Hello! I am a student thinking of applying Regular Decision to Washington University.
I would apply ED to WashU, but I am unable to afford the tuition/costs of attendance and would like to see scholarships/etc. before making a decision on where I am applying to college. However, given this, I don’t think it is likely that I will be accepted to WashU RD.
But, one can hope!
Anyways, I am hoping to apply to the Ervin Scholars Program (and possibly the Rodriguez one as well). The description they provide for the requirements essentially describes me perfectly, although I feel as if my grades hold me back (my grades aren’t horrible ~~ about a 3.7 UW and 4.7 W GPA, ACT 33).
I have a few questions:
- Would my extensive extracurriculars/service projects make up for low grades?
- Are there mostly minorities in this scholarship? I am caucasian. Will that make things tougher regarding acceptance into this scholarship?
- If you are currently or have previously been an Ervin or a Rodriguez Scholar, could you please post your stats and your service background that you had in high school, so I have a comparison? (Also it might be helpful if you post your ethnicity as well). That would be lovely.
- Are there any other scholarships similar to this may be less competitive/I may not know about already? A scholarship really is my only way of attending a prestigious university. Are there any other schools of similar caliber with similar scholarships? I know about the Ingram Scholarship at Vanderbilt University.
Thank you very much for your help!
I can’t answer your questions about the WUSTL scholarship because I don’t have enough knowledge. But regarding your question about other universities with great scholarships, I’d say apply to the university of Southern California (USC) by December 1. Every applicant who applies by that date is considered for merit scholarships that range from a quarter to full tuition. There is no extra merit award application to write.
My younger son had stats similar to yours…a 3.7 UW GPA and 2260 SATs (& 3 sat 2s that ranged from 760 to 800). He was a finalist for the full tuition at USC and was nominated for a writing award at WUSTL (the only one for which he applied), which was $3000/year. He also got some money from URochester, Tulane (a lot of $). So consider those schools. He had to withdraw all these applications & merit awards because he applied ED2 elsewhere (where thankfully he’s happy & thriving).
He and we never imagined he’d get so much money with his 3.7 GPA, which just put him out of the top 10% of his class, but in retrospect, we think his 800 CR score combined with national writing awards and experience at selective summer writing programs probably made him a worthy applicant. He underestimated how attractive he might be to these schools, mainly because he had been deferred EA to Michigan (but eventually was accepted) and deferred ED to brown, where he had double legacy (parent & sibling). Earlier in the process it seemed his GPA was tanking his application. So, if you have interesting ECs and can write a well crafted application, with your stats you may well get some very good merit money at excellent schools.
And by the way, WUSTL was one of his top 3 favorite schools (brown, WUSTL, tufts). If it had an ED2 app, he would have seriously considered using it. He got insecure about his grades after his deferrals and felt he needed the bump of an ED app. Tufts offered that option and he got in. The story ends well because as a sophomore, it’s been a great experience for him thus far.
Are there any Ervin Scholars out there who can share their stats?
Both the Ervin and Rodriguez scholarships are technically minority scholarships as in 99% of recipients are either African American (Ervin) or Hispanic (Rodriguez). That said, there are some other races represented in the recipient pool, including Caucasian so although odds are slim, I’d definitely still apply. This is based off observations of scholarship recipients in my current year.