I guess it is of no use to continue this topic,</p>
<p>bye bye USC</p>
<p>No USC for me either, i already got admitted to ND early action, so the only way i was going to go to USC over it was getting mass $$$..but i think i'm going to go send in my ND confirmation now.</p>
<p>WHY, cause I gave the cost for a house???</p>
<p>No, don't go over to the dark side Andrew! That's blasphemous to say you're going to Notre Dame on this board! :)</p>
<p>Financial aid packages are still coming, and you may still get awesome grants. I actually wasn't going to come to SC because I didn't have financial aid, but then I got a $17000 grant for that first year (plus all the loans and work study and stuff), and was able to come. I hope whatever happens works out for you guys.</p>
<p>I completely agree with CubsRule. I understand why you guys must feel upset about not getting called for a scholarship interview; however, i have to disagree with some of sarah<em>in</em>a_cup's logic.</p>
<p>"i am just very surprised...that they are taking extracurriculars/essays/recommendations into much greater account than SATs and grades when making their decisions."</p>
<p>i mean, honestly, grades and sat scores show very little or even nothing at all about personality or character. just because someone has a 1600, doesn't mean that he or she is any better than any of the other candidates. i'm not saying that you don't deserve it, it's just that it's ridiculous to say that a college should value a bunch of numbers (as important as they are) over extra curriculars and teacher recs. those last things are what really tell the university about the applicant. sure, high test scores are amazing and definitely measure an aspect of the intelligence of a person, but there's more to it than that.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree. Some people just don't take test very well...like me! Its a good thing. They also don't want a school full of 5.0 and 1600's. The want diversity, but all hard working kids with plenty of personality. They also want them to have something under their belt other than school.</p>
<p>nuts05: "They also want them to have something under their belt other than school."</p>
<p>hmmm, Sarah looks like she has it all?</p>
<p>Sarah: "have done theatre and French club for four years (various offices), co-founded an animal welfare club, volunteer at the Humane Society"</p>
<p>Personally I think that is impressive. I don't know where ur getting the "lacking ECs other than school" part dude.</p>
<p>Who really knows what catches the eye of the admissions' officer when he/she reads college applications? Frankly, the application process is very subjective! The point is to not take these matters personally. I know, it can be difficult, depressing and downright demoralizing when things do not go our way.</p>
<p>Just remember that there is a reason for everything...if you didn't get a scholarship, maybe it's because something in your essay made USC officials think that USC wasn't the right place for you. The perfect college is out there for everyone...you just have to find the one that is the best fit, and be honest with yourself.</p>
<p>I was just generalizing</p>
<p>Just to let you kids know, that most of you with such sterling resumes are not likely to lose a scholarship over an essay so much as to someone that they feel they need to "recruit", entice, etc. THere has been a suspicion that some schools are less generous with binding ED kids when it comes to merit money, because those kids are already locked in, committed. Why spend the money on them? The schools often use merit money to build in areas where they want more of something. The main reason an international student with a terrific profile may not get a merit award is that there are enough high scoring, great resume kids from that country at the school. Better to buy someone where it would add some diversity to the school. Once the academic review is made, and you have made that cut, the onus is on OTHER things, and they are not necessarily resume based, but an be intrinsic such as nationality and interest.</p>
<p>Jamimom:</p>
<p>I agree with you in general, but USC wants to increase the academic quality of its entering students as part of its attempt to raise its reputation so students with the highest SATs are the ones they are recruiting, heavily. Also there is no ED or EA at USC, and everyone who wants a merit scholarship has to apply by the same date so I'm not exactly sure if interest plays an important role in the awarding of these scholarships. I think academics is probably the first cut in determining who will be considered. I don't know if non-Americans are at a disadvantage, but I do know that USC prides itself on the large percentage of international students it has enrolled.</p>
<p>Your reasoning makes sense, Tsdad. And without the early programs, that is something kids do not have to agonize over. But with a large percentage of internationals, they may be looking for diversity within the internationals, giving merit aid to kids from less represented areas. I do know that US colleges do take into consideration how many kids from a specific country are there at the college, something they do not take into heavyconsideration for US kids, other than as a geographic tag. But for admissions that can make a difference. And I don't know if USC does monitor the types of international they have and break them down into the groups.</p>