Hello all. I am a recently enrolled Junior at a completely newly built school in Fort Mill, South Carolina. Although it makes a lot of financial sense for me to end up enrolling into Clemson, I am heavily set on being a student at Vanderbilt University. I have a few questions for any that happen to be experts on the admission criteria topic for these two schools.
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What is it that I need to do EXACTLY to get into Vanderbilt, and maybe even get some significant merit related financial aid (as I am not in a low income bracket)? If this is too much information to answer in one post, is there a resource that contains this information?
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Same exact question as previous, but regarding Clemson Honors College
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What parts of the application are valued specifically in each college? What should I focus on to achieve these goals? How can I get to be competitive enough to have a significant chance of entry? I want to know what I have to do with my remaining two years of High School, as I have plenty of time and a good setup to succeed in the future, along with a clean slate and an amazing opportunity at a new school.
I don’t know anything about Clemson but at Vandy you will likely need a 34+ACT and a very high GPA. National Merit Finalist seems to help. Take the most rigorous course you can and do well. Keep active in what you are passionate about and volunteer a lot. Merit scholarships are very difficult to come by. They have a few that have separate applications - they are given to the kids who will likely be accepted to the Ivies.
My D’s friend with perfect scores and GPA was accepted to Vandy but didn’t get a nickel of merit money. As noted above, merit scholarship are very difficult to get.
My son had very high grades (#10 in class of 800) and a 36 ACT (plus good ECs and leadership). He was accepted to Vanderbilt but did not receive a merit scholarship. His friend with a higher class rank did receive the CV scholarship at Vandy but is attending Harvard instead - this student has very impressive ECs which is likely needed in addition to other high stats.
You could run the numbers on the Vanderbilt net price calculator to see if you might receive some need-based financial aid. Are you sure you won’t?
Also, no one can tell you EXACTLY what to do to get into Vanderbilt, as their Regular Decision acceptance rate was under 7% this year and there will be many very qualified applicants when you apply.