For regular merit scholarships, you are correct. But to be considered for the full ride, this is what the website says (source):
Students who apply by early-binding decision to other institutions are not eligible for the Wells Scholars Program. Early-action or other non-binding applications to other institutions do not affect WSP eligibility.
Perhaps they don’t want to go through the process of combing through potential applicants and deciding on a curated pool of possibilities to then find out they EDd to Northwestern or U. of Chicago or wherever and then have to restart the process of reviewing the applications to find the right holistic fit for the group. Recipients who receive the Wells Scholarship are the type of people who end up deciding between Top X schools or the Wells program.
You are certainly under no obligation to try to make your personal statement “match” your activity list, or indeed anything else in your application. I think people sometimes forget that something totally under your control, like the personal statement, is a real opportunity to provide your readers with something new and interesting that they won’t have assumed from the other parts of your application. So this is one of the reasons why things like feel good stories from your activities are not usually highly rated personal statement topics–your readers will have assumed you have such stories, so you kinda missed an opportunity to do something that would actually add new value to your application.
That being said, if you do want to write a personal statement that involves music, feel free. Just try to think in terms of how you can use it to introduce your readers to something interesting about you that would not typically be assumed about someone with a lot of music activities.
Would it be interesting to tie my love for football and sports into my interest for business, which started from marketing and then branched into finance and other areas?
Possibly, but another thing to watch out for (same sort of logic about not duplicating other things in your application) is too much overlap with “Why this college?” or “Why this major?” supplemental essays. Those are very common, and to me what you described sounds like it could be part of the answer to such questions.
In general, I would just underscore that this is an opportunity to make them think something like, “Wow, this is an interesting person, I would like to know more about them!” That is quite the challenge in some ways, certainly different from most essays most kids have written before, and I think sometimes kids go overboard trying to get creative in response. But I do think a lot of people end up picking something that sounds safely on point to them, which is OK but maybe not the sort of essay most likely to make a difference.
Just as good as any other qualified candidates chances. I don’t know if they release ED acceptance rate for Stern, but your chance is around that percent.
IU Kelley is a safety for OP as they meet the direct admit criteria of 3.8 GPA and 30/1370 ACT/SAT. OOS is irrelevant for Kelley direct admit. (Assuming OP has attended only one HS and makes the app deadlines.)
I’m assuming IU is affordable without merit aid as OOS COA is less than $60K.
Possible targets for OP that place in banking might include Lehigh, Fordham, Bucknell and Richmond.
ETA: As OP will be NMSF with a 1510 out of 1520 PSAT and highly likely to become NMF, they would be in the running for full tuition NMF scholarship at Fordham.
A reach, but not as reachy as Wharton. Run the NPC to make sure it looks affordable before applying ED. I don’t know how easy it is for non-majors to participate in orchestras and such at NYU.
I’m also considering not doing an ED application and doing REA to Yale or Stanford instead, in order to be eligible for the full ride scholarship at Kelley.