Alumni Distinguished Scholarship competition?

<p>Does anyone have any info about msu's Alumni Distinguished Scholarship competition? I was invited to try it...but is it multiple choice?how in depth does it go into the topics of math, science, social studies, etc? any past participants want to comment on the test?</p>

<p>It's extremely tough. I took it last year, and they pull in-depth questions from every possible subject - no one has ever had a perfect score. I remember it being all multiple choice. Some of the sources of questions were the MCAT, Greek architecture, and other very specific, seemingly-random topics. </p>

<p>That being said, remember that no one has ever received a perfect score, and many people probably do terribly, so don't stress about it - nothing will change if you don't win, it's just nice if you do.</p>

<p>Did you get your invitation with the acceptance letter or later? Are any invitations sent out in January?</p>

<p>My son got his acceptance letter to MSU in Sept. and was invited to the competition in late November.</p>

<p>I registered to take it but I have, like, zero chance. Just a good excuse to see what the campus looks like in early February.</p>

<p>I think I read that about 1,000 kids took the test last year. Check this out about the 21 winners of the full rides for the Class of 2009:</p>

<p>"The students’ average high school grade point average was 4.1 on a 4.0 scale. The median ACT score was 35 (out of 36) and the median SAT score was 1550 (out of a possible 1600)."</p>

<p>MSU gets a lot of very bright students. I believe there are many more smaller scholarships given out also.</p>

<p>I got invited too. I live in Arizona though...long trip. They offered to pay for the airfare...but im not sure i want to miss school to take a hard test for a school im most likely not going to. </p>

<p>dont know what to do...</p>

<p>That brings up a good question. What happens to scholarship money if the person doesn't go to the college it came from? Does it go to a runner-up?</p>

<p>"I got invited too. I live in Arizona though...long trip. They offered to pay for the airfare...but im not sure i want to miss school to take a hard test for a school im most likely not going to... dont know what to do..."</p>

<p>Certainly the only person to make that decision is you. I guess it sounds odd you're worrying about missing school b/c obviously you're a good student and at this point, your classroom stuff isn't going to impact that one way or another... I can't see why not making the trip if MSU's footing the airfare. You may qualify for ADS or some of the other lesser merit scholarship awards tied into the ADS exam. Plus, you'll get to experience a very good school and a pretty campus with students from around the world. It could be very educational for you on a number of fronts. You might find other reasons why to attend MSU other than just the potential free ride and, believe me, there are many other compelling reasons to do so.</p>

<p>Quincy, you forgot that christalena may possibly run into me, on campus! ;) </p>

<p>What's bettter than that?!</p>

<p>-- how could I have forgotten? lol</p>

<p>oooh, sounds inticing...</p>

<p>When you visit, they have a lot of activities for you aside from the exam. You'll have an opportunity to visit many different types of program, talk to faculty, get all your questions answered.</p>

<p>My son was invited to do this but had a conflict with state debate tournament. He'd been on MSU campus quite a lot anyway (including debate camp and tournaments). So they let him come in on his own and take the test. He was offered one of the full-ride scholarships but declined (too close to home. . . .). Any scholarships turned down are offered to the runners-up.</p>

<p>The son of a friend of mine (from Indiana) also was awarded a major merit scholarship last year. He is having a helluva good time (and working very hard) in Lyman Briggs School at MSU now.</p>

<p>"Any scholarships turned down are offered to the runners-up."</p>

<p>thats good. Cause if i did get it (not like that is a distinct possibility), i wouldnt want it to go to waste.</p>

<p>congrats to him though</p>

<p>I'm considering going. I don't want to pay the $65 or whatever though, because I doubt I will be going to MSU.</p>

<p>^??????????</p>

<p>For previous participants, are the questions Jeopardy-esque, as in random questions from categories? Also, is guessing penalized/calculators allowed? I'm sure I'll find out on exam day, but this would probably decrease stress ^_^</p>

<p>One cranky man's opinion.</p>

<p>I really dislike the whole ADS competition and it just highlights the ineptitude of MSU's entire admissions process.</p>

<p>The ADS is the most prestigious and lucrative scholarship program at MSU. So instead of judging a student on the entirety of their work in high school, they ask them to come to MSU, pay $65 and take a trivia exam to determine the winners. I suppose if you want to recruit future Jeopardy champions that’s a good idea, but if you want to recruit students who have demonstrated the full range of traits that correlate to academic success - passion, leadership, intellect, hard work, community service - then it's not very relevant.</p>

<p>Don't get me wrong, I actually like MSU - my wife is an alum. But I liked it much before DS went through the admissions process. If they want to recruit more high achieving students, they should start with a total revamp of the admissions recruitment process.</p>

<p>IMO, it's a contributing factor to the listing of MSU on CC under "Alphabetic List of Colleges" and not under "CC Top Universities".</p>

<p>^Points well taken, dad4son. I'll see if I can pass your sentiment on to MSU admissions people.</p>

<p>I am a previous winner, and I must say the test is difficult but not impossible. I did study quite a bit before taking it, and I ended up being very surprised about the random questions on there. There were some pretty obsure ones about weather that I didn't know.</p>