I called admissions yesterday. I didn’t ask about ADS specifically as I assumed my daughter didn’t move on. However, I did ask about all of the other scholarships they offer, most of which did not require a separate application. They said they are just beginning that process and those awards would just be placed right into the child’s financial aid portal. They said that process will be continuing until May 1. Fingers crossed as my kiddo would love to attend MSU.
We went through the ADS process a couple years ago with my daughter. She really enjoyed it (as did we as parents). She even found someone somewhat local with which to room. She had some scholarships coming into the ADS weekend but did not get anything further.
The test seemed so hokey to me. It was impossible to know how you did with any certainty because of the nature of the questions. Always seemed to me to be a way of getting kids there and excited about the school while allowing the school to pick the kids they wanted to give additional scholarships. Test had nothing to do with it (or at least little to do with it).
MSU gave room and board scholarships at the time (which are taxable to the student) while less than 100% of tuition was covered by scholarships (tuition scholarships not being taxed). Why give taxable scholarships when there are still room to give non-taxable scholarships? And the room and board scholarships were only for on campus housing and I couldn’t get anything to say there was a guaranty you could live on campus all 4 years if you wanted to do so. I think the expectation was that you would likely want to move off campus (or wouldn’t be able to live on campus) at some point and would thus lose that portion of the scholarship.
Bottom line is everyone needs to look at the deals they have on the table and pick the one they view as best for their own circumstances.
We did not hear anything but I want to tell everyone, especially those with professorial assistantships, its such a great experience for students. My son is a junior and he has gotten so much out of his relationships with his professors and his PA experience! Its sort of like graduate school in the way they treat honors kids.
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My son got the email this morning that he was not advancing in the ADS competition.
I just spoke with someone in admissions who said those who are not advancing in the competition were notified via e-mail last week. Letters were sent to semi-finalists via snail mail Monday 2/24. We know D didn’t make finalist, but we also didn’t receive an e-mail, so I’m thinking maybe semi-finalist? Hopefully we will know by the end of this week. Anyone else not heard anything either way yet?
My S just received an additional award of $1500/year which was (according to the letter) related to his “participation in the Alumni Distinguished Scholarship Competition” – this was on top of several larger and previously awarded scholarships. This new scholarship letter appeared in his portal last week. The letter did note that not all ADS participants received this award, but might be worth a quick check in your portals…
My son ended up getting the same thing. My guess is that some of the kids that were semi-finalists withdrew or decided to go elsewhere. Then there was extra money left that they offered to kids that are interested or planning to go there. It was a nice addition. With the virus, I think there is going to be a lot of schools scrambling and doing what they need to do to keep or attract top students.
Son also received this additional award - Go Green!