Last Thursday afternoon thirty young men from high schools across the nation traveled to Wabash in order to vie for the prestigious Lilly Scholarship. The finalists arrived on campus that afternoon and attended a dinner later that night with alumni, faculty, and three deans – Dean Bambrey, Dean Phillips, and Dean Emmick.
The dinner was a way for the students to meet the people who would make up their committees for the interviews that took place the next morning. During the formal dinner there was a keynote presentation by David Shane ’70, which focused on his time here at Wabash and what the College is really about.
On Friday morning, the thirty-minute interviews began and the thirty men were placed into three committees of ten. Each group had a board of members. Senior Assistant Director of Admissions Jamie Watson described the interview process as long and comparable to a dance.
“During the interview, we try our hardest to make the student feel comfortable, but obviously there is a lot at stake for them and it seems very formal to them, but it is very supportive,” Watson said. “There are even members who walk with the students to the interview rooms and other members who wait with the students until they begin their interview, as well as a member in the room who is timing to make sure each student gets exactly thirty minutes, so we try to keep them very comfortable.”
“The interview can go anywhere and there are no set questions,” Watson said. “It is about them and they get to tell us about them and the rest can go anywhere. When the finalists were not being interviewed, they met with students, faculty, and attended any classes if they wished.”
The remainder of the day was essentially time to see the campus and meet some of the people that compose the Wabash community. Once the interviews were complete, which span from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., the finalists went to Indianapolis with some of the committee members and went to Jillian’s for bowling and dinner. It was a way for the finalists to have some time to get to know one another and take a giant sigh of relief after the interviews.
The next morning, the finalists went to Detchon and the committee gave them a text they had not seen beforehand. The finalists then have an hour and a half to read it anywhere in the building and when they finish, the finalists go into a room with their interview team and the other nine young men from their group and have a discussion.
“The discussion is different from a class like C&T, because [in class] a professor may interject or make points,” Ms. Watson said, “but this is for those ten guys to have a discussion about the text and the committee just listens and observes. After that, the finalists have a lunch and then depart.”
The committee has already chosen the three young men who will be given the Lilly Scholarship and those letters have already been mailed out to them. Minimum requirements to be considered for the scholarship are any of the following: a GPA of 3.5 (on a 4.0 scale), rank within the top twenty percent of the senior class, or an SAT score of at least 1720 or an ACT composite of at least 25.
Ms. Watson also elaborated on the current status of deposits the College has received for the class of 2012. Ms. Watson said the College is running on par with the past couple of years, but is just slightly ahead of the norm and in terms of admits, the diversity is on par with previous years, as well.
“We are just ahead in terms of percentage of deposits and we are just ahead of where we have been the past four to five years,” Ms. Watson said. “We are at a good place and we feel good about the number of deposits we have at this time.”