Merit scholarships at top schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you looked at LinkedIn or something like that, it maybe just because that’s not their complete profile.

Basically, schools like Duke, Vandy , JHU and other slightly lowers ones like Rice, Emory, etc, use merit scholarships to pull students from Ivies. Generally those applicants have offers from Ivies too.

Generally, state colleges give merit based on stats, like SAT, GPA. Private schools will consider leadership, community impact and etc. it’s hard to believe they are ordinary.

My kid gave up a full ride for a T5. We know the qualifications of another kid who accepted the full-ride — she did not get into a T5 as she just did not have the awards etc. both unhooked kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of these scholarships are need-aware. Most recipients probably come from high schools where no one has ever heard of that alphabet soup of acronyms OP cares so much about.

My kid has a merit scholarship at Notre Dame. We'd be full pay, as would (I think) many of the others who are in the scholarship group.

Are they going?

We'll see! It's very tempting. On top of the scholarship, they have an honors program and tons of summer money. We hear they have great grad school exmissions (which is important to DC, probable more important than the tight alumni network). So even if kid gets into a T5 (hasn't yet), we'd have to think.

My DC took this ND scholarship -- hasn't regretted it for a minute! GL with your decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:National merit scholarships are based on PSAT scores and that’s it. They are nothing. Nobody cares about them. That’s why the top schools don’t have many.

So colleges don't care about the national merit qualifying test, which you can only take once, but care tons about the regular SAT, which you can take over and over again if you have the means? I believe you're right, but that approach makes little sense to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:National merit scholarships are based on PSAT scores and that’s it. They are nothing. Nobody cares about them. That’s why the top schools don’t have many.

So colleges don't care about the national merit qualifying test, which you can only take once, but care tons about the regular SAT, which you can take over and over again if you have the means? I believe you're right, but that approach makes little sense to me.

Some do care. Alabama gives full ride. USC gives 20k per year. Most schools don’t give anything for NMF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you looked at LinkedIn or something like that, it maybe just because that’s not their complete profile.

Basically, schools like Duke, Vandy , JHU and other slightly lowers ones like Rice, Emory, etc, use merit scholarships to pull students from Ivies. Generally those applicants have offers from Ivies too.

Generally, state colleges give merit based on stats, like SAT, GPA. Private schools will consider leadership, community impact and etc. it’s hard to believe they are ordinary.

My kid gave up a full ride for a T5. We know the qualifications of another kid who accepted the full-ride — she did not get into a T5 as she just did not have the awards etc. both unhooked kids.

Needs-based if it’s a T5.

[Anonymous]

The lack of merit is why these schools are not for MC kids in the donut hole any longer.

[Anonymous]

Some schools like Duke are not looking for the brightest minds. They don’t care about ground-breaking research or discovery - those kids go to different schools - some huge universities depending on subject. They are looking for wealthy kids or promising kids already schooled in the ways of country clubs, handshakes, and philanthropic networking, who will move on to board rooms and investment firms. You don’t need NMF for that, you need connections and an understanding of how things work. People misinterpret that some top schools do not indicate intellect, but they do indicate know-how

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They want those qualifications but some special qualities on top of that to bring additional value to their community.

But they don’t in fact have those qualifications (NMF). That’s the point. If they did, Duke and such would be loaded with “special quality” + NMF. But, they aren’t. They just have the “special qualities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some schools like Duke are not looking for the brightest minds. They don’t care about ground-breaking research or discovery - those kids go to different schools - some huge universities depending on subject. They are looking for wealthy kids or promising kids already schooled in the ways of country clubs, handshakes, and philanthropic networking, who will move on to board rooms and investment firms. You don’t need NMF for that, you need connections and an understanding of how things work. People misinterpret that some top schools do not indicate intellect, but they do indicate know-how

This is total BS re Duke.

Stereotype do not equal reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The lack of merit is why these schools are not for MC kids in the donut hole any longer.

+1

[Anonymous]

What are IMO or IPO gold / ISEF? And who cares? Is this the only merit in your book?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of these scholarships are need-aware. Most recipients probably come from high schools where no one has ever heard of that alphabet soup of acronyms OP cares so much about.

This. Top schools don’t have to offer merit to get top students, so they don’t.

OP is talking about the schools that offer a very few merit scholarships. You don’t hear much about these scholarships because they are small in number & tend to be ridiculously hard to get. They are meant to lure students who would almost certainly get into HYPMS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So let me get this straight. The only way to avoid not going into a soul crushing student debt is to go around begging money from Junk Food and Pharmaceutical Companies. Lol. Like " Hey Mr Perdue pharma, in know I don't take your crazy pills and opioids but I sure would like some of your blood money.".
"Hey McDonald's please give me some greasy funds so I can go to med school"

It's kind of like how our elections are sponsored by Super Pac funding and then the candidates have to scratch the poison companies and the billionaires backs to give them a ROI for their gifts.

Why does every single industry have to be consolidated to monopolies that exploit our own people.

Capitalism has gone basically as far as it can go without going full Nazi. Thank a rich person today for our modern Groypers and Proud Boys who are uneducated dimwit magas many of whom are in better financial situations that college grads bc. It's backwards. College was sold to us as a lifter out of poverty not a sentence to poverty. That's why it's a slap in the face to us tax paying educated workers when billionaires give the good jobs to European applicants (who go to college for free because their rich people pay taxes, their elections are not financed by Walmart, etc). Making Americans second class to the Germans in our own country all because billionaires want to impress their friends with fancy accents as Americans suffer ...and pay higher tax shares for your Rolls to use our roads.

There are ways to avoid the soul-crushing college debt and still get an excellent education. But some people are so obsessed with prestige that they choose to accept having the debt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So let me get this straight. The only way to avoid not going into a soul crushing student debt is to go around begging money from Junk Food and Pharmaceutical Companies. Lol. Like " Hey Mr Perdue pharma, in know I don't take your crazy pills and opioids but I sure would like some of your blood money.".
"Hey McDonald's please give me some greasy funds so I can go to med school"

It's kind of like how our elections are sponsored by Super Pac funding and then the candidates have to scratch the poison companies and the billionaires backs to give them a ROI for their gifts.

Why does every single industry have to be consolidated to monopolies that exploit our own people.

Capitalism has gone basically as far as it can go without going full Nazi. Thank a rich person today for our modern Groypers and Proud Boys who are uneducated dimwit magas many of whom are in better financial situations that college grads bc. It's backwards. College was sold to us as a lifter out of poverty not a sentence to poverty. That's why it's a slap in the face to us tax paying educated workers when billionaires give the good jobs to European applicants (who go to college for free because their rich people pay taxes, their elections are not financed by Walmart, etc). Making Americans second class to the Germans in our own country all because billionaires want to impress their friends with fancy accents as Americans suffer ...and pay higher tax shares for your Rolls to use our roads.

This is creepy AI spam, and we should all report it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The handful of merit scholarships available at Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice, Chicago, Notre Dame, WashU, and Northwestern are basically lotteries for every admitted student. The Ivy league schools don't offer merit scholarships. Nor do Stanford and MIT.

Honestly those who get merit at these schools are pretty indisguishable from those who don't.

The people who get these scholarships come in as freshmen with the ability to run things like big-budget student governments and college radio stations at an excellent level.

They’re people who could have gone to JMU when they were 12 and performed well.