@mullinfox Did it say “Congratulations! Cornelius Vanderbilt Award Notification”? That’s what the awardee’s emails have as subject line. All she has to do is call or reply back and ask. They will clarify it for her.
I got it with 36, 2240, 4+ GPA. No service, but robotics and YIG stuff.
No scholarship for me.
Rejected from Ingram, rejected from CV, rejected from Chancellor’s.
I know I should do the thing where I say congratulations to all, but you know, this actually does kind of suck. So…
3.96, 35, 2280, full IB diploma.
For anyone reading though this in the future, remember that essays and rec letters are extremely important.
My son did not get the CV scholarship. 2400 SAT, NMF, U.S.Presidential Scholars Candidate, AP Scholar with Distinction, National Honor Society, Volunteer middle school math counts coach, volunteer tutor, 4 year rower who won Nationals in his quad as a junior, Science Bowl Captain, Science Olympiad Captain, Most Science Olympiad medals in the school, Great recs, 4.1 GPA unweighted (out of 4.3), good essays, musician, filmmaker, You tube sensation making science and math videos using rap music, listed Vanderbilt as first choice on NMF. Winner of local 5k road race and all around great kid. What else could he have done?
@stellabubba Your son sounds incredible. Unfortunately (or fortunately, for the future of our world!) there are thousands of your son each year… Almost every high school has one, some have many… Perfect high achievers. Clearly there are more than 150 like him who applied for CV scholarship, the applications were in the thousands. It is not personal. All of these high achieving students (and clearly their parents) follow this same formula for success. There are only so many winners. This doesn’t mean he won’t be accepted to Vanderbilt-- I would be shocked if he wasn’t with those accomplishments! Would be nice to not have to pay tuition, but let’s face it…that’s a long shot! At least he will get NMF money when he gets accepted! Congrats on his amazing accomplishments. You should be so proud of the person he is!
stellabubba, jamini. I usually remain silent but I want to argue jamini’s point a bit, which I often hear on CC. A parent will go on about his son or daughter’s incredible statistics and then another person, in this case jamini, will observe how many other similarly situated students there are. Jamini has a point but its a bit overstated, in my opinion. From what I can tell, there are approximately 4.2 million 18 year olds in the country. Approximately 3.3 million students graduate high school each year (78% of the 18 year olds). Approximately 66% of high school seniors go straight on to college, whether it be a 2 year or 4 year program.
Now lets consider test scores. More students now take the ACT than the SAT. In 2014, 1.84 million students took the ACT. Only 1,407 students scored a 36 and 7,175 scored a 35 (so a total of 8.582 students out of 1.84 million scored a 35 or 36). Jumping to the SAT, in 2014, only 583 students out of 1.67 million test takers scored 2,400 on the SAT. That equates to 1 in every 696 students. As far as National Merit is concerned, approximately 1.5 million juniors take the PSAT each year but only around 15,000 students become National Merit Finalists.
Now consider stellabubba’s son: NMF and a perfect SAT score. Lets make some guesses from here. We know that not all NMF have perfect SATs and not all perfect SAT scorers are NMF. Lets say, however, that 1/2 of the perfect SAT scores belong to students who are also NMF. Just using those two criteria would put stellabubba’s son in a group of approximately 290 students (1/2 of 583)…out of the approximately 3.3 million students who graduate high school each year. If you want to consider stellabubba’s son against all graduating students, stellabubba’s son is 1 in 11,379. Pretty d___ impressive if you ask me. And how many of those 290 perfect SATs/NMF applied to Vanderbilt? Lets say 20%…I’m just guessing really but its a reasonable estimate, IMO. Now we are down to around 58 students who might have similar numbers to stellabubba’s and who applied to Vanderbilt. Not trying to hammer on anyone but my point is that the “perfect test” students are not quite as prevalent as jamini suggests.
But my answer to stellabubba is that Vanderbilt and the other elite schools are looking at a lot of things and the test scores and GPA are only one segment of what they are considering. Extracurriculars, special talents, diversity (geographic and culturally), class rigor, major/program, recommendations and many other factors that I haven’t even mentioned. So when you are talking about a school like Vanderbilt, it is probably wise to consider the CV scholarships and the other full tuition scholarships like lottery tickets. Many people buy tickets but very few win.
The good news is that stellabubba’s son will without question have outstanding options, and those options will most likely include Vanderbilt. Since Vanderbilt’s need based aid is considered to be very strong, it is quite possible that Vanderbilt may still be in your son’s future. Either way, I have no doubt that your son’s future will be quite bright. Good luck.
As a mom of a kid who did not receive any scholarship offers from Vandy, I just want to say congrats to those kids that did. Great job!!
@ljtjrose I agree with everything you said. You reiterated my points exactly. Except I never said “perfect scorers.” I said “perfect high achievers.” I agree, clearly scores are only a small piece of this for US schools, as has been proven with admissions over and over. But there are thousands of high achievers… scores good enough to be above whatever threshold cutoff, plus grades, plus rigor, plus service plus everything else–the whole package. Still waaaay more than the number of sought-after merit scholarships. It is a lottery indeed at that level. Remember, for 130-150 CV scholars, there is some kid (maybe your son or daughter or you) who was 151, 152, 180, 200… out of many many more qualified applicants. So close, so similar, but just didn’t get into the 150 window.
I wonder if the total number of applications they cite includes multiples - people who applied for all three but got passed over for all three.
so, this weekend has been pretty crazy because of a state mock trial competition, but on friday, i was lucky enough to receive a congratulations email saying that i was chosen as a cv scholar! it came as a complete surprise. i jumped up from my chair and started crying in front of my mock trial team. (when i think about it, i still tear up, because i’m so so grateful. i kind of still think it must have been a mistake.) after being deferred from princeton (which was my dream school) during the SCEA rounds, and not receiving any of the wustl scholarships i applied for, i was feeling pretty dejected and hopeless about the entire college application process. i feel incredibly blessed to have received this offer. congrats to the other cv scholars, and for those who didn’t get it, i’m so sorry (although i know that probably doesn’t mean much to you), but i promise there will be good news in your future. i’m positive you all are fabulous applicants, and that something good is coming your way. you just have to wait for it (#hamilton).
some basic stats: rank 1 out of under 400 (lol for now…), 2360 SAT, korean, female, 5.0+/4.0 weighted GPA. i’ll post one of those full stats things eventually.
@stellabubba - your kid sounds like a really solid kid with a high GPA and test scores.
But note 25% of Vanderbilt applicants have 1580 or higher on the SAT.
So what could have made your son be in the top 1% of the applicant pool for Vanderbilt?
- overcome obstacles
- create a legacy at his school or community
- start a company or charity
- be so extraordinary that Vanderbilt would need to offer a CV to prevent your son from selecting another college
@ClarinetDad16
I was awarded the CV Scholarship. I am almost certain that the deciding factors were my CommonApp essay and rec letters (two of which I was fortunate to read) rather than tangible achievevents and test scores.
@1golfer1 - congrats!
what made you stand out?
@ClarinetDad16 Thanks! For me, I’m pretty sure that my AP Chem teacher’s rec and my CommonApp essay helped me stand out:
- Chem Rec: The first sentence read something along the lines of "I have been teaching for 20+ years and have had only had a couple students like this." I could barely read the whole thing because I hardly felt deserving of it, but it was very sincere; i.e., clear he meant ever word he wrote.
- CA Essay: My AP Comp Sci instructor abruptly quit at winter break last year, and I ended up assuming the role as teacher for most of the second semester. We had an ~80% pass rate.
Also, I know I mentioned that “tangible achievements” were a small part of my app, but I performed well (Honors ranking) in the Chem Olympiad.
For others reading this, I want you to know that I did not have a perfect ACT score, did not take the SAT, only got NM Commended, and was not a member of NHS / Deca / etc. Those things are NOT what the college admissions process and the CV scholarship are really about. Application readers want to know what you are like as a person, which they glean through essays and rec letters. Everything else just gets you to the door.
To follow up, thank you all for being supportive of my son’s efforts. THis college process is so difficult for everyone but it has been especially difficult for him because we are one of those families that will probably not qualify for financial aid, but because we have another child in college, it will be a hardship to pay full tuition. Thus my son concentrated on all of the schools that give merit aid. This has been tough on him because most of his high achieving peers at his school have only looked at the IVYies and have not put in the extraordinary extra effort of applying to scholarship programs. My son is a very high achiever but he is also a nationally ranked athlete and the captain of both science teams at his school. We did not see his recommendations but we were told they were fabulous. He tutors, he makes videos of science/math concepts to rap music that have gone viral. He is very much an all-around superstar. I wonder if the fact that the admissions counselor who met with him at his school left her job at Vanderbilt over the winter and someone new replaced her made a difference in his chances. Perhaps he got lost in the shuffle.
@Stellabubba You have probably done all of your financial aid research, but just in case I’ll mention this. Many parents don’t realize that the amount FAFSA calculates for your family contribution does not change depending on the number of children in college. In other words, if FAFSA says your family is able to contribute $70K towards college, and you only have one child in College, Vandy would expect you to pay all of the costs. However, with two children in college, 1/2 of your expected contribution would be allocated to each child. As such, Vandy would expect you to cover the first $35K; after that, Vandy’s commitment to meeting all of the demonstrated financial need should kick in. At least, that is my understanding. I’m no expert, just another parent trying to figure this out.
So I still haven’t received an email about the CV scholarship. I applied on time, and am expecting a no email, but should I have already gotten it? I applied regular for CAS, has anyone else not received the email?
@southeastkid I do not know about CAS but my best friend applied to Blair and there has not been any news yet for her either.
@southeastkid I think all emails for CAS went out. Check your VU student account and see what email they have you down with. For me they had the wrong one and so I changed it. Check junk folders, spam, etc. I’m a Blair applicant though, so those haven’t gone out, but CAS people should have theirs. If not, contact admissions.