FYI I was just looking at the common app and it says this under UMN:
How to submit your high school grades:
All applicants must self-report all of their high school courses and grades. You have two options for fulfilling this requirement:
-Courses and Grades section: Complete the Common App Courses and Grades section. In order to access the Courses and Grades section, you must check “Yes, I have access to my transcript.”
-STARS platform: Complete your STAR (self-reported transcript and academic record) through the STARS platform. If you have already completed a STAR for another university, it can be linked to your University of Minnesota application as well.
Yes, their web site says (on this page) “If you skip the Courses and Grades section on Common App, you will be prompted to complete your application by self-reporting your academic information on the STARS platform.” (Just like Pitt, in the past they used the SRAR for courses & grades info. This is the first year I think Courses & Grades has been an option for them.)
I was surprised however that it linked the two on its own, even after Courses & Grades was completely filled out. It did not prompt D or say anything about STARS when she submitted her common app… it just sneakily linked them
We were told that when my daughter was applying for colleges so I called each of the schools to confirm that we did not need to fill out the FAFSA. I have done the same for my son’s colleges. Between the 20 colleges total they applied to, not one has tied merit to filling out the FAFSA. So it must be somewhat rare?
When D19 was applying there were a few schools on her list who required fafsa for merit - all privates (who also required CSS). I haven’t checked for C26’s schools yet (their list is all publics).
NYU was definitely one of them, I don’t remember specific others because D19 didn’t proceed with other applications after admittance there, but I do remember a couple mentioning it during the admissions presentations. But you only need one right?, as once it’s done it’s shared with everyone who needs it. Of course, some colleges may have changed their policies since then so always good to check.
From what our school counselors have said, NYU only offers need-based aid, no merit scholarships. The year before D24’s graduating class, a student at our high school applied to and got accepted to NYU (did not apply ED though). Counselors recommended to consider NPC. Kid’s parents told their son to not worry about it, you’ll get scholarship money and we’ll figure it out later.
Guess what? The parents were really surprised that not only did NYU not award any scholarship money, but because of their household income, they would be a full pay family. And they couldn’t afford that.
So their son didn’t attend his dream school. He went elsewhere. Family was pretty devastated.
Well, they have changed their funding model since D19 was there - meeting need was not guaranteed then (and I seem to recall the average need award did not meet full need) and the NYU promise is new since her day. They used to offer limited merit - I seem to recall the top x% (may have been 10% but not sure) of incoming students in each school was offered some merit. I don’t know if this is still the case. (Obviously these were only determined after the class was finalized.) Then there were the MLK scholarships that were a combination of need and merit - not sure if they still offer those. Again, why it’s good to confirm each year if things are the same.
So they probably changed this when they instituted the NYU Promise then, with more need aid presumably crowding out the previous merit awards. They also reduced the freshman intake from that year to be able to meet need of the incoming class.
Sorry for so many questions about STARS, but I have another one, or rather S26 has one. STARS has a place to add colleges. So do you update there every time you submit an app for a college that uses STARS?
I don’t know about other colleges, but both Pitt and UMN automatically linked themselves to my D’s STARS. What other colleges is your S considering that use STARS?
This is funny, but D26’s college advising office wants to nominate her for the Belk scholarship at Davidson (which is a full ride – 12 students are chosen after an interview process, I think). She is supposed to tell them by Monday if she is interested in this nomination.
The reason it’s funny is because my D22 was also nominated for the same scholarship. She was actually interested in Davidson because she wanted a small school, and she enjoyed the tour. However, they didn’t really offer her major (she could have cobbled it together, sort of), so she had decided not to apply when the school offered the nomination. And she figured, free college was free college, lol. Turns out she didn’t even get in, never mind chosen to interview for the scholarship – she was waitlisted.
D26 didn’t have Davidson on her radar because she is adamant that she doesn’t want a small school. Also, she started her search intent on having marching band, although she has now relented and said pep band is okay. But we looked at the school’s website, and turns out they DO offer a major that aligns with her interests – which is rare to find at such a small school.
She’s debating what to do. I seriously doubt that she’ll win this scholarship, even if she gets into the school. And even that is a huge if – Davidson has a 13% acceptance rate, and they’re big on demonstrated interest, of which she has shown zero.
But, it’s a fun thing to think about, and we’re going to talk about it further. There are a couple of supplemental essays, but nothing too crazy.
I’m sure you know this, but I’ll say it anyway in case you don’t and it turns out she is interested, the virtual visits and things are a great way to get some demonstrated interest at many schools without having to go there. Some schools have virtual info sessions and virtual tours you can do. Some also have Q&A sessions with a student or other things as well. They are usually an hour or so each. We’ve used that for schools we can’t visit and it has been useful.
That is a good tip, thank you! I’ll definitely tell her to do that if she decides to accept the nomination and apply.
Thankfully Davidson is only a 4-hour drive for us, so we can easily swing a tour – but not until after band competition season (Bandtober, lol) is over. So she’d need to apply before then.
