What is Posse?
Posse Foundation is a scholarship program that takes nominations (generally from HS GCs) for students with strong leadership potential. There are Posses in a handful of US cities, each with about 10 college partners that take at least one ‘posse’ (group of 10 students) per year.
Thanks, super helpful. Are there any other similar resources or diversity programs (even if without financial component)?
Questbridge is a program for relatively low income students (family income <$65K, but not a hard cut off). There are about 40 QB partners, all meet full need and QB is considered a full COA scholarship, even though some of the schools might require a student self help component, e.g, federal work study, direct student loans, and/or summer earnings, typically ranging from $3K-5K or so.
You can also look at Stamps scholarships (offered by a number of schools) and other full coa scholarships, which tend to be highly competitive and based on merit, but some may have need based requirement too…e.g., Belk at Davidson, Johnson at Washington and Lee, Morehead-Cain at UNC, etc.
Are there any diversity programs that are not tied to financial need?
As a POC coming from one of this country’s top prep schools, your child frankly does not need a diversity program.
@Lindagaf Brown has 3 supplemental essays, unless you are applying to the Program in Liberal Medical Education (8 year BS to MD) or the RISD-Brown Dual-Degree program (5 year program.) As Brown was my first choice, I wrote its essays first, and they can be re-used for other schools, though this is not advised unless you’re confident that you can tailor the essays to the specific school.
Generically, the three supplements (250 words each) that Brown has are:
- Why the Open Curriculum & relation to Major?
- Why Brown Community & how will you contribute to this community?
- What is your community?
My child coming from a prep school does not change the color of her skin, her experience with racism in this country or the perspectives that she brings into the classroom as a result of those. Ethnic diversity is not to be equated with financial need and is a desirable value in itself. A diverse Ethnic background is a value or talent like many other considerations a college may take through more or less formal initiatives.
Most diversity programs are a platform to connect students who bring diversity to colleges seeking to attract more diversity - a way of helping them find each other. By already being at a top prep school in the country, your child has been “discovered”. She has resources readily at her disposal. Don’t discount those.
I stick by my statement that these diversity programs like Posse aren’t needed by your daughter. That has nothing to do with your daughter adding needed diversity to a college. I’m sure she will do quite well in the college admissions process as a result of proving she can handle a rigorous academic experience at her high school.
@doschicos thanks for the clarification
@gablesdad When you ask about URM, it’s impossible to say without knowing the details. A URM from a seldom represented nation is not the same as someone African-American, or Hawaiian, or…they are all different.
A kid from a BS, is a known entity in the sense that your kid already has experience living in a community, has learned to adapt and has been able to do well. Not every kid coming from high school will adapt to college.
As far as being legacy v. non legacy. There is a slight edge for being a legacy. Helping out a lot vs. donating each year, v. never doing anything is not going to be that different to the school. Yes, if you are a major donor and legacy you will be in another box.
I think if your kid would normally fit into a school without being a legacy than it’s a good fit to apply. If they need a boost of some kind then it’s not.
There are many scholarships based on race which are not financially dependent. You would have to look them up as $ can often be tied to a specific school or region as well.
Assuming the rest of the application package is solid, I don’t think @gablesdad’s D is going to have any trouble in the admissions cycle if I read this thread correctly. Let’s see (1) URM (2) High SAT (3) Good grades at top N.E. prep school (top 10-20% of class?) (4) Legacy at parent #1 Ivy (5)Legacy at parent #2 Ivy. The only thing that would concern me would be some unknown lack of APs and/ or rigor in the course work as I know there can be different levels of rigor in some of the course work at these schools. If not success at Ivies I would predict success at top LACs or Top 30 where boarding schools thrive and punch above their weight. Last point, I am not accusing anyone here of anything but it’s not a crime to be URM and financially comfortable. Kids with that profile have the right to aspire to top schools just like anyone else. I do agree it would inappropriate to take someone’s place in a diversity program that is intended for the economically disadvantaged.
Nobody said or implied otherwise. I doubt anyone would disagree with you.
How about the following low matches: American, Conn College, Trinity, Holy Cross, Wake Forest, Rhodes and Villanova?
And William and Mary
You have quite a list! Some of the schools are in the South–seems to be contrary to the title of the thread, and some within that group have significantly southern feel (Wake, Rhodes, Duke, Wm&Mary…). Just putting that out there in case that matters.
@2Devils yeah… got quite diverse within east coast… please define “significant Southern feel”…
Re your HS not doing well with some colleges & impact with legacy… FWIW, when we talked to my kid’s HS GC about several schools they were very clear that our HS had a good track record with some colleges and a bad track record with others. For example, we had a great record with Yale but poor with Harvard. Our HS did send kids to those schools where we supposedly didn’t have a good track record, but every one of those kids was a legacy.