Merit Scholarship Chances

Paying for College
1

<p>Merit Scholarship Chances?
Nominated for Full-Ride scholarships by my high school for Duke (Robertson), UNC, Washington University in St. Louis (Danforth), U Virginia (Jefferson) and I am also applying for scholarships at Boston College, Vanderbilt, USC, and the UC system.
SAT: 2340 (800 Math, 740 CR, 800 Writing)
SAT II: 780 Math, 760 US History, 740 Physics, 730 Chem
GPA: 3.96 UW at competitive private school in Los Angeles, 4.5 W (#3 in class of about 120)</p>

<p>Other Academic Honors: National Merit Commended, various awards for being the best student in certain classes (AP Phys B, AP US H, and others), awards for Highest GPA, *** Laude Society, took Business class at community college and earned an A</p>

<p>ECs: Club Soccer at Gold level (would probably be able to play DIII like at WashU) (captain for two years before I tore my ACL), Varsity Soccer, Varsity Lacrosse, Zen Club (works in my essay), various community service activities (Head Officer of Best Buddies), founding member of Business Club, Weightlifting</p>

<p>Other: I take an Applied Psychology class that is also known as "Peer Leadership" (students teach and mentor a freshman class once a week). 20 students were selected from about a group of 75 to
be a part of the "Peer Leadership" program. </p>

<p>Work Experience: Summer job as sports coach for last 5 summers (5-6 weeks each summer, 40 hours per week)
Good Essays, Good Recs, the usual goodness</p>

<p>Additional Details
competitive meaning the average GPA of the students accepted to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, etc. from my school is between O.1 and 0.2 less than my GPA</p>

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<p>I think that you have very good chances at some of those scholarships. Do you know how many are awarded at each school? Are hundreds applying for a small number of awards?</p>

<p>I’m also wondering if you’re applying to these schools because you need a lot of merit money, and won’t qualify for FA. Is that the case? If you don’t win any of these highly competitive scholarships, will you still be ok for college?</p>

<p>If you definitely need lots of money for college, then you need to apply to a few financial safety schools that will certainly award you merit scholarships for your stats. </p>

<p>But, if you’re financially set whether you win a scholarship or not, then great! You will surely get accepted into schools like USC, Vandy, and UCs. You also have an excellent shot at getting accepted into your other reaches.</p>

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<p>15 get the Boston College Scholarship
18 at Duke, 18 at UNC (but UNC also offers other merit scholarships that have greater # of recipients)
~24 at Virginia
Probably similar numbers for WashU and Vanderbilt with USC being higher</p>

<p>I’ll probably end up at a UC if I don’t get any merit aid, but Berkeley is fine with me.</p>

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<p>Good luck getting accepted to UCB! :)</p>