University of Washington 2016

[ediblestranger]

20 hours ago, KatieJaiYen said:

@ediblestranger how did you figure out it was the wrong email address? I am a little nervous I might've done the same

I emailed them to follow-up, since I thought it was suspicious that I never received a confirmation email.  Because I attached the original email/submission in my inquiry, I received a response speculating that I had sent it to the wrong email address, since I had sent it to Juanita Ricks (as specified in 2015 instructions) and not swschol@uw.edu (as specified in 2016 instructions).  I was supposed to receive an email within 24-48 hours from the correct account as to whether or not they received my application, but never did.  I emailed them myself and the same thing - no response.  Really disappointed that they couldn't at least let me know one way or the other, that way I don't waste $60 on the background check for no reason.

[morningjunky]

5 hours ago, ediblestranger said:

I emailed them to follow-up, since I thought it was suspicious that I never received a confirmation email.  Because I attached the original email/submission in my inquiry, I received a response speculating that I had sent it to the wrong email address, since I had sent it to Juanita Ricks (as specified in 2015 instructions) and not swschol@uw.edu (as specified in 2016 instructions).  I was supposed to receive an email within 24-48 hours from the correct account as to whether or not they received my application, but never did.  I emailed them myself and the same thing - no response.  Really disappointed that they couldn't at least let me know one way or the other, that way I don't waste $60 on the background check for no reason.

Ah, Juanita left her position as DIrector of Admissions late last year so that was why you never received a confirmation email. Yikes! That's a shame. 

[morningjunky]

I just received an email for the first round of interviews (phone) for the SIS position! Has anyone else heard back?

[KatieJaiYen]

@morningjunky haven't heard anything :-/ No new likely bad news! I heard there were 50 applicants - awesome that are getting an interview. Best of luck with the process!

[LAT]

Congrats on hearing back! I almost wish I had applied but I was so conflicted... (sigh)

I went to the prospective students day today. Seems that tuition fellowship applicants may hear back by next week. I hope so!

[ediblestranger]

On 4/8/2016 at 11:49 PM, morningjunky said:

Ah, Juanita left her position as DIrector of Admissions late last year so that was why you never received a confirmation email. Yikes! That's a shame. 

I finally received an email stating that they would still consider my application for the MSW Tuition Fellowship!  Even though I have made plans to go elsewhere, I am still really in love with this program and would drop Michigan in a second if I got the funding.  It's too bad their funding timeline is so out of sync with other schools.

[KatieJaiYen]

On 4/22/2016 at 6:44 AM, ediblestranger said:

I finally received an email stating that they would still consider my application for the MSW Tuition Fellowship!  Even though I have made plans to go elsewhere, I am still really in love with this program and would drop Michigan in a second if I got the funding.  It's too bad their funding timeline is so out of sync with other schools.

That's great news! 

Has anyone received any communication regarding financial aid, scholarships or fellowships? 

[morningjunky]

9 hours ago, KatieJaiYen said:

That's great news! 

Has anyone received any communication regarding financial aid, scholarships or fellowships? 

I received an email for the MSW Tuition Fellowship last week. They awarded me a one time award of $7K for one quarter.

[ediblestranger]

On 4/30/2016 at 11:54 PM, KatieJaiYen said:

That's great news! 

Has anyone received any communication regarding financial aid, scholarships or fellowships? 

Not yet.  I wonder if they release decisions all at once or one by one.  I hope they email us regardless of whether or not we receive aid, that way we can know for sure and make our final decisions.  I am almost completely certain that I will be attending U of M, but I can't commit myself to it fully until I hear back from UWashington about funding.  I know we are supposed to accept/decline loans by 05/01 - @KatieJaiYen and @morningjunky, how are you guys approaching this?  I don't want to accept but then run into problems trying to cancel if I decide not to attend.  If we don't accept by the deadline though, I can't imagine that this would have huge repercussions - how can they run out of loans? 

[morningjunky]

We are in the opposite situation! UM was my top choice, but they rejected me in early January. In all honesty, I'm okay with it because I realized even with substantial funding for the specialized programs (I think $20K annually), UM"s out-of-state tuition is so expensive and is on par with private schools which would render me in over $30-40K in debt. UW wasn't even on my radar until I received notice about the GA for the SIS position and I realized it would be a funding package in excess of $49K a year.

Honestly, if UW is your first choice, I would just wait until this week (they are releasing all decisions for the MSW Tuition and Pre-Research Fellowships this week beginning tomorrow. The MSW Tuition Fellowship is only a one-time award for one quarter. I can't imagine it being substantial in any way, perhaps at most 10-12K. Out-of-state tuition is approximately $27K a year. How much is UM offering you funding wise? Are you willing to attend UW if they only offer you anywhere from $5-12K for the first year?

For the second year, UW offers more specialized tuition fellowships/scholarships as well as various GA (SIS, Information Technology and Writing Tutors). However, these are very limited for a class of over 200 students. Two SIS positions, one IT and two writing tutors. These positions offer tuition remission/waiver as well as a monthly stipend, so they are quite financially lucrative. 

I've already accepted my loans and submitted my intent to enroll. I logged onto My UW and I found out I can still decline my loans even after accepting it. Moreover, UW's tuition deposit isn't due until June 1st, so depending on the results of the SIS position, I will decide how to move forward. If I receive the SIS position, I will submit my tuition deposit the last week of May and it will arrive before the deadline. If I don't, I'll simply rescind my offer via email and attend the program I've already submiited a deposit to back in March which gave me a sizeable scholarship as well. It's not the best thing to do, but I have to do what's best for me and finances are a huge consideration for me as I've already accrued debt from undergrad and want to graduate from my MSW program with no to little debt so I can have more freedom once I graduate to secure internships that may not pay well, but are good for building experience and skills. 

Good luck!

[ediblestranger]

On 5/1/2016 at 7:33 PM, morningjunky said:

We are in the opposite situation! UM was my top choice, but they rejected me in early January. In all honesty, I'm okay with it because I realized even with substantial funding for the specialized programs (I think $20K annually), UM"s out-of-state tuition is so expensive and is on par with private schools which would render me in over $30-40K in debt. UW wasn't even on my radar until I received notice about the GA for the SIS position and I realized it would be a funding package in excess of $49K a year.

Honestly, if UW is your first choice, I would just wait until this week (they are releasing all decisions for the MSW Tuition and Pre-Research Fellowships this week beginning tomorrow. The MSW Tuition Fellowship is only a one-time award for one quarter. I can't imagine it being substantial in any way, perhaps at most 10-12K. Out-of-state tuition is approximately $27K a year. How much is UM offering you funding wise? Are you willing to attend UW if they only offer you anywhere from $5-12K for the first year?

For the second year, UW offers more specialized tuition fellowships/scholarships as well as various GA (SIS, Information Technology and Writing Tutors). However, these are very limited for a class of over 200 students. Two SIS positions, one IT and two writing tutors. These positions offer tuition remission/waiver as well as a monthly stipend, so they are quite financially lucrative. 

I've already accepted my loans and submitted my intent to enroll. I logged onto My UW and I found out I can still decline my loans even after accepting it. Moreover, UW's tuition deposit isn't due until June 1st, so depending on the results of the SIS position, I will decide how to move forward. If I receive the SIS position, I will submit my tuition deposit the last week of May and it will arrive before the deadline. If I don't, I'll simply rescind my offer via email and attend the program I've already submiited a deposit to back in March which gave me a sizeable scholarship as well. It's not the best thing to do, but I have to do what's best for me and finances are a huge consideration for me as I've already accrued debt from undergrad and want to graduate from my MSW program with no to little debt so I can have more freedom once I graduate to secure internships that may not pay well, but are good for building experience and skills. 

Good luck!

Tuition at Michigan is wildly expensive, but it's still possible to cut costs in other areas significantly.  For example, the school estimates that 40K should be allocated to cover room and board, but this is nowhere near what I will be spending.  Although the rents in Ann Arbor are high, I still won't be spending more than 20K over a 16-month period and that includes rent, pet fees, utilities (estimated), and parking.  I average about $170/month on food (thank you Mint), which is less than $3,000 over a 16-month period.  And because Michigan has adopted the Medicaid expansion, I should be eligible for Medicaid versus spending over $6,000 on student health insurance (not 100% certain - still looking into this).  So that's anywhere from 17-23K less than estimated by the school.  Factoring in the 32K scholarship I was offered, that's a total 49-55K off sticker price, which places UMich among the cheaper schools on my list.

I'm sure if you were really committed you could cut costs at other schools too, I just don't see enough wiggle room in the budget.  For example, UW - Seattle's estimate for room and board is 38K, which I imagine would be a lot more difficult to reduce compared to Ann Arbor given the higher cost of living.  You would have to get pretty creative (ex: 10 roommates, communal living, etc.) which I'm not really willing to do.  While I really like the program and the idea of living in Seattle in general, I wouldn't be willing to attend unless I receive a very hefty scholarship offer.  I knew the contact period was only one quarter, but I was under the impression that they awarded a few full-tuition fellowships.  Looking back, I'm not sure where I got this idea.  Maybe that they're calling it a "fellowship", I don't know.  Anyway, even if UW ended up costing as much as U of M, I would still probably go with Michigan because the special program I was admitted is so tailored to my interests.

Good luck with your assistantship applications!  Now I wish I had applied, but at the time I didn't feel that any of them suited me very well.  Worst case scenario, you still have an excellent offer from another school in the bag.  These are good problems to have.  Re: rescinding offers, don't feel bad.  That's what the waitlist is for.  I'd ditch Michigan in a second for a full or near-full ride somewhere else.  I'd have to find someone to take over my lease which makes it a little more hairy, but it'd still be worth it.  We should all be concerned about the financial aspect considering what most of us will be making out of school.

[morningjunky]

12 hours ago, ediblestranger said:

Tuition at Michigan is wildly expensive, but it's still possible to cut costs in other areas significantly.  For example, the school estimates that 40K should be allocated to cover room and board, but this is nowhere near what I will be spending.  Although the rents in Ann Arbor are high, I still won't be spending more than 20K over a 16-month period and that includes rent, pet fees, utilities (estimated), and parking.  I average about $170/month on food (thank you Mint), which is less than $3,000 over a 16-month period.  And because Michigan has adopted the Medicaid expansion, I should be eligible for Medicaid versus spending over $6,000 on student health insurance (not 100% certain - still looking into this).  So that's anywhere from 17-23K less than estimated by the school.  Factoring in the 32K scholarship I was offered, that's a total 49-55K off sticker price, which places UMich among the cheaper schools on my list.

I'm sure if you were really committed you could cut costs at other schools too, I just don't see enough wiggle room in the budget.  For example, UW - Seattle's estimate for room and board is 38K, which I imagine would be a lot more difficult to reduce compared to Ann Arbor given the higher cost of living.  You would have to get pretty creative (ex: 10 roommates, communal living, etc.) which I'm not really willing to do.  While I really like the program and the idea of living in Seattle in general, I wouldn't be willing to attend unless I receive a very hefty scholarship offer.  I knew the contact period was only one quarter, but I was under the impression that they awarded a few full-tuition fellowships.  Looking back, I'm not sure where I got this idea.  Maybe that they're calling it a "fellowship", I don't know.  Anyway, even if UW ended up costing as much as U of M, I would still probably go with Michigan because the special program I was admitted is so tailored to my interests.

Good luck with your assistantship applications!  Now I wish I had applied, but at the time I didn't feel that any of them suited me very well.  Worst case scenario, you still have an excellent offer from another school in the bag.  These are good problems to have.  Re: rescinding offers, don't feel bad.  That's what the waitlist is for.  I'd ditch Michigan in a second for a full or near-full ride somewhere else.  I'd have to find someone to take over my lease which makes it a little more hairy, but it'd still be worth it.  We should all be concerned about the financial aspect considering what most of us will be making out of school.

That makes sense. Honestly, if Michigan admitted me with a scholarship, I would have attended because, like you, my program was so tailored to what I wanted to do (Global Social Work). But coulda, woulda, shoulda. We are in great positions and I'm sure we will do fabulous things in the future. Good luck at UM!

[LAT]

I spoke to someone at the prospective student day (I have already accepted my loan offer but I haven't heard back from the tuition fellowship...). He told me that if you accepted a lot of financial aid, you can ask the office to not disperse your loan. BUT.. I will probably need my loans regardless.

Edited May 5, 2016 by LAT

[LAT]

Has anyone else heard about the tuition fellowship?

[ediblestranger]

1 hour ago, LAT said:

Has anyone else heard about the tuition fellowship?

Nope

[KatieJaiYen]

Hi All, received word yesterday that I did not receive a fellowship. If you haven't heard yet - perhaps you're still in the running!

I think I had already mentally prepared myself for that decision so feeling fine and good about how things have played out.

rooting for all of you!!

 

[Dreamliner]

HI guys!

I received a $6k tuition fellowship early in this month,

but I was reject by the Lynn Pigott Mowe Scholars which is $3k one year. 

do you know what is the highest tuition fellowship they offered this year ?

[LAT]

3 hours ago, Dreamliner said:

HI guys!

I received a $6k tuition fellowship early in this month,

but I was reject by the Lynn Pigott Mowe Scholars which is $3k one year. 

do you know what is the highest tuition fellowship they offered this year ?

It seems that @morningjunky got 7k... Haven't heard about anyone else. I applied but haven't heard. I tried e-mailing swschol last week but haven't received any e-mail back

[Dreamliner]

8 hours ago, LAT said:

It seems that @morningjunky got 7k... Haven't heard about anyone else. I applied but haven't heard. I tried e-mailing swschol last week but haven't received any e-mail back

I have to say the scholar UW offered is really not that generous,

but as a public university , when u consider about the tuition,

it is much fair. 

I mean, the tuition for one year is $29,000for us international . When I received $6k, that is only $23000.

But for others like WUSTL, which is almost $40,000. 

Even it offers me $10,000, it is still $30,000 per year, 

so I can say that UW will be cheapest for me.

what's more, UW has a center for AIDS research , and I already got contact with several professors and post-Doctor to get some information about their studies about HIV/AIDS research. 

About others , like Umich and Uchicago, it is really a pity I didn't receive any scholarship. So I think I will not consider.

would u mind me ask some basic information about the life in Seattle ?

i PM a message for u about my email address, I will grateful if u can send me one.

 

[morningjunky]

No one else heard back about the Tuition Fellowship or the Pre-MSW Research Fellowship? I've decided to commit to UW, so I'll be making my way to the West Coast soon. Looking forward to meeting some of you in the fall!

[LAT]

On 6/2/2016 at 1:38 PM, morningjunky said:

No one else heard back about the Tuition Fellowship or the Pre-MSW Research Fellowship? I've decided to commit to UW, so I'll be making my way to the West Coast soon. Looking forward to meeting some of you in the fall!

I e-mailed them with no response...  Not responsive at all!

[LAT]

I *finally* got an e-mail from the fellowship. I was granted 6k... which I'm pretty darn happy about. I almost didn't see it because it came late in the afternoon and I just realized as I was going through my emails a day or so later.

 

I haven't heard any other information... at the student day a month or two ago... they said we would be registering by June 20th (as a tentative date)... Not so sure