Anonymous wrote:I'm not talking about Banneker-Key. I mean the biggies, like to Duke, Hamilton, Johns Hopkins, U Chicago, UNC Chapel Hill, etc. as well as the foundations (Stamp?) that offer four-year full rides.
I'll start. I know one kid who got a full ride a few years back to U Chicago. I can't remember the name of the scholarship. He played an instrument at a near-professional level and was studying an unusual language (like Serbo-Croation?) which he'd learned in high school, had lived in the country and did some other community service like starting a food pantry in a poor neighborhood which he stocked by getting donations from his private school friends' parents. Top grades and scores of course from a private school.
I'm curious if any kids who are not so accomplished on paper ever win these awards? Good grades are a given, but does ingenuity or intellectual curiosity or creativity count? Do any geniuses who sit in a corner and solve math problems in their heads ever win? Or kids who create amazing art (or science projects) in their basement studio or on their computer ever win?
I know kids who got Questbridge scholarships to attend truly top schools, but while competitively awarded these scholarships require financial need, and are usually given to URM, first generation or the like (and those kids would have qualified for full FA anyway).
I know several kids who have received full rides at good but not the very top schools, although in most cases need is considered along with merit.