@supercilious- take pride in what you’ve accomplished so far, and the opportunity that you will have to stretch your creative muscles at any of the fine schools that you have already been accepted to. The YoungArts finalist and the probable U.S. Presidential Scholar in Arts designation would merely represented a cherry on top of a tasty sundae, but doesn’t define who you are for the rest of your life, nor would it add any $cholarship money towards your college years.
Take my word, as the father of a former U.S. Presidential Scholar.
Found this thread after seeing your posts on the Princeton and Vanderbilt threads. I was also accepted to Princeton SCEA and received the CV Scholarship too! How are you approaching the decision?
@sunrisereader hey! While I prefer Princeton, the prospect of full tuition at Vandy is extremely appealing. I’m definitely going to visit both before making a decision. Hbu?
@supercilious Yeah, I feel the same way. I will definitely be at Preview in April, and I want to see Vanderbilt too, but I don’t know when I’ll be able to make the trip because I live really far away.
@supercilious I too want to join in complimenting you on being so informed and a well-researched applicant. I have had students turn down Stanford and attend Vanderbilt due to that scholarship. They have never looked back and went on to graduate school at an ivy. Just make sure to find out what gpa you need to keep the scholarship. Anything above a 3.0 may be tough. Many times I see a very high achieving high school student have some trouble getting high grades in college and you don’t want to box yourself in if the scholarship requires a high gpa to keep it.
.
Good luck with the rest of your decisions and I am sure you will do great wherever you end up.
Email Vanderbilt, say you’re really interested but need a bit of help due to material/financial issues, do they offer some sort of stiped to cover part of the cost of plane tickets?
My kid, non-stem interest, got into Stanford REA but didn’t have high enough stats to get merit scholarships from top 30 to 40 ranked schools even though he was a NMF, but did get full ride scholarships from two Honors Colleges of state schools. But the problem was these state schools did not have good programs in his intended major, so he’s headed to Stanford at full pay, maybe after doing a gap year. He decided not to apply to any Ivy because he wants to avoid snow storms and wanted to use free time to do some interesting outside school volunteer activities. Right now, he is more looking forward to taking a gap year to study language abroad than attending Stanford. Many schools don’t hold your scholarship when you take a gap year but Stanford is very flexible about gap year.
I sure am glad my kid is pursuing a non STEM area because imo it’s a lot harder for STEM oriented Asian American students to get admitted to top schools. Potential majors/minors: IR, Psychology and Econ.
Econ is a tough major for anyone to get into top schools including Stanford. I think Harvard said a couple rounds ago that 70% of social science majors listed Econ on Common App as potential major. Stay away from Econ!
@preppedparent Hm, I am a econ applicant for these schools, and I disagree. First of all, Harvard does not ask you to list your major for the area you want to study (so I did not have to nor was I allowed to list economics as what I wanted to study- they only see social sciences). Second, there’s no point trying to game the system by “staying away from econ” just to get into these schools. Third, econ is a super popular major but also the largest or second largest major at many of these schools, so more are accepted into the major. Lastly everyone goes into Stanford undeclared, which is also why 40% become CS majors.
^^^^When my oldest student applied to Harvard using the Common App in 2013-2014, there were drop downs for intended major and yes, Economics was one of them to specify which she did. Later that year there was an article that something like 70% of social science intended majors for Harvard had selected Econ. I don’t think anyone should try to game the system if that is your intended major, just be aware it is a popular intended major and may not differentiate yourself from others, much like STEM for Asians.
One good thing about Stanford is that you just put down “interest Area”, and once you get in, you can major in anything your heart desires. In some UCs, you cannot get into your major if it’s competitive; therefore, all applicants should take this into consideration.
Update: Got into Amherst, Rice, UCLA, and Emory; waitlisted at Williams and WUSTL. Rice also gave me a travel grant, so I’ll probably be visiting Houston come April!
