Calling All Fall 2012 Consortium Applicants!

Thanks for the reminder about NYU's diversity weekend. I need to go fill out my app for that.

Anyone attending a MAPS event? I am going to be visiting schools the day before one will be held in my area, so I just want to see if it is very helpful to attend on e of those events. Any insight is appreciated!

As far as I know, when you apply through the Consortium you eliminate your chances of getting any of the merit scholarships that the schools may offer. For instance, I was admitted to Emory last year, but did not get the CGSM Fellowship, which is hard to get. The schools hold your application until March and by that time all the basic scholarships have already been used up and you decrease chances of getting any of them. So it is pretty much all or nothing with the CGSM. That is something that has made me rethink if I will apply through it.

Anyone have any further insight with this? Thanks

hey, did everyone get the note that there are no more consortium interviews?? it said to follow each school's interview policy. I looked at emory's consortium portion online and it asks the applicant when they plan to conduct their emory interview...

so I guess we wait until further into the application process to get invited for an interview by specific schools now?

Exactly. Consortium is carrying out their different interviews.... The schools will interview you and then the consortium will interview you for the membership. You may want to double check but those are the changes coming

I just looked at the consortium membership guidelines online and it says a consortium interview is not manatory for the application process and will not be used to determine candidates' eligibility for membership. it also states that member schools will not see our mission essays OR the mission recommendation letter.

I thought member schools had access to all consortium essays and letters of recommendation, but it looks like they don't.

Interesting. The consortium will be reviewing your mission essay statement. The consortium will be awarding membership, i know that was one of the major changes they were going to pull. I did not realize CGSM was going to pull out the interviewing process altogether. Either way it should work if you have done work to support the mission statement.

I know before schools could see everyone's rankings even though they say they don't see them. This year the schools will not see your rankings which should be an added benefit especially for the schools that are sensitive to the rankings...

I also want to know the answer to this. I am considering applying through the consortium as well and this would also be a deal breaker for me.

As would I. Lol. I am definitely trying to figure this out, I talked to the Emory AdCom about it last year and she made it sound like that is just one of the cons of applying through the CGSM. Now perhaps with all these new changes taking place, that will change. But I doubt it. I believe that when the schools see you applying through the Consortium, they dont really consider you for the general scholarships any longer. Along with the fact that your application is kind of held in limbo until March.

CGSM raps said that is the case even whether you apply R1 or R2 with the CGSM... the applications are all held until March and thats when they decide who gets the fellowship.

Also... to make things stranger. When I did the CGSM interview last year, the interviewer didn't even mention the mission statement once. I asked if we ought to discuss that and he said that is not something that the CGSM had asked him to inquire about... which I thought was quite odd, being that the fellowship is determined heavily on whether you have and will work towards accomplishing its mission.

I've always heard that if you apply through the Consortium you are still eligible for all other scholarships/fellowships/grants. If a school further down your rankings doesn't have the opportunity to offer you a Consortium fellowship they can (and have done so) offer other fellowship $$$. Maybe this differs by school.

Yeah it might be different for each school. But as far as I know... going through the CGSM puts you at the end of the line. Because the schools dont evaluate your application for scholarships or any $$$ until March. By that time a lot of R1 2 and 3 applicants have secured the school's funding opportunities. That is what they told me at Emory, to be specific.

So if the schools no longer have access to the rankings, which is a good thing in my opinion, why does the consortium still require us to rank them?

You still have to rank them. The 1. spot school will then have an opportunity to offer you the fellowship first.
I know of one school that does not offer admittance if not ranked 1st. (they obviously wanted to protect their yield)

Therefore not seeing the rankings will eliminate schools not admitting you based on your rankings....

I hope you figured by now that the fellowship award is really not based on the mission statement... maybe this year things will be different...maybe 5% - 10%

But if the school doesn't see the rankings, how do they know if they are the 1. spot school? They would have no idea where they are ranked, so they would, in theory, be forced to give out the fellowships without knowing the general interest of each potential fellowship recipient.

I see what you are saying chire, but do the schools get into a room and talk amongst each to figure out which one of them will give the fellowship to a specific student? Say a student has Haas, NYU and Yale on their list in that order. If they are accepted at all three schools, you are saying that the other two schools will know if Haas decides to offer that student the fellowship. Now what if say Haas is #1 on my list and Yale decides to give me an extra $30k in scholarship money on top of the fellowship. Are they now not able to give you the fellowship because Haas offered it to you first? Would I be able to change my mind based on the financial package I a offered? I'm trying to see how much the schools actually collaborate when it comes to deciding who does and doesn't get the fellowship, seeing as though they can no longer see where they are ranked relative to the other schools