<p>Or any non applicant, for that matter? How much do national merit finalists usually get at the university of chicago? Yeah, I hate to be…competitive… it just bothers me. I feel like she’s trying to put down the fact that I’m applying there and it’s my first choice. Okay, I should stop ranting now.</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like NMF qualifies you for anything automatic. From the admissions website:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Chicago:</a> Merit Scholarships](<a href=“http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level3.asp?id=67]Chicago:”>http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level3.asp?id=67)</p>
<p>Your classmate may have gotten something from the University of Illinois-Chicago, or he or she just may be pulling your leg.</p>
<p>blindkite (i like your username by the way for some reason) she’s probably blowing her horn, because Chicago does not guarantee anything for national merit finalist. In fact, they reject plenty of Nat Merit finalists every year.
corranged, I’m really apologize for offending you or anybody else. i realize how you may have misinterpreted my post, since it is rather ambiguous. I was not having an anti-UC attitude, or any attitude at all. In fact, I was sticking up for UC, or at least trying to. I know the Ivy league does not give merit money – that was the whole point of my post. This whole thread is about how UC is unfair in its practices of giving out scholarships, and I was just saying that, even if it is true, at least they give money. Any slim chance of getting money is betterthan no chance at any ivy league. Though it is rare, I feel ridiculously awkward when I post something, meaning no offense, and someone gets offended and writes a giant reaction to it.</p>
<p>You know, this is going to seem crazy, but part of the reason I like U of C is because people on this board seem to be so well informed and helpful. </p>
<p>Yeah, I’m pretty sure she was making that up. And I need to not get worked up over something so silly. </p>
<p>and John, hah, I am kind of embarassed of this name. I just randomly throw words together. One of my past email addresses was fatiguepudding. Ridiculous.</p>
<p>Thanks for putting the link up, unalove. I was about to do it myself. And JohnC613, I got your original meaning…missing meanings is pretty easy on line though.</p>
<p>To clarify the National Merit issue: Chicago does not offer anything to applicants for being simply for being NMSF, Commended, or Finalist. </p>
<p>For those students who are admitted, however, they have been funding official National Merit Scholarships–1K per year for students who receive no need-based aid and 2K per year for those who do. Those scholarships, though they are funded by UC, are administered through the National Merit program. (Incidently, official NM Scholarships are NEVER big bucks like full tuition.)</p>
<p>Sorry for the misunderstanding, JohnC. “Whatever you say” is just a big red flag for me.</p>
<p>blindkite - my son got the same letter, and your classmate exagerates! The relevant part says: “A faculty committee selects a small number of full-tuition College Honors Scholars each year and a somewhat larger number of University Scholars…The U of C also participates with the National Merit Scholarship program in order to provide financial support to those students…etc.” Definitely no guarantees!</p>
<p>JohnC -
“I feel ridiculously awkward when I post something, meaning no offense, and someone gets offended and writes a giant reaction to it.”</p>
<p>Just do your best - I’ve had to apologize for misinterpreted posts more than a few times. Just remember that people get really twitchy about a week before results are up … you could say the sky is blue and end up with a row so hot that your thread gets shut down, lol.</p>
<p>At least now the </p>
<p>[Office</a> of College Aid](<a href=“http://collegeaid.uchicago.edu/prospective/index.shtml]Office”>http://collegeaid.uchicago.edu/prospective/index.shtml) </p>
<p>website has been fixed with a mention of the Odyssey scholarship.</p>
<p>There’s an entire Odyssey website now, Tokenadult. I think they were waiting to put it up until it would be obvious that it’s for the next year’s class… And then I’m sure there were delays, as always.</p>
<p>odyssey.uchicago.edu</p>
<p>But no one is going to look for a separate Odyssey website unless there is some mention of that on the admissions website (where it is still lacking) or on the financial aid website (where at last there is a mention of the Odyssey scholarship). After all, there is nothing about the phrase “Odyssey scholarship” that causes it to be the first thing you Google when you ask yourself, “I wonder if I can afford to go to the University of Chicago?” Drilling down through the admission webpages still fails to find any mention of this issue, which is highly relevant to anyone deciding where to spend the years from 2008-2009 to 2011-2012 at college.</p>
<p>I can’t answer on behalf of the admissions office, and why we’re not going “YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY WE HAVE FREE MONEYZ FOR JOO” is, to be honest, a surprise for me.</p>
<p>This is 100 million dollars we’re talking about, though, and the announcement was made only last April-- it could be that it’s going to take some time before the fin aid office and others determine exactly how this money is going to be handled and therefore want to reserve making things uberexplicit until they know what’s going on. It does seem to be, well… not particularly well-advertised.</p>
<p>That said, Chicago is one of a list of small schools that is need-blind, and one of an even smaller list of schools that guarantees to match demonstrated need. It’s somewhat sad that the schools that are thought of as the most “elitist” and most expensive in the nation often have the best finance options for low and middle-income students.</p>
<p>out of curiosity, does anyone have any idea how many internationals get merit-based aid? a link to some stats, perhaps? i imagine it wouldn’t be very many.</p>