<p>Saw the post where someone asked “what were your stats if you got in” so I’m kinda curious as to what your stats were if you got a scholarship. My daughter was accepted to Chapel Hill and was a Morehead nominee (did not get it), had a 2150 on her SAT, perfect GPA with hard subjects,(never made a B on her report card in her life), rank # 1 in her class, only one AP score (at time of application as her school does not offer that many AP subjects), lots of extracurriculars, and awards (art and math), great essays, but no sports. She received NO hint at a scholarship, which left me puzzled.</p>
<p>I’m a little disappointed in this, as a parent who will be paying the bill for college, and that I think she deserves a scholarship, but I’m also aware that Carolina is a top rated school with top applicants from around the USA, so I know that in that, there are students with the 2300 to 2400 SATs, multiple APs, and multiple leadership roles and captains of sports, etc. But I AM just curious…if you don’t mind my asking. </p>
<p>Hi, I remember well what you are feeling. It’s a very frustrating time. Glad it’s over for now, I’ve got a few years before the next D is a senior. My oldest D is a freshman this year. We ran ourselves ragged last year filling out scholarship apps and going to scholarship interviews, Morehead, UVA’s Jefferson, and a few others. D made it through semis but in the end wasn’t chosen for any of those. We were beginning to ask, just WHAT does it take? She was finally invited to UNC’s Scholarship day last Feb. and was awarded Carolina Scholars Scholarship. She was also given a spot in the Honors program. It is very competitive and many well deserving kids are at Carolina w/o honors and/or scholarship. If you look at Carolina’s admission stats page, you’ll find the class of 2010’s stats.: “The Class of 2010 -Seventy-six percent were in the top 10 percent of their high school class; nearly 40 percent were among the top 10 students. 12 percent were a valedictorian or salutatorian. More than 85 percent graduated with a grade-point average of 4.0 or higher. average SAT was 1293(reading and math scores, not including writing), with 22 percent scoring 1400 or better”
I know that 2011’s class is even stronger: average SAT was over 1300 (again R& M), more valedictorians & salutatorians, etc. and I wouldn’t doubt that the class of 2012 will be the strongest, yet. It’s just mind boggling to me how competitive it is.
My D has gotten to know many of the Honors/Scholarship kids this year in classes and in social outtings for kids in her scholarship group. These kids are ethnically diverse and have a huge array of interests and gifts but I think I seen a common thread. All of these scholarship kids do have high SAT’s, top grades, and all you mention above. (D also has met many kids with the same high level of Stats, w/o scholarships.) The “key” seems to be the scholarship kids have a “passion” that they’ve gone above and beyond in. My D’s passion is Japanese. She founded Japanese club at her school, and through her persistance got Japanese level 4 and AP Japanese added at her school. She with the help of Jp. teachers formed and lead the school’s 1st Japan bowl team, ended up winning the state championship, and a trip to National Jp Bowl in D.C. their very first year. They placed in top 6 in nation. She’s done travel/study trip to Jp. and done volunteer work w/ Japanese groups in Charlotte area. She also did lots of volunteer work, H.S. swimming, grad.#1 in class, National AP scholar, Pres. and V.P. of clubs, etc. I don’t mean to go on and on with this, just wanted to give you a detailed example that I know well. Other kids have spent summers building Habitat for Humanity houses across the country, volunteering in other countries, etc. A local girl who has been awarded a Carolina Scholar award plus Honors program this year earned Girl Scout Gold Award, President’s Volunteer Gold award, played 2 sports all 4 years, and lead her school’s Moot court team to 2 back to back state championships. She, too has high stats and done much more, but you get the picture. Another local girl, a National merit finalist, #1 in class, governors school, many AP’s, sports, etc. made it to several top scholarship semis but did not win any and is deferred at her 1st choice, an Ivy. The difference that I see is the absence of a “passion” or “hook” as many people call it.<br>
-Sorry for the long post, I hope it helps. There may still be some scholarships out there. Several of D’s friends were awarded smaller merit awards w/o being invited to Scholarship day. I think it was listed in their financial aid packet. Best Wishes.
P.S. there are IS and OOS Carolina Scholars</p>
<p>Thanks, uncwifeandmom, for long, thoughtful post.</p>
<p>I think I know salem and her daughter (pm me, salem, if you want to confirm). If so, her D definitely has her own passions and definitely could compete for a scholarship.</p>
<p>It’s hard, though, because demographics this year made it tough (so many amazing 17-18-year olds!) and I suspect geographic considerations come into play as well.</p>
<p>One consolation: it’s clear UNC will be filled with brilliant, dedicated, passionate students. Perhaps our daughters will be among them, and we’ll just eat peanut butter sandwiches or find jobs that pay better (or worse).</p>
<p>Salem & uncwife&mom. I went back and took a look at the scholarship and yes, the merit scholarships are for both IS & OOS. Sorry if I confused anyone. Where my mistake came is that My S so far has only received the 2012 Distinguished Scholarship worth $2500 a year and this one is only for NC students. To answer the OP question, at least according to the offer, it seems that much more was involved than just stats.</p>
<p>Good luck, sounds like UNC will have an outstanding freshman class.</p>
<p>I’m thinking that “passion” is probably a poor term to use, but that’s the word that a scholarship/admissions person at Carolina used when I was talking with him. It seems to me (IMHO) to be more the “uniqueness” and the extent these kids ran with it. Funny, my husband and I were worried that D spent too much time on Japanese that she wouldn’t be well rounded enough. But in all her scholarship interviews, including Morehead and Jefferson, that’s mostly what the interviewers kept going back to. They were fasinated that she as a high school student had reached a level of fluency thats usually only native speakers can. But,… she didn’t get any of those scholarships. I truly believe it did come down to “well roundedness” and some geographic/demographics in those decisions. In all the Moreheads that I’ve met over the past few years not one has played (and excelled in) less than 2 high school sports. -D only played 1 sport, and made regionals only 1 year. -In the Jefferson only one from our large region of NC progresses, plus D’s school already had a Jefferson scholar who was still enrolled. A Jefferson alumni told me “Jesus could have walked in and had he been from your area, he wouldn’t have won this year.”
A friend once told me in regards to scholarship selection process, “they’re ‘splitting’ hairs”, I think they are down to “splitting already split hairs”!!<br>
As far as Salem’s daughter goes, she does have the class rank and SAT score, etc. that would make her competitive for an IS scholarship award (OSS’s do generally have higher SAT’s) it could just be that her lack of opportunity to take AP’s hurt her. We’re fighting our school board right now over closing very successful magnet and IB programs. They’re just trying to save money to use in “no child left behind” required efforts (don’t let me get started on that!) but it’s going to hurt our counties’ bright, motivated kids, they now have much fewer opportunities to excel. Sadly, in admissions to highly competitive universities and/or scholarships, the kids with more opportunities are the ones (in most cases) that win out.
–one last thing…
my D LOVES going to college with so many super bright, pasionate, intelligent people (from time to time she shakes her head on a few) she struggled through 4 years at an intercity public school (it HAD a magnet program) with many gangs, drugs and a huge dropout rate. She was harrassed in the bathrooms and while going from class to class. Carolina is like Heaven to her.<br>
-Hope your girls will be joining her in “Carolina Heaven”.</p>
<p>i got one for $5 K/ year. ( i really have no clue how either if it was based on scholarship day).<br>
basic stats
2310 SAT; Sat 2s reported to unc: 790,760,660; taken 8 APs (sr year included); 1 class @ unc. ranked in top 2 % of 370+ students
president of a couple clubs, 4 year bball player, have captained and lettered
i think i had really good recs though.
in-state</p>
<p>When rating & ranking prep boarding schools based on “college matriculation success”, I noticed that St. Paul’s School of Concord, New Hampshire matriculated at least one Morehead Scholar at UNC & at least one Jefferson Scholar at UVa. during the past four years. This is noteworthy because student GPAs from the elite New England boarding schools tend not to be as high as other private schools (many with less than a 3.0 GPA are admitted to Ivies due to the academic intensity & strict grading of the curriculum) so their grades must be taken in context. Also, very few AP courses.</p>
<p>My friend goes to St. Paul’s and he takes classes similar to AP classes but thay don’t count as AP classes toward your GPA. Since they aren’t geared toward the AP exam there are very few fives. Also it seems that the variety of classes that they can take is minimal. It just seems like even though people score about the same from St. Pauls as kids from my school, except at least 50 go to an IVY or Stanford from his school because of it’s reputation($50,000 a year for tuition).</p>
<p>Okay folks, here it is straight from the horse’s mouth, or Carolina scholars’ mouths. I just spoke to D for our usual Sunday afternoon catch-up, she was w/ a few of her fellow scholars, so I asked her did she (they) see any difference between themselves and others not in honors and/or scholarship? The answer was: “yes, there is a difference”, while they agreed that many people have similar stats, the difference they see is “the uniqueness of our interests, and the Extreme level of our Nerdiness!”</p>
<p>my friend was named a carolina scholar this year (out of state). she is currently 1st in our class, made a 2310 on her SAT, captain of cross country team, president of food bank club and habitat for humanity, and editor-in-chief of the yearbook. she is also currently at the morehead finalists’ weekend. i hope that gives you a sense of how tough the scholarships are to get. </p>
<p>i got in early (out of state) with a 3.77 and 2180, and i haven’t heard anything about scholarships or the honors program. i’m keeping my fingers crossed, but i know it’s not likely.</p>
<p>So would you say that if a deferred student received information about scholarships then it is a good indication of acceptance or could it be a mistake?</p>
<p>Are you referring to information regarding National Merit or other UNC scholarships? If the former, qualifying for a National Merit scholarship offered by a university doesn’t necessarily translate to an acceptance to the university.</p>
<p>i am starting to see that! one highly thought of school on here says they don’t even care about national merit cause it just confirms you have a good score and they can see that from the sat scores sent to them. that not only surprises me but makes me rethink the school. yes, they can see that your scores are good but that is like saying the national honor society or presidents list or any merit award is not important because your grades or scores already them this. very shocked by that attitude or is it just me overthinking it all.</p>
<p>I doubt too many schools ignore National Merit status and I feel sure most give it some weight in the admissions process. However, as you have indicated, some schools give it more weight than others. I would quess that things such as National Honor Society, honor roll, etc are not given much weight. The strength of the curriculum and the grades achieved tell much more than any of these distinctions, including National Merit.</p>