-National Hispanic Recognition (psat)
-Participated in Robotics, Soccer, Yearbook, Volunteer clubs, Community College Honor Society, and NHS.
Subjective
Essays: I don’t recall the prompt, but I consider myself a capable writer (5 in AP Lang and Comp). I also listened to one of the webinars and heard what some of the past winners wrote about, so I used that info to make my essay seem relevant.
Teacher Recs: I trust the teachers to speak well and accurately about me. I asked the 2 teachers that I felt knew me best.
Other Rec: I did a research internship at UTRGV, so I asked the professor I worked under for a recommendation. He seemed happy to oblidge.
Hook (if any): I am hispanic (minority), though not necessarily poor.
State or Country: Texas, United States of America.
High School Type, Relative Competitiveness (1-5): 4
Volunteer Hours (approx): 400 (probably more…it was too much to count)
Other stats:
Leadership Activities:
Research Internship with Nationwide Children’s Hospital, National Honors Society Secretary, Varsity Robotics, Senior Student Council Electee, Church Choir Teacher, “VIP” Library Volunteer, School Ambassador, Church Youth Group Secretary
Other Activities:
Tennis, Leo Club, Girl Up, Student Council, Church Soccer Team, Nursing Home Volunteer
Honors:
AP Scholar Award Recipient, 3rd Place in School Science Fair, National Honors Society Inductee, Jack Kent Cooke Semifinalist (YAY!!)
Subjective
Essays: I did the best I could with the essays, but I know I could’ve written better. The word count limit really restricted what I could write.
Teacher Recs: I picked two teachers that knew me really well, hopefully my recommendations were good because I never got the chance to read them.
Other Rec: My guidance counselor submitted my recommendation within one day of asking her to, so hopefully her was good but she doesn’t know me really well.
Hook (if any): African American, First Generation
State or Country: USA
High School Type, Relative Competitiveness (1-5): I have no idea
AP Tests: N/A (I attend a small school were none are offered.)
GPA: 4.0 Unweighted, 4.23 Weighted
Rank: 1/40
Volunteer Hours (approx): 1,000+
Other stats: I am valedictorian, student council president (for the past two years, NHS treasurer, active in FCCLA and HOSA, and tennis team captain.
Subjective
Essays: Very Good to Excellent: I put a lot of time into these and had multiple people review them.
Teacher Recs: I attend a small school, so my teachers no me really well. I’ve been described as “the best student” that my teacher has “ever taught in his career as an educator.” One in particular, from a former MIT/Cornell/Columbia professor calls me “world-class.” These are a great strength to my application.
Other Rec: My other recommendations are similar. One comes from a former scout leader of mine. It describes how I designed and built a monument for a local army battalion.
Hook (if any): I am active in politics. I have meet with my congressional representative multiple times, including in her office in Washington.
State or Country: Arizona, United States
High School: 2 (Above Average, Nothing Special)
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Sex at Birth: Male
Other Factors: With two other siblings in college, I arguably have high financial need.
Last year [2016] notifications were released on April 18th [3rd Monday of the month]. We’re coming up on the 3rd Monday of the month tomorrow, so that would be my best guess. Having Easter in April this year (as opposed to March last year) might throw this off a bit.
Also, it’s worth noting from the last year’s thread that a document was posted on the website with the names of the scholars (much like how they posted a document with the names of the semi-finalists this year).