Less than halfway through the 2022-23 application year, The School District of University City is excited to announce its University City High School senior class has already earned more than $5 million in scholarship offers from local, regional and national colleges and universities.
The scholarships, many of them substantial, have been awarded to a diverse group of students with differing accomplishments and fields of study. They include a four-year ride from the QuestBridge Foundation to senior Mouhamed Ly, who will be heading to Boston College next fall after graduating early with both his diploma and an associate’s degree earned through the District’s Early College Experience program. In addition to room and board, the scholarship pays for all travel, fees, supplies and supplemental costs. Other students have received offers amounting to more than $100,000 each to attend select colleges, which include Saint Louis University, Coe College, Loyola University Chicago, Loyola University New Orleans, Pace University, University of Portland, Westminster College and Wittenberg College.
More than three dozen other students have so far received scholarships in the $60,000 range.
Counselor Kimberley Merrill said, "It’s exciting to see these types of awards and acceptances so early in the application process. People can see the diversity and opportunity playing out on the bulletin board outside the Counseling Office that highlights all students who have gotten into college or a career/professional school."
“It’s not just our high flyers,” she said. “It’s students from all socioeconomic groups and racial backgrounds. A lot of our students are really good at finding schools that have a specific major in an area they already have experience in from classes in high school. A lot of our students are being very intentional with the schools that they are applying to. It’s paying off.”
So far, 10 students have had acceptances to the University of Missouri. Saint Louis University seems particularly interested in our students, offering acceptances to three students, two of them with scholarships totaling $125,000 per student.
As of December 13, UCHS seniors had obtained nearly 300 acceptances, with many more expected in the winter and spring of 2023.
Senior Mouhamed Ly is only the second district student to receive a QuestBridge full tuition and board college scholarship. Counselor Melvin Bond said Mouhamed, a first generation college student, was driven to succeed the moment he entered high school.
“I remember having a conversation for the first time after school when as a freshman, and he was telling me he had already taken a college standardized test, and he scored pretty well on it,” Bond said. “He had goals going in from the jumpstart. “
Ly began taking dual credit classes as a sophomore, and accelerated his classes at Saint Louis Community College Forest Park through the District’s Early College experience program.
He is the president of the high school’s National Honor Society chapter and a member of the Key Club, sits on UCHS Student Council, is a member of the environmental club and has participated in community service projects. In the Early College Experience, he also took “quite a few accounting courses, because he loves numbers,” Bond said.
Merrill said she expects even more good news for the senior class as the school year progresses.
“We’re seeing more students motivated to apply,” she said. “They’re seeing other students’ successes in applying, and it’s been motivating for them.”
