Presidential Scholars Weekend

24NoVAMom
Sun, 11 Feb 2024 22:52:23 +0000

Hi all, just back last night from the High Point Presidential Scholars weekend. Cross-posting this, which I also posted on the 3.0-3.4 forum, in case anyone is looking for more info about this event next year. The presentations really got a little long for us as this was our third visit there, so we have heard a lot of the speeches and videos before. Still, High Point left a very strong impression on both of us once again.

DD really enjoyed her interview with two professors and two students from the political science department. Also, the head of the department (whose class she attended during her last visit) reached out to her Friday afternoon via email to welcome her and apologize for not being able to attend this weekend, copying the three poli sci professors who could possibly be in her interview. Pretty awesome and made her feel a connection for sure.

Each attendee was greeted on Friday night with a stack of business cards printed with their names and new highpoint.edu email address, in a nice card case. They were encouraged to exchange them with other students they met throughout the weekend to keep in touch. Directions were emailed to them that night on how to set up and access the new email account. Doing so would certainly get a candidate even more mentally invested in the school… so a very clever move on their part for sure. Attendees also received a nice HPU padfolio with pen to use for their interviews, and a High Point Presidential Scholars scarf.

The dinner on Friday night was a buffet with seating in a large ballroom at round tables of 9. During dinner there was live music from some of the school’s instrumental ensembles. We were welcomed by a super impressive senior Presidential Scholar who was just accepted to Wake Forest medical school. There was also a panel of recent alumni talking about their experiences, another performance by HPU’s highest level vocal ensemble (DD, a chorus kid herself, loved this), and an entertainment act by a pair of comedian/jugglers.

DD connected well with a couple other girls that we sat with at dinner on Friday night. One of them she ended up grouped with when the kids broke away from the parents on Saturday morning and they ate lunch together along with a couple of more girls they had met. I was thrilled to see my introverted DD making these social connections!

Overall, HPU is a strong contender despite being the most expensive option on her list. The other top two currently are JMU and Gettysburg College, where we will attend admitted students days on 2/23 (Gettysburg) and 3/2 (JMU). The big remaining data point is whether she is invited to the HPU Honors program. We have both been really impressed by everyone we have met from the program and the strong LLC that is created by having all of the Honors freshmen and sophomores in the same dorm for two years, with regular social programming and even an Honors trip abroad at the end of the sophomore year that most of the students attend. I can definitely envision DD being really happy in that program. Unfortunately they delay those decisions until the first week of March. DD said that if she knew she was in Honors, she might be ready to commit to HPU now!

Should be an interesting next few weeks. I’m hoping that shortly after the JMU visit and the decision on HPU Honors she will feel ready to pick a top choice. Wildcards remaining are her deferral at W&M and waitlist at VT. I think if she gets into W&M by some miracle she would go, but I’m not so sure about VT. She seems to be gravitating more toward the smaller schools as this process unfolds.