@crowlady let me know if you have any questions about Tulane. D just graduated from there this past May. Their application was free to everyone when she applied 5 years ago, I am not sure if that is still true or not.
Also, we live a 17 hour drive away and do not have a lot of money. She did not visit until the accepted students honors weekend.
It is true that they want demonstrated interest and the Why Tulane essay is not optional if you want admitted. There are lots of ways to show interest without visiting if time or money is an issue.
D was offered significant merit aid and had no problem making the required GPA to keep it. And, while Tulane does not promise to meet full need, I do know that they are more generous with need based money in every subsequent year to the higher stat students.
Let me know if you have any questions about Tulane or NOLA in general.
To follow up on my last post I decided to contact a large university my DD is applying to and the response from the admissions director there was: âI would suggest adding this to the awards section, as we will not have this in the application data for the student from another source.â Seems at odd with all the targeted mailing discussed on this forum.
I thought it was funny regarding the Tulane sweatshirt. My daughter has received or purchased a shirt or sweatshirt at every school she has visited. She has no plans to part with them.
@Themommymommy I think all national awards should go on application including NAPS and NMSF. I am not so sure about NHS since for example in our school everyone with high GPA and minimum volunteer hours can get in, but for other schools it might be different. Also not sure if winning or finalist for major scholarship should go on application. You DC must be very accomplished since you are running out of space in awards section!
Depends on whether that school is targeting NMSFs or not and if they have scholarships. It would be surprising to me that any student can have 5 national or international awards that trump NMSF but then I heard Malala is applying too this year. It is going to be a tough year for all our kids to measure up.
Itâs interesting the the SAT are decreasing but many states have increased their cut off for National Merit this year. Texas is now at 220, I wonder if this is just due to increased population?
@Ballerina2016 and @texaspg No international awards!! The awards that have to be omitted are just school level awards. I just figured with all the targeting of admissions materials maybe there was some sort of list the schools already had and it just seems sort of sad that something DC worked hard for all year is omitted in favor of something she did on one day. Looking at the NMSF forum and seeing kids from states that require such high scores just miss, where another day they might have made the cutoff off, makes me wonder about the whole process. (Our state is a sort of middle ground state for NMSF cut off - so some of those kids would have made it in our state but not their own.) It probably really wonât matter in the long run with omitting the school awards. I am just finding the whole process sort of confounding and a little irritating.
My D was advised to list awards in the order that they mattered to her, I found out that her lettering in orchestra was much more important to me than to her;-) OTOH, since she is applying to a school with big national merit money she leaving a spot at the top for that! I just wish the school would just go ahead confirm so she can fill in that spot!
I advise people that the awards should go down in importance level in the same way commonapp allows you to flag them - International, national, State/regional, and school. Since you are allowed to pick only 5 my input is any award with the word ânationalâ in it trumps anything given by school. The other rule of thumb I would like to use is that the fewer people who can claim the award, the more important it becomes.
So a program like the one nydadâs D attended at a national level actually trumps NAP Scholar or NMSF which will definitely trump winning science fair at district level. If someone is a finalist at Intel or Siemens or something, that can trump all others.
This is what we were told too. Specifically by WASHU and the Princeton Admins. They said to list everything regardless as it is something you have done. They want to know about you.
Like @AsleepAtTheWheel, we donât have the too many awards problem ;-), but I think the first award Iâd omit if space was an issue is the AP award; they will know how many APs she took and what her scores were, which is really what that award is about. And though NMSF is a cool thing to get, Iâm not so sure itâs significant on an application at a selective school, if there are other more interesting awards to take its place. A decent SAT score will let them know she tests well.
No problem running out of space on awards in our household either. School does not give any awards until the end of the 12th grade. All sport awards are going on a single line. Same for Debate awards. I am somewhere vague on definition of honors. What is considered an honor? Is something like HOBY an honor? Is being selected as a school representative to outside organization an honor?
Our math/science-oriented kid has âwonâ two clothing design awards. His design was chosen to be one for his high school classâ sweatshirt. And he took third-place in a national swimsuit design contest (the pattern, not the contour/shape). He has designed a number of swimsuits that he and his teammates wear.
Not the Intel award, but it does show a side of his that otherwise wouldnât get on the application. Not sure yet where heâll enter this on the CA.
Yesterday, I told my daughter that I will wear Wellesley shirts if she goes to Wellesley which is one of her favorite school. And she said no~~~. lol.
One thought about awards and honors in CA. My daughter won 2 national gold medal from Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards and she also won 10ish regional keys from Scholastic including 6 regional gold keys. She put 2 gold medals in one slot and 6 gold keys in another slot ignoring silver and honorable mention. Not sure whether to ask her to mention regional silver keys and honorable mention or not.
Her first paid article will be published soon. Small money but she loves to earn some money with her writing. Now, she complains about tax and I told her she has her education with taxes.
