<p>Hi! I was browsing through a bunch of older threads and found a bunch of mentions of "Reilly Scholars"... what is that, what does it mean for the student, and when are they normally selected? Thank you!</p>
<p>My D was a Reilly Scholar last year. They have Reilly scholars weekend (Sat- Tues). Last February they flew her (all expenses paid) to visit ND for the weekend. It was filled with tons of activites and she attended a few classes (based on her interest) on Monday. It was kind of like a recruiting weekend. There were a total of 90 kids (100 were invited). You stay in a host dorm room and eat in the dining hall. Sunday night last year they had dinner in the press box at the staduim. If you are invited you should go.</p>
<p>Recruiting weekend to get top applicants to commit. No distinction or money after that though.</p>
<p>“”" No distinction or money after that though.“”"</p>
<p>this is not necessairly the case. one of the beauties of being a private school is discretion in certain matters. if offered i would suggest you accept.</p>
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<p>When would invitations come out for this year? Or have they already?</p>
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<p>Last year invitations were sent in late Jan / early Feb. They came at different times for different candidates, possibly because they were selected by intended major. Not sure how many were invited to the weekend, but from that group 100 Reilly scholars enrolled at ND, so about 5% of the entering class. As far as I know this was the most prestigious distinction for incoming freshman, although ND does not publicize it very much. Reilly will likely slide down a notch in favor of the Yusko-Hesburgh scholarship. Would definitely suggest going to the Reilly weekend if you are invited and considering ND; a fun weekend and certainly won’t hurt your FA package.</p>
<p>D received the Reilly invitation today. The days are April 17-20. Too late IMO. By then she would be leaning towards a college if not already decided. If other factors haven’t swayed her opinion by then, I doubt this one visit would. Most likely won’t go (for the visit), unless she gets the Hesburgh-Yusko Scholarship and ND is the college she’s leaning towards.</p>
<p>karkri - this seems odd. the last date to declare is usually may 1. our D was visiting numerous school weekends mar and apr. plus, the reilly weekend is free, with travel expenses paid. why WOULDN"T you go ??</p>
<p>as far as swaying goes, our D was swayed pretty far from ND ( but keeping an open mind as she explored various schools and weekends ), and indeed this weekend reawakened a lot of what she always wanted in a college experience, but had been beat out of her by all the prvious marketing onslaught. she had forgotten what is was she had always wanted, and the incredible undergrad experience at ND was it. it WILL stand out, believe me - now maybe it’ll be for her or maybe not, but it’s free to go see, and it will indeed stand out.</p>
<p>afterwords, she had time to go on two more visits, and after the last one we drove back to ND to just walk around, and that was that. it has been the best decision of her life, and she has never been happier. i would urge you to accept, if offered - it seems you have nothing to lose, and possibly everything to gain.</p>
<p>^^^Our situation was very similar almost four years ago as our student almost did not attend Reilly weekend, either! Because of spending the previous summer at an Inro to Eng program at ND, our student felt that the summer program had provided ample info about ND. However, the Reilly experience/weekend, after attending, indeed tipped the scales for attending ND and becoming the no. 1 choice. And, we knew it the moment we put student on the plane to fly up for the weekend! It should be more than enough time to help your student make a decision with regards to acceptance. Good Luck!</p>
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ND is a less than 3-hour drive from where we live, so paid travel expenses is not a big deal. Unless there is some other reason attached (like a scholarship competition etc.) I (and especially D) see no point in sitting thru their marketing onslaught.</p>
<p>Given that D would barely get any need-based aid (yes, we are “stuck in the middle”), her only reason to even consider ND is if she gets the HY scholarship. ND is not too high on her list to begin with.</p>
<p>The reasons why she MAY NOT go to Reilly weekend-
- She already did a 2 week summer residential program previously, so she had a glimpse of undergrad experience (knows the campus, classes, professors, dorms etc.)
- If she gets the HY scholarship, she would have gone to the campus for the Finalist weekend anyway, so would have gone thru the marketing onslaught already.
- Since she will be hard-pressed for time in April with all other stuff going on, school finals etc.</p>
<p>Karkri-I don’t think that our student felt that the Reilly weekend was a marketing onslaught. If anything, it provided an op to experience life on campus while semester was in session; it was the “real world”. The summer program, while a learning experience, was filled with other HS students. And no, the program did nothing with regards to aid for us, either, as we did not qualify for any financial aid and of course, we all know that merit aid at ND is tied directly to financial need (at least it was when our student was admitted). The HY scholarship was not in existence at the time our student visited>wish it had been! While our student was fairly confident about the decision to choose ND even before the Reilly Weekend, I think the experience must have offered more solid reasons to choose ND as number 1. It worked and there have been no regrets. Good Luck to your daughter in making the decision as it can be a difficult one.</p>
<p>nd AL - Thank you for your comments and kind wishes. I’m still trying to talk D into attending the Reilly weekend, but D doesn’t see the point, exactly because of reason#2 from my post above.</p>
<p>I can sympathize with her, as we’ve been hopping from college to college every weekend for the last 2 (returned a couple hours ago from this week’s) and this will continue for a few week-ends on and off into April. So if she made HY and was already on ND campus once, she thinks it will be a luxury (in terms of time) to visit the campus a 2nd time.</p>
<p>karkari - i do not think you mentioned the previous 2 week campus stay ?? i can see where that might make a difference. </p>
<p>but, for any other reilly parent out there - there is still a lot to considered by graciously accepting offers when given the chance. what is that old saying about 90% of life being determined by who shows up ?? and, there is a lot of misinformation on how ND works with regard ro fin-aide decisions floating around, as always. hint - one of beauties of being a private school is you can call things what you wish, and do with things what you like.</p>
<p>Karki - I’m not sure where you got April 17-20 from, but I’m almost certain (and by that I mean I am certain) from what information they provided me about the weekend, the weekend is from March 20-23.</p>
<p>[Home</a> (Reilly Weekend)](<a href=“http://sites.google.com/site/reillynd/]Home”>http://sites.google.com/site/reillynd/)</p>
<p>intenex-I seem to recall that when our student attended, there was more than one weekend. But, I may be wrong about that as it has been a while. At any rate, it is a great opportunity for prospective students.</p>
<p>intenex - the letter my student received says April 17-20. As nd AL notes, looks like there are multiple weekends. Interestingly, the website [Home</a> (Reilly Weekend)](<a href=“http://sites.google.com/site/ndreilly/]Home”>http://sites.google.com/site/ndreilly/) that was given on my student’s letter is ever-so-slightly different than the one you cited. You’ve gotta look closely to find the difference in the URL :-)</p>
<p>Now, why they have these 2 so much apart (unless they have Reilly weekends every weekend between these 2), I don’t know.</p>
<p>bitti1:
</p>
<p>I’m not sure I understand. I did mention the 2 week stay in post #10 above.</p>
<p>Reilly scholars are chosen because they display great talent in both math and humanities. A Reilly scholar will be exposed to the most challenging humanities and philosophy classes as a freshman, theology as an upperclassman and will automatically have research opportunities and research dollars. A year of math is required regardless of AP scores. It is a very prestigious thing on campus, but - word of warning - the program is rigorous and grading is tough. That said, your student will take difficult classes taught by the best professors the university has to offer. I understand that this helps with grad school admissions and completion of the program means your student graduates with honors. It is very challenging.</p>
<p>Being Reilly scholar sounds like a great opportunity, IF the student is planning on attending ND. For my daughter right now, attending ND looks like a very remote possibility, so she doesn’t seem to care for the Reilly weekend.</p>
<p>For any student who qualifies for this type of challenging opportunity, there are such opportunities wherever they eventually choose to attend. Therefore I don’t think qualifying to be a Reilly scholar itself would influence the decision to attend ND.</p>
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<p>Illyrical, I don’t know what program you are describing, but it isn’t Reilly scholars. Reilly scholars is a distinction, not an academic program. D is a Reilly scholar, and as far as I know there are no academic requirements, and no guarantees of the best teachers, courses, research, graduating with honors, etc. Sounds like you’re describing an honors program, not Reilly scholars.</p>
<p>However,^^^, the Reilly designation should afford a student the op to participate in an honors program at ND, thus offering research ops, smaller classes, etc. In addition, if I am not mistaken, financial aid package (based on need of course) is supposedly better as well, perhaps larger merit awards w/less loans and work study–again, based on need, but pushed ahead because of Reilly designation. Perhaps others could offer more info/corrections to my post? Graduating with honors, I presume, is directly related to GPA and not the Reilly designation, even tho we were told diploma would reflect the Reilly designation–guess we will find out soon! Yes, Reilly is a distinction, academic at that, but should offer a prospective student all that I mentioned. Until Hesburg program, Reilly was all that ND could offer top students to try to entice them to attend ND, esp since it did not, at least with our student, have a pure merit program without financial need in the picture. It has been ND’s way of trying to attract these students since so many schools do offer pure merit awards. I guess they just did not have the money for it before now (with Hesburg).</p>