This weekend is Presidential Scholarship Interview Weekend. Starting today, 200 prospective freshmen who have qualified for the Presidential Scholarship will be on campus to visit and have interviews, the final step in the process of selecting the 30 scholarship recipients.

The Presidential Scholarship is an award of full tuition, room and board and a book stipend for four years of undergraduate study. To qualify, applicants to the University must have a 3.85 GPA, a minimum of 30 ACT score and a 1320 SAT score. However, not everyone who numerically qualifies is invited to the interview weekend. According to Kristin Frazier, undergraduate scholarship coordinator, 427 applicants qualified this year. Things like volunteer work and extracurricular involvement are considered when selecting the finalists.

Last year the University invited only 100 students to interview for the 30 scholarships. Two years ago 36 students were invited to vie for 10 awards.

The University drastically increased the number of interviewees in an attempt to attract more high-caliber students.

“We want to broaden the exposure of the campus to the best and brightest of the country,” said Frazier.

While students are here to be interviewed, they will stay on campus with one of about 60 current presidential scholars. According to Erica Westhoff, current presidential scholar and interview weekend chairperson, visiting students will have the opportunity to sit in on classes on Friday and participate in various social events throughout the rest of the weekend.

Each prospective student will be interviewed twice on Saturday morning. There will be three interviewers at each session.

There will also be one moderator who can listen and evaluate, but not ask questions. The panel of interviewers will be made up of one current presidential scholar, one St. Louis community leader, and one faculty member, alumni or administrator.

According to Hal Deuser, director of financial aid, the face-to-face meeting is crucial to determining which 30 students receive the award.

“They’re all great on paper. But only a number of students have that special spark in their personality that makes them really stand out,” said Deuser.

“We are making huge investments in these students. We want it to pay off 10, 20, 30 years from now,” he added.

The students who aren’t awarded the Presidential Scholarship are guaranteed the Deans’ Scholarship, a renewable award of $9,600 towards tuition.