All About Merit Scholarships
I’m going to be 100% honest with you: if you told me this time last year that I would attend Vanderbilt University I definitely would not have believed you. For most people, Vanderbilt was their dream school for ages and ages, but I personally just never considered it and knew very little about the school because I wasn’t planning on leaving Illinois. I had my whole future planned out and Vandy was not part of it. But the college admissions process is very fickle, and even once you actually get accepted, financial aid and the price of college becomes a huge problem as well.
After getting into my EA school with very little financial aid, I was worried and unsure of how I could possibly pay for any of the colleges I wanted to attend, and so I decided to have a minor panic attack in my college counselor’s office. After 15 minutes of letting me ramble and whine, she decided enough was enough and gave me a list of schools that have merit-based scholarships. Vanderbilt was one of them. And here we are today.
There are three signature merit scholarships offered at Vanderbilt: the Ingram Scholarship, the Chancellor’s Scholarship, and the Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship. Each scholarship is a little different, so you can pick the one that fits you the most (or apply to them all if you have time of course), but each guarantees you a full-tuition scholarship that’s renewable for all 4 years with a stipend for study abroad, research, or service projects.
I’m a Chancellor’s Scholar, which is pretty sweet. We don’t really have any requirements over the school year other than keeping our grades up, but being a Chancellor’s Scholar provides you with a tight knit community (we have mini families, it’s super cute) you can really bond with. If you have any questions about the program or would like any tips/advice on the application just send me a email at farah.arif@vanderbilt.edu!
If you’d like to know more about any of the other scholarships, Sophie is a Cornelius Vanderbilt scholar and has written a few articles about her experience so check those out as well!
I know the deadline for the Ingram scholarship is today, so good luck to everyone who has applied, but the other two are open till the 15th so there is time!! Last year, the deadline was extended last minute, so I was still able to apply, thankfully, but you have 2 weeks – YOU CAN DO IT! Just take the chance, it’ll be worth it.
