One other thing, of the scholarship students I knew of, they came from both some of the more elite public and private schools, but also from public schools in some of the poorer areas, e.g. Appalachia. Hence, applicants should take to heart the frequent advise that high school students take advantage of as many academic and extra-curricular opportunities as they can, but secure in the knowledge that students’ class choice and extracurricular activities will be assessed in the context of those choices available to them, i.e. students from poorer areas are not disadvantaged if they don’t have the breadth of classes available to students coming from say an expensive urban private school.