<p>I'm a PS student from last year. It's absolutely worth filling out the app, not for the program or award as much as the students you'll meet. I made a number of friends who I've stayed in touch with at college this year. Plus academic scholars get to watch the (vastly cooler) arts scholars perform at the Kennedy Center, and they are stunning.</p>
<p>Plus, the app doesn't tell you, but if you are selected as a PS, you can apply for an all-expenses paid trip to China with the National Committee on US-China Relations. Six boys and six girls are chosen from the class of PSes. I went and it was one of the best experiences of my life (and free!).</p>
<p>Good for you, RFID1! China sounds fantastic.</p>
<p>My S was a PS in 2006, and he had a good time also. His moment in the White House was less newsworthy, though--he said the Prez joked about his mother's cooking and then told them to "work hard." The news that year was the flash flooding that occurred outside the Teacher Award Dinner, totaling several cars of attendees.</p>
<p>This may sound ungrateful but I was really disappointed with my math score (790 - got 1 wrong). I was sure I'd get an 800 (I did in the 8th grade and I hadn't gotten a single one wrong on practice tests.) Meanwhile I expected mid-700 scores for CR and Writing and I got 800's on both of them. </p>
<p>I'm bummed out because I hate to take it again (waste of time just for a measly 10 points and colleges may think I'm neurotic) but then if I don't I won't qualify for Presidential Scholar and I really want the chance to meet President Obama in 2009! </p>
<p>Any suggestions? Should I retake them or is 2390 high enough?</p>
<p>First of all, they only consider M and CR. Second, it depends on what state you come from. If you got a perfect in M in 8h grade, did that score stay on your score report?</p>
<p>The 1984 tone of the application has me thinking darker thoughts - are our kids being "identified" for later harvesting of their brains? Just kidding.</p>
<p>My 8th grades were erased in 9th grade (but wouldn't have helped since my CR was only 750). And I'd be OK meeting Hillary or John, just not as ecstatic.</p>
<p>^^ ecneics
J'aoube's suggestion to try the ACT is a good one. I'm guessing that an ACT sum of scores of 141 and up will qualify in any state next year (though not necessarily in the past, and this holds only as long as they don't change the concordance). You have the benefit of score choice, or not sending it at all, to avoid the appearance of neurotic perfectionism. </p>
<p>Alternatively, if you prefer the SAT, you could retake it, and in all your applications, insert the explanation that you are hoping to be able to meet President Obama. </p>
<p>1590/2390 will probably not suffice (experience speaking--well, strictly, it was 1590/2380). Your state's cut-off for National Merit is not a good indicator at this level of competition, unless it is in the ballpark of 203.</p>
<p>Wait so... where exactly is the counselor form online? I can't find it for my life... the only place I see it is the download page for the paper forms.</p>
<p>zapperz, students don't have access to the full counselor report online. All you do online is enter the phone number for your school. Right below that you can enter information on a second school if you have attended your present school for less than two years. You then use your user name and password in the box to electronically sign the report. </p>
<p>A letter was sent to your school with user IDs for the school person who will actually complete your school report and for your principal. If they are completing the form online they use those IDs and passwords to access the full school report and to sign it electronically. If they aren't completing it online, they fill out the downloaded paper form.</p>
<p>hey, does anyone know how long the big essay should be - the form has a limit of 10,800 characters - which translates to about 1500 words.</p>
<p>mine's around 700 words...but it doesn't even fill up half of the maximum. i don't want mine to be too long or too short...but do you have any idea how long most people's are?</p>
<p>My D is done with her app - delivered to GC today and it will be overnighted tomorrow. One more app to do - a scholarship. Then financial stuff for FA. Then please Dear Lord let us be finally through.</p>
<p>We had a lot of difficulty with loading the essays and the picture. The picture looked fine in the preview mode, and then when we went to the end, before submit, did a 'print app' and three quarters of the picture was missing. So we had to wait until the next day when I could call while my son was in school (we're west coast) and advise that there was something major wrong with their program. With the essays, the counts were completely off from what we had, and even when well below the maximum character count, it would truncate the text to a ridiculous point. In my conversation with the PSP rep, they said they knew there were major problems with the online program, that it was adding like 150 characters after a "?" (which son hadn't used in his essay) and counting as if there were every space filled in, even when a line was almost blank. So I was told they were not going to mark anybody off for style issues...we shall see.</p>
<p>Judging from previous years, semifinalists should be announced within the next week... Who's excited/nervous/anxious/doesn't really care because it's Bush?</p>