Help - Ingram Scholarship

I was heavily interested in applying for the Ingram Scholarship but I did not realize that for the application you had to turn in two seperate letter of recommendations instead of the ones available on the Common App. I have emailed my teachers requesting them to upload their common app rec but we are on break and I doubt they will submit it on time. Is there anything I can do?

without any sarcasm intended. If it snows much that week, many schools will extend their deadlines a bit. Otherwise, I don’t have any ideas for you without your distinct letter of reference for this merit scholarship.

Lol, I hope it snows otherwise I guess I will hope my chances are good enough for the Cornelius Vanderbilt scholarship

FWIW, there are far more CV scholarships awarded than Ingram scholarships. The Ingram process also includes interviews, which is not the case with CV. Finally, the lucky few selected as Ingram scholars have a substantial ongoing commitment on campus. This is likely a rewarding commitment they will enjoy, but it does differ from CV which has no such ongoing obligations.

My D submitted her Ingram Scholarship application on the VU portal today and got a green check mark by the application. However, the places by the letters of recommendation where the checks should be are both blank. She knows at least one of the recommendation letters was received by VU because she got a confirmation email a few days ago, but she hasn’t gotten an email confirmation for the second one. She will call or email the admissions office tomorrow. Any Vandy sages with words of wisdom?

With one letter already registered as “in”, I would not stress until the office reopens. Have her send an email to her regional app and copy to the main admission office with a subject line of something like 2nd Ingram recommendation later not registered yet…there are people scrambling in the main office to get all this sorted. Do stay on it. We learned after the committee met and made selections at Emory merit rounds that our sons packet was never considered and misplaced despite good follow-up and oversight. And teachers are so overworked. Sometimes teachers send recommendations in on their last day at home before resuming teaching. Bless their hearts because students know they waited till the last second. My eldest applied in 2005 with all hard copies of everything and when your teacher’s letter arrived was forever mystery. I think you are likely “good to go.” Your D has done a fabulous job in HS. She deserves a chair at Vandy but so do hundreds who will not get a seat. (My spouse was Vandy Law a few years before you.) Start telling her right now that this is out of her hands and she is fabulous and she will be happy Vandy or somewhere else. She did everything she could that was in her control. There are many rather unfair application cycles ahead for all of these great 18 year olds during college and in the work place. Think of this process as building the skills and resilience to put herself out there. Our sons got at least 50% Nos in various efforts and even so the work place is tougher. hoping she gets a Yes.

@Faline2 Thank you for the encouraging words. She just got an email that the second Ingram letter was received. I assume the portal will update in due course. You are probably right about the teacher doing it at the last minute. The teacher’s don’t get paid nearly enough for what they are asked to do outside the classroom during college app season.