Does anyone have any stats on what it takes to get into the Goizueta Scholar program at Emory? I am curious if an SAT score of 1460, straight A’s including 10 AP’s, and several leadership positions (sports, government, national honor society) will be competitive.
@wildcat1967 Those stats are competitive for Emory but from what I’ve seen for Goizueta Scholars, their stats are those that get them into Ivy-tier schools. Your SAT is slightly below average for Emory itself so you would probably want to raise that for a shot at Goizueta Scholars.
@TheTennisNinja : There are 8 Ivies. Which ones? Just throwing that one out there. They are not all in the same “tier” even from a statistical standpoint. Cornell (admittedly Cornell is just different…Penn to some extent as well) and Emory, for example are not that much different anymore from a student quality perspective (nor were they that different before the new exam). Let us try to stop putting “Ivy tier” on some magical pedestal standing above other similar caliber (the advantage of being a lower Ivy, for example, in terms of lay prestige and popularity versus competitors like Emory is primarily brand that even WE tend to reinforce by drawing unnecessary distinctions. I don’t really believe Brown and Dartmouth are that much better or better at all than schools like Emory that don’t have the brand recognition, but we, even those who do not attend those Ivies reinforce the concept that ALL Ivies should be lumped above certain schools that may deserve better recognition, and it actually hurts I don’t know, one’s alma mater and perpetuates the continuous non-sensical hair-splitting between lower Ivies and say Emory, Vanderbilt, Rice, WUSTL. Kind of defeatist and Emory students are among those that should really stop it. The sooner they can, the better things will be. Time to establish an identity or give credit (having a pride, rah rah or not, clearly helps places like Chicago and JHU get people excited about being a part of what are ultimately considered to be “grind” schools) to the many Ivy like elements or qualities to certain things at the schools, including the stats…done with rant. The mentality just gets old to watch from the screen coming from too many people.
@wildcat1967 : “sports, government, national honor society” is like the lowest common denominator for anyone looking to get into top tier privates and publics and often is not enough. Most have profiles much less generic than that or going far beyond that. GBS scholars may also have a bias towards those that start up companies/have something innovative in their profile, or at least a less traditional leadership position or internship opportunity. Any scholarship program at these selective schools (“Ivy tier” or not) is going to look for things in the application, tangible and less tangible that separate them from the crowd. Either way, it is not that simple and not that likely that someone even with perfect or near perfect scores will get a scholarship, especially if they have a very stereotypical resume. They would simply blend in with the other admits.
I do think that @tennisninja has a good point. The Scholars look for applicants with strong academic backgrounds and meaningful engagement. That would mean to be competitive, an applicant would be near the top in both. That might set the baseline at mid 1500 SATs and 3.9 and above unweighted and strong community engagement. It’s both. I don’t think that most “Ivy kids” would even compete with Emory/Goizueta Scholars either.
@ljberkow : Most of those admits don’t get interview offers. So it really isn’t that simple. I know, that with Scholars, it seems as if the Ivy (and I mean HYP level, or any of those Ivies ranked in top 10) admits interviewed tend to be more like what HYP would call an “academic admit”…they have the service and stuff, but are far more pointy and advanced academically (beyond GPA, and SAT/SAT2s), they not only did well on AP/IB, but took some academic interest to level beyond what the high school serve, if not significantly beyond. So academically, many such Scholars would actually be among more top tier students, especially at lower Ivies I guess, and maybe even above average at some of the more top tier Ivy/Ivy plus places.
@ljberkow : Most of those admits don’t get interview offers. So it really isn’t that simple. I know, that with Scholars, it seems as if the Ivy (and I mean HYP level, or any of those Ivies ranked in top 10) admits interviewed tend to be more like what HYP would call an “academic admit”…they have the service and stuff, but are far more pointy and advanced academically (beyond GPA, and SAT/SAT2s), they not only did well on AP/IB, but took some academic interest to level beyond what the high school serve, if not significantly beyond. So academically, many such Scholars would actually be among more top tier students, especially at lower Ivies I guess, and maybe even above average at some of the more top tier Ivy/Ivy plus places.
So instead of using “Ivy tier” as some benchmark. We should just say, usually you need to be superior, even among high achievers. These students exist at several types of schools and are a even a huge chunk of non-Scholarship matriculates at non-Ivy tier schools (not everyone checked the box…I know this for a fact).
I don’t want to split hairs on this one. I know what @tennisninja meant about top applicants when it comes to GPA, test scores, and community engagement. These kids could also be applying to Rice, Duke, Vanderbilt, WashU, or an Ivy or other top universities.
I kind of get it, but the only reason I split hairs is because I feel like MOST regular decision (and even ED2) applicants apply to those schools and many get in, but I am just pointing out that those invited for interviews are often a cut above the average applicant at any of these places because of whatever non-statistical features in their profile. I am just pointing out how difficult it is generally. You pretty much have to be able to stand out at ANY elite school or at least be above average. I just think it isn’t necessary to make distinctions on which type of elites successful Scholar applicants compare to. The point still stands that a competitive applicant for scholarships at Emory or ANY elite private or public will usually involve more than what the OP mentioned. Looking like regular admits but being in the 75% statistically is maybe only a small start and not that helpful. And this seems to be the case even looking at the kind of small sample of Scholars results here on CC over the years. And we also know that Emory is a little special when it comes to the stats thing, even for Scholars. There is a bias towards talent outside of testing to the point where there is some leeway on the scores considered (maybe not GPA).
My advice to the OP would be to see if they can hit 1500 (so that they can at least be near a 75% or have a score so high that it would be irrelevant to split hairs versus higher scores and I think 1500 is now the magic number regardless of % and yes 3.9+ UW helps), and then see if they can develop a(or a couple ) of real talents or passions into something bigger. Of course they should do that for themselves, but it would certainly help make them more marketable to scholarship committees. The “I joined honor societies and headed or joined in clubs every high achiever did” is likely to fall way short. Profile needs a lot more “umph” in it to get serious attention amongst 10k scholarship contenders.
Does Emory stack their own merit based scholarships with need based aid?
Does Emory allow stacking outside scholarships with need based aid/merit based aid?
@infinityprep1234 I really don’t know. I guess they would allow upwards to the COA. I suspect that if any merit aid (internal or external) goes beyond the COA, they will start replacing need aid with the scholarship aid. This makes sense as it is probably more helpful to save funds or enhance need aid packages of others who could use it versus putting money in the pockets of certain students. Emory is very expensive so tons of folks need aid just to put a dent in their contribution to the COA (public schools are known to stack, but not as many students attending them are still contributing extreme amounts of funds for the COA even after significant need-based grants). I would hope they don’t stack past COA. Costly for Emory and costly for students who need aid.