The Posse Foundation supports talented students from diverse backgrounds so they can become those leaders. For more than 30 years, Posse has identified and trained young people with extraordinary potential who might be missed by elite schools. Our program places Scholars in supportive, multicultural groups of 10 students — Posses. With mentoring and full-tuition leadership scholarships from our partner colleges, Posse Scholars graduate at a rate of 90 percent.
| who should apply? | high-achieving students |
| eligible grade levels | seniors |
| application cost | free |
| award | full-tuition scholarship |
| opens | process starts in the summer before senior year |
| deadline | varies |
| decisions released | semifinalists: October 2022 finalists: early November 2022 scholars: December 2022 |
| location | Posse Los Angeles partner schools: – Bucknell University (Lewisburg, PA) – Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA) – Hobart & William Smith Colleges (Geneva, NY) – Kalamazoo College (Kalamazoo, MI) – Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT) *only selects students for STEM Posse scholarships* – Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) – Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA) – Tulane University (New Orleans, LA) – University of Wisconsin, Madison (Madison, WI) |
| selectivity | 10 students per Posse (for each partner school) from across LA area |
| link | https://www.possefoundation.org/recruiting-students/the-nomination-process |
application requirements
- must be nominated by HS or by a CBO (nominations can start as early as 2nd semester junior year)
- be in their first term of their senior year in HS
- demonstrate leadership and academic potential
- be willing to commit to a Posse school through Early Decision
application process
Posse uses the Dynamic Assessment Process (DAP), which is essentially a string of interviews except they become more and more formal and streamlined.
Before DAP 1 (summer before senior year): nominee application
- basic personal + academic information
- some short answer questions about interest in Posse program, academic interests, etc.
- room for additional information
DAP 1 (August – Sept. 2022)
- around 100 people, broken up into small groups of 10. Whole interview session will last around 3 hours, consisting of discussion topics + last part of DAP will be time for a written response
DAP 2 (Oct. – Nov. 2022)
- fill out supplemental application to “rank” multiple Posse schools + explain choices
- transcript, schedule, additional materials (resume, standardized test scores, writing samples, art samples, etc)
- able to update academic + extracurricular information
- individual interview ~2 weeks after semifinalist announcement w/ Posse staff (20-30 min)
DAP 3 (December 2022)
- at this point, you are a Posse finalist for a certain school
- attend a meeting w/ parents about Posse
- essentially put together an ED application for your finalist school
- grades, headshot (for promotional purposes), Letter of Recommendation, counselor materials, ED agreement
- group interview with ~20 other finalists for the same school, similar to DAP 1 except more vulnerable + more monitored
notes
according to Posse Chicago finalist for Connecticut College:
- DAP “is basically a process of three interviews that are testing one’s ability to not only connect with others but also show individuality and personality”
- DAP1 is more about teamwork, being respectful of other opinions AND proving that you can be a leader, and showing your personality.
- DAP2 is about finding out who the student is as a person
- Posse is a full tuition scholarship, so it will not cover room + board, living expenses, other fees (depending on what school you are a finalist for, you may be covered anyways by financial need if you are low income. Northwestern, Dickinson, and Middlebury are full-need-met Posse LA schools)
- By proceeding with DAP3, you are applying Early Decision to a school. Be sure that this is the school you really want.
notes to remember:
- Posse is for all income levels. It is merit-based. Therefore you do not need to be a specific income threshold to apply. For low-income students, you may want to be wary of schools that are not full-need-met since you may still be accountable for other very pricey fees.
- There are only a limited selection of schools available with Posse. If you only like 1 or 2 or none of the schools, do not do Posse and consider other options.
- Benefits of Posse is having that small group of 10 or 11 people with you in that school, where you have a support group and have dedicated support from Posse.