The one thing that I regret not having learned about in time was the Young Arts pathway to the US Presidential Scholars Program for my kid who’s a talented musician and high-achieving student. Too late, I found out about this program. Kid already had all the recordings for his instrument done for other programs and auditions, so it would have been a very easy application to compile. He had the grades and the ACT score, plus the recommendations. I don’t know if he would have made it, but if he had, it would have been a very impressive award to add to his resume, probably not in time for college, but there for grad school applications.
Musicians and Artists, don’t forget that there are specifically reserved slots for you in the Presidential Scholars program. If you’re tops in your field (national level) for your year in high school, and a great student academically, too, consider applying for this incredible honor.
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I am not sure how much effect this would have on grad school admissions honestly. Apparently Young Arts can be a great experience but stressful on top of everything else these kids have to do!
Young Arts, no. But the title Presidential Scholar, yes. That is such a prestigious award that it could go on one’s CV even through grad school.
For grad school it is still about the audition/portfolio, at least in music.
I wasn’t thinking about young artists who are going on for professional school in performance arts. I was thinking about students who wind up going into non-performance fields - government, law, academia, medicine, just about anything. There are only what, 160 or so a year? It’s like the MacArthur genius award of high school honors. Certainly, it would be a relevant honor to put on an application for anything other than performance arts. And young people who are in performing arts may not know that they would be eligible - we certainly did not, and missed that opportunity to apply.