Hi, just doing a little research to see how we can get my daughter (just a junior) to school for free (yep, I know everyone thinks I am nuts for saying that but we have no money saved for college and also would not receive financial aid so I might as well try to find some options!). Her stats are great and she will be a National Merit Finalist but I recently was reading about the Stamps Scholarship (I was researching Tulane) and am wondering if anyone has experience with that? How the process is and how likely/unlikely it is to receive one, etc… Thanks
The full-ride merit based scholarships to Tulane were due by Dec 5th - Paul Tulane / Deans Honor / Stamps - notification has gone out for PT and DH - they are given to top 5-7 % of applications - Stamps is even tougher odds - might be better with a state school? University of Alabama gives full ride with ACT over 31 (I think) - it’s kind of late for applying for scholarships - but - look around? Does she want to go to school in Louisiana?
Hi, actually my daughter is only a Junior so we are a little early in the process and just trying to do as much research as we can ahead of time to narrow down her search proactively as we need her to get that merit money!!!
@FrozenMaineMom Hello! My roommate is actually a Stamps Scholar Recipient at Tulane. I myself also applied. The application for Stamps is the application for DHS or Paul Tulane. So in other words, all students applying for the DHS or the Paul Tulane are considered for the Stamps scholarship. The top 5 application will be selected.
The selection process is a little different from DHS. Finalists receive their notification of interview (an email) about 2 weeks before the release of DHS/PT. The interview is the week after the notification, and the scholarship recipients are notified around the same time as DHS/PT is released. Roughly 2-3 finalists are selected for each position. The finalists not selected for Stamps will receive the DHS/PT award.
Some helpful tips from said roommate:
Have a common theme around your whole Tulane application. This means the common app essay, the why Tulane essay, letters of rec, clubs, etc. The Stamps Scholarship committee is looking for people with ONE intense passion.
Emphasize service. Tulane does market itself on its public service.
Work really hard on your scholarship project/essays. In the past it was only DHS that were considered but now it also includes PT. Spend the extra time to perfect your project and put meaning into your project. Don’t try to trick the committee with themes that you give zero barnacles about but you think the committee want to see. One application two years ago was about polar bears, but it was a very thorough project that was awarded the Stamps scholarship.
Last, find the most unique aspect about you and make the entire application package centered around that. That’s good advice for any college/scholarship application. Good luck!
Thank you so much for all of that info. SomethingScience!! You and your roommate are quite impressive and I just had my daughter read this and her response was “Mom, I don’t think I have a prayer!” but I still want her to give it her best shot and see what happens… I’m sure that Stamps is awarded to the those who are so deserving and she has as good of a chance as anyone for the DHS so she is going to start formulating her plan…THANK YOU!
Since Tulane only gives 5 Stamps, I wonder if that is normal for the other schools that offer Stamps too?
The number of Stamps scholarship depends really on how many scholarships the Stamps foundation decides to offer to the school. At Georgia Tech and the University of Michigan where this scholarship started, they offer 40+ Stamps scholarships every year. Of course at Tulane it is 5 out of 1500 applications. At Georgia Tech it is 40 out of 15,000. The chances are about the same at any school. In total, 260-300 ish scholarships are offered each year across the country. All the interviews are conducted by a member of the Stamps foundation and the finalists are also selected by the Stamps foundation so the determining factor really isn’t the school. Hope this helps!
Oops, Georgia Tech is the 40 scholars and the University of Michigan is 20 ish scholars.