I was invited to apply to the National Hispanic Recognition Program hosted by College Board this spring after I had taken the PSAT 11. I was surprised, because I thought my score was quite disappointing.
Last week I received an email saying “Congratulations on being selected for the College Board National Hispanic Recognition Program”. It encouraged me to include this on my list of honors when applying to colleges.
Questions: Is it as prestigious as being a National Merit Scholarship Finalist? How selective is it (I couldn’t find any stats from this year)? Should I include it in my apps? What do colleges think when they see this honor? Any insight would be very helpful and appreciated. Thank you in advance!
It’s not as high a bar as some programs and adcoms know the qualifications needed. The impact on your admissions depends on the colleges. In itself, it likely won’t budge any needles at schools like H and S, where the competition is tough.
I’d say, enjoy it. You did earn it. You can decide later whether to include it.
With the many seniors not having an ACT or SAT test score… anything is a boost. My D21 added it to her JHU HOME application, while I’m not saying that’s why she was accepted, it did show something… sure couldn’t hurt.
Some colleges attach scholarship money to it. Examples include Arizona State University and University of Alabama. However, the number of colleges attaching scholarship money to it is smaller than the number of colleges attaching scholarship money to National Merit Finalist.
For the UC’s it is a nice honor but nothing more. No special scholarships for this recognition. The UC’s also no longer give any scholarships for National Merit Finalists.