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From the website, I see that Emory gives the standard $1000-2000 for Natl Merit Finalists, and also mentions merit available to Emory Scholars. No mention is made of amount, and it says something about being nominated by one's highschool. Does anyone know more details about this?

By Giants (Giants) on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 - 09:41 pm: Edit

I know a pretty good deal about it. I got a scholarship this year from Emory in the Emory Scholars program. They give out three different scholarships, which include one for 2/3 tuition (I got this one), full tuition, and everything. These are fairly competitive and go to kids who are Ivy-caliber/Top 20 caliber students. The National Merit award is 2,000 a year (just got that several days ago). The school can only nominate four people for the scholarship and about 2000+ apply overall. They select 350 to become semifinalists and of these 75 become finalists. One hundred of those who don't become finalists get the 2/3 tuition scholarship while the ones who become finalists either get the full tuition or everything. Good luck!

By Laxgirl04 (Laxgirl04) on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 12:22 am: Edit

what were your stats, giants? why do you think you got the scholarship?

By Giants (Giants) on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 03:19 pm: Edit

Here are my stats:

1520 SAT (760,760)
800 Writing, 790 Math IIC, 760 U.S History
10 APs (Hardest courseload at school)-Stats(5), U.S History(5),Bio.(5),English Lang.(5),European History(pending),BC Calc.(pending),Spanish Lit.(pending), Chem.(pending),Physics B(pending),English Lit.(pending)
93 GPA
National Merit Finalist
Top 5% of class
AP Scholar

To be honest with you I don't really know why I got the scholarship. It's kind of like everything else relating to the whole college admissions process because it's hard to say why anybody gets accepted or rejected. Another kid in my class got the same scholarship as I did and he had slightly lower stats (a few less APs, top 10%, 1500 SAT), but he is a very good student and a good writer. I forgot to mention in the previous post that they ask you to write an essay in addition to the things on the Common App, and I think that the essay probably helped both of us.

By Laxgirl04 (Laxgirl04) on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 05:00 pm: Edit

what did you do extracurricularly and does that matter in this case?

My stats are 1/514, 4.0 UW 4.1 W, 1590 SAT (790V, 800M). 800Writing, 770Bio, 710USH.
Will have taken 7 AP courses on graduation (from a 10-12 high school), 8 Enriched. Most rigor possible (except one AP, which I could not take due to scheduling conflict).

AP scores: Bio (5), USH/USGov't/English Lit/English Lang (all pending, expect 4-5s)

I am either Commended or Semifinalist Nat'l Merit Scholar (in which case I will apply for Finalist status). I live in the Midwest.

I've been considering ED at an Ivy, but would end up with approximately 40000$ in loans. I want to go to grad school, so I am thinking of places that still have quality education (Emory, BU, etc) where I might qualify to for 1/2 to full tuition. I will apply to UW-Madison as my ultimate safety that is not costly, but I would love to be able to attend a private, most prestigious school on merit. (Also, I would like to leave the Midwest!) Have any other suggestions? Thanks!

Places I am looking w/ merit money:

Duke
WUSTL
BU
Johns Hopkins
UVA
UNC-CH
Emory

By Giants (Giants) on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 06:43 pm: Edit

I don't really know how much the extracurriculars play into the whole thing (I would assume they have some part but I don't know how big it is). That was the weakest part of my app because I basically had some volunteering, cross country, math team, and I was all-state in Quiz Bowl. In reference to what you asked about regarding merit scholarships, I think you are in the ballpark for scholarships at all of those schools. Obviously it is hard to predict, but I think that you have a good chance of getting merit money from at least one of those schools. Additionally, I think that you could potentially get into any graduate school as they are all rated in the top 25 or 30 (I don't know about much about BU...sorry). I would suggest that you apply to Vanderbilt because they gave me 72k over four years, and you seem as qualified if not more qualified than myself. Good luck.