Any thoughts out there on what % of merit scholarships go to regular decision applicants?
I don’t know, but they imply it doesn’t matter how you are admitted, although you should understand you will find out after you commit if you apply ED:
I’m applying Early Decision. Am I eligible for scholarships?
Yes. If you apply under our binding Early Decision I or II plan, you will also be given full consideration for merit-based scholarships. Scholarships are not awarded until spring. If your ability to attend WashU is dependent upon receiving a merit scholarship, we recommend that you apply in the non-binding Regular Decision round.
They could be lying, but I doubt it. They need this to be true to avoid discouraging people who are competitive for merit from applying ED, and those are very much people they want to apply ED.
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WashU states on the website that they fill about 50% of the class through ED, so if, e.g. in 22-23 they offered 54 non-need merit scholarships, it is possible that 27 were for ED, but I am guessing it is a lot lower than that. If they, like many schools, use non-need merit scholarships to coax “retail” families into enrolling for a slight discount, they likely save a lot of that $ for the RD round, where merit will make or break a lot of families’ decisions.
Merit in the ED round is kind of just a gift to someone who is already bound to attend.
Our kiddo needs merit for us to send her there, so she will apply RD. I imagine that is the case for most people whose decision is dependent on merit - they will apply RD and the schools know that so will offer most of their merit to RD applicants. (again this is all just based on my assumptions - I may be totally wrong on all fronts!!)
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So while there is some potential logic to that strategy, WUSTL seems to be saying they don’t do that.
And there is a second-order logic to what they are saying. As you point out, if people who want merit believe they can only (or most likely) get it RD, then even people who have WUSTL as their top choice might avoid ED.
But WUSTL wants those people to ED! So it could plausibly want to promise to those people that it won’t make a difference, so that way they won’t do what you are suggesting.
Now in a very cynical analysis of this, if WUSTL could get away with promising that but actually doing nothing of the sort, that may be the best of all scenarios for WUSTL.
But, I am personally reluctant to believe they are that unethical. And even if you don’t buy that, I am not sure they could be confident they would never get caught.
Anyway, obviously it is up to each family to decide whether or not they believe WUSTL. But personally, I do, because I think they recognized the need to make this promise in order to make ED work for them, and I don’t believe it is likely they would do that falsely.
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but I think this is a very clear statement. They are in fact telling people that if they need merit, they should apply RD not ED. That is obviously true everywhere and isn’t specific to WashU, but I am guessing they don’t utilize a lot of their limited merit $$ on people who are clearly willing to pay full price (as indicated by their willingness to apply ED). The ED applicant’s families have already made the calculation that they will pay full price (or their full financial aid adjusted price).
I am guessing that after all the RD applications are in and they allocate the money they think they need to in order to entice the specific RD students they want, any extra $$ is given to the ED pool as a bonus. Again, this is a guess, but it seems logical they would do so. With the quality of the WashU applicant pool, everyone accepted into the program is a reasonable candidate for merit scholarships, so they really can use it strategically to improve yield and get people (demographics, etc.) they really want.
Right, because a total of 274 out of 1808 students in their last first-year class were awarded any sort of merit. If you NEED merit they don’t want you to apply ED, because odds are you will not get it.
So again, they say:
If you apply under our binding Early Decision I or II plan, you will also be given full consideration for merit-based scholarships
If your guess is true, that would be a lie.
So what I have heard is that academic merit scholarships usually go to people with test scores in their 75th percentile range (1570+ SAT or 35+ ACT) and very high grades. The Ampersand scholarships require credible “evidence of interest in academic areas that cross the traditional categories of inquiry in Arts & Sciences (Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences.)” The Fox School scholarships requires portfolios. The signature scholarships require additional applications and an explanation of how you fit the criteria.
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The full total is 274 (line G) plus 58 (line N). The merit only (with no need) is calculated separately. So a total of 332 students received merit awards. (or 18% of total)
The percentage of students with need receiving merit awards in addition to financial aid is 34% while it is less than 6% of those with no need. So if you want/need merit but are not eligible for financial aid, the odds are very challenging, whether it is ED or RD.
D will still be throwing her hat in the ring. But with open eyes that it is a longshot.
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I have a question.
I know you can reuse essays within the 3 scholarships themselves, but what if I copied the optional 250 word supplement essay for the scholarships (ie reusing the same essay 4 times across application- Main supp, 3 scholarship)?
I wouldn’t recommend it. Are the prompts exactly the same?