No, my D did not apply for a special scholarship at her flagship. She had no interest in applying to the university but only did so because of our family’s one rule - apply to one instate public option. I received a call from the university’s rep about the scholarship after she was admitted. The rep tried calling her initially but she didn’t answer his calls (lol).
It was a departmental scholarship based on her portfolio. We later learned that the flagship has a long established scholarship funds in the college of arts. We were not aware at all about any of it. She did meet the donor and his family at her graduation. It was incredibly lovely to thank them in person.
To be frank, we didn’t go into the her application process with receiving merit awards as an option at all. We thought it would not be offered for art majors esp at art specific schools. Mostly our thoughts were correct. RISD did not offer any merit since all accepted students were very talented in their skills. Pratt and Ringling did offer her 1/2 tuition awards. Skidmore’s need aid was surprisingly generous compare to RISD and USC’s need aid.