<p>Hi fellow parents!
My D has expanded her choices to include midsize merit scholarship challenging schools of Tulane, WashU and Emory. Is it best to declare a major and does it hurt to apply early action at any of them? Any other feedback on these schools would be helpful!</p>
<p>Here’s the link to Emory’s merit scholarship info: [Emory</a> College | Current Students | Prospective Scholars](<a href=“Error 404: Page Not Found”>Error 404: Page Not Found)</p>
<p>When my middle d applied to Emory, it was our understanding that the only merit aid available was through the Emory Scholars program. That has an early deadline (November 1), and the student must be nominated by the GC.
If your school hasn’t handled Emory applications before, the guidance office may not have received nomination forms. Even if it did, the staff may not be familiar with the Emory Scholars process. Although nominations were supposed to be in by 10/1, your d’s GC could phone Emory admissions and ask if it’s still possible to nominate her.</p>
<p>I can’t tell from reading the webpage whether the additional listed scholarships are part of the Emory Scholars program, or separate awards. Maybe a parent with an Emory student will respond? It’s very tough to be awarded merit aid at Emory and WashU - easier at Tulane.</p>
<p>^^ frazzled is right, Emory Scholars is the only merit based for Emory, and you must go through being nominated by your guidance counselor.</p>
<p>Tulane, apply as early as you can, they give out a lot of aid to students who have pretty solid stats. (Another one along these lines to possibly look at is U. Miami)</p>
<p>WashU is tougher than the other two to get aid, and I believe there is a seperate application, but check out their website: [Academic</a> Scholarship & Fellowship Programs](<a href=“http://admissions.wustl.edu/scholarships/Pages/default.aspx]Academic”>http://admissions.wustl.edu/scholarships/Pages/default.aspx)</p>
<p>Just amending my post above - I misread the Emory website about the nomination deadline for Emory Scholars. (Posted with an insufficient caffeine level, I guess.) On rereading the quote from Emory’s website, it sounds as if the nomination forms were supposed to be in the high school guidance office by 10/1, not back to Emory by then.</p>
<p>I agree with above – I think you need to be a tippy-top student to get merit money at WashU, Emory, and places like Vanderbilt and Rice. You need to go a little down the food chain; Tulane is a good choice as is U of Miami and many private schools in the lower half of the top 100.</p>
<p>^^^
agree with the above about difficulty to get merit from WashU, Emory, Vandy and Rice. Even if you’re a top student (Val, stellar stats, etc), it is still competitive. The Val at our kids’ school (perfect SAT, perfect scores, tons of top e/cs) was shocked when Vandy didn’t offer anything to him except a piddly token NMF scholarship. He’s now at Auburn on a free-ride.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that WashU seemed to give a lot of its merit money to URMs to help with their diversity numbers. When I saw a past year’s description of winners, all the students were either Black, Hispanic, or American Indian. It’s fine with me that they do that, but the non-URM students need to know that, so they won’t bother spinning their wheels writing essays and such. Time is so limited during the college app process, who wants to waste hours chasing scholarships that really aren’t possible?</p>
<p>To the OP…how much merit are you looking for? Full tuition? Full-ride? Half-tuition? What? And, what are your D’s stats? Many of us can tell you where to look for $$.</p>
<p>My D’s stats are 3.85 unweighted gpa, 2360 SAT, 5s on math and history APs, great school involvement and community service, loves learning, social, great recs, top math and science abilities and grades,loves psych and bio and math
Looking for 1/2 tuition would be very helpful if private school to make it feasible
Hope this helps…
D wants challenge as she has thrived at a very challenging h.s. and prefers urban or near urban environment, liberal but not granola kid
She is willing to fill out more apps, essays,etc. to expand possibilities</p>
<p>Don’t overlook state schools as a possible source of merit money.</p>
<p>You don’t happen to live in Maryland, do you? An in-state student with your daughter’s stats would have a good chance at significant merit money from the University of Maryland at College Park, but kids must apply by November 1 to be eligible for merit scholarships. Even an out of stater might have a chance at some money, so throwing an application their way might be worth the trouble even if you don’t live in Maryland. UMCP may be a state school, but its rankings are comparable to those of Tulane, and it offers easy access to Washington, DC, which is a big plus for a lot of students. It’s quite possible to schedule all your classes on two or three days of the week and do a part-time internship in DC on the other days, if that happens to appeal to the student. UMCP also has interesting honors and special interest programs for its top-caliber students.</p>
<p>Another option that might be worth considering is the University of Pittsburgh. I know of out of state students with stats in your daughter’s range who have gotten large merit scholarships and other perks (such as the opportunity to participate in research as early as freshman year) there. And a lot of people think that Pittsburgh is a nice city.</p>
<p>It might not hurt to send an application to the Schreyer honors college at Penn State, either. I’m not sure how good they are with merit money, but the perks – including first priority in registration for courses – are quite good. Also, Penn State is in the middle of nowhere, which might be a minus for your daughter.</p>
<p>Look at Grinnell. I know it’s not “medium sized” but I do think it’s worth a look. You daughter is a top student, and it’s one of the top schools that gives merit money. Smith is worthy of a look as well.</p>
<p>Tulane hands out 100 full scholarships to kids like yours. I believe the scholarship deadline is 12/1 but check the site to be sure. She will need to submit a “project” on a sheet of paper, but it really doesn’t have to be much. She also sounds like a great candidate for USC (southern cal) full and half scholarships. Their deadline is really early–November something.</p>
<p>D1 applied for merit aid at both WUSTL and Emory several years ago and I’d agree that they are both more selective than Tulane. The kids that get merit aid for WUSTL and Emory are generally also competitive candidates at the most selective colleges. </p>
<p>WUSTL has specific merit scholarships for AA and Hispanic students, a more general one (Danforth) and others for specific colleges within the school. All are very competitive and require separate applications. I’ve never seen a list of scholarship winners, so I can’t speak to their selection of URMs for the scholarships open to anyone.</p>
<p>Perhaps she should look into NYU? I believe they have decent merit money, and your daughter’s profile looks very strong. (You must be very proud of her!)</p>
<p>D was nominated for the Emory merit scholarship program by her high school but didn’t win it. She applied and was accepted to Emory, Vanderbilt and Tulane. She was also eligible by virtue of our EFC for a tiny bit of financial aid.</p>
<p>She ended up getting the most money offered by Tulane, followed next by Vanderbilt and then Emory. We were surprised with this outcome.</p>
<p>I also second the vote to look at OOS publics. University of South Carolina has outstanding merit aid (cheaper than instate tuition!). When S got this offer, we REALLY wanted him to take it. (He didn’t). But do look at their Honors Program.</p>
<p>Cathcart53-
From my experience, the “top” CC schools have kids applying with similar stats, hence less merit aid awarded.
Privates seem to offer more merit $$ than public.
Son with very similar stats to your daughter (4.0 Unwieghted GPA and 13 AP’s) was weightlisted at WUSL. Best merit awards were from his safties. Ended up with full tuition and many,many perks and honors at Miami and very good money (maybe 3/4 tution or lower at Tulane.) Ended up at Miami over some great schools. Decided to save the $$$ for grad school. Loves Miami by the way.</p>
<p>Thanks again to all of you kind parents!
My daughter has now decided to expand from UCs to add WashU, Emory, Tulane and GW…and she is very organized already with her college counselor figuring out possible meetings in CA and app and financial aid deadlines…it’s work but she seems excited and motivated in addition to the high stress level.
Any suggestions for stress management in a super driven kid? She does exercise but not really slow down too much…may be difficult until this is all behind her.
I am very grateful to you all!</p>
<p>One other fyi about GW. D applied there also. She received what seemed like an extremely generous merit scholarship. And it was, BUT, GWU was among the most expensive schools she applied to. If she’d decided it was “the one”, we would have figured a way to make it work. But even with their “Presidential Scholarship”, it was a significant amount of cash to come up with. It probably was the most impressive-looking scholarship she received: came in a beautiful binder with a special printed certificate. She saved it, just because it was so pretty!</p>
<p>I guess the point here is to make sure your D has looked at the range of scholarships awarded by these schools, including the top scholarships, and calculate cost of attendance AFTER that. It’s important to understand the reality. It’s fabulous to feel wanted by these schools and enjoy that feeling. It’s also smart to be ready for the financial truth.
PS Re the stress management question for the “super-driven kid”?? I learned that while I couldn’t do much to get my D to slow down, I could do ALOT in controlling my own stress. I think that keeping my own emotions in check really made the most difference.
She’s genetically engineered to be a type A. She hasn’t changed, although she’s mellowed a little and now recognizes when her stress is taking her to the outer limits! But I sure have changed in learning to deal with it. Lots of deep breaths and not as much heart-thumping panic when she calls with those “meltdown” moments…Best of luck to you. This is a stressful time, but from my observations, the kids that take it seriously, are organized and realistic, come out with some great choices. And with your involvement, along what sounds like a decent counselor, your D will do just fine.
Please keep us posted on your journey. It’s fun, in a weird sort of mind-numbing, exhilirating kind of way :)</p>