<p>DD applied to a total of 8 schools (all RD), 4 are 100% need based, 3 offers some big merit aids, and one has a rolling admission (state U).</p>
<p>She is already in the honor program of state U with some merit money. We also know we will not hear anything from the need based schools until late March or early April. </p>
<p>My questions is about those three that offers merit aids. I read from their web sites that each of these major scholarship will start to conduct phone interviews in Feb. The question is. If DD got a phone interview for schalorship, does it mean she has at least a very chance of be admitted into that school?</p>
<p>From my experience last year, yes she has an excellent chance, as you really have to be in the tippy top of the application pool to even be considered for a large merit scholarship.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine that an applicant who progressed to the phone interview round would not end up being admitted. HOWEVER … I know someone who ended up waitlisted at WashU a couple years ago after contacts from the school that certainly made it seem as if he would be accepted. I know that he had been considered for a scholarship, but I am not sure how far in the process he was (may not have ever made it to personal interviews).</p>
<p>Nothing’s ever 100% until you have your offer of admission in your hand … but an interview for a merit scholarship is a very good omen! Best of luck to your DD.</p>
<p>Doesn’t it depend upon whether this is a scolarship for which you have to apply separately (like in WasHU), or were candidates are selected among all applicants? In the first case scholarship review may be independent of admissions. In the second case candidates are selected among admitted or at least likely admitted candidates.</p>
<p>kelsmom, that’s interesting about WUSTL. Last year my D visited on one of their Diversity days and was invited to interview for a scholarship. However, it conflicted with another scholarship weekend so she ended up not going. Although she wasn’t awarded a scholarship, she was admitted.</p>
<p>citymom, even though scholarship committees are sometimes separate from admissions, I think it still holds true that the level of student being considered is very high in comparison to the entire field of applicants. And while it is never a sure thing, I think that the answer to the OP’s question, “does it mean she has at least a very chance of be admitted into that school?”, is definitely yes.</p>
<p>DadII - Just curious, I thought that washU was one of the schools she was looking at for merit award. But you mention that the 3 merit award schools were doing phone interviews - washU does not do merit award phone interviews.</p>
<p>Entomom, it was really strange. The odd thing was that another student in his class ended up getting the scholarship. She really wasn’t interested in attending the school (just wanted to see if she could get in & one thing led to another … voila, she is offered a full scholarship). He, on the other hand, had been offered a position on a team pending admission, had visited several times, etc. Both students were very top students, so it’s not like the girl who got the scholarship wasn’t deserving. It was just that he & his parents felt really misled when he got waitlisted. This happened the year before we got into the admissions game, and we made sure that D understood that “anything goes” in high stakes admissions. As it was, our D got into a couple reach schools but waitlisted at one that was quite surprising. That’s the nature of the game, though.</p>