Office of the Dean

1

To: Tiffiny Tung, Chair, College of Arts & Science Faculty Council From: Dan Morgan, Associate Dean, College of Arts & Science Date: January 12, 2015 Subject: Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship Review

Executive Summary

This report analyzes the demographics of the last three years (2013 – 2015) of students applying

for and selected for the Cornelius Vanderbilt (CV) Merit Scholarship in the College of Arts & Science. The

demographic makeup of the last three cohorts of CV scholars reasonably reflects the current

composition of the College of Arts & Science. For the 81 CV scholars that currently attend Vanderbilt and

for whom we have data, they are 44% male and 56% female, which is slightly off from the 50%-50%

makeup of the current first-year class. By ethnicity, they are 16% Asian/Pacific Islander, 11% Black, 16%

Hispanic, 12% International, 35% White, 6% Two or more races, and 4% N/A. As compared to the

composition of the first-year students in the College of Arts & Science, international students are slightly

overrepresented, and white students are slightly underrepresented. Over the last three years, 56% of CV

scholars qualify for need-based financial aid, which is ~10% more of the time than the rest of campus.

CV scholars come from across the country, but some states are more heavily represented due to the

conditions on some of the scholarships. Pre-medical and STEM majors are frequently chosen by CV

scholars, and there are fewer humanities majors in the program.

Background

The Cornelius Vanderbilt (CV) Merit Scholarship Program is the umbrella program for a number

of endowed, merit-based, full-tuition scholarships. This program began in 2007 after a generous

donation from the Sartain Lanier Family Foundation of Atlanta created a number of new, merit-based

scholarships, and merged the new and existing full-tuition, academic merit scholarships under one new

scholarship program. The existing scholarships maintain their original names (e.g. The Deramus Family

Scholarship), and any conditions (e.g. an award for a student from California, or Tennessee, or Kentucky)

as each donation has its own terms. Most of the scholarships in the CV program do not have any

restrictions. Each scholarship covers full tuition for the academic semesters for four years, and includes

a one-time, $6,000 summer stipend that is intended to be used for summer study abroad or as a

research stipend (Note: the CV scholars at the other three undergraduate colleges get a $5,000 stipend,

which is coordinated by Lyn Fulton-John at the Office of Honor Scholarships). The College of Arts and

Science (CAS) gets to award 30 scholarships each year to incoming students, so there are ~120 CV

scholars in the CAS in all four classes. The other undergraduate colleges at Vanderbilt get to select and

award CV scholarships too, and each college has its own criteria and process for selecting and recruiting

CV scholars.

Office of the Dean

2

Application & Selection Process in CAS

Prospective students apply for the CV scholarship after they have applied to Vanderbilt

University, and they have to complete an additional essay to complete their application for the CV

scholarship. The application is available through the “MyAppVU” online portal, and all submissions are

electronic. During the admissions process, the entire application packet is read by Admissions

Counselors and Admissions Evaluators in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions (OUA), and all

scholarship applications are read by an additional reader who looks at it solely for consideration of the

scholarship. At least three people in OUA read each scholarship application. In 2015, 3,454 prospective

students applied for the CV Scholarship in the CAS. The OUA uses four categories to evaluate

prospective students: Academic, Personal, School Fit, and Overall. Based on these ratings, the two

liaisons to A&S from OUA (currently Harper Haynes and Jan Deike) generate a list of 120 “Semi-Finalists”

for CV scholarships. This usually happens by the third week of January, which is much earlier than most

admissions decisions are made.

The 120 semi-finalists are evaluated by the Admissions Committee (comprised of 6-9 A&S

faculty from all three divisions), who select ~80 students to be offered (“Awarded” or “Awardees”) CV

scholarships, with the hope of yielding 30 students who will matriculate to Vanderbilt. Some years we

yield 30 CV Scholars, and some years we yield less (26 CV scholars matriculated in fall 2015). Each file is

read by at least three members of the Admissions Committee during a two-week window in mid-

February, and the committee meets one time after the files have all been read to select the 80

Awardees. The awardees are notified by emails and letters from both Dean Christiansen (OUA) and Dean

Morgan (A&S) of their offer before spring break, which is approximately one month before the regular

decision notifications are sent.

Thus, the application and selection process is as follows:

1) January 1: “Applicants” apply online through “MyAppVU” (n>3,000)

2) January: At least 3 people in OUA read all the scholarship applications

3) ~February 10: “Semi-finalists” are selected by OUA (n=120)

4) ~February 10 – 12: The Admissions Committee meets for training on how to read

applications on the online system

5) ~February 15 – 25: The Admissions Committee has a ten-day window to read and

evaluate the 120 semi-finalists and finalize the list of “Awardees” to whom we will

offer CV scholarships (n=80)

6) Before spring break: offer letters from Deans Christiansen and Morgan are sent to

awardees

7) “Attendees” are those that matriculate to Vanderbilt (target is n=30)

There is a tight time budget for selecting the CV scholars because the early notification of

awardees is a recruitment technique, and the notification before spring break is set by Dean

Christiansen. Most awardees are regular decision and not early decision applicants, meaning that most

have options and choices for their college, and many have scholarship offers from multiple institutions.

The recruitment process to attract the awardees varies. Until July 2015, Dean Rusty McIntire supervised

the CV Scholarship program and organized the recruiting process. In July 2015, Dean Morgan began

Office of the Dean

3

supervision of this program, and has not yet been through the recruitment process, but plans to follow

the same general pattern established by Dean McIntire. After being emailed and mailed their offer

letters from Deans Christiansen and Morgan, all awardees will be contacted by Dean Morgan via email

to initiate and maintain communication. Awardees are no longer flown to campus to visit, and we no

longer host A&S-specific “Open House” events for admitted students. Dean Morgan will try to meet with

all CV awardees if they visit campus. Some awardees are invited to attend the MOSAIC weekend

(Vanderbilt’s Multicultural Student Recruitment Program), in which case they are offered a free trip to

visit campus. The OUA arranges a number of “Admitted Student Information Sessions” in April that

awardees might attend, and Dean Morgan will try to meet with them if they do. If awardees visit

campus on their own, Dean Morgan will try to meet with them, or will arrange for them to meet with

another Associate Dean. If awardees stay on campus overnight, Dean Morgan will attempt to arrange

for them to stay with current first-year CV scholars, or at least meet with other CV scholars for a meal, a

class, or an informal visit. There is often a lot of email and phone communication between Dean Morgan

and awardees, and sometimes parents, to answer questions about the scholarship and Vanderbilt.

It is worth noting that in recent years, the makeup of the Admissions Committee has been

supplemented by six senior CV scholars who help read the files and evaluate the 120 semi-finalists.

These students were given equal voice and vote in selecting the awardees. Beginning in 2016, this

practice will no longer be used, and the Admissions Committee will be comprised solely of faculty that

will read and evaluate all 120 files. As such, the size of the Admissions Committee is likely to increase in

size to ease the task of reading files.

Data

The data on the applicants, semi-finalists, awardees, and the matriculated CV scholars are

maintained by the Office of Financial Aid (OFA). Recently, the OUA switched to a fully digital application

and review process, so only three years of data are available. These data are for CV scholars selected in

2013, 2014, and 2015, who will graduate in 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively. For privacy reasons, the

OFA only keeps records of students that are admitted to Vanderbilt. In recent years, more than 3,000

prospective students have applied for a CV scholarship, but we only have data for the <1,000 students

that are admitted to Vanderbilt. The data that are available for this review are gender, ethnicity, home

state, and Vanderbilt’s definition of whether or not the student qualified for need-based financial aid. All

personally identifiable information has been removed from the data.

For 2015 only, some data for the entire applicant pool, not just those admitted to Vanderbilt,

are available. However, because these data are not available for all years, and because many applicants

are not academically qualified for Vanderbilt, these data are not included with most of the analysis. A

few references to these data are made when it is relevant to compare the admitted applicants to the

entire applicant pool.

The spreadsheet of data and graphs generated are included with this report. In general, the

graphs generated show the progression of applicants through the selection process for each year. For

each demographic category, bar charts show the number of admitted applicants, then the semi-finalists

(n=120), then the awardees (n=80), and then the attendees that matriculate (n=30). For comparison, the

last bar shows the composition of the first-year class of 2019 in the College of Arts & Science.

Office of the Dean

4

Gender

The gender distribution among

all admitted applicants, the semi-

finalists, the awardees, the

matriculated CV scholars, and the

comparison to the entering first-year

class in the College of Arts & Science

for the applicants from 2013-2015 is

shown in the graphs to the left. The

decision about the admitted students

and the semi-finalists (n=120) is made

by the OUA, and the awardees (n=80)

are selected by the Admissions

Committee.

The male: female ratio for the

semi-finalists and awardees is

generally close to 50:50, which

matches the overall class makeup. For

the awardees that actually

matriculate and attend Vanderbilt,

the ratio is sometimes off of 50:50,

but it swings both ways such that

some years we have more males and

others we have more females. It is

important to note that the number of

matriculated CV scholars is fairly

small, so being off by three students

makes for a large change in

percentage.

However, because we do not

always matriculate a full 30 CV

scholars, the overall numbers do not

balance to 50:50. The last graph on

gender shows the matriculated CV

scholars for the last three years with

the real numbers indicated over each

percent. Even though in 2014, more

male CV scholars matriculated than

females, because that was a low yield

year, the overall numbers do not

balance. In the past three years, we

Office of the Dean

5

have matriculated 45 female CV

scholars and 36 males, meaning that

there are currently about 10% more

female CV scholars than males. Please

see the table below for the current

makeup of CV scholars from the last

three years (first-years, sophomores,

and juniors).

Current makeup of CV Scholars

Gender Counts Percent FY Class

Male 36 44% 50%

Female 45 56% 50%

Total 81

From the data for all of the applicants to the CV scholarship in 2015 (not just those admitted),

there is one interesting observation about gender, which is that twice as many females apply for the

scholarship as males. For the 3,454 applicants in 2015, 2,174 were female. The reason for this disparity

is not known, but anecdotally, it has been speculated that his has more to do with national trends

among prospective students than anything that Vanderbilt is doing to advertise or promote the

scholarship program.

Office of the Dean

6

Ethnicity

The

distributions of

ethnicities among all

admitted applicants,

the semi-finalists, the

awardees, the

matriculated CV

scholars, and the

comparison to the

entering first-year

class in the College of

Arts & Science are

shown in the graphs

to the right. The

decision about the

admitted students

and the semi-finalists

(n=120) is made by

the OUA, and the

awardees (n=80) are

selected by the

Admissions

Committee.

The ethnic

makeup of the CV

scholars varies

considerably

throughout the

selection process, and

from year to year.

Some of this is

because the yield of

matriculated CV

scholars is a fairly small number, and it can vary significantly from year to year. For example,

international students typically only make up 2-3% of the total admitted applicants, but often make up

15-16% of matriculated CV scholars, because three or four of them matriculate. It is worth noting that

many international students do not qualify for need-based aid under Opportunity Vanderbilt, so merit-

based scholarships are often the only available aid to these students.

The decision about the 120 semi-finalists is made primarily by the OUA, and we lean on their

expertise in making up a diverse community of students to review. The selection of the 80 awardees is

Office of the Dean

7

based on the merit-

review of the

Admissions

Committee, and

ethnicity plays an

ambiguous role in this

decision-making

process. Much of this

is because the faculty

that comprise the

Admissions

Committee do not

have much

experience in

evaluating the role

that ethnicity plays in

ratings systems.

To highlight

the difficulty that

faculty face in

understanding the

role of ethnicity in

the selection process,

consider standardized

testing results. A

score of 600 (with

800 being the

maximum possible)

on the Math SAT test

would be the 72%

percentile for a white

student, 94% for a

black student, and

46% for an

Asian/Pacific Islander student. Similar disparities in testing can be seen when considering gender,

although the differences are not quite as large. The faculty on the Admissions Committee are supposed

to evaluate applicants based on their high school academic performance and their potential for

continued academic success at Vanderbilt. This range of testing results complicates the review process

because most faculty lack the experience and expertise necessary to assess student performance from

this perspective.

Office of the Dean

8

The table below shows the makeup of the last three years of current CV scholars (first-years,

sophomores, and juniors). Taken as a whole, the program is reasonably close to matching the makeup of

the most recent class of first-year students in the College of Arts & Science. International students are

slightly overrepresented and white students are slightly underrepresented.

Current makeup of CV scholars

Ethnicity Counts Percent FY class

American Indian/Alaskan Native 0 0% 0.3%

Asian/Pacific Islander 13 16% 14.5%

Black 9 11% 10.7%

Hispanic 13 16% 12.2%

International 10 12% 6.3%

Not Applicable 3 4% 5.7%

Two or More Races 5 6% 6.1%

White 28 35% 44.1%

Total 81

When considering the total applicant pool to the CV scholarship in 2015, the ethnic makeup is

shown in the graph and table below. Compared to the ethnic makeup of the US population, Asian/Pacific

Islanders are over-represented, international students are obviously over-represented, and all other

groups are under-represented.

Office of the Dean

9

Need-based financial aid

The distribution of the

qualification for need-based financial

aid, as defined by the Vanderbilt OFA,

among all admitted applicants, the

semi-finalists, the awardees, the

matriculated CV scholars, and the

comparison to the entering first-year

class in the College of Arts & Science

are shown in the graphs to the left.

The decision about the admitted

students and the semi-finalists

(n=120) is made by the OUA, and the

awardees (n=80) are selected by the

Admissions Committee.

The Admissions Committee

does not consider the qualification for

need-based aid when making their

decision to award CV scholars

because the CV scholarship is strictly

a merit-based program. In fact, such

information is not available to the

Admissions Committee because the

OFA typically does not make decisions

about need-based aid until ~March,

after the decisions for CV scholarships

have been made. However, the CV

scholarship only provides coverage

for tuition ($43,620 in 2015-16), and

does not cover fees for the residence

hall, meal plan, books, activities and

recreation fees, transportation, or

other personal expenses. The total

cost of a year at Vanderbilt is

$63,532, so the CV scholarship covers

about 2/3 of the cost of attendance.

Thus, the qualification for need-based

aid may significantly impact our

ability to recruit and yield CV scholars,

and it is also an important measure of

Office of the Dean

10

diversity on our campus, and will be

reviewed here.

At Vanderbilt about 45% of

students receive need-based aid, and

about 65% of students receive some

type of financial assistance (including

athletic grants, merit scholarships,

etc.). In the past three years, CV

scholars that matriculate qualify for

need-based aid around this rate, or

higher. It is interesting to note that

among all applicants who are

admitted to Vanderbilt, they qualify

for need-based aid at about 48-50%,

but the students that matriculate usually qualify for need-based aid at a higher rate, indicating that this

may factor into their decision to attend. Shown in the table below is the makeup for the last three years

of all CV scholars, and we can see that they qualify for aid at a slightly higher rate than the makeup of

Vanderbilt overall.

Current makeup of CV scholars

Need-based Aid Counts Percent FY class

No 36 44% 55%

Yes 45 56% 45%

Total 81

Office of the Dean

11

Home State

Because some CV scholarships are tied to geographic conditions, the home state for CV scholars

is difficult to assess. The table below shows the top ten states that CV scholars from the past three years

call home, many of these top states are tied to conditions of the scholarship, including Kentucky,

Georgia, and Tennessee.

Home State current CV scholars

Rank State Counts Percent

1 KY 11 14%

2 International 9 11%

3 FL 8 10%

4 GA 8 10%

5 TN 7 9%

6 IL 6 7%

7 NY 3 4%

8 TX 3 4%

9 AR 2 2%

10 CA 2 2%

The top ten home state for all the students that apply for the CV scholarship and are admitted is

shown below, and a map representing the geographic distribution for the makeup of the entire first-year

class in the College of Arts is Science is shown on the following page. In general, the admitted applicants

to the program mirror the overall class of first-year students, with perhaps some underrepresentation of

students from the Middle States and New England on the east coast such as New York and

Massachusetts.

Home State - All admitted applicants

Rank 2013 2014 2015

1 TN (10.3%) TN (9.2%) TN (8%)

2 IL (8.9%) GA (8.5%) FL (7.5%)

3 GA (8.5%) FL (8.1%) GA (7.5%)

4 TX (7.4%) TX (7.6%) IL (7%)

5 FL (6.1%) IL (6.5%) TX (6.9%)

6 AL (5.5%) CA (4.5%) CA (6.8%)

7 CA (5.2%) NJ (4.3%) OH (4.7%)

8 OH (4.9%) AL (4%) NJ (4.2%)

9 NC (4.3%) OH (4%) KY (4%)

10 MO (3.8%) NY (3.6%) NY (3.9%)

Office of the Dean

12

Office of the Dean

13

Diversity among majors

Faculty that have served on the Admissions Committee have reported that the semi-finalists

selected by the OUA are heavily weighted towards students that are interested in the physical sciences,

especially those that indicate a preference for a pre-medical curriculum, and they lament the lack of

applications from students interested in the humanities. During the application process, students can

indicate a major preference, but these data are not kept by OFA, so they are not available for the three-

year review. However, OUA has these data for the total applicant pool from 2015 (not just those

admitted to Vanderbilt). Of the 3,454 total applicants for the CV scholarship in 2015, 53% indicated their

major interest as BSCI, MHS, NSC, CHEM, MCB, or EEOB, which are the primary pre-medical majors on

campus. Although we don’t have data to support the notion that the 120 semi-finalists are weighted

towards the sciences, certainly the applicant pool appears to be weighted that way.

The top 10 majors indicated by all applicants in 2015 is shown below.

Rank Major Number Percent

1 BSCI 712 20.6%

2 MHS 403 11.7%

3 ECON 351 10.2%

4 NSC 303 8.8%

5 CHEM 208 6.0%

6 MCB 189 5.5%

7 PSCI 185 5.4%

8 UNDE 143 4.1%

9 ENGL 125 3.6%

10 PSY 124 3.6%

The OUA reports that this trend is somewhat true of the entire applicant pool to Vanderbilt;

many prospective students report that they are interested in the sciences and a pre-medical curriculum.

There is also a certain bias in the admissions process to select for students that win academic awards

and distinctions, and these are more available in the physical sciences than the humanities and social

sciences. There is certainly a perception on campus that lots of students start out on the pre-medical

track, and, anecdotally, about 40% of the first-year students in A&S report that they want to complete

the pre-medical curriculum. Certainly, 53% of our students do not major in the sciences, and many

students change their major during their four years on campus. Yet it remains that many of our students

in the CAS are completing the pre-medical curriculum. In 2015, the Health Professions Advisory Office at

Vanderbilt reports that 223 Vanderbilt students applied to medical school for the first time in 2015, with

most of them majoring in a physical science or MHS. This number does include students from the other

undergraduate colleges, and many engineers do apply to medical school. But it would be fair to say that

15-20% of the students in CAS apply to medical school every year.

The top 10 majors for current CV scholars is shown in the table below. First-year students in CAS

are not allowed to declare a major, so these numbers include the current seniors, juniors, and

sophomores (n=86). There are 10 sophomores that have yet to declare a major, and they must do so

Office of the Dean

14

before spring break. The rank of the major for the class that graduated in 2015 is shown for comparison.

These data include all declared majors for CV scholars, so double-majors are each counted here to show

total choice in majors. Among the 86 current CV scholars that can declare a major, 51 have a single

major, 34 have two majors, and 1 has three majors.

Majors - Current CV Scholars

Rank Major Counts Percentage CAS '15 Rank

1 ECON 13 15% 1

1 NSC 13 15% 4

3 MHS 12 14% 2

4 ENGL 11 13% 7

5 UNDE 10 12% N/A

6 MATH 9 10% 6

6 MCB 9 10% 11

8 PSCI 8 9% 3

9 BSCI 3 3% 18

9 HIST 3 3% 8

9 PHIL 3 3% 12

9 PHYS 3 3% 22

9 SPAN 3 3% 10

These data do support the notion that CV scholars are slightly weighted towards the pre-medical

curriculum. 42% of current CV scholars have declared at least one major among the BSCI options, CHEM,

MHS, or NSC. Breaking down the number of declared majors by division, there are 41 majors in physical

sciences, 39 majors in social sciences, and 24 majors in the humanities. Again, these numbers count all

majors, so double-majors are both counted. It is difficult to interpret this distribution without knowing

the students’ primary academic interest, but certainly CV scholars are more frequently majoring in the

physical and social sciences than they are in the humanities.