President's Scholarship

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 and expensive college like Grinnell. This circumstance has made me really strive to make myself as competitive an applicant as possible in the hopes that I might receive merit aid from Grinnell should I be accepted. After studying Grinnell’s website, it seems that their President’s Scholarship ($50,000 per year) could actually make it possible for me to attend Grinnell. I know that no one other than the financial aid office can say anything for sure, but below is my resume in a nutshell, and I would greatly appreciate it if you could use it to give me a realistic idea of whether or not I have any shot of receiving the President’s Scholarship from Grinnell when I apply in the coming months. Any insight from current President’s Scholars at Grinnell would be especially helpful.

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)
-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: European History=3; Chemistry=4; US History=4; Physics 1=5; Macroeconomics=5; English Language & Composition=5; taking 7 more my senior year

EXTRACURRICULARS
-Cross Country: 9, 10, 11
-Swimming: 9
-Track: 9, 10, 11, 12 {varsity}
-Debate: 10, 11, 12 {varsity}
-Book Club: 11, 12
-Student Council: 11, 12
-Tiger Mentor (counsel 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
-Blue Valley School District Leadership Lock-In attendee
-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
-Principal’s Honor Hole 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)
-NSHSS (National Society of High School Scholars)
-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)

For what it’s worth, I’m a white male from (as previously mentioned) Kansas.

My son is a rising Soph and received merit (Trustee Scholarship) but this Presidential Scholarship was not available then so I cannot say what it would take to earn it. You have great creds so I would think that you would get some level of merit but not sure what level that might be.

That’s a big scholarship! OP, don’t worry, you will be able to get a full ride merit scholarship at SOME college; you are a very qualified applicant. Grinnell is going to be tough because it attracts a lot of applicants with profiles like yours, but you certainly have a chance.

Thanks for the responses @thinmints and @International95.