I was accepted into the university yesterday from out of state and guaranteed in state tuition, and the possibility of more scholarship money. I also applied to Honors college so if you could chance me on that it would be great. I would probably only attend if I got Mcnair or Horseshoe Scholar.
35 ACT (35 English 35 Reading 33 Math 36 Science)
4.3 GPA weighted (4.6 scale, highest you can graduate with is about 4.4)
(don’t know UW but probably around 3.95)
Rank: 7/~200 (top 4%)
APs: World history, US history, European history, Language & Comp (all soph/junior year) senior yr: Bio, Spanish language, Lit & Comp, US Gov’t, Macro, Comp Gov
EC’s: Model UN, mission trip to Central America, student exchange trip, lots of service hours and some service based clubs, NHS, altar server at church; babysitting
Recs: not sure how good they are but one teacher apparently writes the best recs my counselor has ever read so
Your stats should get you a look-see at your app. The decision on whom to invite to the weekend is made by committee. Essays will be the deciding factor. Students attending the weekend are guaranteed either the McNair or Horseshoe designation. The monetary and perk difference between the two awards is small. Departments have even been known to make up the money difference with one of their funded scholarships. So be patient.
Everyone in the hunt for those scholarships has good stats and good letters of rec. I suspect the depth of your EC (not the length of the list) and the essay will be the deciding factors.
^^^Yes, Essays are extremely important. Scholarship weekend for OOS applicants is Feb27-29. So finalists will be notified around 1st week of February. Only 40 (41?) students are chosen for the competition. All who attend get at least Horseshoe. Another way to come close to the same money is whatever you are getting now plus Leiber which is guaranteed and stackable for NMF.
There are some extra perks to being a top scholar but most of same benefits just from Honors College.
I am a current McNair scholar at the University of South Carolina. Your stats seem good, and will definitely get your application looked at. The college seems to place emphasis on both your extra curricular activities as well as your application essays. If you are chosen to interview, you will automatically be offered the Horseshoe award. You will then interview for the McNair Scholarship. Good Luck! Hope to see you next year.