Stats of those who received merit scholarships

<p>Could those of you who received merit scholarships please post your stats? It would be EXTREMELY helpful if you would go beyond the test scores and GPA to say something about your EC's, hooks, etc. Also helpful would be the amount of the award. I don't mean to be nosy; I would just really like to have an idea of what I need to do in the next year.</p>

<p>This could be way off the mark, but it seems to me that it would be nearly impossible to make yourself such an appealing candidate just within the next year that Vandy would award you a scholarship based on the most recent accomplishments. What you can't afford to do is slack off, and working for high SAT scores if you don't already have them would help. But in terms of ECs, teacher recs, and the like, there's not so much you can do that you haven't done already.</p>

<p>Yeah, one cannot do much in the next year. I'd still like some people to give me an idea...
Vanderbilt's website is rather vague:
"Recipients of these awards for the fall of 2002 were usually in the top 1% of their high school class while enrolled in rigorous academic programs. They typically scored above 1500 on the SAT-I and/or above 34 on the ACT. Additionally, they exhibited strong leadership or exceptional talent outside the classroom."</p>

<p>The standardized testing criteria are clear enough, but what do they consider exceptional talent?</p>

<p>In my high school class, .43 of a person is 1 percent of the class...</p>

<p>heh. It's the same thing with my class: .22 of a person is one percent of the class. I guess that just basically means you'd better be valedictorian if you come from a smaller school.</p>

<p>i just got my scholarship decision today: full-tuition scholarship (peabody college of education)</p>

<p>my stats: 1490/790/790/740, 3.87 uw/4.75 w, lots of ec's incl. leadership positions (founder and pres of web design club, research experience over the summer, webmistress of physics team, kung fu for 8 yrs, school gymnastics team for 2 years, etc), good essays (esp. one about why i love to teach, etc.), good recs.</p>

<p>not to be offensive, but are you an URM?</p>

<p>not really. i'm asian. and although that's a minority, affirmative action works against us too. haha.</p>

<p>it might also be because i go to a magnet school and i made a pretty good impression on the dean when i arrived at the scholarship weekend.</p>