<p>What sort of students get scholarships at Wash U?
Does anyone know of anyone specifically who was awarded a scholarship? What were their stats / why do you think they got it?</p>
<p>Rejections stories work too. I'm just trying to figure out if I have any chance at all (I know I can't affort Washington University otherwise).</p>
<p>I personally didn’t apply to any, and I’m probably a minority among my friends at Wash U for not having applied to any. Some of my friends received one, some didn’t. But, it’s not something that people talk about on the first day of freshman orientation, you know? </p>
<p>The Danforth and the Ervin programs are the largest in terms of quantity. I don’t know the exact number in either, but all the Danforth scholars live in the Danforth dorm. There are probably 180 people total in that dorm, and my rough estimation is that a good 20-30 are in the Danforth program each year?? That seems reasonable as a guess, but contact Admissions or the program advisers themselves for an exact figure. However, even knowing that, it’s impossible to know how many people actually applied to them, which is probably the more relevant number anyway to gauge your chances. </p>
<p>The Art Sci programs (Compton, Lien, and a few others whose names I don’t know) are pretty small, though. </p>
<p>Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that while these are all competitive, there are a good number of Wash U students who receive a scholarship. It’s not like only 1 in the whole freshman class received one. </p>
<p>I do know several Danforths and one person who has a Compton scholarship. They are all really smart. I mean, Wash U is full of smart people as it is, and if you’re getting merit scholarship money, you’ve got to be a little bit more academically-inclined than even the typical Wash U student. Especially the Compton guy, who I’m convinced will win a nobel prize in physics one day. Wash U isn’t a “SAT sharing” culture and you don’t wear your high school gpa on your t-shirt. With that said, my best friend who is a Danforth Scholar got a 2360 on the SAT and had one B in high school (she’s not a math person), and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that this is a typical academic profile for a scholarship winner. </p>
<p>The average SAT score range at Wash U, from a quick google search, is a 1380 to 1540 ---- I couldn’t find the average included with Writing, but since that’s the easiest SAT section, you have to figure at least a 750 average.<br>
Since these are scholarships, your SAT should probably be above that range, and your high school record should be near flawless in terms of GPA and a fair amount of AP classes. If you are applying for scholarships in a specific academic area (like the Compton for science), doing research, an independent study, or writing a publication, are probably really important. I’d even say that doing major things like that is more important, because these are major scholarships, they last for 4 years, you get a special advisor(s)… so the professors are going to be invested in you and want you to contribute to their own research work. (This probably excludes the Danforth/Ervin/Rodriguez, which while they clearly still require high academic standards, they aren’t for a specific major or academic area so I doubt that doing “extra” things like research or being published is NEARLY as important as it would be for Compton/Lien/Engineering/etc.)</p>
<p>Beyond academics, make sure you are still involved in leadership (and care to be a leader in college), know your teachers, have a good essay and rec letters, make an impact in your community, and all the standard stuff that you can assume they look for. Again, contact Admissions or the program advisers, because each will probably have slightly different advice and recommendations to that program. </p>
<p>These are just conjectures, but I think they’re pretty fair conjectures given the amount of money at stake and type of programs they are.</p>
<p>Very helpful post about the stats for kids you know who won the scholarships. My D applied for Lein, Rodrieguz, Ervin and Entrepenuer. Seems like a small number of kids win these but if they do it is substantial $$ award. Does anyone know if the weekend interviews/group competitions all happen on the same weekend and if so how can kids possibly juggle the various places to be at once? If you don’t go to the competitive weekend you forfeit changes at scholarship, right?</p>
<p>I applied to the Dean’s business one and the Entrepreneurial one. I’m really not too confident on my chances.</p>