@Mom2jl
Congrats!
I checked the list for Presidential Scholar candidates and also saw my d was on the list. While trying to find the list, I saw somewhere that the letters went out 1/21. They post the list after the letters go out. We did not receive the letter or application materials yet. My d has finished the college app process and received a competitive full-ride scholarship. So- like you, I am not sure d will want to mess with more essays.
Been looking at this presidential scholar thing. Something is a bit weird. I live in a school district that is the third largest in the state of California! We have approx 80,000 students. One person nominated out of the whole district. One! But the second largest in the state, San Diego, 44 nominees. There are around 50 nominees in San Jose Unified which has approx 33,000 students Now you cannot be telling me that people are simply much much much smarter in San Diego and San Jose than in Long Beach, CA.
If you look at the really affluent districts many many nominees even with very small districts.
No offense to those whose kids were nominees but this seems a bit off to meā¦ Who picks these students and what kind of criteria do they use? Some districts have so many students and others hardly anyone.
Congratulations to all those on the Presidential Scholars list!
So sorry you are STILL. struggling with the college board @MuggleMom.
Treats for all those with deferrals, rejections, or disappointments. No one said this process would be painless. Great life lessons though about being able to move on.
@carolinamom2boys how much snow do you have? Given that my son sees a lack of snow as a negative for Clemson, he will be very curious. Enjoy it and stay safe! People unaccustomed to driving in snow can cause lots of problems.
@lknomad - kids have to get a perfect score on the ACT and SAT - approximately 4,000 kids annually. There are also some kids who get nominated by each stateās scholastic officer for special recognition in the arts. There were only 2 kids in our county who were nominated, but my D, when looking at the list, said there were some schools that had a ton of kids nominated from their school. Maybe those schools had prep classes for the act / sat?
I looked up that Presidential Scholarās thing just out of pure curiosity. No one from my school but there were some from the general area- mostly urban schools and not all well to do schools either.
No one from ours was nominated either, @LKnomad and @readingclaygirl, and itās a huge district. A couple of kids from area private schools. Some who are on the list get there apparently from YoungArts. S was considering trying to do YoungArts, but they werenāt interested in the instruments he plays best (theyāre not standard orchestral instruments). And his more mainstream instruments are good, but nothing stand-outish.
So congratulations to the kids who did make the list, and well done!
How do you look up the presidential scholars list? Iām sure my son isnāt on it, but Iām curious to see if anyone else I know is.
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/psp/index.html
Yes it is based on ACT/SAT scores- (Math & Reading only). There is a suburban district in our area that I think this is one of their āthingsā to show they have an academic edge and their counselors nominate students.
Donāt get me wrong- it is an honor & we are proud. But, when I showed DS the application- 6 pages & lots of short & long answer essays, he just shook his head. If they are selected as a finalist they get a paid trip to DC- there is no scholarship $. We may be in the group that says āthank you but we are going to have to pass on this one.ā
@Cheeringsection Iām sure the amount of snow we get is laughable compared to what your son is used to, but we typically get snow several times a year usually no more than 6 inches at a time. Iām having a hard time finding exact totals yet, but enough that thereās video of Dabo Sweeney sledding in Death Valley. We are close enough that we are drive into NC to snow tube or ski. Asheville NC got 13 inches.
I just checked the list with most students from private schools and the SC Govenors School for Math and Sciences which is a magnet boarding school.
In a rushā¦you can be nominated based on a host of criteria, the very top score on the standardized being just one. The criteria was changed a bit after 2014, so principals and committees have more leeway in whose name goes forward as a nominee.
Daughter is not a 2400, but close. Turns out if you put your name on the ādo not forward my informationā list, they donāt! So, no nomination. But each of you can check your own stateās Department of Education website for details of how it is handled.
Congrats to all!
Darn, such bad timing! D14 flew to DC Thursday to visit grandparent for 3 days prior to returning to college in NY (was supposed to fly out tomorrow). Now she is stuck there with cancelled flights. At least she will be there to help with extra shoveling! 
Yeah, itās math and reading SAT score, though there can be a principalās nomination and there is an arts option as well. No doubt my daughterās was simply SAT scoreā¦she was 800/800 math and reading. We know a few kids on the list. One is a current White House student poetā¦one of five in the nation. Another was chosen for Muddās Fall FAST over her. Assuming the other kids choose to do the application, my daughter is not holding out great hope for selection, though she says she intends to try. 
The snow forecast just keeps going up and up, now we are supposed to receive 30 inches or so. Hmmm, the last of our W-2ās arrived yesterday, I think this is someoneās way of telling me it is time to complete the FAFSA (-:
Congrats to all with good news!!
Congratulations to all Presidential nominees. Great honor. I didnāt know what it was so had to look it up. From our second in the nation largest school district they have only 5 kids from the well known private school. I am sure our school principal never heard of this program and doesnāt know how to nominate students. Also I think DD asked for her SAT information not to be forwarded to anyone. Things we donāt know about become missed opportunities. Again Congratulations to everyone on the list!
@GoodGrief16 Thank you for your kind words about my DD. About Fall Fast. If your DD attended Spring FAST, she had no chances getting into Fall Fast. They want to give more kids the opportunity to attend this program. Knowing this my DD did not even apply.
The interview that DD was stood up for last week finally happened yesterday. This was the first interview where interviewer talked more then her. He was trying to sell school to her. She found it very funny since this is the school that doesnāt need to be sold to anyone.
@Ballerina016 How did your Dās interview go?
@Ballerina016 Oh, I hope the interview went well!
Congrats to pres scholar nominees. I didnāt realize it was only math and reading SATs. That explains a friend from DSs high school getting ināhe had a lower writing score, so I was surprised to see his name.
@Ballerina016, Iām so glad she finally got her interview! I hope she felt good about the experience after all the stress. Re: Fall FAST, my daughter got shut out altogether for that one, and the Dartmouth STEM fly-in too! She had zero luck with competitive fly-ins and scholarships, lol
@GoodGrief16 This is frustrating! At least she was not out of luck with her EA schools. And this is much more important.
@4kids2graduate and @Almondjoy1 Hopefully it went well. The interviewer said he will write her a good recommendation. As I said he is a very accomplished person. The best in the country for what he is doing. He is not in the same field of study as DD is interested in, but majority of her interviewers are not. Very interesting person to talk to, but he was talking nonstop so hopefully he still got information about her that he needed.
She has another interview tomorrow morning.
Iād never heard of the Presidential Scholars thing. Interesting. Nobody from our city (San Francisco) is on the list; thereās about 20 or so from my smaller hometown (Portland, OR), though. That seems so odd and unlikely. We had more NMFs, and neither the ones I know here nor there (a close friendās D made the cut in Portland) are on the Presidential list. All of these awards that are mostly test-based seem odd to me, but Iām glad there seems to be some good distribution of awards. I wish there were more of them, and that more holistic scholarships, not tied to tests, were as prominent, too.
Iām pulling hard for the candidates from this list - may your kids survive the āone more formā process, and make it to the group of 161!