Hey y’all! I was offered the Wells in December 2019, and I’d love to answer any questions you have about it. I have not accepted it (yet!) but it’s currently my top choice. Ask away about the application, the details of the scholarship, literally anything.
I have a 3.97 GPA unweighted (B in one semester of AP Bio as a sophomore, eek) and a 4.32 GPA weighted (I’ve taken more AP classes than anyone else at my school). I have a 35 on the ACT, but that number doesn’t seem to weigh too much into the decision once you get the qualifying score. I am an out-of-state student. No one has ever been nominated from my high school before, and I was nominated through the Office of Admissions.
Wow, congratulations! That’s amazing!!! I, too, am an out-of-state student and I don’t know if my school is eligible for nominating students, because I am still waiting for a response back from the Wells Scholar staff.
I have a few questions if you wouldn’t mind answering them.
How did you get nominated through the Office of Admissions?
What does the scholarship include (since the website is kind of vague)?
How competitive is it?
I currently have a 4.0UW (my weighted is 4.69 as a junior), am 1 out of 81 students in my class (small college prep school), and have yet to take the SAT, but I got a 1400 on the PSAT to give you an image. So, two more questions, do they superscore your SAT Score? Do I have a chance of getting in?
What were the student essays/how many were there?
How was the interview process?
Ah I am so sorry those are so many questions but IU is currently one of my top universities and it’s so incredible that you were accepted and sweet of you to post about it.
So, when the scholarship application opens, you're going to email the program (as I'm assuming you've already done, ha) with your first and last name, your email address, your counselor's email, and the full name of your school. After that, you'll gain access to the application portal once the staff replies.
So, the Wells guarantees a full ride to IU. That's the bottom line. They cover full tuition and give a $10k/yr housing stipend, which covers standard housing. They pay for meals, books, and give refunds for transportation costs. You can also receive $1750 for support for one summer internship, job, or community service experience. There is also a cap of $25k for study abroad that has to be approved by the director of the program.
Honestly? I'm not sure. It's one of the best scholarship programs in the country as I see it. I heard that over 600 people apply each year, but I'm not sure if that's true. Either way, around 50 people are invited to the interview weekend, and then around 17 receive an offer shortly after. If they turn it down, other finalists can still receive it- all finalists who didn't get an initial offer can still possibly receive one up to May 1st, I think.
Awesome stats! My state is more of an ACT state than an SAT state, so I don't know how to measure that for you. And on getting in - like I said before, once you get that benchmark score and GPA (which you seem to have), the selection process weighs VERY heavily on your essays, involvement, and service.
Oh geez. Um, the essay was something like choosing a question that intelligent people disagree over, and analyze the arguments? Or something like that. I can share mine with you - if private messages exist on College Confidential (? lol) I can give you my Instagram. There was also one on what your most significant contribution to your community has been, and there was another one that I can't remember right now but I'll get back to you on that.
That's a huge question. It was an interview weekend- you stay in the hotel on campus during Sat/Sun night and all of your events are in the Student Union attached. They provide accommodation for Fri/Sat night if you need it. Family is not allowed until the final meeting on Sunday. There's a group interview of 4-5 people, then an individual interview. There are usually 2 professors for the group and 1 for the individual. They were more conversations than interviews- they were about our interests, our essays, etc. I'll tell you more about it over DM if you like- I'm not sure really how much I'm supposed to share publicly, haha.
I have a question for you - have you visited campus? And what state are you from?
Also, if you don’t think your school can nominate students, it probably can’t- you would have heard about the scholarship before or your counselor would have told you if it could.
Hey, congratulations! Fancy bumping into another prospective Wells Scholar on here!?
I was also offered the Wells Scholarship as well in December 2019; although I haven’t officially accepted, its definitely one of my top choices (who can resist a deal like that!). I would love to get in touch but CC doesn’t seem to allow me to PM you; if you can give me your Instagram ID, I’ll message you there.
I, unfortunately, have not visited campus as I am from Arizona.
Would they pay for me to fly home during the holidays? I read that you said they would reimburse transportation costs, but is that just to and from campus?
Did you accept the scholarship??
I do not have Instagram, but do you have an email where I can contact you to ask more questions, so that it is not all out in the public realm, haha.
That was, in fact, a lot of help and information! Hope to get in contact with you soon. Stay safe
No, you’re fine! I hope your college search isn’t too offset by COVID-19.
So, I think they just give you a stipend for transportation costs- it’s been explained to me like this: you have a bursar account where the Wells program puts all the scholarship money in for whatever reasons, then you get charged whatever amount for tuition and everything. Whatever is left over is for you to spend at your discretion, but it’s usually very generous, and don’t quote me on this, but I think it would cover a couple round-trip plane tickets.
I did accept the scholarship!! I’m incredibly excited for the fall. I hope we get to actually go (cue me nervously laughing).
This chain just seems to be a bunch of late replies haha. I couldn’t find much information about this program other than here, so hopefully you can still reply!
How much are ECs factored into admissions? Is the consideration mostly from the essays or would you say that there was a mix of both. Also, if you’re comfortable sharing, could you describe your ECs and the types of ECs other interviewees had at the weekend?
Thank you so much for this post!! It really means a lot
Hey there! Hoping this reply is still helpful, haha.
I truly don’t know much about how each factor of the application weighs in, but I’d say they’re definitely looking for you to be passionate about your extracurriculars; some people get asked about them in interviews, even.
Again, I don’t know how everything is reviewed, but I’d say the essay is just as important as your ECs and vice versa.
I can’t speak much to other people’s ECs (you can probably find more about them on the Meet the Scholars part of the Wells Scholars page on IU’s website), but I think my main ECs were Literary Club (president & founder), Beta Club (president), Drama Club (co-president), NHS (parliamentarian), Yearbook (photo editor), and there’s probably more, I just can’t remember them now, haha.
Overall, I think a good mix of interests displayed through your ECs is really important. You need to be able to speak about them if prompted, so I wouldn’t recommend having ones that you joined just for a resume. It’s good to have a high level of involvement, too.
Feel free to email me if you have any more questions! I might take a while to reply back here. Good luck!
Hey! Just sent you an email! Wanted to let you know on here bcuz idk if u check that gmail u gave since college students usually get school specific emails
