<p>@saismom, thank you, this is exactly what I needed to know. Is there scholarship money attached to winning the title of Scholar, or is it mainly a prestige thing?</p>
<p>My D13 was a nominee. They choose approximately 20 girls and 20 boys from each state + separately some ‘arts’ nominees. The first cut is based solely on test scores. They do ACT/SAT concordance. Cut for girls is determined separately than for boys, so is a bit lower. After nominee there is a finalist level and then Scholar, 1 girl and 1 boy who go to DC(with a teacher??) and participate in fun events, meet famous people. To proceed in competition you need to fill out lengthy application and do essays, all holistic. D knew she wasn’t good enough, so didn’t do the app. There was a girl from her HS who got to be Scholar that year. Won a couple of high level piano competitions with local symphony orchestras, super advanced in math and a top scorer in competitions in our state, in school gov, ran the green club, dozens of other things. D used to say the girl operated on a whole different level than ordinary humans. She was in D’s AP music th. class, had perfect pitch. Really super nice kid. At Princeton now I think. She got into all the top schools, had her pick.</p>
<p>WOW.</p>
<p>My S1 (HS08’) was in the running but didn’t make the final cut. @celesteroberts’s post is right on. </p>
<p>Congratulations to your children on being nominated!</p>
<p>HeliMom…We have only a brief passing experience with the Presidential Scholar program. Our D1 ('11) was a nominee. We filled out the paperwork and submitted the package, but had no intention of sending her even if she had been chosen. She certainly listed the nomination on her college apps though. 
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<p>Exactly! Just being a candidate is quite the honor. Not sure how other states do it but in FL, it was the perfect scorers who made the candidate list and they do not count the writing section of the SAT.</p>
<p>Supervised S yesterday while he did his taxes. First time. He was screaming at how horrible it was the whole time. It was funny, since that is exactly how I feel ever since we switched from paper to online filing. Filling out all the W2s and 1099s and etc. Yuck. I asked him how he’d like to do that times 10 and when finished turn around and do it again for his elderly mother. I can appreciate that people are happy to pay someone else to do it for them. He said, horrified, “You mean there are people who actually do that for a living?!?!?”</p>
<p>UGH! Not looking forward to doing ours but it is a necessary evil. We had fraud committed on Hubby’s social security number last year and it took an additional 6 months to get our refund. We received interest on our refund and then received another 1099 form for the measly interest. We also have to use a special code when we file since we are now marked as fraud victims . Not fun but at least the software makes it go a bit more smoothly. Good for your S to get the experience.</p>
<p>His state tax refund was small, $40. He did that separately at the state revenue dept site, since those free file places charge for state returns. He said, “You know, I’m not sure this is worth it, for only $40.”</p>
<p>And saismom, that’s terrible. Sorry that happened to you.</p>
<p>My husband was a Presidential scholar a million years ago. We also have a dear friend whose daughter was a Presidential scholar a few years ago. (She is an amazing person with perfect grades and scores, valedictorian and varied accomplishments, but she did NOT get into all her reach schools. That’s how bizarre this process goes sometimes.) I think the experience in DC with the other scholars and meeting the president is a pretty amazing one. </p>
<p>It’s an honor to be a nominee but colleges know it already from test scores because nomination is purely based on the ACT/SAT. Moving on to semi-finalist and then finalist and ultimately scholar is based on a lot more and is quite an honor. I recently looked at the list from my state and laughed. It’s interminable! There are so many kids with perfect scores on one or both tests that there’s no way to narrow it down to 20 girls and 20 boys. Not in this state. Even if my daughter were on the list, there’s not a snowball’s chance in h3ll that she’d move on to the next step.</p>
<p>Taxes are the bane of my existence. I’m particularly unhappy that I’m losing my second deduction/exemption this year as my middle daughter reaches independence. </p>
<p>Is it possible that the ACT recycled this past Saturday’s test from the one administered as recently as October of 2012? That seems to be what kids who took it are saying. If so, that just seems crazy.</p>
<p>Lmao at Celesteroberts’ son…“people actually do that for a living?”…omg too funny!!! And the people who live with those people SUFFER from February to April!!!</p>
<p>This is why this board is so informative…I have never even heard of the Presidential scholar. Congrats to those who qualify and have reason to know what it is.</p>
<p>I need to get our taxes done as well…hopefully later this week. I’ve been gone so much I haven’t had a chance to get a start on them, but I think all our required materials have finally come in.</p>
<p>I feel badly for the families that need to get their FAFSA submitted as early as possible for “priority” FA consideration. We usually don’t receive all our statements, etc. until the second week of February, so even with electronic filing the FAFSA Data Retrieval Tool doesn’t work until late February or early March. Since many colleges require use of the DRT, you have families that might see their chances for FA decrease because of factors completely outside of their control. I understand colleges wanting to have financial info as early as possible to confirm accuracy and make their FA offers, but there has to be a better solution somewhere.</p>
<p>It stinks that we (like so many other families) are in that “make too much for FA but not enough to afford full freight” category, but it’s a lot less stressful when we’re not under the gun to get FAFSA submitted ASAP. </p>
<p>And after completing one CSS Profile for D1 back in 2011, I’m thoroughly excited that neither D2 nor S are currently looking at any schools that require it. 
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<p>@celesteroberts, did you tell him that a $40 refund means he withheld pretty much the right amount? I was always told you don’t want a large refund because that’s just giving the government a free (?) loan. Right? And of course, you don’t want to owe the government a lot of money.</p>
<p>Speaking of taxes, one year we had to pay a lot and I did NOT like that one bit, so we have swung the other direction and tend to get quite a bit back…forced savings. Actually I was looking at it as a way to force a portion of our college savings and it made me wonder, how does tax refund money count when applying for FA? It’s not money you have to count as an asset, and it’s not additional income. Is there some FA benefit to paying a lot to taxes that you will then get back in a refund, or is that all accounted for when they ask what your income was and how much you paid in taxes?</p>
<p>I am irked with my daughter’s school. We have been planning an April trip to visit colleges, and now they have scheduled testing to coincide with the start of our trip - mandatory testing for 11th graders. A week before the SATs. I am so sick of standardized tests!</p>
<p>re: taxes. Not really tech savvy AND I get a handful of 1099’s (B, Int, Div) and some K-1’s. I paid an accountant to do ours for over 10 years. Then I moved over to Turbo Tax in 2005 and have never looked back. Everything ports over from year to year. W2’s import directly from ADP. They stay current on laws and deductions. Never been easier! Still takes me about 2 hours after everything comes in, but it really is just answering some simple questions and data entry. Easy peasy! D’12 and S’15 haven’t made enough to file yet. But will this year (filing in 2015).</p>
<p>US presidential scholars</p>
<p><a href=“U.S. Presidential Scholars Program”>http://www2.ed.gov/programs/psp/index.html</a></p>
<p>D1 was a semi finalist in 2011. Lots more essays to write. By the time her status was announced it was too late for college applications. The local media picked up the press release, it was nice for her to receive the academic recognition.</p>
<p>My son forgot his calculator and only finished 3/4 of the math questions. I called ACT and looked it up online. You have until the Thursday after the test to cancel sending the scores. It turned out I had not even put in 4 free score sends so no worries. I want to get a score done but won’t send it to any schools unless by a lucky stroke it turns out to be a really high score despite the mishap with the calculator. Heck, I am only saving $48 with the free score sends. Makes no sense to send any free scores unless money is really tight. I would rather preview the score and only send if it is really good and I’m willing to pay for that margin of safety.</p>