@NETarrantMom --thank you! I am keeping in mind that departmental scholarships have not gone out yet, so maybe there is hope there? But as I posted above, with 5200 qualified for scholarships and only 1400 supposedly given out, it means there are LOTS of deserving, high-stat students awarded nothing.
To be honest and objective/reflective, two things could’ve influenced her lack of merit:
- A&M was not high on her list. We made her apply and she obliged because she understood the value of an in-state admission AND it does have a great engineering reputation. Perhaps this was reflected in her essays somehow? I honestly did not read her final draft so maybe they had a distinct lack of enthusiasm? I would think this wouldn’t be the case, but who knows?
- While she does have state level awards and ECs and a job…they are not engineering/STEM based awards and jobs. Perhaps that is what they are looking for?
It does seem something has changed with them even just in the past few years. I have been in contact with another friend whose senior engineering daughter had the same experience as your daughter. She said between the departmental and also university scholarships, they barely paid a few thousand a year for tuition.
I have been in touch with another student who has an ACT 33 and I believe is valedictorian of his class and his financial award portal showed ZERO in merit scholarships also. D has a 34 ACT and is a top 10 (not percent, but top 10) rank in a large school with >600 in her class.