Mylonas/Nemerov Scholarship Chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
1

I’ll try to keep my situational sob story short: my parents make a lot of money, but have absolutely no interest in helping me pay for college, which puts a major strain on my ambitions of attending a competitive university like WashU. This circumstance has made me really strive to make myself as competitive an applicant as possible in the hopes that I might receive some merit aid from WashU should I be accepted. I am planning on applying for the George E. Mylonas Honorary Scholarship (humanities), as well as the the Nemerov Writing Scholarship. Below is my resume in a nutshell; please use it to give me a realistic idea of whether or not I have any shot of receiving any merit aid from WashU when I apply during my upcoming senior year of high school:

STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES/GPA
-GPA: 4.00 unweighted; 4.59 weighted (as of the end of my junior year)
-ACT Composite: 35 (English=36, Math=32, Reading=36, Science=36, Writing=9) (plan to retake)
-SAT Subject Tests: 770 in literature; 720 in Physics (plan to retake Literature as well as try Spanish and Biology in the future)
-PSAT: 216 (I live in Kansas, and this score has never not been high enough to make National Merit Semifinalist status {knock on wood})
-AP’s: AP European History=3; took 5 my junior year and am waiting on my scores; taking 7 my senior year

EXTRACURRICULARS
-Cross Country: 9, 10, 11, 12?
-Swimming: 9
-Track: 9, 10, 11, 12 {varsity}
-Debate: 10, 11, 12 {varsity}
-Book Club: 11, 12
-Student Council: 11, 12
-Tiger Mentor (council a group of underclassmen on high school life for about 1 hour per week): 11, 12
-Science Outreach (go to grade schools and do science experiments to get kids interested in science): 11, 12

LEADERSHIP
-elected Junior Class Secretary
-elected Executive Student Body Secretary
-elected Secretary of my high school’s chapter of the National Honor Society
-regional leadership conference attendee
-Herff Jones leadership seminar attendee
-selected to attend week long Emporia State leadership camp this summer
-chosen to represent my high school by serving on the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Board, a committee that meets every semester to discuss how the school district can best adapt to meet the needs of its students

COMMUNITY SERVICE
-volunteer weekly during the fall and winter as a youth group leader at my church (10, 11, 12?)
-involved in Gift of Life Rally (an organ donation education group; 11, 12)
-a myriad of other things through my involvement in student council

HONOR SOCIETIES/AWARDS
-principals honor role every semester
-National Honor Society
-National Spanish Honor Society
-National Science Honor Society
-National History Honor Society
-Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society)
-National Forensics League (Debate Honor Society)
-Ayn Rand Anthem Essay Contest Semifinalist
-NCTE Award for Superior Writing Performance
-1st Place Winner of the District Poetry Contest

  • Published Author of Poetry (in a national anthology of high schoolers’ work; less than 2% of entries were accepted for publication)
2

No one here knows what ypur chances are. Your stats look good but so do all the kids that are applying for these scholarships. My daughter applied with similar stats and didn’t get any scholarship. She was nominated for a scholarship by her school and didn’t get that one either. Both her guidance and washu admit for our area were shocked. And even if you get invited for scholarship weekend you might only get $15K per year which sounds like it won’t be enough for you. Bottom line is you can’t count on it. You should still apply and hope for the best though. But if your parents won’t help pay for your education, apply broadly and to schools that give good merit aid. Your best bet is your state school. There’s nothing wrong with state school. You’ll get into honors program for sure and depending on your major you can do masters afterwards in a more prestigious school if you so desire.
I do have one question for you though, why in the world would you retake a 35 ACT?!

3

momworried-

Thank you for the honest reply! In regards to your question, I guess I just thought that the higher my score, the better my chances were.

4

momworried-

Thanks for the honest response! In regards to your question, I guess I just figured the higher the score I could manage, the better my chances were.

5

If you make National Merit Finalist and list Wustl as your first college choice, you can get merit money from that for 4 consecutive years.

Definitely apply for Mylonas/Nemerov scholarships, what have you got to lose?

An ACT of 35 is enough. No need to waste your time to try to improve by 1 point. Use that time for writing your college essays.

Best of luck to you!

6

I had no clue WUSTL gave out an award for achieving National Merit Finalist status. Thank you so much for the response rubberfall.

7

@abcninja : @rubberfall is incorrect. WUSTL no longer gives money for NMF, fyi.

8

Ah I knew it was to good to be true! Thanks @Johnson181 for the clarification.

9

@Johnson181,@abcninja

Has this changed since the high school graduating class of 2014? I know firsthand personally that WUSTL granted $2,000 per year for this for 4 years. If this has changed within the past year, I apologize.

10

Yep, it’s pretty new.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/washington-university-st-louis/1743769-wustl-no-longer-a-national-merit-scholarship-sponsor.html

(And absolutely stupid).

11

@Johnson181

Well blow me away! That is incredibly disappointing and stupid. Thanks for the update.