Congratulations to all the Presidential Scholars nominations! It’s a great honor to be recognized by your school and state for this nomination.
@mamaedefamilia, as @Dolemite stated, DS is a previous year US Presidential Scholar. You are correct that the award will not help with college admission which is why I liked about it as students who continued with the process do it for the honor and not for college admission. The process after this point is similar to the college application process - more essays! And the award is selective and somewhat random as only one male and one female student from each state will receive it.
As to your question of whether it’s worth the effort to apply, for the lucky 100+ students and families (will be more than 100 but I can’t remember the exact number), the experience of the trip to Washington DC was amazing for a high school student (the family get to tag along to most events but not the White House). In addition to the actual award, they visited the White House, Capitol, and DC area. Also, our state representatives in DC all reached out to him/us and invited us to their offices for a visit so we spent a day at the Capitol. During the visits, DS discussed his view/concerns/questions with the Rep.
Your statement about not able to mention the award for grad school. DS kept it as a college Freshman when he interviewed for summer research internships. For graduate schools, I don’t know if this is something a college student should keep on the resume but they are all considered an alum (and get regular communication of the “happenings” of other alums from the organization). Meeting all the kids there, I felt that most - if not all - of them will accomplish so much in college that they will not need to have this on their resume.
Of course there is a chance for not getting selected even after submitting a strong application. DS certainly did not think he was going to get the award but he did take the application seriously (but used mostly recycled essays from his college apps) and then did not think about it until the announcement.
I hope this is answered, at least, some part of your question.
Congratulations again!
Congrats on all the acceptances and scholarships! D also got good news with an acceptance to Clarkson yesterday. It was her first letter to include a little personal note – awww.
She loved Clarkson on her visit, but not Potsdam. She was complaining about the town (“Why couldn’t Clarkson be in any of the other college towns where I’m applying?!”) and I said “Well it can’t be that bad.” I went to Clarkson’s “Life in Potsdam” page and read out some highlights:
“Although it is small, there are still several things that you can find to do in or around Potsdam…
There is a cool place on the river where you can swing on a rope and jump into the river…
The Cheel Campus Center is a good place to go to relax and have a cup of coffee…
The Roxie movie theatre keeps up with the newest releases…
There is a bowling alley on the outskirts of the town…”
She didn’t get too revved up by any of those.
QOTD: Yes, I deposited for enrollment at D’s in-state safety so that we could deposit early for housing. It’s the cheapest option and still on the table. Her favorite dorm type there is limited (corner rooms that are set up differently). If she goes to the best financial option I want her to have her preferred dorm. I don’t think there’s much a college can do if you withdraw other than keep the deposits. From what I’ve heard it’s only double-depositing for enrollment that can get you in trouble and we won’t do that.
So I spoke to soon in a post yesterday—it turns out my daughter has made it in as a finalist for Alabama’s Horribly-Names Computer-Based Honors Program. So hurrah! (And she’s interviewing at this very moment for Alabama’s Blount Initiative.)
But…
Can somebody tell me what it is with the weekend of 25 February?
Consider the following that is or was potentially on D17’s calendar for that weekend:
[ul][]23–25 February is the local Model UN event, and she’s been deeply involved in Model UN since 10th grade.
[]The National Association of Teachers of Singing, Alaska Division winter classical(?—I think, since showtunes was October) competition is 25 February.
[]She’s a semifinalist for the University of St Thomas’s STEM scholarship (which ends up with two winners that get full tuition, and two other finalists who get $8k on top of other merit aid), and the on-campus—and they must be on campus—interviews and (as far as we understand it) written exams for it are 25 February.
[]She didn’t make it as a finalist for Alabama’s University Fellows, but that event is on campus on 25 February.
[]She did make it as a finalist for Alabama’s HNCBHP, and that event is 26–27 February (which, by the way, includes the 24th for her, at the very least, since every flight from here to Birmingham involves flying overnight). (That program’s research focus fits her beautifully, I think, but she hasn’t bought into it yet.)
[]And just to add an exclamation point, there’s an event for all of her church’s teenagers in Alaska the afternoon and evening of the 25th.[/ul]
I mean, I guess I get all the local stuff, since kids here get that Friday off (it’s a teacher training day), but Minnesota and Alabama?? President’s Day weekend—and yes, the kids get President’s day off here, too, it’s a three-day week—is the preceding weekend.
Anyway, we have some serious scheduling decisions to make, it appears. Advice is welcomed, but it’s eventually going to have to be D17’s decision.
(Oh—and on the questions about whether she’ll apply for the Presidential Scholars Award, I’m going to suggest she does it, but she’ll have to take a look at what precisely is involved before making a final decision on it.)
(Oh—and D17 just mentioned in passing to me that the George Mason Honors College reception—which she wasn’t going to go to anyway—is on 25 February. Dang.)
@vandyeyes my ds will be interviewing at Case too! There is so much news nowadays. So much going on as we go up and down with this college process! I feel like we have to hold onto our hats as there are still some surprises on this roller coaster!
@dfbdfb & @2nwthis – wow - feel for you - though nice problem to have with such great kids, right?? Hopefully it will be an opportunity for them to practice prioritizing – or allowing you to make an “executive decision”.
I think we’ll likely have a challenge in April unless there is a clear college choice! So far less major conflicts. Good luck!
D17 is in the reserve pool for CBHP at UA, and she’s really hoping she gets in, although we recognize it’s a real longshot.
She was admitted into UMD in her major (CS), but not the honors college, which means no shot at the B-K scholarship, which means UMD is off her list (at that price she likes WPI and NEU better). I’m kind of bummed that she didn’t make it into honors, because she has a 1490 sat, 33 act, a 4.3 weighted gpa, and some really kick ass and weird ec’s, and loves to write. I swear the entire time it’s been such a struggle with UMD, and I wonder if this is just karma.
So we’re sticking with the love the schools that love you back philosophy, so UA is back on top, and she says it’ll remain there unless an outside scholarship comes through (super unlikely).
I’m so ready for her to buy a sweatshirt and call it a day
DS got rejected for BS/MD @ Case. I was expecting an interview, but with 2200 applying for 70 interview slots, it was a tough one. He already had interviews at 2 other programs and waiting on 3 more. Tough and long process!
@crazym0m Just found out that D17 is one of four Presidential candidates from her school. I don’t know how they are going to send in recommendations for four kids to set them apart. I am not going to push D to do the work for something she has such a small chance of winning, it will have to be up to her.
@dfbdfb That’s exciting D is a candidate for the Presidential’s scholars program - she doesn’t know?! Oh and good luck figuring out what to do on 2/25!
@jmek15 Congrats to your son on the two new acceptances!! He must be pumped! <:-P
QOTD:@stencils As soon as I was sure D was not interested in a school - all flyers etc for that school went in the trash. Now I can’t get rid of it fast enough. She also started going through her email to hit “unsubscribe”
So here’s a question (not really a QOTD type question, just curious):
Most of the top scholarships go to the top applicants. These applicants typically have several scholarships from lots of different schools. As these top applicants commit to a school, do the scholarships that they pass up trickle down to more, ahem, average students?
@sk2017 you are absolutely correct that the process is tiresome and in many ways unpredictable. In our house we have taken upon the mindset that any school or program that tells us "no thank you ", it’s their loss and obviously “they” don’t know what they’re passing up…so it was with S17’s ED1 deferral from Brown…absolutely a mistake on their part…now we’re moved on in search of a lover who returns our smiles likewise…for these 17/18 year olds this process is too fickle to frame it in any other way.
@STEM2017 It may well vary from school to school. But from what I have seen, the awards not accepted to not trickle down. I think the schools understand and expect that kids they really want will also be wanted by other schools and as such, schools will not get everyone they really want. So they oversubscribe a little. And experience gives them a pretty good basis to determine how many they will get. But I have nothing certain on that. Just a very limited sample size at an even smaller sample of colleges.
@STEM2017 Some do. Iirc, I think Case does. CBH definitely fills spots turned down. Some schools absolutely do not, however. There is no single answer.
