Chances of being an Emory Scholar?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Emory University
1

Hey everyone, I’m a high school senior this year and would love to go to Emory. I think I have a good shot at getting in; however, I know will only be able to attend if I can get a scholarship. I know my numbers are not the most competitive, but Emory claims to look at the whole package and I feel like my extracurriculars are decent. Any input you have is appreciated!

General info/Education:
• White female
• GPA: 4.0 weighted, 4.33 weighted
• Class rank: top 10% (they don’t give us the exact rank) of 500 people
• ACT: 31 (I haven’t studied for it, I plan on studying and retaking in September. Hopefully I should pull it up to at LEAST a 32)
• SAT: I haven’t taken it, and am not planning on taking it. However, I will be taking the literature and U.S. subject tests soon.
• Classes: I took the highest available level of required classes. (Whether that be AP or honors. My school didn’t allow us to take APs until sophomore year)
• AP Scores:
Gov: 5
APUSH: 4
Lit: 4
• I’m taking AP Stats, AP Euro, and AP Lang this year as well.
• AP Scholar
• National Merit: ??? Haven’t heard

School activities:
• Yearbook staff: all four years. Sophomore year: events/organizations editor. Junior year: design editor. Senior year: editor-in-chief. Also won a state award for best student life spread.
• SGA: class treasurer from sophomore and junior year, student body treasurer for senior year. I’ve been committee chair of the homecoming dance 2x, an SGA fundraiser, teacher appreciation breakfast, winter formal, and I have organized the Pink Out football game where all proceeds went to Susan G. Komen.
• NHS: junior, senior years
• Mu Alpha Theta: sophomore-senior years
• Ethics Bowl: junior, senior years. Placed 3rd in the state last year.

• Constitution Bowl: new this year
• Mentor program: freshman-senior years

Volunteering:
• At my local hospital for 46 hours last summer
• Getting my Girl Scout Gold Award in a month. Also have Silver and Bronze Awards
• I’ve been a counselor-in-training for the past 5 summers at a summer camp where I act as a mentor and role model to the kids. I will be an actual counselor there this summer.
• Many, many random hours for SGA

Work experience:
• Babysitting once every couple of weeks
• I own my own “business” where I sell vintage collectibles at a local antique store. (Perhaps I could angle this as entrepreneurship) I work the cash register once per month

My passion:
I would like to go into government/public policy. I think I show this through my student government involvement/Constitution Bowl. (I’ve heard colleges want to see your passions through your activities) I will also be discussing it in an essay.

I know this is a lot, so thank you for reading and taking the time to give me feedback!

2

OH I can’t believe I forgot to mention this because it’s a huge park of my life but I’m also a dancer. I do pointe, technique, jazz, and tap. I’ve been a main character in the ballet portion of our recital for the past two years because I’m in advanced pointe.

3

Have you read what they look for in Emory Scholars? If so, how do you check off what they are looking for?

4

@akr123456789 : You look more like a normal (most admits and even waitlists will have a similar statistical and extra curricular profile) regular admit (or someone who has a shot at it) than a Scholar, but I would apply anyway as they may throw some other scholarships at you if you’re lucky. Scholars program usually looks for VERY deep engagement intellectually or with certain extracurriculars. Note that anyone’s chances are slim as scholars gets 6-7k applicants and maybe gives money to 100 or so.

Look at the best of these people and keep in mind that they were the ones who ultimately enrolled and that some portions of their accomplishments may have been omitted because they to (I suspect these people wrote their own profiles or got to select what was submitted) do so: http://news.emory.edu/stories/2016/08/er_bts_college_emory_scholars/campus.html

Even the short profiles shown here for most of them kind of demonstrate that they went above and beyond and founded organizations, were published, or were top ranked nationally in something. What is scarier is that there are actually many regular admits with these sorts of credentials who did not apply because maybe they a) didn’t need to or b) didn’t expect to matriculate (perhaps they expected better aid or being admitted elsewhere…reason doesn’t matter).

Maybe if you can write really good essays, you may shine through somehow, but do not expect anything. Even the seemingly best candidates should not expect anything.

In addition, it appears some were not perfect in terms of credentials but had accomplishments that add personalities or points of view that differ from the mainstream at Emory. In addition, many seem to have intellectual “range” (as in deeply engaged in seemingly disparate disciplines) in a way that doesn’t make it look like they merely had a checklist of solid activities. Seem very “focused” in each area of interest. Those who don’t have as much range make up for it in depth (looking more like academic admits at a place like Harvard for example).

5

Emory was originally my daughter’s first choice. She did not get Emory Scholars, however just a few years ago students with her profile did. Her gpa, rank, test scores etc were much higher than yours (yours are quite good by the way) and we are from an over represented geographic area. She had outstanding letters of recommendation and essays, leadership both inside and outside of school, etc. She was accepted to Emory but did not receive merit money. Her friends with an unweighted GPA of about a 3.7, weighted 4.2, with a similar rank and the same test scores as you did not get accepted to Emory.

6

@twogirls: Apparently even Emory is unpredictable these days.

7

Emory is a great school, but other great schools gave us a much better price and she loved those schools as well. Good luck to the OP!

8

Colleges are so strained to meet demonstrated need (as they define it) that they have limited need-blind merit money, and they dangle the merit money to lure students who would otherwise attend a different college. As a general rule:

A student’s first-choice college will not offer merit aid to that student.

If you want or need merit money, you need to look down your list, to schools where you are near the top of the applicant pool.