<p>One of my daughters was just accepted early to Williams as a Tyng scholar. We don't have the actual Tyng offer yet -- she received a phone call and letter saying that materials were on the way in the next few weeks and giving her the contact person in the admissions office. The person she spoke with gave her a brief summary of the award (along with lots of congratulations, of course) but I'm curious about details. </p>
<p>I've done as much research as I can but am hoping someone who is/was a recipient or knows about the Tyng from a personal connection can share about the experience. It seems to be a need based scholarship (so not an automatic 4 year full ride, it's recalculated each year and is dependent on family need) for UG with no loans and no work study component and includes stipends for 3 summers, plus funding for 3 years of grad/professional school up to 180K. Is that correct? Although Williams says they don't do merit scholarships, the Tyng is awarded to "the 6-8 most promising scholars" in the freshman class, so it clearly involves both need and merit criteria. Does the Tyng involve other non monetary features? IOW is it more like being a Telluride or Morehead scholar (obv not as comprehensive or celebrated as Morehead!) with community, advising, research, residential etc. aspects...or is it just funding? It says that independent research is encouraged over the summers, thus the stipend, but to what degree is that research directed by Williams and what kinds of expectations/accountability, if any, are involved with the Tyng scholarship? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance to anyone who can fill us in about this!</p>
<p>I believe that’s correct, but information acquired through a quick google search (probably the same stuff that you read) indicates that only those who would otherwise be eligible for regular financial aid are considered for the Tyng (and indeed all other named Williams scholarships). The need component has to be established before the merit component kicks in. So, no financial need = no scholarship. In the case of the Tyng, the scholarship award is better than regular financial aid because it replaces work study and loans with straight grants. Also, the graduate/professional study funding is obviously very nice.</p>
<p>Congratulations! It doesn’t get much better than this. Have they expanded the Tyng? I didn’t think they gave out 6-8 each year. There is not a special residential community as far as that question goes, all first-years live together in entries. Perhaps admissions could put your daughter in touch with a current student to discuss their experiences. This is like hitting the lottery though, since ED is binding, the Tyng doesn’t influence the decision process. It’s a wonderful cherry on top of her admission.</p>
<p>electronblue, I’m not sure where I got that 6-8 number. It wasn’t in D’s email or from her phone call so I must have found it somewhere - or misremembered it! maybe it pertained to a particular year if it seems high? It’s also very possible that I read a percentage number for the Tyng scholars, tried to convert to that to a number of real students per class, and did bad math lol! Anyway, it doesn’t seem that there are very many of these Tyng recipients since it’s not a well known award and even folks very tuned in to the SLAC scene have to google the scholarship <em>cough cough</em> Midd Kidd. Hehe just kidding MK86 :D. Honestly I had never heard of it either and I thought I had looked into every source of funding/scholarships for every one of D’s 18 schools. Fortunately, she didn’t have to apply to any others on that long list and this welcome early acceptance came with a cherry on top as you so aptly put it!</p>
<p>@OP: Congrats! I was at Williams from 2006 to 2010, and one of my good friends was also a Tyng scholar. The only reason I know this was because he told me, but yes, his funding was pretty much guaranteed throughout and he’s halfway through med school now. Like many other programs, I know they had an annual dinner for Tyng scholars. There is probably some mentorship/advising involved, but certainly no residential component and your research can be whatever you decide. My friend was a fellow physics major like me, and his research progressed just as with other students.</p>
<p>It definitely is a prestigious award, and I think the grad school coverage is the best part of it. Also, many financial aid awards at Williams are actually endowed scholarships, and recipients tend to have annual dinners with their sponsors.</p>
<p>Jrock, thanks for sharing! By now I’ve had a long conversation with Williams and discovered that the Tyng is really quite fantastic. There’s a 4K summer stipend and the 180K for grad school is available even if D does, e.g., a fully funded PhD program. In that case she still has access to the monies for COL expenses or summer travel or research or writing a book or whatever! They are even paying to fly me in with her for preview days in April. Very exciting. My older kids went to the traditional family Ivy (not HYP :p) so this smaller LAC world is new and different, and really appealing actually… and the extra mentorship that comes with the Tyng will be great. D spent a few days on campus this fall and absolutely adores Williams.</p>
<p>Oh thank you all for the nice words!
It is indeed an astonishing opportunity, and D ‘earned’ it, in the sense that she has been self motivated, self disciplined and deeply immersed in everything she does from the time she was little. She definitely is the whole package - academics, sports, arts, service, leadership, maturity, talent etc. but she’s also the real deal. Nothing she ever did was in the interest of getting into a prestigious college - in fact we didn’t even talk about college until her junior year (two siblings were much older so she didn’t pay attention to their college admissions). I wish more of the bright kids on CC would drop the striving and preoccupation with what they think colleges want them to be, and just become their best selves; absolutely positively better results would follow in all ways.</p>
<p>@honeybee: Awesome! Hoping the weather will be fantastic during the April visit days. There’s really no place like Williams. Three years on, the Purple Valley still feels really special driving in along Route 2!</p>
<p>wahwah, you didn’t mention that your son will be in the class of 2018 as well :)! How exciting! If you’re like us, you are enjoying the end of the holiday break that was mercifully free of any college admissions activities - this early acceptance is really so wonderful after the crunch is over. Such a relief not having to wait another 3 months for decisions! Anyway, I’m sure your son already knows that there’s a facebook group for the class and the kids are all starting to introduce themselves, and upperclassmen are weighing in with advice and welcomes…I’m sure a lot of us will meet in April at previews :)…congratulations again to you and your son!</p>
or whatever! They are even paying to fly me in with her for preview days in April. Very exciting. My older kids went to the traditional family Ivy (not HYP :p) so this smaller LAC world is new and different, and really appealing actually… and the extra mentorship that comes with the Tyng will be great. D spent a few days on campus this fall and absolutely adores Williams.</p>