Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship

No for my son as well.

My daughter got the CV!!!

Wow! @PurplePlum congrats!!!

@PurplePlum can you shed light on what a CV scholar is like? What do you think they were looking for? Iā€™m sure many of our kids are high achievers with strong ECs, high scores, great recs, etc.

Iā€™d love to know how they choose who gets these scholarships. Iā€™m guessing that some sort of national recongnition would be required.

Congratulation @PurplePlum to your DD. She will have hard time deciding where to go at the end of March when all the RD results are in. A CV is equivalent to an acceptance to an Ivy or any other top 10 school. She will most likely get accepted to many other top schools.

@homerdog to get the CV, you need 4.0 UWGPA plus perfect SAT/ACT score plus strong leadership or exceptional talents in writing. music, and visual arts.

@TimeUpJunior I donā€™t think thatā€™s true. I think grades and scores donā€™t have to be perfect. I think the student has to shine in a very specific way otherwise. And of course have strong grades and scores but not necessarily perfect. Maybe overcoming adversity or being recognized big time for some EC.

My D19 has a 4.0/4.5, ACT 35, 9 AP classes, #1 in her class, is ranked nationally in speech & debate, is a state champion in speech, is on a state level youth leadership advisory board, 7 leadership positions at school, had outstanding LOR, and was not awarded the CV scholarship. She was admitted ED 2 and I think, sadly, thatā€™s the reason she did not receive the scollie.

I am VERY excited to say that my son got the CV scholarship!!

@brightfuture2019 Only 1% of applicants receive one of the named scholarships. I doubt getting in ED2 was the reason. More likely is that these scholarships are like a lottery among all the equally highly qualified students. The scholarship reviewers definitely were splitting hairs when choosing.

I kind of agree with @brightfuture2019 By applying ED, you show your hand that money is not a concern, therefore you gave them no incentive of giving you that 200,000 dollars which can now be used on someone else.

Iā€™m still in disbelief I got the CV. Even with Vandyā€™s incredible financial aid my EFC made it so my family would have to shell out over $250,000 for collegeā€¦ it wouldā€™ve been impossible for me to go anywhere thatā€™s not a state school (granted I had great options there being in GA!!!).

Hereā€™s some stuff for people browsing this now and in a year. I definitely lurked, so Iā€™m putting everything I can here. In advance ā€” Iā€™m also typing this on my phone, so pardon the formatting and lackluster grammar.

The clearest indicator for CV for me was that I am not a minority student but was invited to MOSAIC. I did submit a Chancellorā€™s app where I talked about how diversity was important to me and have a mental health condition which I talk about a bit later; this could technically qualify me as a minority but by conventional terms I wouldnā€™t be.

Moving onā€¦

Stats:
3.97 / 4.43 GPA (note these tanked this year since I tried online classes and they did not work out!!!)
Ranked 9 / ~ 600 (went down to 20th after first semester)
1560 SAT (760ERW, 800M)
35 ACT (36W, 35R, 35M, 35S)
800 SAT II Biology
800 SAT II Math 2
APs: Biology (5), Chemistry (5), Calc BC (5, AB 5), Psychology (5), US (4), World (5), Human Geo (5), Lang (5), Seminar (5)

Current coursework: AP Lit, AP Research, AP CSA, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Stat, on-level Econ and Gov (online, saves room for me to commute to uni for research)

ECs:

  • Cross country / track and field (varsity, 7-time letter winner, captain since sophomore yearā€¦ first sophomore captain in years, received Best Leadership award 10th, ā€œMr. Wolverineā€ award 11th which is the highest award and generally reserved for seniors)
  • Condition Awareness Club (cofounder, all 4 years, has a very dramatic story that was detailed in my CA essay) (most unique EC by far, I have Tourette Syndrome and OCD and have found empowerment by forming this group! we meet up twice a month and each meeting a student presents on a condition they have or have been impacted by. the focus is primarily mental illness but features a wide range of disability, and we also coordinate schoolwide advocacy events... about 45 members of people with and without conditions / disabilities!!! ... have received attention in local news for involvement at Suicide Prevention Summits and as a spokesperson for statewide suicide prevention programs)
  • Science Fair / research (4 years... my research has been on mental illness all 4 years, culminating in research I do in Atlanta this year starting with the selective Institute on Neuroscience program sponsored by Emory and GA State... I commute about six hours a week during the school year / commuted about 15 hours a week and worked 40 hours a week over the summer, and am on track for being a first author of a high-impact paper... my independent research from prior years won 2nd honors at the state fair and also won me the UGA Charter Scholarship as a junior)
  • Honors Societies (have been involved with Mu Alpha Theta, NHS, NEHS, NSHS)
  • SLAMS! Poetry Club (love slamming! My spoken word is on mental health stigmatization as well as whatever else is going on in my mind at the time of writing. Have been nominated for and recognized at county-wide slams)
  • Church Small Group (was in training for Confirmation 9th and 10th, and have led small groups since the beginning of 11th)
  • All In (cofounder and student leader... multicultural group where we pull in all kinds of diversity, including neurodiversity!)
  • Principalā€™s Student Council (advises principal on ways to improve school culture and student-faculty interactions)

Awards / recognitions not already mentioned:

  • Accepted with revisions for publication in Harvardā€™s Journal of Emerging Investigators (10th)
  • Bryan Cameron Impact Scholar finalist (12th)
  • Selected for GA Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (11th, 12th)
  • North GA Cross Country Positive Athlete Award (given for good character and leadership, nominated by my school and selected out of about two dozen other schoolsā€™ nominees) (11th)

I feel like my essays and recommendations were all good. Essay was very personal, recommendations came from teachers that will undoubtedly be at my wedding someday. I wonā€™t give any of them scores out of 10 but will say writing is my strength when my ECs donā€™t cut it. Most people Iā€™ve shared my CA essay with have cried.

Subjective:
Iā€™m a straight white male. Upper middle class. Neuroscience major. Regular Decision.

Extra / other schools:
UGA Honors
GA Tech
Georgia State Honors
Emory (offered admission early along with $20,000 per year, applied RD)
Semifinalist for Robertson Scholarship at Duke
Deferred from Princeton REA
Also waiting on Duke, Harvard, Notre Dame

Iā€™ll update if I think of anything else. Sorry again for formattingā€¦ hopefully this will help someone!

@TimeUpJunior If that were the case, then nobody who applies ED would get any of the scholarships (which isnā€™t true). If Vandy wanted to, they could go need-aware again and fill the entire freshman class with full-pay students, but theyā€™re not, because then what would they need all the tuition dollars for? Yes, the scholarships are in some cases intended to draw RD acceptees to Vandy, but first and foremost, theyā€™re to put endowment dollars to good use by rewarding deserving students.

Congratulations @kiwipanda00, Iā€™m thrilled for you!

@brightfuture2019, I would honestly not assume anything. One of my Ds applied to Vandy RD with a 35 and nearly 4.0 unweighted, got admitted to 2 other top 20 schools including an Ivy (applied to 3) and got waitlisted, so itā€™s definitely not a given that high stats = Scholarships at Vandy. So I guess you shouldnā€™t assume no CV because of the ED2 decision. It could be, but not necessarily.

Congrats @kiwipanda00, as I said earlier, you will have a first world problem at the end of March! please update here where you go eventually.

Thanks for the congratulationsā€“my daughter is beyond thrilled! We went out to dinner to celebrate!

@homerdog to answer your questionā€“not sure exactly what the special sauce was that helped DD earn the CV (maybe just plain old luck?), but here is her background, etc.:

Unweighted 4.0; over 10 APā€™s; near perfect SAT score, single sitting, with perfect math score; 800 on SAT2 math; multi-sport student-athlete. No hooks other than being a female applying to engineering school (not sure if that is a hook); no national awards, but two incredible internships. Her CV essay was outstanding (IMHO)ā€“she really gave it much thought and wrote it from her heart, if that makes sense. She is a deep thinker, very intellectually curious, and a natural leader and that really came across in her application and I suspect also in her LORā€™s. She is such a kind and generous soul and I am beyond thrilled that she was awarded this scholarship.

She is so grateful and appreciative for having been awarded the CV. I wonā€™t ever forget the look on her face when she found out.

Wow @kiwipanda00 Congrats- easy to see why they picked you.

Congratulations @kiwipanda00, and @PurplePlum and all the others awarded the CV. Well deserved !

My daughter, who was accepted ED1 into Engineering, also found out today that she was awarded the CV Scholarship. We were very surprised, as we knew it would be more difficult as an ED student. Congrats to all who received good news todayā€¦ it has to be a tough decision since there are so many deserving candidates.

Received CV, school of engineering

congratulations to all those who got CV. my son got one in 2017 and is a happy sophomore at Vandy. I also donā€™t think doing ED have an impact but some believe it does. There is no formula to get admissions or scholarships at top schools. Vandy is a stats heavy school for admissions so they look beyond stats. Vandy carefully looks at all the additional information submitted like some other schools (and we did submitted additional info we though is unique to him). Having said that he tried 2 other schools one ranked above Vandy and one ranked below Vandy and was not even short listed. Basically someone in the committee has to like the candidate and strongly advocate for him/her.