Hi! This is actually really late, considering I sent in my application to W&L and Johnson scholarship application essay MONTHS ago, but I was just curious of a couple things when I received some more college things in the mail yesterday.
Do a lot of people receive the fee waiver for the application? Does it mean the school was genuinely interested in having me there or they just sent me one for the heck of it?
Also, how many Johnson finalists are there here? Anybody who could give me a bit of insight on the scholarship selection process?
The deadline for the fee waiver/Johnson scholarship application eligibility was Dec. 1st but on the Common Application, I marked it as Regular Decision since it was past the deadline for Early. Don't know if I marked it correctly. Are Johnson scholarship applicants supposed to hear back from the university earlier and I did something wrong, or is this normal?
There are a couple of other parents of current and former Johnsons on this board (I’m one). I can’t answer your first question, but if you search this forum you can find a fair amount about the scholarship competition and selection process. (Sometimes people have trouble with the CC search function but do better with Google search.) Johnson applicants have usually heard from W&L in late January for the March competition. If you are a semifinalist for the scholarship, you can pretty much assume you will be admitted. About 200 attend the competition, and about 50 receive a scholarship offer.
I got a fee waiver too, but that was because W&L got my name through the Student Search service and regularly sent me mail. I don’t know if it’s a common thing or not.
coppijr Did you get a fee waiver? It is not given to everyone. The fee waiver is generally given to URM who have not submitted an application after W&L’s initial informational literature and given as an incentive in subsequent brochures/emails by Admissions to apply to W&L. Caveat, be aware that URM including Asian American applicants are admitted at a substantially lower acceptance rate versus White applicants. This issue has been discussed on another other thread about OOS Johnson Scholarships.
If you submitted your application by Common App, you may need to call Admissions to confirm the fee waiver after submission of application so that your application will not have application fee marked as unpaid.
Hey, so I am not an expert on the topic, but I have done a lot of research. Because it is easier this way, I may not answer the questions in order, but I will hopefully answer them all. First, I specifically asked W & L for a non-need based fee waiver, and was rejected, which is actually quite annoying now that I found out that lied to me. Anyways, as far as applications/notification, any application(ED/RD) submitted by December 1st WITH a Johnson Scholarship essay will be considered. The nice thing about only requiring the essay for Johnson and Weinstein, is that all applicants who submitted for the scholarship will be notified. This meaning that even if you do not get the scholarship, you will be notified that you were not deemed to meet the requirements. Based on previous years, and other information, I would look for a notification in the last week of January. Moreover, there are about 200 finalists invited to campus for the intensive interviews that will occur in late March. Also, in reference to how many CC students are applying, the ones who have said they are applying comes out to between 15-20. Hope I have been able to help! And if you have any other questions feel free to ask, but tag me(is that a thing?) so that I get the notification.
What does OOS mean? Out of state? If so, I don’t think being in or out of state has any bearing on the Johnson. About 15% of the student body is from Virginia, and I think about 15% of Johnson Scholarship recipients are from Virginia.
As Yaupon stated above, about 200 candidates are invited each year to the “competition”. About 80 candidates are offered the scholarship, and about 40-44 accept. Hard to imagine turning down a $250,000 scholarship, but my guess is that some of those who turn it down receive significant financial aid from an institution that they like even more than W&L. And there are some for whom money is no object. I wouldn’t know what that’s like. But 40-44 lucky students get an amazing education (and overall experience) gratis. I’d venture to say that W&L is the best school in the country that offers a merit-based scholarship to such a large percentage of its student body.
The invites go out late Jan, the competition is in early March. The school will cover your travel expenses. I’ve had two boys go through the process and the school flew each of them down from the NY area, then picked them up at the airport in Roanoke and housed them with students. You’ll find the other candidates are amazing (just like you!). Even if you’re not offered a Johnson Scholarship, some students are offered a somewhat smaller, but still remarkable scholarship. My son’s roommate this year was invited to the competition, didn’t get the Johnson, but did get a full tuition scholarship–that’s like $40G/year.
I can’t say what your fee waiver bodes for the Johnson process, but neither of my boys were offered that. It’s obvious the school likes you if they are encouraging you to apply in this way.
Finally, I can’t remember how those ED/RD/Johnson deadlines work, but I echo voiceofreason’s recommendation that you contact Admissions to be sure you’re okay with that. I would imagine you are, but you’ll sleep better knowing for sure.
@voiceofreason66 I don’t remember if I had a waiver or not. What you’re saying about minorities getting the waiver could be true, I don’t doubt that.
At my high school though there were a lot of kids who told me (since they knew I was interested in the school) that they got waivers without even asking, most didn’t even apply in the end, and most of them were white (and for some money was no issue whatsoever). That could be explained by the student search service.
tl;dr They’re available to a lot of people, seemingly regardless of background.
With respect to your third question, the statement below comes from the FAQs on the school website:
The deadline for the Johnson Scholarship is earlier than the Regular Decision deadline. Does this mean that I have to apply Early Decision to apply for the Johnson Scholarship?
No. Applying for the Johnson Scholarship by the December 1st deadline does not represent a commitment to enroll at W&L and does not mean that you are applying Early Decision or Early Decision II.
When you submit your Common Application to W&L you will be asked to indicate whether you are applying Early Decision, Early Decision II, or Regular Decision. No matter which you choose, you can still apply for the Johnson Scholarship, provided your complete application for admission plus the Johnson Scholarship application is in our office by December 1st.
Thanks for all the responses! Really cleared things up
@coppijr @voiceofreason66 but do I really count as an underrepresented minority? I’m Eastern Asian (Korean, to be specific,) and Eastern Asians don’t really count as URMs basically anywhere else…
Also, what is the student search service?
@mxl2015 that clears things up significantly. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for word in about two weeks.
@bellybones if it wouldn’t be too personal, could you post your son’s stats for me to compare mine to? W&L’s website indicates heavy emphasis on extracurricular activities and I’m counting on that because my test scores and GPA are around the 50th percentile, which is kind of an uneasy place to be (for me lol.)
Did your son do the “optional but recommended” alumni interview? I’m trying to get into contact with the alumni in my state and there’s only one, but he’s very hard to reach. I’ve emailed him twice over winter break and never heard word so I sent him another one just two days ago and he finally replied, but now he won’t reply to set a time to meet…I’m thinking I’ll have to call admissions and discuss the issue with them.
@coppijr same question as above!
@LOUKYDAD okay, I think I’ll be able to sleep much better knowing that I didn’t screw up my application x)
You are correct that Eastern Asians aren’t underrepresented minorities. Minorities, yes. Underrepresented, no. But people of all backgrouns are awarded Johnsons. The student my #2 son stayed with on campus at his competition was Korean-American, and was a Johnson Scholar.
“Stats”: Both boys attended a good, large suburban high school on Long Island. Son #1 was 8th in a class of 500+. IB graduate. Took pretty much the most rigorous courses available. 2270 SAT. Two-year varsity football starter. All-state bassist. Orchestra President, NHS VP. Son #2 was also 8th in his class of 500+. (compete much? ) National AP Scholar. Also took the most rigorous courses available. 2260 SAT. Did a little better than his brother on SAT 2s. Three-year varsity lacrosse starter. All-county percussionist. Very active in one charitable organization that didn’t have formal officers, but he was definitely a leader.
My boys both had an alumni interview off-campus, but they didn’t have the problems you’re having setting one up. Sorry to hear about your challenges, but the process is only as strong as its weakest link–which in this case is the W&L grad. The alumnus you’re trying to meet with isn’t doing a very good job representing the University, IMO. I would call admissions because you can’t lose: they might help make that interview happen, but at the least, you will have demonstrated a strong interest in the school.
Regarding your chances, in all honesty, I think your class rank, GPA, course rigor, and, to a lesser extent, standardized test scores should be in the 75th percentile range or better. Now, two bits of good news: 1) nothing you can do about it now but hope. Everything but the interview is done, and from the personality that shines through in your posts, you will most likely crush that. 2) IF you are invited to campus for the competition in March, the interviewers only have your essays and extracurriculars to go by. And they are looking for how you will make W&L an even more amazing place. In other words, once you’ve made the cut, “stats” are irrelevant because the committee considers everyone who is invited to be a top-notch academic.
@bellybones wow, you must be so proud of your sons! Even if I don’t make it for the Johnson, I’d really like to be accepted. W&L is such a fantastic school and it’s definitely up there on my list of top choices
@snowboardchick97 bellybones did a good job answering. I’ll just add that W&L even considers Jews as adding to campus diversity. I’m Jewish and W&L has a whole program set up for recruiting more Jews that is run in coordination with our diversity office and hllel, but that in part can be attributed to Jewish alums who donate A LOT and in turn want to see more Jews on campus.
I think discussing the difference between URM and minorities is just semantics. W&L is super white school, so all minorities here are underrepresented.
The only place I’ve ever seen people care about the race of the students at W&L is on collegeconfidential. Students here don’t really care what your race is, your just another peer.
coppijr As we have discussed on other W&L threads, it appears that the W&L Admissions office cares about the racial profile of its student body since White applicants are admitted at about 35% and Asian applicants at less than 10% even though W&L is 85%+ White and only about 3-4% Asian. W&L states in its 2014 CDS that race is considered in its admission process, but in the case of Asians the consideration might be negative and not a positive consideration given the admission data and the low admission rate of Asians compared to Whites from the 2012 FACT BOOK.
I am a little confused why you believe being Jewish is given added consideration when the CDS (C7) states that religion is not a factor for consideration for admission. If being Jewish is a factor, then W&L is not accurately reporting its CDS data which is a serious violation as well as an honor code violation for a school that touts its student run honor code system.
Jews add to campus cultural diversity. Furthermore, Jews have a long history at W&L going back to the era of quotas at the Ivy leagues that prevented some Jews from getting in. There is nothing wrong with W&L honoring it’s heritage and preserving it by trying to keep an active Jewish presence on campus.
coppijr I do not disagree with you, but you have not addressed the CDS data information that states that W&L does not consider religion in its admission decision. This conflicts with your statement “I’ll just add that W&L even considers Jews as adding to campus diversity”.
Why does W&L mark that religion is not considered in Admission when you are clearly stating that it is and that you might have benefited in the admission process because you are Jewish?
I don’t work in admissions. I know a fair bit about how they work because of friends I have that work there, something we’ve also been over before. I’m not going to address it because you’ve shown that you don’t listen anyways, haha. All it would do is create a roundabout argument that doesn’t help anyone, meanwhile the answers you seek are all able to be solved with a phone call to the admissions office as other posters have previously mentioned.
coppijr I would have let it go if you had stopped with “I don’t work in admissions.” But I can’t let you say that I “don’t listen”. I listen quite well and I respond with truthful answers and hopefully helpful to the OP. When have I ever failed to listen to any of your posts directed to me?
Do I like reporting the huge difference in Admission Rates of White and Asian applicants at W&L? No I do not.
Do I like the fact that W&L admissions data is disturbing and troubling as to Asian applicants? No I do not.
Is such information useful and helpful to Asian applicants? Yes, I believe it is because it gives those applicants a better sense of their real chances of admission and in this case what their chances of getting a Johnson Scholarship since being admitted is a condition of receiving a Johnson Scholarship.
) National AP Scholar. Also took the most rigorous courses available. 2260 SAT. Did a little better than his brother on SAT 2s. Three-year varsity lacrosse starter. All-county percussionist. Very active in one charitable organization that didn’t have formal officers, but he was definitely a leader.