<p>Again, this puts people who come from HS where teachers/GCs have limited time/experience with the process at a disadvantage. The Common App already asks for ranking/rating/free comments. </p>
<p>Scholarships are a recruitment device. By making the process cumbersome, they miss on those who have better outside opportunities or high opportunity cost.</p>
<p>You are applying to potentially get over $200,000 in free tuition. $200,000…a fifth of a million. Complaining about multiple forms is ridiculous. The school:
a) Doesn’t even have to offer merit scholarships
b) You don’t even have to apply for them</p>
<p>If they want you to do a,b,c then do it or don’t, but coming here to whine about needing different forms to fill in is absurd. They have every right to want to get the ideal picture of you so that they don’t give a scholarship to someone that doesn’t deserve it. If this means having unique questions for teachers, then so be it.</p>
<p>As for being a recruitment advice as above mentioned… if they didn’t offer them the majority of people would still apply, and they’d still get the freshmen class they wanted.</p>
<p>"You are applying to potentially get over $200,000 in free tuition. $200,000…a fifth of a million. Complaining about multiple forms is ridiculous. The school:
a) Doesn’t even have to offer merit scholarships
b) You don’t even have to apply for them</p>
<p>If they want you to do a,b,c then do it or don’t, but coming here to whine about needing different forms to fill in is absurd. They have every right to want to get the ideal picture of you so that they don’t give a scholarship to someone that doesn’t deserve it. If this means having unique questions for teachers, then so be it."</p>
<p>Everything is a matter of degree. First, it is not true that the cost is $200,000. Costs in education are not real. We all know that there is difference between sticker price, real price, and cost. Second, and also a matter of degree, things that discriminate are not ok. You are thinking that is a matter of lack of willingness, but there are Americans who had different life experiences and do not have resources that others do. Is it okay to discriminate agist them?</p>
<p>As for being a recruitment advice as above mentioned… if they didn’t offer them the majority of people would still apply, and they’d still get the freshmen class they wanted. </p>
<p>"Not ture at all. Both merit aid and financial aid are “price discrimination” mecanisms. They are not aid. People in enrolment management makes very strategic calculations of how much money should be given to meet enrollment targets. On the margin, people make decisions and money is a factor. Also, other factors that affect the applicant goodwill towards the college affect applicants’ decisions and enrollments.</p>
<p>If you are curious, you can follow these links:
[Price</a> discrimination - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination]Price”>Price discrimination - Wikipedia)
[Enrollment</a> management - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrollment_management]Enrollment”>Enrollment management - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Thanks, I finished my major in econ already though.</p>
<p>You seem to live in some magical fantasy world where people are entitled to what they want.</p>
<p>You really think most people will stop applying because less than 50 scholarships disappear?</p>
<p>I’ve really got to agree with marcdvl here. It seems like most people griping here are people who didn’t read the directions early enough and had a time crunch to get their materials in.</p>
<p>You don’t have good resources at your school? Tough. I’m sure there are hundreds of students who have worse resources than those griping but still managed to get everything in on time and correctly.</p>
<p>If you want to make a stance on “discrimination” in college admissions, these scholarship applications are not the point to do it. It would be impossible to make everything a completely level playing field.</p>
<p>WashU makes it incredibly easy to both apply to the school as a whole and to the scholarship programs. The scholarship programs each have their own committees that are looking for very different things - of course they’re going to ask different questions on the individual applications of the recommenders.</p>
<p>You stated that “they’d still get the freshmen class they wanted.”</p>
<p>People may still apply… On the margin, scholarships affect applications a little, but they do affect the final class composition more severely.</p>
<p>Regarding the other poster about the easiness/difficulty of getting the recommendation letters, WASHU has an opportunity to be pro-active and provide more equanimous conditions to applicants. Because there are other situations in which the field is not leveled, it does not mean WASHU cannot be helpful in improving the situation.</p>
<p>Sometimes, things that seem easy for some, are difficult for others. That’s why we do not require photo IDs on election day.</p>
<p>WashU IS proactive about this particular instance. The application info regarding scholarships is released and publicized MONTHS before deadlines. What else can they do–not require recommendations? As much as you would like to be judged by only your own words, they may be slightly biased…</p>
<p>“As much as you would like to be judged by only your own words, they may be slightly biased…”</p>
<p>What is wrong with common app recommendations?</p>
<p>I suggest that you take the time to actually read up on the scholarship programs you are so insistent to complain about. Most of the programs are highly specialized. For instance, the Moog scholarship is all about research. Or the Ervin and Rodriguez scholarships are geared toward community service and cultural diversity. These different qualities of applicants must be expressed in all aspects of the application. Therefore, your average “You should accept _____ student because _____ student did well in my class and is a good person.” recommendation just won’t do.</p>
<p>The title of the thread is “Why do we have to resubmit teacher recs for the merit scholarships?” I am not the OP, but I agree with him/her.</p>
<p>Regarding recs, no competitive applicant has a rec “he is a kind person”. Usually teacher recs talk about academics. Some may talk about ECs (and there are academic ECs).</p>
<p>But hey, there is a fresh new thread about schools people do not apply because of long/difficult supplements. Someone also wrote there about the WASHU scholarship applications. Don’t kill the messenger.</p>
<p>Quite frankly, if someone doesn’t apply to WashU because of the extra recommendations required for merit scholarships they probably aren’t a student that WashU wants anyway.</p>
<p>For the Moog Scholarship, how many finalists are usually chosen? I know that 4 get ful and probably 4 get half. Would there be more than 8 finalists chosen for Moog (bio and chem)?</p>
<p>fca you have complained a lot here. Did you read the back of the teacher rec form for the scholarships? There are specific questions for the recommender to answer that are not on the Common App teacher rec form. It includes rating the student in 8 categories and ask for specific ratings to other students the teacher has had over their career.</p>
<p>Anyone who showed interest in Wash U received a detailed book on the scholarships AND all the forms including the TEACHER REC FORM months in advance. Drop the weak discrimination argument. Anyone who could get their Common App teacher recs done had plenty of time to get the same two teachers to complete the Wash U form and send it with their already written recommendation letter. It takes the teacher much more time to write the letter than to fill out one side of a form.</p>
<p>Time for you to move on.</p>
<p>Have you been accepted to Wash U?</p>
<p>You don’t get it that some people, who are US citizens, may have studied in places where recommendation letters for HS students is unheard of. You don’t get it that getting such recommendations written in English may be the most difficult part of the entire application process. The difficulty of finding recommendations do not mean the student is unqualified.</p>
<p>It would be helpful to understand that what seems to be easy for some, can be very difficult for others. Want a concrete example, what about this:</p>
<p>“The U.S. Department of Justice has denied South Carolina’s request for pre-clearance of its voter ID law. The D.O.J. found the law discriminatory because the state’s minority voters are 20 percent more likely than white voters to lack a photo I.D. that meets the standard for voting. The South Carolina attorney general and governor have both said they will seek a reversal of the D.O.J. decision. Still pending before the Department is a request by Texas for pre-clearance of its new voter ID law.”</p>
<p>Eventually all states will require photo IDs… It will take some time. I hope at that time WASHU will have a more streamlined scholarship application process.</p>
<p>Wow. How did they get the two teacher recs required to APPLY to wash u? News flash if they can’t get the recs to apply there isn’t any scholarship to worry about. I am sure they will get need based aid from Wash U.</p>
<p>Annoying ■■■■■ is annoying.</p>
<p>This thread seems ridiculous to me.</p>
<p>$50,000 a year to attend Wash U: “Fine by me.”</p>
<p>Have to resubmit scholarship recs: “SHUT. DOWN. EVERYTHING.”</p>
<p>hahaha Ravnzcroft I was wondering when you’d get here.</p>
<p>You are all making me VERY nervous about what lies ahead for my junior d (and her supportive family) next year…ha ha. OMG. I really hope she can get her list of where to apply down to some manageable list. Thanks for the warning!! She keeps reassuring us that with the common app it should not be a problem. I’ll remind her about looking up scholarship application requirements EARLY.</p>
<p>livn- don’t stress! If she’s thinking about it this far in advance, it should not be a problem.</p>
<p>For more assurance, here was my general timetable, and I only had a problem with one deadline (and quite frankly, it was my own fault):</p>
<p>Common App essay completed: May 1st, junior year (some tweaks happened here and there after this, but it was 98% done)
Solid list of schools I was applying to (10): August before senior year started
All applications in (regardless if Early Action or not): October 31st
All merit scholarships in: November 31st - or earlier if it was required.</p>
<p>The only exception was Johns Hopkins - and that’s because I procrastinated on one of the personal essays. Realized a little too late that I could not upload a pdf, and since it was not all text I had to mail it in. Fortunately, I realized this 10 days before the deadline, and I was able to mail it in with 0 problems. (I think? I remember posting on the JHU board to ask about it. regardless of time frame, I got it in on time).</p>
<p>In other words, so long as your daughter plans ahead, it is NOT a problem.</p>
<p>Tl;dr: I had zero problems (for the most part) because I pretended that deadlines were more than a month ahead of what each college was requesting.</p>