Hopefully this comment comes through positively , but I’m appreciating more that some colleges are seeing more than a “one day” test score as the end all be all . We went TO because our score , although good does not match rank or GPA. I hope anyone who was deferred, who still wants Clemson as their “home” lands here as soon as possible .
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A kid from our school who got into UGA EA (in-state) got deferred and another kid who got deferred at UGA (in-state with better stats) got accepted.
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Our counselor told us the same thing a couple of weeks ago.
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So we meet Clemson criteria for some scholarship or merit . I see that some received information in their welcome letter. We went TO so is that possibly a reason why we didn’t receive any ? Thoughts on how and whom to contact ? Thank you
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Very possible! My daughter was accepted to bama back in September and we did not expect any merit bc we were TO. However, yesterday we got an email saying they were offering $15k per year
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Congrats to the new Tigers.
Test optional was not a factor. OOS merit is super competitive and amounts vary by year. Generally, the amounts won’t come close to SEC schools - or others - so it won’t reconcile. With 65k applications they can….and will be stingy.
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I will say that I’m surprised by the large number of kids that were accepted in our area. Many more than in previous years.
Are you in state?
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Yes I too am surprised at the number of admits EA. Seems they have a better hold on it than last year for sure.
That being said I know the UGA released like an overall EA stats thing. Has anyone seen that for Clemson?
Not impressed with UVA on so many levels. And I’m a VA resident.
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TO is a sound strategy for clemson!
The Common Data Set (CDS) is key to this. Google Clemson common data set.
CU is a gpa, test scores, class rank and rigor of coursework school. Essay is very, very lightly considered.
If scores are “low” meaning low end of the published quartiles in CDS and the gpa and rank are great - go TO and control narrative.
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My daughter applied EA to UGA, TENN, SC, GT,DUKE, WF, Vanderbilt, Clemson, and Mercer…And by far, UGA has been the most transparent. They seem to have a smoother process than most and are very active with addressing your concerns when possible. They had similar amount of applicants as Clemson. As Clemson do more of these each year, they will become more efficient. UGA drastically improved from there first year they did EA. It can be pretty daunting if you just started EA a coupler years ago and you are getting 50K applicants. I encourage patients and it will work out in the end. Good Luck to all!
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This is the truth. Clemson is in a position where they do not need to use merit scholarships to entice students. 60k applicants (50k OOS) for a freshman class of 4500.
If merit wasn’t offered in the acceptance letter then it likely won’t happen, but there are always outliers. They will tell you they continue to evaluate all applicants for merit throughout the admissions process. The students that do get merit the average amount is 10-20% of tuition costs. There were more than a few annoyed parents last year when the amounts were released.
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OOS, is super competitive at all these schools. Especially the ones that are flagship schools for a state (UGA, SC, Clemson etc…)and highly regarded schools (Duke, GT, Ivy league etc.). I think this year was the 1st time UGA split it’s OOS and IS EA. They were approximately a month apart. Also, most of these school had to change their scholarship awarding process because FAFSA application opening has been pushed from 1 Oct to possibly 31 Dec. That is a huge deal
I think class rank is most important based on this group and Reddit groups. I found a kid with the exact same GPA, ACT score and major as my kid. Only difference (in stats) was class rank. Top 5% vs 30%. I know they like the stat that 80% of the class was in the top 20% of their HS class.
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Class rank has always been the main factor, especially for early action this and last year and earlier acceptances in past years.
For those who got deferred- my freshman was devastated to get deferred last year, especially since Clemson was the number one choice. Checked box to be considered for summer start and wrote a supplemental letter about desire to attend Clemson. Got in for summer, had lots of fun, knocked out two Gen Eds, and started the fall semester with a 4.0!
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S24 OOS
SAT: 1520
GPA 4.0 UW/4.56W
Number of AP Courses: 9
Rank: 2/263
State: PA
Applied: 8/25 EA
Major Applied to/Accepted: Engineering
Decision: Accepted with merit scholarship
@meagan_allen did I miss something? Did your daughter get accepted?
Yes I have come to the conclusion that class rank was the biggest factor this year. My daughter was top 9% but all her other stats were pretty average. Reading some of these stats I’m shocked that she got in EA so proves class rank is super high on their list. Possibly GPA but again we were 4.0/4.3 not anything super crazy!
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Yes!!! I shared above! She did 
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