How competitive is the Cornelius Vanderbilt scholarship?

<p>How many people receive it? It is an advantage to live in-state?
Thanks.</p>

<p>About 140 students receive the Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship (divided between the four undergraduate schools of Vanderbilt) based on academic merit, leadership, etc. I do not think it’s an advantage to live in-state for this scholarship since it is just based on the applicants’ ability. </p>

<p>There are some other Tennessee-specific scholarships such as Top Tenn that only offer money to in-state students though, but I doubt that being in-state confers an advantage for the CV scholarship.</p>

<p>I see. I don’t live in Tennessee, I was just wondering if they showed any preference to Tennessee residents. Thanks for the reply.</p>

<p>I know this may be nit-picky and difficult to answer unless you’re an AdCom at the school, but would you venture to guess that academic merit holds much more weight?</p>

<p>I received the CV scholarship this year and I only had one leadership position, but I was a strong science student - I was heavily involved in about 4 math/science clubs and won a few national awards in the US National Chemistry Olympiad, USA Biology Olympiad, and the AMC (qualified for AIME). I think the main thing is to show academic merit and passion, and leadership will help, but academics is probably the main thing this award is based on.</p>

<p>Thanks a bunch, as Vandy is basically my dream school mainly because anything ranked higher I can’t afford as I won’t qualify for any significant amount of financial aid. Again, thank you. Very informative and helpful.</p>

<p>Vandy admissions blog actually says the number is more like 50-60. </p>

<p>[Vanderbilt</a> Merit Awards | The Vandy Admissions Blog | Vanderbilt University](<a href=“http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/vandybloggers/2010/08/vanderbilt-merit-awards/]Vanderbilt”>Vanderbilt Merit Awards | The Vandy Admissions Blog | Vanderbilt University)</p>

<p>Oh the blog from this year actually does say 140 were offered out of 3600 applicants. Those all won’t be accepted though (which may explain the lower number in the other blog post).</p>