<p>How competitive are Chicago’s merit scholarships? Can someone give me an example of a person who’s gotten one?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I think they are given out randomly. Err. A select group of faculty chooses who gets what.</p>
<p>The group of students (at least the ones that I know) who receive merit scholarships are pretty competitive statistically, but above that, they usually do something unusual enough for the professors/adcoms to go “Hey, we REALLY want that person at our school.”</p>
<p>The merit winners tend to be the kinds of people who get here and take the most challenging classes they can, or give back in some way to the University vibe/community.</p>