Every year about four hundred applicants tick the merit scholarship box and about ninety get it. The committee is three people: the dean of the school you applied to, the registrar and one student. They read four things, in this order.
1. The transcript, as a whole
The published threshold is a GPA of 3.5 in the last school year, and it is a real threshold: below it the application goes to the need-based pile instead, with no penalty. Above it, the committee looks at the whole transcript, not the average. A 3.5 built on four years of 3.5 reads differently from a 3.5 built on a bad first year and a strong finish.
2. The last two years
Direction matters more than altitude. Rising grades in the subjects your programme needs count for more than a high average in subjects it does not. For nursing that means biology and chemistry; for architecture, mathematics and art; for the business programmes, mathematics and any language.
3. Programme fit
Not a personal essay. The committee looks at what you have already done near the programme: a hospital volunteer shift, a portfolio, a small business, a coding club, a year as a classroom assistant. One real thing, with a date, is enough. Ten listed activities are not better than one.
4. The interview notes
Every applicant is interviewed by the faculty of the school, before any scholarship decision. The notes go to the committee. They are two paragraphs and they answer one question: would this person be fine in the simulation ward, the studio or the lab school in the first semester?
What it is worth
Thirty percent off tuition for the whole programme, as long as you keep a 3.0 average at the college. It does not stack with the need-based grant, the athletic or the transfer scholarship, but the discounts do stack on top of it: early application, paying the semester upfront, a family member enrolled. The simulator on the admissions page does the arithmetic.
Simulate with the merit scholarshipScholarship questions in the FAQ
