<p>The main problem you have with looking these students up is that you have too little identifying information. If you had the students’ schools, for example, you would probably find much more information on them. (As high school students, even if their accomplishments had little to do with their school, it will often be mentioned in news stories and other documentation). Most peoples’ names are just too common for that alone to bring up internet search results on them.
(As high school students, I expect very few had LinkedIn accounts. If you found some those probably weren’t even for the person you were searching for)</p>
<p>I am an incoming Beering Scholar at Purdue this year. I am very reluctant to share personal information over the internet.</p>
<p>My Resume -
High test scores/GPA, rigorous classes, National Merit, etc etc etc
Varsity Athlete (highly competitive State-level). Recognized leader by coaches and teammates.
Very Significant STEM Accomplishment/Work
Leader of (unusual but important and highly impactful) community service group (state/local)
Leader of outside-of-school engineering high school group
STEM clubs/competitions (local).
Recognized (in a general sense) via selective community award
One unusual and highly technical hobby
(I do not care to be more specific, even via PM)</p>
<p>Summary - A lot of leadership and initiative outside of avenues offered by my school. Everything I did I did to a very high level. You will find very little “filler” on my application. I could talk to you about nearly all of my activities for hours because a very large amount of time was put into all of them.</p>
<p>As far as the application goes, I got the sense that the application for Beering/Stamps mostly goes out by standardized test scores and GPA. You MUST meet the early application deadline (sometime in November, I believe). If you have high scores, you are most likely in.</p>
<p>The Beering/Stamps application (if you are invited to apply) is a fair bit of work. It will be five essays (actually, “three essays” and two other responses, which are essays). Financial need is not a factor, nor is race (as far as I can tell). I think some bias exists based on residency (I think at least half of the Beering Scholars had to be from Indiana). The application (form my perspective) seems geared toward people with:
- A global awareness and some knowledge of current events,
- Leadership (they actually do not focus on this very much),
- Achievements (vague) that are not only impressive but help them to understand something about you,
- Community service/job (that allow you to show growth or some facet of your personality),
- and being an interesting person (doing interesting things; don’t have to be impressive).</p>
<p>Keep in mind - I have never been outside this country (besides Canada). Global awareness doesn’t mean that you had to have traveled extensively or done some community service project in another country. Being up-to-date on current national and international issues will help you.</p>
<p>While the application was a lot of work, I think I enjoyed it the most out of any I completed. Their application (in my opinion) lets people with a lot of different backgrounds and types of accomplishments shine.</p>
<p>Apparently, they also will look at your admissions application while reviewing the Beering/Stamps one (although I am unclear as to the extent that factored in). Make sure your admissions essay is a good one!</p>
<p>I personally feel like I was able to represent myself in all of these categories very well and that I was (am) very accomplished for a high school-er. Still, having no idea what the other applicants looked like, I really did not know what to expect. From speaking with the committee responsible for reviewing my application, they seemed to indicate that I was one of their top choices. From that, I would imagine that you don’t have to fit perfectly into all of the areas they assess. But, of course, you need to represent yourself well in most of them.</p>
<p>Really, the only things you’ll NEED going into the application is a significant accomplishment you can talk about AND community service/work you can talk about. Everything else they assess is less concrete and will hinge more on you as a person. They ultimately want an aware, driven, and interesting leader.</p>
<p>If are selected based on your application, you will have to interview:</p>
<p>I had many interviews during the college application/scholarship process. The Beering interview, in my opinion, was the least-intense of all of them. If you are reasonably well spoken and are the kind of person represented in you essays, you will most likely receive the scholarship. From what I can tell, the Stamps interviews are far more competitive.</p>
<p>Given your goals, consider applying to the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. If you make it as a Shipmen Scholar some additional funding (on top of what the top Shipmen are offered) may come your way. I highly doubt it will be a full ride, but it could come to be significantly lower than in-state COA.</p>
<p>As a National Merit Finalist you will also get a very nice offer from Texas A&M.</p>
<p>General Advice -
Going after these sorts of awards involves a large piece of luck. Of course you have to be qualified (very well qualified), but once you are, large amounts of chance factor in. You may fit the criteria for an award even better than the actual awardees (in some “objective” observer’s opinion), but if your essays don’t happen to resonate well with a particular committee, you have trouble connecting with your interviewer, or a number of other chance events occur, then you will not be a recipient.</p>
<p>Everyone who receives an award will be very well qualified, how one goes about ranking vastly different types of achievements is a very tricky matter. You could easily argue that is some cases their is no good way to do so, but committees still must decide.</p>
<p>Give everything your best effort, but do not expect anything in return.</p>