Lumiere Award

Applying to College
1

Is the Rising Scholars Award from Lumiere essay competition valued with T20’s or does everyone get it?

2

Valued compared to what? These are the Lumiere award hierachies:

  1. Medalists: Gold, Silver, Bronze

  2. Honorable Mention

  3. High Honors

  4. Excellence

  5. Distinction

  6. Rising Scholars

No, not everyone gets at least Rising Scholars

3

Thanks, do you know what % receive at least one of the 6 awards?

4

My guess, since they don’t say, is 25-30%

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5

Isn’t Lumiere a pay-to-play research program? These days many aspiring high schoolers are doing some kind of research. While some of them secured the opportunity through legit, highly-selective open competitions, an increasing number of them got it through questionable, pay-to-play research programs like Lumiere.

6

There is nothing inherently wrong with an activity that costs money. If it has value for the student by providing a learning experience, then that’s great.

Research opportunities that people pay for is no different than people paying for club sports, or summer programs, or art camp or whatever.

IME many high schoolers get their research gig thru family connections…it’s easy to see that where they are doing research is where a parent works, for example. The applicant doesn’t get a ‘demerit’ for that.

With that said, OP earning a rising scholar award for their essay is unlikely to move the needle in admissions, but could help show OP is a strong writer, for example.

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