Anyone else in the Northeast find out yet?
An additional question that may be more useful – has anyone received an email/notification indicating that you did not win the scholarship?
^Don’t know if this is helpful or not, but my friend in NY won it last week. I was actually in class with him when the Nordstrom lady surprised him with a big check. So yeah, I’d say that if you’re in the Northeast you’d probably know by now.
Congrats to all that won so far. I know last year they were still awarding late in October and I think I even remember a couple of November winners.
@jr2016 Is it systematic in any sense? Or random?
I believe random. It appears it’s awarded when the local and/or regional Nordstrom reps are available to schedule the visit in each area.
Congrats to all who won the scholarship.
Well it’s coming down to the last few days as Nordstrom said they would notify all by end of October. I wish they would complete the process as I have my EA applications ready to go. It’s been a long process of watching awards being given since end of September until now. They haven’t awarded any in my area as far as I know but doubt it’s going to happen in the next couple of days.
So sorry, I hope it comes thru.
@2016collegebound where are you from?
How many students apply for this scholarship? Need this statistics for college application.
6000 applied
So, the first question posed in this forum was “What are they looking for in an applicant?” Minority – preferable lower-socioeconomic minority students who have overcome adversity such as, parent had cancer, parent died of cancer, parents divorce, etc. Heck, you don’t even need to be a citizen or in the US legally. You don’t need to be a star student. Make your story interesting and talk about how you served the community to help others because of what happened to you. IB students or students from low-income high schools seem to be common. How do I know this? Search “nordstrom scholar” on twitter or instagram and you will see the winners. In my region, out of the 10 winners, 9 were minorities – 4 Asian, 5 Hispanic, 1 unknown. Many white students come from small focus schools and private. This is not a merit scholarship as they tout “exceptional scholastic achievement;” 3 finalists who did not win had SAT scores of 23xx. I’m sure there are exceptions and I am generalizing. So, if you are a middle-class white kid with no tragedy in your life or have great test scores, your time may be better spent on other applications. Also, this process was excruciatingly painful for the students who didn’t win because of the length of time to find out while watching others win. But hey, it’s their money; they can spend it how they want. Just like me - I won’t be spending mine at Nordstrom (not that I could afford it anyway). Congrats to the winners.
@ralphiecram I am sorry you did not win. Just to let you know that my white kid from middle class family with SAT of 2300+, tons of EC and good interviewing skills got the scholarship.
To level the playing field for the future finalists who may not have high schools who help them or good interviewing skills, here are some interview questions: What is your dream school? How are you planning on paying for college? Tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership? If there is time left, What else would you like to share with the committee? What do you like to do for fun in your free time? How do you balance your life? How did you spend your summer?
@ralphiecram, I also am sorry you did not win and that you think they were looking for something in particular. My son is a lot like @kepakemapa so there are exceptions to every generalization. Unfortunately, its their scholarship so they can ask whatever questions they want. We have skipped applying for some scholarships because we don’t like the questions they asked.
@ralphiecram Sorry you did not win. I did not win either. It’s tough because you made it this far. Don’t give up though after this loss. Some who did not win the Nordstrom ended up being winners of other scholarships. I understand your disappointment after waiting this long but I don’t know how else they would do it since they like to surprise the students and award in person which is pretty neat in itself. That’s a lot of coordination and travel to award 80 recipients.
I found out I won today. Im from Illinois! 2 others from Illinois found out today too. Nordstrom is doing a great thing. I had already accepted that I lost before they came since it was already the 29th. I cried so hard when they came in to my class!
@emz247 congrats!
I feel that the reason why I won the scholarship was because I was clearly very PASSIONATE about my dreams and what I wanted to do in both my application and essay. My personal essay was about my passion for art and my EC’s supported that. Also, they didn’t even ask for test scores (luckily too, because mine aren’t even that great). Just to put this out there, yes, I am Asian; but I am not from a low socio-economic background with a tragic backstory. Maybe they are looking for more diversity, but I feel that passion was the ticket for me.