Emory Scholars program questions & thoughts

Paying for College
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<p>My son wants to go to Emory. We are in the NorthEast. He just found out that he got a nomination from his high school for Emory Scholars. Looking into the program and process, I have some questions / thoughts and would appreciate any advice people can offer. He's been to the school twice already for tours, free time to take in the campus and weekends with a friend that goes there already (who wasn't nominated for scholar program).</p>

<p>1) He's looking to apply early decision. While that supposedly helps your chances of getting in, does that degrade your chances of getting a scholars scholarship? Realisitically, (one... or the main) point of merit scholarships is to attract the best kids to the school to help improve the school's standing? So if they know you are coming because of early decision, what's their incentive to give you the scholarship to lure you to the school? You are going there either way.</p>

<p>2) In all the materials we've seen about the scholars program, they say that each high school can nominate up to 4 students. Our school (total students about 1,600 kids) said that because of our school's size, that EMORY is limiting them to 1 nomination!? Makes sense - smaller schools should not be allowed to nominate the same number of kids as a huge school. I just never heard that from anywhere else. is the 'up to 4' at the high schools decision or up to Emory's decision based on the size of each school? (emory to the school: you have lots of kids - could you nominate up to 4 people for us?, and to small school: you have not many kids, could you nominate up to 1 kid for us?). And how big in the scheme of things is a 400 member senior class?</p>

<p>3) The emory site lists a fair number of scholarships endowed by and / or in honor of significant people. Are these the scholarships that make up the scholars program? Or are they seperate scholarships?</p>

<p>Grants</a> | Emory Scholars | Emory College of Arts and Sciences
Prospective</a> Scholars | Emory Scholars | Emory College of Arts and Sciences</p>

<p>3a) if these are the scholarships, and they fit the person to the scholarship that fits them best, is it concievable that someone with 'less credentials' if that's the right word, would get a scholarship because of their choice of program / major vs. someone else (nominees get categorized within the semifinalist selection into groups that may be more / less competitive than other groups?)</p>

<p>4) I am trying to look at the raw numbers. I thought I saw something about there being a total of about 377 scholars on campus at any 1 time. so about 100 / class? but elsewhere News</a> Post</p>

<p>says there's 350 semifinalists, 200 of those get scholarships, 100 go to Scholars weekend, 50 get full rides, another group (how many?) get partial scholoarships. Does anyone have more detailed numbers? Strictly by the numbers, being nominated by a high school, you are what, 1 of 2,500 or so? Vying for how many scholarships of any size?</p>

<p>5) The whole admissions process, to me, seems daunting for the admissions department. Say they can handle 1000 freshmen. They have a stack of 16,000 apps. Like an airline, they overbook (accept more people than the 1000) and hope some don't show. Sure they have statistics from previous years, but knowing that they can accept, what, 4,000 for those 1,000 spots seems scary. Any small change in the statistics and they could be real crowded. Too low isn't as bad - they have the waiting list to draw from? But so they give out, what 100 scholarships as incentives for people to attend. there's a bunch of threads here about people that got the scholarships and didn't go! they may only have 50 of those 100 scholarships being used in a year? </p>

<p>6) It's not a case of sour grapes (yet ; ) , but reading the benefits of being a scholar seems that those not in the program (even if they are very good students) are 2nd class citizens? Move aside, I'm a scholar and I'm going to the front of the line. Move aside all you paying full tuition, I'm a scholar, not paying to be here and will now sign up for classes that you will be closed out of.</p>

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<p>A better way to look at it is gpa+test scores. Being Val at a small HS with a 2000 SAT will not be competitive, regardless how much the GC/Principal loves the kid. Iwould guess that an unhooked NE kid would need a 2250+ to be competitive in the Scholars pool.</p>

<p>ALL Emory scholars have wonderful numbers and ECs. (One of the reasons a college like Emory offers a merit program is to entice students from the Ancient Eight, so the Scholars have top quals.)</p>

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<p>Thanks for the reply. A couple more questions:</p>

<p>What’s unhooked mean?</p>

<p>wonderful numbers and ECs - what’s EC mean?</p>

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<p>Unhooked: not a legacy, recruited-athlete, under-represented minority, developmental admit, etc</p>

<p>EC’s: extracurricular activities…</p>

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<p>thanks! I’m new to this. 2250+ to be competitive? He’s got 2130. A bunch of ECs. A guy at our school is getting, I believe, a full ride on a sports scholarship at Emory. Nice.</p>

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<p>While only one factor, I would tend to agree about 2250+ being a competitive level for the Emory Scholar award. The kids who get these are usually also top candidates at highly selective need-only schools as well the other top merit scholarships in the country. </p>

<p>Sports are a whole different world ;).</p>

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<p>2130 is too low, right?</p>

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<p>Merit scholarships at top (50 or so) schools are very competitive. The first cutoff will be the hard numbers although they hardly will ever tell you what it is because they don’t want to eliminate some “hooked” candidates with stats below the stated numbers. For the schools that do publish “typical ranges for merit recipients”, it’s always above 2250 SAT and 33 ACT with 3.8+ GPA. It’s really tough out there but there are some terrific state schools and smaller colleges that are less competitive for merit scholarships because there are fewer applicants.</p>

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<p>thanks : (</p>

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<p>So how about the other questions - </p>

<p>1) Would you think being an early decision applicant lower your chances of a scholarship since they have less incentive to need to ‘lure’ you to the school? I’ve heard that about need based aid, although the schools all say they are need blind</p>

<p>2) Not that it matters for us since we did get the nomination, but does the high school saying they are limited (by emory because of the high school size) to 1 nominee sound right?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>opinion coming:</p>

<p>1) Emory, in particular, probably uses their Emory Scholars program to “get” the kids who may have attended another school (Ivy or the like)…Early decision kids do not fall into that category; make the assumptions you would like…
In addition, I think that full pay ED kids get a bump the last few years and, therefore, unless for some reason a very high stats (above 75%), and full pay ED kid applies, Emory Scholars prob not a good bet…</p>

<p>2) not sure why it matters, but there is a limit to the # of nominees…</p>

<p>fwiw, if Emory is your son’s first choice, I highly recommend an ED app given the demographics…</p>

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<p>thanks. not what I wanted to hear, but reassuring that my thinking isn’t too far out of line : )</p>

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<p>Sorry…been there done that…daughter refused to apply anywhere ED; got waitlisted in 2008…</p>

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<p>and sorry, I am new to this / just want to get the full meaning of what people are saying. she didn’t want to apply ED because she didn’t have a #1 choice? and wound up waitlisted where? Emory? Several places? In the end did she get in somewhere she likes?</p>

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<p>Sorry…didn’t apply ED anywhere because she couldn’t decide on #1 choice; applied RD to Emory (and others at the “top of her list”); yes, accepted to the others at the top…but learned her lesson re: ED at schools where demographics are not in your favor…stats were at or near the 75%</p>

<p>and, yes, she is in the right place for her now…</p>

<p>mind you, this was before the economic crisis hit…</p>

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<p>this was before the economic crisis - meaning? </p>

<p>I’m thinking being in school now is good to be in now - jobs are scarce?</p>

<p>Fortunately he’s very gung ho for Emory and fortunately? we don’t have to worry about money - the scholar program money WOULD be nice. and, again, as I mention in my list of comments / questions at the start of this… the attention the scholars gets sounds great (if you are getting it. if you aren’t in that, then the rest of the school gets left overs ; ) ?</p>

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<p>2008 was the last year of college admissions before the economic crisis…</p>

<p>baba: could you PM me if you have further questions please?</p>

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<p>baba - I have an S that sounds very much like yours. 4 years ago he was nominated for scholars and applied to Emory RD. He did not make the cut for the scholars semi-finalists, but he did get a very nice scholarship offer from Emory. He ended up attending a different school - with another very nice scholarship offer - but I just thought I’d let you know that not getting the scholar program doesn’t mean not getting a scholarship at all. At least in our experience.</p>

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<p>puma - interesting. No one answered (at least not that I saw) if all those listed scholarships are just part of the scholars programs, or seperate and if you have to apply to them seperately. </p>

<p>Anyone have any info?</p>

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<p>Some who are not chosen for the Full tuition ES may be offered one of those other scholarships.</p>

<p>On another note, as a D3 athletics school, NO ONE gets any athletic scholarship, full ride or otherwise to Emory. Merit maybe, athletics no.</p>