Rising Senior, female from midwest applying to U of MN Twin Cities College of Science and Engineering for Civil Engineering
ACT: 35
Weighted GPA: 4.42
Unweighted GPA Estimate (my school doesn’t provide this): 3.95
I am an IB Diploma Candidate.
My stats are above par so I feel like I should get in, but I am most curious if anyone could tell me any merit-based scholarships I am likely to receive?
If you are invited to the Honors program then you will likely be given scholarship money, including possible the National which will help reduce the out-of-state portion of your tuition (assuming you are OOS). Your stats would indicate that the chances for Honors is definitely pretty good.
Good Luck!
Apply early due to rolling admissions. Several years ago many from Minnesota with outstanding stats were waitlisted because they did not apply early enough.
Not clear they are having rolling admissions this year. Have they mentioned that at one of the admissions events? If not, don’t assume it but call to find out.
This year they have officially transitioned to Early Action (Nov. 1) and Regular Decision (Jan. 1) with notifications by end of January for the former and March 31 for the latter. Honors and scholarships will be distributed by end of March as well.
While it would be nice to think that they will continue to give early admission, honors and scholarship information to their top applicants like they have in prior years, it’s best to call and find out exactly what their timing will be for those candidates.
Good to know. Thank you. I’ll miss the rolling admissions, but life will go on–it just won’t be as pleasant.
Minnesota should let US News in on the secret.
^Publisher - well, if they are still saying “Rolling” on USNews it might be that they are still doing rolling just with more managable and formal deadlines, in conjunction with their decision to get on the CA. Or it might be outdated info. and will change with the September USNews update.
BTW, they weren’t - or aren’t - Rolling Admissions, at least not since I started following in 2014. They were/are Rolling Decisions. That means they gave admission decisions to the strongest candidates first, even if they applied later than others (as long as by the old Dec. Priority deadline and even after that for some). This was always a source of confusion for those who got that app. in during July or August and then had to wait till February. Not clear if they will continue to delay that way. They may, for instance, decide to admit the in-state first and delay the OOS’ers till end of January. Or they may release everyone’s decision at the same time. One never knows with UMN - something changes every year.
One hint that they are prioritizing in-state over OOS (besides the significant tuition hike for the latter) is that they’ve definitely announced that they are looking to enroll more in-state students in upcoming years. That tells me that the top in-staters might be getting an earlier notice than the OOS’ers - same as what happened with UW-Madison and the Wisconsin applicants last year. However, if they are seriously planning some campaign we haven’t seen any evidence of that yet, and my son (MN resident) is applying with top stats to CLA. So we’ll see.
I am an in-state student. Forgot to mention, sorry,
^ You are a MN resident? Or a reciprocity (WI/Dakotas, etc.)?
Edit to add: the moniker suggests the former 
@JBStillFlying , yes, I am a MN resident.
@mntonkatwin then you should be in very good shape! Hopefully a presidential scholarship at the very least. My D17 had similar a similar uw GPA and a 34 but was also NMSF so was offered the Gold and a presidential, plus a one-time award to assist with study abroad. Basically her tuition was covered. She had been admitted to Carlson Honors.
UMN app. just went live today and they don’t require an essay or rec. letters. Grades and test scores are self-reported via SRAR. Very easy application!
Good luck to you!
I checked my application tracker yesterday… I’ve been admitted! No letter or email… not sure when/if to expect that? Now, the real question is when will I hear about merit-based scholarships I’ve been awarded? Should I wait to confirm enrollment (the U is the only school I’m applying to) until I’ve received financial aid awards?
@mntonkatwin - congrats! Packet usually follows within two weeks. Tracker is the only online notification so you didn’t miss an e-mail. In prior years, earliest scholarship notification has been in November. Full FA details posted in the spring both on MyU and via letter.
@mntonkatwin Congrats!
@mntonkatwin I just found out I got in on Saturday! Hope to see you there. I’m OOS, so that scholarship money would be great !
@JBStillFlying As I’ve said before, I’ve gotten into honors and CSE and I’ve confirmed my enrollment. You’ve said that the earliest scholarship notifications come in November… is this merit-based or need-based? I most likely do not qualify for need-based aid (though I’m still submitting a FAFSA). Where does this information appear… the application tracker? Or is the application tracker pretty much useless to me now? What merit-based scholarships do you think I could qualify for? My stats are still the same (35 ACT, 4.4 W GPA) and I’ve found out that I’m a commended National Merit student.
Thanks in advance!
@mntonkatwin - merit scholarship notification has begun in November via regular mail. Need-based used to show up in the spring but last year people noticed loans, etc. on their my.U much earlier. I would check my.U and the Communication Center regularly - application tracker probably won’t give you more information than what you’ve received but it’s probably not a bad idea to look at it occasionally going forward, just in case something pops up.
University-wide scholarships for in-state would include the Gold for NMF’s. There are no scholarships specifically for Commendeds (my son in the same boat) but high stats in general are more likely to be rewarded with merit than medium-low stats.
Here are the links to the University-Wide scholarships available (scroll down) and well as college-specific:
@JBStillFlying Thanks for the info! I see you on all the UMN forums and your replies are always so helpful.
My dd19 received a notice of merit scholarship last week. She has been accepted into CSE and is NMSF. We are hoping for some additional merit as we do not qualify for need based aid.
@Midwestrowmom what scholarships was she offered?
@Midwestrowmom and was this notification over email or just in the MyU portal? Is she in honors, too?