<p>Does anyone feel like this scholarship is just a numbers game? One of my friends was a finalist last year so I tried to apply this year. I signed up for the website and I got the impression that they only want to know how many extracurriculars you were in, not what you actually did or accomplished within them. I was just wondering if they take that into account.</p>
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<p>Oh, they definitely do. I am personally acquainted with 2 Coca-Cola Finalists, one of whom was selected as a National scholar, or whatever it’s called. The one who won the National award was involved in lots of meaningful service. The other had a similar list of activities they were really involved in.</p>
<p>I was a semifinalist. Granted, I wrote my all of my essays in 30 minutes flat, but I think that my service activities were also very weak.</p>
<p>I was a Regional Scholar last year.
The first round is scored by a computer, it takes into account the quantity. The semifinalist round is a more in-depth explanation of the preliminary application and requires essay writing (I think three 150 words). In this portion, passion and quality needs to be evident.
If you make it, you will seriously be Blown Away by the accomplishments of the other scholars–starting non-profits in India, nationwide volunteer organizations and crazy amounts of active leadership roles, in addition to excellent academic standards. It really is amazing the of diversity scholars exhibit–personally, I was surprised about how many were actually from small towns. But anyway, passion and ambition (and evidence of follow-through) is extremely, extremely, Extremely important! Although it sounds cheesy, everyone selected Wants to do something for the world, and is serious about creating significant change. Actually, many scholars attend Brown (and every other Good school), if that gives you an idea on the general personality type.</p>
<p>So basically, the computer system takes into account how many hours of leadership, how many ECs, etc and picks the top ~2200?</p>
<p>For the first round, yes.</p>
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<p>This is very sound advice. Don’t do these things last minute.</p>
<p>^^^
Adding to your question:
So, if you have more meaningful EC’s, but spent less time doing them, cumulatively, than at least ~2,200 applicants; though you should have a legitimate chance in the final round, you won’t get the chance after being weeded out during the first round?</p>
<p>^
Yes that’s what it sounds like.</p>
<p>Well… that seems superficial.</p>
<p>What’s the point of listing your specific awards and extracurriculars? How can the computer tell the difference if it just looks at “National” vs. “Local” vs. “State”?</p>