My daughter has been looking at the long list of schools offering Stamps scholarships. She says she cannot find any information about number of applicants who are offered the scholarships at each school. Does anyone know which schools might be less competitive. She is a stellar student, high test scores and very flexible in region and school size. We are on the east coast. Thanks
I don’t know much, but I think each school only gives out a few Stamps Scholarships. They are all competitive because the Stamps Foundation interviews the finalists I believe.
I am only familiar with University of Pittsburgh, where 5 Stamps Scholarships are awarded (only to instate students).
https://oafa.pitt.edu/financialaid/academic-scholarships/stamps-scholarship/
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If you want to find out how many each school awards, your best bet is to Google the school and Stamps scholarship (or Stamps Foundation). The award varies by school, too. Some schools are full COA + a stipend, others don’t cover the full COA.
It’s hard to say whether it’s more competitive at certain schools. I do feel schools are looking for different things in their Stamps Scholars. You daughter may do better by reading the profiles of stamps scholars at different schools and seeing which one(s) sound more like her. My daughter applied to several schools that offer Stamps Scholarships (not with the intent of getting the scholarship). She was awarded many merit scholarships (including full tuition at one place), but only one school invited her to interview for Stamps. I chalk it up to her having what they were looking for, not necessarily that she stood out more at the one school.
Even at the Stamps schools where the school itself is less selective, I am willing to bet that competition for the Stamps is still pretty stiff.
That said, you can go to this list, then google the name of each school with the phrase “common data set.” The statistics in the common data set will give you an idea of how selective those particular schools are. I am not familiar with all of the schools on the list, but I don’t think Mercer or LSU, for example, are as selective as some of the other schools on the Stamps list.
Good luck!
I know UofSC awards 5 in-state and 5 OOS Stamps. It’s an extension of top scholars program and highly competitive. Be sure if you’re looking at data set that they show Honor’s college stats. Looking at school as a whole would make it seem less competitive than these stats show.
From website -
“On average, our In-State Top Scholars have an SAT score of 1507, ACT score of 33, and weighted GPA of 4.83. The averages for our Out-of-State Top Scholars are an SAT score of 1545, ACT score of 34, and weighted GPA of 4.80.”
They are super competitive everywhere. My D was awarded 2 and selected to compete for a 3rd (but declined). She has also met some of the Stamps Scholars at Mercer. The students that win have comparable stats at all schools. I’d say minimum 34 ACT, 1500+ SAT, A average and most importantly, that special something each school is looking for.
I agree with itsgettingreal17— there are so few Stamps Scholarships awarded and they are so competitive that the Stamps students who win at any of the schools are always tippy tippy top. I doubt there is much daylight between the winners, no matter the school. If your daughter is hoping for Stamps (or any big award), she should cast a wide net and research the heck out of the schools to which she applies so that she can write pointed and excellent essays. (And good luck-- there is an element of luck in these awards because we don’t necessarily know what the “special something” is that a particular school is looking for or the area (i.e. STEM, arts, political science) that the school might be trying to fill that year).
But, having said that, I would guess that a gigantic university such as University of Florida that gets 40K applications (or something crazy like that) would have more of those top notch applicants just a result of the volume of applications. So, to answer your question, I would think that the smaller schools might actually be somewhat less competitive in a statistical sense.
Thank you all for your feedback. I really appreciate it.