<p>^ Good to know. Currently, my D’s calculated COA for UMN is around $10k per year after several merit scholarships. It is still not very attractive as I expect the COA for the in state flagship in town to be about the same or even less. If there is additional aids, we may consider it more seriously. When did you hear about other scholarships from UMN?</p>
<p>It wasn’t until later in the year, I think once other people started to turn down their offers so they knew they had more money to offer. I’ve heard of some people getting more money by playing schools against each other with scholarship offers, but I never had the guts to try anything like that.</p>
<p>I am another NatMer “collected” by the University of Oklahoma. Got a decent education for cheap, will always wonder if the low prestige of the name sabotaged my efforts to earn a place in adulthood doing what I want… I was unemployed for a year, and now have a very boring job at a fortune 500 company. </p>
<p>Here’s something to know about NatMers. They come in two basic categories. </p>
<p>The ones that combine intellectual horsepower with willpower and practice accomplishing things generally go to more ritzy schools. Some encounter “smart little fish now in a much bigger pond” issues. But they are the high-powered ambitious, achieving archetype. </p>
<p>The one that combines intellectual horsepower with any combination of excessive reflection, refusal to play by the rules, laziness, underachievement, etc. often goes for the free ride or majorly off price option at schools better known for football than academics. They’re a much funner bunch if you ask me, but if you hope to be in with the future self-appointed bigwigs and hotshots of the world, better off taking the debt and going to a big name school. </p>
<p>That’s a noticeable cultural difference and it’s up to you what’s important to you and what to decide.</p>
<p>We are looking at Kentucky. It will be awfully hard to pass up the full ride package they give to NM Finalists. We visited the campus and loved it, and the honors dorm and the new dorms they are building that will open next fall are incredible. If anyone knows of any “cons” in going to UK, let me know, but it sure makes sense to us to get a free undergrad education and save the big bucks for grad school.</p>
<p>“schools better known for football than academics”</p>
<p>tes, you talking about Stanford??? I’m confused.</p>
<p>tes…what is it you want to be doing in adulthood that your degree from OU isn’t allowing you to do? Is it really your degree from a state school vs. one from a “big name” school that’s holding you back or is it the choices you made during your time in college? Judging from your previous posts, it seems like it might be the latter. </p>
<p>I know many people who graduated from state schools who are very successful and happy in their adult lives, and I know people who went to “big name schools” (two are Yale alums) who aren’t…and vice versa.</p>
<p>Tes, </p>
<p>Your degree from Oklahoma is not holding you back. A degree from virtually any flagship isn’t going to hold anyone back.</p>
<p>What did you get your degree in? What grades did you get?</p>
<p>how well do YOU interview? </p>
<p>Both of my kids accepted huge merit from Bama. One went on to an elite univ for his PhD (he was accepted to EVERY PhD program he applied to). The other is in med school (He completed apps to 6 med schools and was accepted to 3 and was awarded merit to those 3). </p>
<p>YOU are the one who makes or breaks your future. Not your undergrad.</p>
<p>*Big, low-ranked state school
Planned Program - Neuroscience
3.68
2 school years research volunteer experience, 2 school years 2 summers research assistant experience.
161V 163Q 5AW</p>
<p>Invited to interview by UVA Neuroscience
Rejected by Duke Neurobiology*</p>
<p>Tes,</p>
<p>Ok…right off the bat…your GPA is hurting you. If your undergrad was so “low-ranking” how come you didn’t graduate Summa Cum Laude? </p>
<p>Secondly…your GRE…</p>
<p>a 163 Quantitative That’s about an 86 percentile.<br>
a 161 Verbal That’s about an 83 percentile</p>
<p>Your stats aren’t very competitive for the top schools. That’s not Oklahoma’s fault. </p>
<p>One my son’s Bama NMF friends was accepted into that Duke PhD program. Her stats were much higher. 4.0 GPA and the old GRE of 1550 (800 Q / 750 Verbal)</p>
<p>EMillerWVU- my daughter had the same reaction to Kentucky. The one “con” that we have found is that the Honors Program is quite selective. There are many more applicants than spaces. Some very qualified students do not get accepted. Just know that NMF status does not guarantee anyone a spot in the Honors Program, like it does at some other universities.</p>
<p>Sorry to OP as I am adding to this thread going off course a bit.</p>
<p>RE: TES’ statement…At my school there is a ton of discussion with NA and NM semifinalist regarding whether to take a free ride or, if accepted, go for a ‘great’ college. In my family, the couple of people who went to ‘great’ colleges tell me that the name (Harvard and Yale and their cases) has absolutely and without question paid off…with connections, doors opening and being sought after. Of course it does not work out that way for everyone but they scoff at the idea of me going to a college where the ‘honors program’ is the goal vs. being at a college where the vast majority of kids are very bright, the college is well known, the education is fantastic and forever that name will mean something to employers, colleagues, boards, etc… In their view, IF you can find a school you like, it is top ranked, has name recognition (and NOT for sports) and you can afford it without substantial debt…you go for it. Don’t shoot low, don’t settle.</p>
<p>I am beyond confused on this issue. Thankfully, I have parents that keep saying to get into a position to have choices, THEN worry. So for now I am just trying to find a full ride school that can be a choice. I thank GOD my parents give some guidance and aren’t the ‘it has to be this way’ parents some of my friends have (i.e ‘you have to go for a full ride’ or ‘you have to go to the best college you get it’ types)</p>
<p>HSG
OP: Some at my school are looking at KU and Ol’ Miss. Thanks to this board, TU is now on the radar too!</p>
<p>Wow, what a dogpile! Clearly I have touched a nerve. Ah well, I’m having fun. Are you? </p>
<p>“schools better known for football than academics”</p>
<p>tes, you talking about Stanford??? I’m confused.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>“tes…what is it you want to be doing in adulthood that your degree from OU isn’t allowing you to do? Is it really your degree from a state school vs. one from a “big name” school that’s holding you back or is it the choices you made during your time in college? Judging from your previous posts, it seems like it might be the latter. I know many people who graduated from state schools who are very successful and happy in their adult lives, and I know people who went to “big name schools” (two are Yale alums) who aren’t…and vice versa.”</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>“Tes,
Your degree from Oklahoma is not holding you back. A degree from virtually any flagship isn’t going to hold anyone back.
What did you get your degree in? What grades did you get?
how well do YOU interview?
Both of my kids accepted huge merit from Bama. One went on to an elite univ for his PhD (he was accepted to EVERY PhD program he applied to). The other is in med school (He completed apps to 6 med schools and was accepted to 3 and was awarded merit to those 3).
YOU are the one who makes or breaks your future. Not your undergrad.”</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>“Big, low-ranked state school
Planned Program - Neuroscience
3.68
2 school years research volunteer experience, 2 school years 2 summers research assistant experience.
161V 163Q 5AW
Invited to interview by UVA Neuroscience
Rejected by Duke Neurobiology
Tes,
Ok…right off the bat…your GPA is hurting you. If your undergrad was so “low-ranking” how come you didn’t graduate Summa Cum Laude?
Secondly…your GRE…
a 163 Quantitative That’s about an 86 percentile.
a 161 Verbal That’s about an 83 percentile
Your stats aren’t very competitive for the top schools. That’s not Oklahoma’s fault.
One my son’s Bama NMF friends was accepted into that Duke PhD program. Her stats were much higher. 4.0 GPA and the old GRE of 1550 (800 Q / 750 Verbal)”</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>^^
You were the one whose position has been that you were a NMF who was “collected” by Oklahoma. You implied that your education wasn’t that great and that has kept you from succeeding.</p>
<p>If you had graduated with a near-4.0 GPA and had an outstanding GRE (along with great LORs, etc), and you were still hitting dead ends with your grad school apps, then you <em>might</em> be able to point your finger at Oklahoma. Your claim could be, “hey, I kicked bootie at your school, I graduated at the tippy top, I killed the GRE, and I’m still getting rejected by grad schools.” However, you can’t make that claim. </p>
<p>The STEM grad school app process is tough. Even the so-called safeties are often only accepting about 10-15% of applicants. The elite schools are only accepting about 3-5%. They don’t need to accept an unhooked applicant w/o tippy-top stats. That’s just the way it is.</p>
<p>tes, you’re so saddd. :(</p>
<p>There are things you can do to totally shake up your life.</p>
<p>My brother didn’t like his cubicle job after he graduated college. He joined the Peace Corps and helped poor villagers in S. America build safe water systems for a couple of years.</p>
<p>When he got back, he still couldn’t bear the idea of a corporate job so he became an independent contractor. Has his own business and is very happy.</p>
<p>That’s just one path. </p>
<p>Idea is, you don’t have to stay where you are, miserable. There surely is a way out.</p>
<p>NaperMom, I remember that about UKentucky from last year’s threads. There were kids who seemed highly qualified for the honors program, on paper at least, who didn’t get into honors. Most then chose to go elsewhere despite the great scholarship, because without the honors experience it wouldn’t have been the right fit. You have to take their honors app and attendant essays very seriously.</p>
<p>Hi Everyone! I was a NMF last year and was really looking at the East Coast, but I ended up at UNM in New Mexico! I just want to let you all know that it is the best offer out there. </p>
<p>I received additional scholarships (outside sources) and instead of reducing the amount of my scholarship here, they just apply my extra money towards tuition, and refund me back the same amount. So I basically ended up getting paid to come here. </p>
<p>Also, the honors college here is amazing - it’s very small (it only has a few classrooms) but I really like it that way. I really wanted to go to a small, academically competitive, school, but I feel like the UNM honors college gives me that feeling.</p>
<p>Because UNM is the state-flagship, there are so many amazing opportunities here that I know I wouldn’t have had anywhere else. UNM is considered low-ranked by CC standards, I know, and it was my last choice for school (I cried when I decided to come here) but I’ve loved it so much since being here, and it’s so diverse that I feel like anyone can love it here! Also, they have really nice dorms, which was honestly a big factor for me 
</p>
<p>If you have any questions about UNM or the NMF scholarship here, feel free to PM me or post here (I’ll try to check back!). Or if you have any questions about the NMF process in general, let me know!</p>
<p>Thank you for the information about UNM, Luna and I am glad your experience is a good one. What admission to the Honor’s College automatic?</p>
<p>Also, thanks for helping to get this thread back on course. :)</p>
<p>Goal? Where have/are NM/NA finalist choosing to go and why…and how is there experience at those colleges?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>T</p>
<p>“Goal? Where have/are NM/NA finalist choosing to go and why…and how is there experience at those colleges?”</p>
<p>Mine ended up at Bama. Since his ultimate goal is to get into a MSTP program, he wanted the opportunity for meaningful research as early as possible as an undergrad. His experience has been great to this point. </p>
<p>Good classes and profs, great support from mentors, profs and general staff. No real out of pocket expenses so dollars are being saved for post grad degrees, and he has been in a lab since December of his freshman year doing research on nanoparticle drug delivery processes and side effects. This includes the summer between freshman and sophmore year on a paid HHMI internship.</p>
<p>No complaints to this point and nothing else any of us could have possibly asked for.</p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman at Arizona State. I’ve posted about this before on the ASU forum and also in some National Merit threads, but maybe some people haven’t seen those. Anyway, now that she’s actually been there a couple of months, have more solid idea of things to report.</p>
<p>It’s pretty shallow, but at the moment, in the midst of booking winter break plane tickets, the thing I’m most grateful for is the easy access to airport. We’re more than halfway across the country so no option to do long drive pick-ups. It’s less than 10 minute walk from Barrett to light rail station. Take the $2 light rail to the station near airport. Check bags with Southwest right there, and hop on free sky train for the 5 minute ride to airport terminal.</p>
<p>Our college search was a bit unusual, combining music performance with its auditions at some schools along with schools where she would do a music BA and no audition or audition after enrolled, and schools where only performance option is playing in ensembles (GaTech, Chicago.) The decision to pursue music major came rather late, after initial college search was in full swing. PSAT score was borderline, so NMF schools thrown in the mix just in case as possible safeties, but not seriously considering any before senior year. Admitted academically everywhere she applied except Chicago RD waitlist. Didn’t do HPYSM.</p>
<p>The ASU audition was early. She fell so in love with the music prof, Barrett, and the weather that it was difficult to get her to consider other schools after that, though she didn’t officially get word that she passed audition for some months. She didn’t want to visit the NE schools that gave full tuition or better(Rutgers, Stonybrook, Northeastern.) I had planned a spring break trip to see the SE non-audition schools. She had good merit/FA at some(Vanderbilt, UMiami), and others I thought she ought to check out just to see(UNC, GaTech.) She refused to go. Once she had a couple of official music acceptances as back-ups, one of which gave good money and at which she ‘clicked’ with music prof (UIUC), she canceled all remaining auditions, most at NMF schools she had not visited- Idaho, Nebraska, Cincinnati, UMN(we had visited there and had lesson with prof, but not audition.) She was stressed and busy, so I gave up.</p>
<p>So far ASU is everything she hoped for. Music prof is helping her advance musically in every way, a perfect fit. She’s feeling so good about the music. The Herberger art/music kids all room together in 2 floors of a Barrett dorm. She has made good friends. They have ‘study parties’ in each others’ rooms. She thinks this is fun, because they are all working on things they are really interested in. Claims every single kid on her floor is a dedicated, creative, bright, hard worker. Which makes sense for the majors they are in, can’t get into them in the first place without having that ethic. She is very busy, but happily so. </p>
<p>Barrett has a 2 semester required humanities sequence (AP credit notwithstanding) which is very challenging, huge amounts of reading and writing, but she enjoys the reading. She is taking math as 2nd major and so far the math is fine. </p>
<p>During move-in she was worried because initially she only met AZ students and thought she’d be an outsider. I told her Barrett had plenty OOS kids and she was sure to meet some. It turns out a girl in the room directly across the hall from her is a NMF from a HS just 5 miles from hers.</p>
<p>Her complaints:
- Barrett dining hall lines are too long because non-Barrett students pay extra to eat there. (Barrett food is outstanding.)</p>
<ol>
<li>Dining hall isn’t open late enough in the evening so she can’t get food late at night. They do have some late night dining option, but not anything she really likes.</li>
</ol>
<p>3.Barrett dining doesn’t serve good chips so she has to spend her own money at store since obviously she can’t live w/o chips.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Barrett dorms don’t have practice rooms, like the regular Herberger dorms, so she has to go back to music bldg at night</p></li>
<li><p>Music bldg is sooo far from Barrett. She rides her bike back and forth and back and forth.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>and the big one-
6. Every lazy slacker that admissions let slip through into Barrett is in HER ‘human event’ class. They are smart but refuse to work or participate, which ruins the atmosphere in what should be a formative experience for her. It’s her and the teacher. She is very angry with these kids. She describes them as “these kids who never did any HW but managed to get by in HS with good grades because of natural intelligence, found science easy and thought ‘engineering is supposed to be good money. I’ll be an engineer’, and now they are here and haven’t the foggiest what they are doing.” It seems to be a fluke as all her friends report great times in their classes with all hands raised and hardly enough time to let everyone speak who wants to, and deep discussion. Anyway the teacher is insightful and makes the class worthwhile, but it’s weird. She’s hoping next semester will be more like her friends’ classes.</p>
<p>She received a substantial scholarship from music dept. on top of NMF money, so it’s a very good deal for our family.</p>
<p>celesteroberts, thanks for the detailed description. This is timely for us as DS just received an invitation to visit with airfare. We were very surprise at the airfare part and wasn’t sure if he should go as ASU was not on our list. They seem to emphasize their honors program.</p>
<p>Celeste…LOL on the chip thing. I could see how that could be a problem. </p>
<p>One thing my son loved when we visited OU was that they have Cherry Coke on the fountain in the caf. It’s the little things…</p>