Hi y’all! I am planning on applying to some pretty competitive schools (Georgetown, Northwestern, University of Michigan…) and I am wondering if being a National Hispanic Scholar will give me an edge, and if it does, how good of one it might be.
I don’t know if it will help with admissions.
Do you know how much your family can afford each year for college? As of last year, NHS meant big merit money.
My nephew was/is a National Hispanic Scholar who applied to universities last year. Only helped at Arizona State University & at the Univ. of Arizona with respect to full tuition scholarships. Was waitlisted & then accepted to his home state flagship university, and given priority transfer status conditioned upon successfully completing a specific set of courses at any other school for his freshman year. 1450 SAT & 3.75 Unweighted GPA. Class rank harmed him since he was middle of the class due to an undiagnosed benign brain tumor. Also, his essay focused on being an Eagle Scout when, in my opinion, he should have focused on overcoming difficulties due to his undiagnosed health condition.
Did not try for any elite private colleges or universities.
Sorry, but I cannot offer more than that. I do know of Hispanics who have done well with Pomona College admissions, but do not know if they were NHS.
P.S. The only Honors Colleges/Programs which accepted him were Arizona State & Univ. of Arizona (not his home state).
Our local winner here, was deciding between Stanford, Harvard and MIT. The parents who know fairly well, said she picked Stanford. But “you” can never be sure of the correlation.
what was the flagship home state school?
Also which elite colleges denied him admissions… My D has almost the same profile
The University of Georgia. Conditional transfer admission was Georgia Tech–a school at which he was a double legacy (parents both of whom were very prominent while on campus in terms of academic & leadership accomplishments) & at least 10 other relatives attended & graduated.
As I wrote above, he did not apply to any elites–but I think that his essays were misguided & would have harmed his chances for admission to elite schools.
Writing college admissions essays about past accomplishments is only skimming the surface of what needs to be conveyed in a persuasive personal statement.
I think being a NHS was instrumental for my daughter. Granted, she absolutely had all the other credentials (NMF, 35 ACT, 1st in class when she applied, Cpt. tennis team), but lots of people have similar stats. She got in every school she applied to, including Stanford and Dartmouth. I have to think that being NHS was the extra oomph that put her over the finish line. I hope so because I have a son coming behind her!
Wow! She wasn’t QuestBridge?