Hi all! I thought I’d make a thread for applicants who applied to Morrill Scholars. Remember, Morrill Scholars is not based on GPA, class rank, or any other academic qualifications. Just the essay and your extracurriculars, leadership, ECT. The main part of the scholarship is DIVERISTY and inclusion.
My son (DS) received Morrill Scholarship in 2016. For those interested, the timeline for his acceptance and notification of the scholarship were as follows:
DS submitted common app to OSU on 09/11/15
DS accepted to OSU on 11/20/15
DS received Morrill Prominence email on 01/04/16
DS notified by telephone that he had received Distinction on 03/21/16
@fatherof2boys Thanks!!
What major is your son doing at OSU?
@equationlover, my son is majoring in Political Science and he will be graduating this summer and then off to law school. He came into OSU with about 30 hours of AP credits which is why he’s graduating a year earlier after summer school.
My son applied. His main hook is that he received the Frederick Douglas Abigail Adams award sponsored by the U of Rochester for his commitment to difficult social issues which he wrote about in his essay. He has attended, volunteered and now worked for a total of 9 years at a Boys and Girls club camp (500 volunteer hours). We feel it’s a bit of a long shot but felt he really had to apply due to the award he won.
Cool! I wrote about my commitment to bringing women and people with disabilities into engineering and computer science. With my own experiences being legally blind, I talked about how it is important we have those kinds of people so we can make the world a better place. I also talked about engineering projects I’ve done for people who have disabilities, and outreach in CS. Since the adcoms already see your leadership list, I figured I would focus on one event I did that described my identity and then listed my leadership.
Just got an email yesterday offering me the Excellence Scholarship! Does anyone know if being considered for Distinction would’ve been included in that email or can it come later?
Congratulations. My eldest son received Distinction three cycles ago. If I recall correctly, he was awarded Prominence/Excellence first and notified in that correspondence that he was still under consideration for Distinction. He had to do the interview later on for Distinction.
Congratulations!! can you post your stats and what your essay was about?
Oh wow. I still haven’t been accepted yet so I am eager to be accepted so they can start to look at my essay!
@oreomollykona It is not about stats. The only things they look at are your extracurriculars and the essay.
Is Excellence separate from Morrill? And did it require a different essay outside of your Common App? Just got kinda lost in the admissions process for OSU… 
My essay was focused on my home life, since I grew up in an unsafe environment both due to my neighborhood and my family’s ideals. I discussed how lucky I am to have found my ‘home’ at school or in my extracurriculars, where I’m surrounded by supportive peers and mentors. Since I know others may not be as lucky as I am to have another place to call home in their life, I do community service with the intent to make others feel supported and comfortable, no matter who they are or where they come from. I gave plenty of examples of my work in my community and am so grateful that ODI recognized this work! I never really expected this, so I wish you all the best of luck! I’m positive they’ll keep sending out offers through the rest of the year and next!
I see one contributor to this thread was already notified. Anyone else receive notice? Anyone know the timeline?
@1happypappy Most people have not received acceptances yet. You can only be considered for MS if you are accepted.
My daughter was accepted on 11/17, OOS but has not heard anything on Morrill.
@Yoda13 It takes time for them to process everything. OSU is a big university.
Does anyone know if all Morrill recipients are notified at the same time?
@STEM2017 It’s rolling, based off what I saw from last year’s thread.
Will they email you if you received an award through your personal email??