WUSTL Danforth Scholarship Application 2023

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
1

Hello. I am applying to WashU and also applying for the merit scholarships. I’m trying to apply to Danforth and Ervin, but I’m slightly confused and couldn’t find much information regarding the application for both anywhere. The description WashU provides is basically the same for all its merit scholarships and the prompts are EXTREMELY VAGUE.

For Danforth it says,

  1. Write a brief answer (250 words) to the following question:
    The Danforth Scholars program is looking for students with a strong commitment to community, and demonstrated initiative in leadership and service. Please share an example of your personal experience as a leader that would clarify why you would be a good fit for this community of scholars.

AND

2)Write a short essay (250-500 words) on the following topic:
What matters to you?

The description for Danforth only says its “looking for students who have demonstrated leadership in service and a strong commitment to community. Danforth Scholars are also known for their academic excellence, personal integrity, and high ideals.”
For the first prompt do you think it would work if I talk about being a leader of Model UN at my high school because the prompt says “why you would be a good fit for this community of SCHOLARS” or do I still need to be emphasizing some sort of community service thing? Secondly, “What matters to you” is so open ended and I was going to talk about my leadership in my school’s Ethics Bowl club and why ethics matters to again, show intelligence and leadership, but again I’m worried that they’re looking more for a community service kinda thing. Although, I’m required to send in an extra rec letter and I’m choosing it to be from the lady I volunteer with at a nursing home so I feel it will be sufficient enough for the readers to see I’m involved with all aspects, leadership, community service, and academic excellence. So my question basically put is: Is it okay that my two essays will be about leadership in academic clubs and that my third required rec letter will be showing I volunteer A LOT or do I need to make both essays about community service?

Final question, what is the difference between Danforth, Ervin, and Rodriguez because I see minor minor minor differences between the essay prompts in the three.

Thanks guys.

2

Related question - are the people/committees reviewing the Danforth applications different from the Rodriguez, etc? I’m wondering if you can use similar topics on both applications or if they should be different?

3

Hey, I’m an RD student applying for these scholarships as well. From what I can tell, it seems as though they really go through your entire application, including these extra essays and recommendation. I think what they’re trying to get at is just an expansion of your activities section on the application. So I think writing about leadership in Ethics Bowl is a good idea, because they probably already have your community service info on your common or coalition app.

Also, I think you can write similar essays for each. Even though it might be the same committee, they’d only compare your application with the pool of applicants for the specific scholarship you’ve applied for, and they should evaluate each program separately.

I don’t think the three scholarships are that different, but my guess is that they are trying to honor 3 separate people, so it’s better to make separate scholarships.

Good luck!

4

@FLtitan1217 thank you so much! This makes sense I will probably write about my Ethics Bowl experience. Good Luck to you too!

5

besides the money are there any other benefits to being a danforth scholar?

6

@Robbyb
WashU’s premier scholars programs are different from other university’s scholarships because it’s not just an award that you get, but an entire community. That’s why they refer to them as “scholars programs” instead of “scholarships”. In each program, the scholars build close relationships with one another and refer to each other as family.

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