Scholarship Questions

Alexander93

5-Year Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2010
Messages
23
I recently received a 4 year scholarship to Duke University and University of Tennessee-Knoxville. I applied to ED to Duke University and I get the admissions decision a couple days before I have to make my decision as to which college I will accept the scholarship for. My question is, if I do not get into Duke, would it be possible for me to defer my scholarship until the second round to try and get a scholarship to a school that I did not receive one for in the first round? I would much rather go to my #2 school over University of Tennessee. Any incite would be helpful.
 
1.Which ROTC branch? Army?
2. When do you find out your ED acceptance for Duke?
 
I recently received a 4 year scholarship to Duke University and University of Tennessee-Knoxville. I applied to ED to Duke University and I get the admissions decision a couple days before I have to make my decision as to which college I will accept the scholarship for. My question is, if I do not get into Duke, would it be possible for me to defer my scholarship until the second round to try and get a scholarship to a school that I did not receive one for in the first round? I would much rather go to my #2 school over University of Tennessee. Any incite would be helpful.

I'm sorry to say that you have to accept a scholarship within the time period allotted.

Unfortunately, that is one of the weaknesses of the current system.

My advice FWIW, is if you need the money to make either school work, take it where you know you will be admitted (UTK) and see if you can switch it to Duke in the spring when there is an opportunity to change (no guarantees of course) given that you are admitted to Duke (which is certainly not guaranteed - Duke is becoming as competitive as Ivy League Schools).

If you can afford UTK without the scholarship (and not so much Duke $$) and feel like swinging for the fences, take the crap shoot on Duke and then try the transfer the other way around if admissions doesn't pan out.

Hoping that you don't have to make such a choice. Best of luck.
 
I'm sorry to say that you have to accept a scholarship within the time period allotted.

Unfortunately, that is one of the weaknesses of the current system.

My advice FWIW, is if you need the money to make either school work, take it where you know you will be admitted (UTK) and see if you can switch it to Duke in the spring when there is an opportunity to change (no guarantees of course) given that you are admitted to Duke (which is certainly not guaranteed - Duke is becoming as competitive as Ivy League Schools).

If you can afford UTK without the scholarship (and not so much Duke $$) and feel like swinging for the fences, take the crap shoot on Duke and then try the transfer the other way around if admissions doesn't pan out.

Hoping that you don't have to make such a choice. Best of luck.

Thank you for clarifying this for me. It's upsetting that I cannot defer until the second round but it is still a happy situation. I find out the admissions decision from Duke before I have to make my choice as to which school I will accept the scholarship for so if I do not get into Duke, I'll still at least know that I will get the scholarship for UTK.
 
I get the admissions decision a couple days before I have to make my decision as to which college I will accept the scholarship for

Your ED chances to Duke are pretty good
Early Decision acceptance rate: 30-39% LINK and LINK

A 32 ACT puts you dead center if you are in A&S LINK (25% is 30act and 75% is 34act)

If I were you I would be on the phone - a lot- with Duke, the PMS, ROO, admissions and anyone who will listen.
(In person if you can)
There are about 18 people in the admissions office, start at the bottom of the list, work your way up.LINK
Make the case you have a AROTC 12/19 deadline and you need their help. One of those 18 will listen, finding which one will take some effort.
Persistent and polite...no time to be a wall flower.
 
Thank you for clarifying this for me. It's upsetting that I cannot defer until the second round but it is still a happy situation. I find out the admissions decision from Duke before I have to make my choice as to which school I will accept the scholarship for so if I do not get into Duke, I'll still at least know that I will get the scholarship for UTK.

I graduated from UTK. Loved my time here. What do you want to major in? It's decent for most things and has only raised its standards since so your probably OK in the long run. Where I work now (military aviation development), I and another key leader are both UTK grads. My son is recruited very heavily by most of the very selective schools and couldn't stand Duke. Wasted the first 45 minutes of our "get to know Duke" meeting bragging about how 'Green' they were. We couldn't get out of there fast enough. :thumbdown:

At UTK, I was upstairs with AF ROTC and the Army boys were were on the floor below us. I went out on one of their weekend exercises and it was a blast. They seemed to be intense but still had a good time. Good luck.
 
Since you have time to wait until Duke lets you know their ED decision, then wait. Once you find out, send that piece of paper in that very second! Good Luck!!
 
If I were you I would be on the phone - a lot- with Duke, the PMS, ROO, admissions and anyone who will listen.
(In person if you can)
There are about 18 people in the admissions office, start at the bottom of the list, work your way up.LINK
Make the case you have a AROTC 12/19 deadline and you need their help. One of those 18 will listen, finding which one will take some effort.
Persistent and polite...no time to be a wall flower.

Thanks, I think I'm going to take that advice.

I graduated from UTK. Loved my time here. What do you want to major in? It's decent for most things and has only raised its standards since so your probably OK in the long run.

I plan on majoring in Political Science and maybe a language. Does UTK have a good program for that?

Since you have time to wait until Duke lets you know their ED decision, then wait. Once you find out, send that piece of paper in that very second! Good Luck!!

I plan on it and hopefully I'll have good news in a couple of days. Thank you!
 
I plan on majoring in Political Science and maybe a language. Does UTK have a good program for that?

Yep, though Dean Iredall, a loved and respected UT Poly Sci prof has passed away it's a great program and you will generally find most colleges with good Law Colleges also have better than average Poly Sci departments and UT has both.

http://web.utk.edu/~polisci/default.html

They also have the Senator Howard Baker Center for Public Policy which only adds more prestige and opportunities.

http://bakercenter.utk.edu/author/baker-center/

Dr Gorman is a great professor, will challenge you to 'prove' democracy rules over true marxism. Fun, thought provoking classes.

They have a honors program now too that will help you feel more challenged if you need that.

http://web.utk.edu/~polisci/honors.html

Another plus, the dedicated Poly Sci building is kind of centrally located which was a lot more convenient than lugging all the way up the hill in the freezing cold at o'dark thirty in the middle of winters...
 
Have you talked to both PMS's about this situation? How about trying to call the PMS at UTK, and tell him that if you don't get into Duke you plan on attending his school. What is the PMS/ROO telling you about your chances at Duke. Most ROTC programs have some realtionship with admissions at their colleges. We all have great advice here on the discussion board, and I don't want to stifle the discussion here, but I can't say it enough...talk to the schools/battalions. They can work with you.
 
I agree with clarkson. Some ROTCs have an "in" with admissions, some have no impact at all.

Do you know if Duke takes ROTC into consideration when it comes to admission.
 
Have you talked to both PMS's about this situation? How about trying to call the PMS at UTK, and tell him that if you don't get into Duke you plan on attending his school. What is the PMS/ROO telling you about your chances at Duke. Most ROTC programs have some realtionship with admissions at their colleges. We all have great advice here on the discussion board, and I don't want to stifle the discussion here, but I can't say it enough...talk to the schools/battalions. They can work with you.

I agree with clarkson. Some ROTCs have an "in" with admissions, some have no impact at all.

Do you know if Duke takes ROTC into consideration when it comes to admission.

Thanks luckymacy for all the great info on UT. I'm happy to hear they have a good political science program if I do end up attending there. And yes, I've actually met with both of them personally. At Duke, they sent a list to admissions with the prospective students that received the four year scholarship, but the ROO seemed unsure of what kind of affect this has on admissions. I believe she just transferred from another school and is still getting used to how things work at Duke. When we spoke about my chances at Duke she said that the only problem I had was my below average GPA (3.63 unweighted)
 
I am only speaking from an AFROTC Mom regarding our DS's college. At his college, admissions don't talk to ROTC. It appears that them sending a list would insinuate they talk to each other regarding the decision making process. Otherwise, there is no need to inform them of who is on the AROTC list.

I know UNCCH does "talk". Our DS never applied to them, but when Feb rolled around he received a letter saying he was accepted if he filled some paperwork out. We later found out that it was because the ROTC det knew he had a ROTC scholarship and talked to admissions. He didn't apply and to this day his friends tease him about turning down UNCCH.

NYU also did the same.

Again, just saying as clarkson stated, colleges can have and impact, in some cases they can pull you across the finish line if you have that scholarship.

I will say that a 3.63 uw gpa can hurt, but the question is the course rigor you have taken and the course rigor of your school. If the majority of students go IVY and you have a 3.63, that can help because it means there is no/little grade inflation. If the majority go Public IS, than they will view that in a negative light. For example, in VA TJJHS is the number 1 public hs in the nation located in Fairfax county. 3.63 is not shabby. TJJHS is so high up in public magnet that they are no longer ranked public. Raleigh also has a magnet like TJJHS. This plays into the Whole system.

Have you gone on to www.collegeconfidential.com ? Go there, log onto the Duke forum and ask them to chance you. That will at least give you some insight if you are in the parameters for Duke ED.

Make sure you be as detailed as you can be or want to be when asking to be chanced.

I.E.
1. ROTC
2. APs
3. 3.63 uwgpa...X. YZ wgpa
4. ACT/SAT
5. Class ranking
6. ECs
7. Major
8. URM/ORM

The more you give the better assessment you will get.

Good luck!
 
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the only problem I had was my below average GPA (3.63 unweighted)

Alexander93,
If you go to Dukes common data set (page 9)
You will see that while GPA is considered for admission,
it is not categorized as 'very important' or 'important'.
As I said before, your odds are pretty good, hang in there,
call the PMS, ROO... be a polite pest, call admissions... be a polite pest.
 
The funny thing about GPA is that besides being an absolute average of your grades, it doesn't say much about your intellectual capability. I've seen 3.6's who can't find their way out of a paper bag, and I've known one (actually less than 3.6) who went on to be a top scholar at MIT.

Duke, as a highly competitive school with plenty of resources, probably does a deeper dive into your GPA than you think. They gather information about the graduates of high schools and how they fare at top institutions. This is how they equalize GPAs across their applicant pool.

I think the best indicator of your admissions likelyhood (which may take some help from your guidance counselor), would be to look at your HS's history of placing students at Duke (or similarly competitive institutions). If they have been using a tool called Naviance for a number of years, they should be able to give you their history of applicants to various schools, their GPAs, test scores, and admissions results.

What you need to know is how kids with your rank in your graduating class did with admissions to schools like Duke. It is your best indicator of your chances.
 
Duke, as a highly competitive school with plenty of resources, probably does a deeper dive into your GPA than you think. They gather information about the graduates of high schools and how they fare at top institutions. This is how they equalize GPAs across their applicant pool.

This is exactly what I meant when I said they would look at the rigor of the school.

Little known secrets...when the GC submits the transcript they also submit a school profile.

That profile includes such things as:
~~~AP courses available
~~~% that go Private, IS or OOS U's.
~~~% that go 4 yr compared to 2 yr
~~~% that go trade

People believe that your transcript only carries your grades, that is a fallacy. Order a sealed transcript and you will see a myriad of things.

For example:
~~~ It will show every date and score of your SAT/ACT
~~~ It will show your shot records
~~~ It will show how they weight grades for honors and AP/IB
~~~ It will show their grade scale ....7 point or 10 point

I am now coming up for my 3rd child (class of 12 hs) the other two were 08 and 10. The 1st 2 graduated in 2 different states, but their sealed transcript had the same facts.

Colleges try to equalize. 3.63 in NC is not the same as 3.63 in No VA. No insult to NC.
 
I know UNCCH does "talk". Our DS never applied to them, but when Feb rolled around he received a letter saying he was accepted if he filled some paperwork out. We later found out that it was because the ROTC det knew he had a ROTC scholarship and talked to admissions. He didn't apply and to this day his friends tease him about turning down UNCCH.

NYU also did the same.




Thats pretty cool, I know you said that your an AF mom, but I wonder if NROTC does the same. That would be awesome. But it sounds like AFROTC is completely national for scholarships, and NROTC is similar, but the school has to offer you a spot for Navy scholarship as well. My understanding at least.

But I'm a little late applying so I wouldn't be surprised if I get my scholarship pretty late (if I get one at all, and not getting one very well could be the case).
 
Thats pretty cool, I know you said that your an AF mom, but I wonder if NROTC does the same. That would be awesome. But it sounds like AFROTC is completely national for scholarships, and NROTC is similar, but the school has to offer you a spot for Navy scholarship as well. My understanding at least.

But I'm a little late applying so I wouldn't be surprised if I get my scholarship pretty late (if I get one at all, and not getting one very well could be the case).

You aren't too late for a scholarship!!! Apply Now!! My son just received a Marine ROTC scholarship, both Duke and UNC were his top picks. This was the first board wave for the Marine scholarships.

HURRY!!!
 
I appreciate everyone's input. I'll be sure to take it all to heart. I have confidence that the rest of my profile will make up for my low GPA. Only 8 more days until decisions come out, I'll be sure to post how it goes.

@danger zone
Go ahead and apply, it can't hurt and you may be pleasantly surprised.
 
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