@ak2018 I submitted my application a few weeks ago and got the invitation for campus connection day as well. While I am not African-American, they extended their offer to Asian students too. 
It is a loooong drive from NoVa, especially at 4 in the morning! Please let me know how everything with VT works out for you! Good luck!
@doctornc Lol. Small World. Also from NoVA. Itās going to be quite competitive to get in from here. Good Luck to you too. Do you plan on going to the Summer Academy if youāre accepted?
@Hamlon a few weeks ago, you gave me advice on sending scores by talking to colleges about my financial situation. Thank you so much! It worked out so well and a majority of my schools let my counselor submit my scores for me. you are a life (and money) saver!!
@ak2018 VT is not my top choice as of now, but if I do ultimately commit to it, I would definitely be interested in attending Summer Academy. What about you?
@doctornc VT isnāt my first choice either (Williams and CMU are), but Iād be interested if I do commit as well. Also, I did take similar advice from my counselor and saved about $500. Congrats to you too! Are you by any chance in the NASA high school programs?
@ak2018 I am not. Iām more into health sciences and medicine! My first choice is Georgetown, and I have been working to set up an interview. Itās all so nerve-wracking!
@doctornc Iām actually going on a field trip to Georgetown on Nov. 20th. Pretty great school!
Is anyone else applying to the Ron Brown or Jack Kent Cooke Scholarships?
@agentaquastar @doctornc No problem!
@ak2018 I sent off my Ron Brown app on Nov. 1st and Iām in the process of applying to Jack Kent Cooke. UNCF STEM scholars is open too.
@ak2018 It has been my dream school for years! I will tour GW on Monday to conclude my DC school tours lol.
@Hamlon Do you think an email is sent to your recommenders before or after you complete your application, like when you put their email into your application? Because there are only 9 days until the deadline and Iāve written one essay. :))
Also, how are you guys planning on thanking your recommenders?
FYI: āThe Scholarship Systemā is a nice app to keep track of scholarships across websites like niche, fastweb, Sallie Mae, etc. The Chrome extension is really helpful. It copies the information from the page and saves it to your account. I hope they make a full website for it though.
I feel like my Common App essay sucked all of the creativity out of me! It was about art museums and transportation. Two different topics but I hope I pulled it off. Iām pretty proud of it. Now I need to write these Personal Insight questions and supplementsā¦rip.
@ak2018 Starbucks gift cards and thank you notes. As an extra thank you/Christmas gift I plan to give my club moderator a planner, and my AP Lit teacher a coffee mug. I have to do some babysitting first to save up money
@ak2018 I used some savings from this summer to get each of mine a $5 Starbucks card and wrote them a personal thank you on some generic cards I found around the house. The card set I found happened to have robots on them so I though it was fitting.
@ak2018 both of my recommenders are sports fans, so Iām hoping to splurge on some fan gear to show my gratitude
@dietcig @snowfairy137 Thanks for the idea. Iām poor and unemployed (because my parents want me to āfocus on my studiesā), but Iāll see what I can do! :))
Also, remember that Student Leadership Conference I talked about in March? Well, I am currently applying to be a session leader and a keynote speaker for the conference on March 12th of 2018. I am in the process of finalizing my plans for the session I plan to lead and am I super excited!!! I even titled my session as: Generation STEM: The Leaders of Tomorrow. A session where I would talk to students about how they can set themselves apart from the crowd of future engineers and scientists, finding free resources and programs to further their STEM education, discussing what makes a good scientist or engineer and what does not, ways to give back to their community through STEM engagement, being a minority in engineering and my STEM journey and my goals for the future. I also wanted to be a keynote speaker as I was inspired to do so by the last yearās winner of the MLK oratorical contest, who spoke at the conference last year. As a keynote speaker, I wanted to speak about was the true cost of leadership and how you are never too rich, poor, young, or old to give back to your community as well as my leadership journey that started in the third grade up to the present. The whole thing will be quite similar to a TED talk!!
@snowfairy137 One of my recommenders is my math teacher, and Iām getting him a Tim Hortonās gift card with 10pi dollars on it
Also got offered an interview from Stanford! Apparently itās over Skype since there are no interviewers in my province
@acomfysofa thatās so Canadian lol
@acomfysofa Thatās very Canadian! Iām getting my school recommenders a box of Merci chocolates and Dunkin Donuts gift cards and my additional recommenders some sort of gift (one of them has to be shipped so idk yet).
@nyuhopeful44 I got mine through my Alabama email as well about 6 days after I applied, I think they send out a physical letter a few weeks later.
@ak2018 I think before. You can always resend the invitation.