Anyone apply to this program? If so, have you heard anything? Thought they were going to hold interviews for finalists this month, but DS hasn’t heard one way or the other.
@pittsburghscribe Did your son ever hear back from the program? Was he selected for a phone interview? My daughter applied this year but has not heard anything. She emailed a couple of weeks ago asking for a timeline but no response yet.
He wasn’t selected for a phone interview, but did eventually hear back with a rejection. I can’t remember the timing because their initial e-mail had ended up in a junk folder so we didn’t find out until a bit later.
what leadership activities did your son do? do you know what they are looking for?
I don’t. He applied when he was a sophomore and so he didn’t have a whole lot at that point. He also only had one teacher send in a recommendation. In retrospect, probably it would have been better to have at least one more. My son also had travelled outside of the country before. Not sure if they would prefer to offer that opportunity to those who have never had that opportunity. I think his short answers were strong, but my guess is that on the other criteria not as much.
My daughter wrote 10 page essays in total and had 5 recommendations she is top 10% of her class and has over 300 hours of service done would you say she has a good chance?
@UVAwahoowha Seminfinalist emails were sent early this morning. My daughter made it and has a Skype interview next week. Hope your daughter also got good news!
My daughter made it too! Congrats to your daughter as well!
Good luck to both your daughters!
Looks like there are 28 semifinalists for 8 spots.
@pittsburghscribe Thanks! My daughter is not a particularly good interviewee (quiet, reserved) so she’s going to have to really step it up a notch to make it into the 30% that are ultimately selected.
@UVAwahoowha Happy for your daughter! We should provide updates after the interviews to help future applicants. There isn’t a lot of information about the process available and it might be good to share our daughters’ experiences whether they are chosen for the group or not.
@riverboat i absolutely agree! I find that this program is fairly low key as they would say and no one really knows about it which dosent really help prospective applicants that have potential.
Have any of the semifinalists heard yet? My DD thought the interviewers mentioned they would be notifying about final decisions the end of this week or early next week.
Hey riverboat, nothing yet! And I’m also pretty sure that they said end of this week, even mentioning Friday as the date. How’d your daughter’s interview go?
@DanShaynes7799 My daughter keeps checking her email every few minutes. 
It’s hard to tell how the interview went. It was her first interview and an important one at that. She said that while the interviewers were very nice and tried to make her comfortable, she’s worried that she stuttered and rambled too much. It’s not that they were difficult questions but she was just nervous. Later that night, she told me she wishes she could interview again after she had a chance to think of better answers! ha ha
@UVAwahoowha is also waiting for a decision so if anyone hears anything, please post!
@DanShaynes7799 @UVAwahoowha Daughter just got the email that she was not selected to go this summer. Disappointing but she was happy to make it to the semi-finalist stage.
Yeah I think my daughter was too young she just turned 15 while she was competing with 17 year olds she was declined too but she can always reapply