@TrendaLeigh - I agree, the named scholarships can be time intensive. DS only went after one, which would have been amazing to receive, but didn’t make it past the semi-finalist round. But to get there, he had to apply through his high school, they narrowed down the written applicants and chose a smaller number for a panel interview at the high school. From here he was identified as one of two candidates from his high school to apply for the named scholarship, so there were additional essays and 2 LORs for this next national stage. He made it from there to semifinalist- which meant another panelist interview, this time at the university; and that was the end of the line. I think about 25% of semi-finalists make it on to the finalist round. No sour grapes- he was really impressed by the other semi-finalists he met during the interview, and was happy to make it as far as he did. But- multiple essays, interviews etc is definitely something I don’t think we could have repeated for many other opportunities. A silver lining is that we had to buy a suit, and I think he realized that wearing something other than hiking pants and ironic t-shirts could be fun.
That being said- I’m not sure if we had seen the finalist biographies (didn’t know to look them up ahead of time) that it would have stopped us. We knew it was the equivalent statistically to getting into a tippy top school, and thought it was worth going for it.
And- I guess to keep this on the theme of the thread of hindsight, what seems like a cornucopia of Giant Scholarships in sophomore/ junior planning can start to seem like an insurmountable challenge by the middle of senior year. Definitely worth going for in moderation, but if you haven’t already finished your college applications and have a very difficult academic and EC schedule, it could be overwhelming