<p>Ouch that does suck. My school doesn’t rank either. My GPA is like a 4.4-4.6 but that might not even be top 5%.</p>
<p>My stats are solid but my essays are meh. I just don’t know how to sell myself well, I guess. Did y’all do the elevator pitch?</p>
<p>Besides my GPA I thought the rest of my application was very strong, although my course rigor may be slightly below average (but that is due to my school’s less than stellar scheduling system, and school-wise I have one of the most rigorous course loads). I’m relying on those other parts to keep me a competitive applicant.</p>
<p>@PorcupineCup I didn’t do an elevator pitch. Simply had no time for it.</p>
<p>For my essays, I just related most of everything back to math, engineering, and technology.</p>
<p>For my most valued extracurricular, I wrote about athletics. I’m not sure if that was the best idea, though.</p>
<p>I wrote about debate for my most valued extracurricular… I felt the need to balance my app to prevent myself from looking like an asocial science shut-in haha</p>
<p>Yep. I’m in Boy Scouts and in student government so I feel that’s enough for it to balance out.</p>
<p>Oh I just remembered there was a link on the application sheet that led to a website where you filled out personal information. Did you guys do that? My school never told me to so I just left it, assuming it was for homeschooled kids or something.</p>
<p>How many rounds are there for the nominations? All I know is the first round(when you first find out about the program) is about like 10 people, right? and what are the other rounds?
There’s a lot of REALLY, REALLY top students in my school and my grades are not good, but hopefully I can get in with my extra curricular stuff.</p>
<p>@minniemice the deadline for this program has already passed. Sorry.</p>
<p>What’s the elevator pitch? I’m confused… My school doesn’t rank but on my application, my principal ranked me -_-. I’m in the top 20% which is pretty good considering that I didn’t take any AP’s last year due to me being a first generation student. For my extracurricular activity, I talked about tutoring children which is different, I hope.</p>
<p>@ryan96 I did it. My school said it was required and needed to be printed and attached to the application…</p>
<p>@minniemice18 There are only two rounds. School nomination and then admittance. The first round depends on your school. For me it was like 8 (lowest GPA out of the bunch btw, but best EC’s/awards. Still nominated though, so goes to show good enough EC’s can balance out a slightly below average GPA). What worries me about your post though is that the postmark date for school nominees was Friday, so you should’ve known whether or not you got nominated. Maybe your school will just publicly announce it Monday.</p>
<p>Hey Blackdog, my school did the same. I had the lowest scores, but I had better EC’s and more passion for the subject.</p>
<p>@Hawkace Very few schools actually encourage/allow AP’s before junior year so I’d assume that won’t hurt you. I didn’t take any last year and am taking 3 this year so I’d assume I’m an average candidate. Your EC sounds good. It’d be best however if you also had engineering/technology related EC’s somewhere.</p>
<p>@blackdog1605
8 nominees? That’s a ton. My school only had one for each.</p>
<p>My guidance counselor told me I’m all set, and the application checklist said nothing about the online thing. Hopefully it wasn’t necessary.</p>
<p>@minniemice18
If you haven’t been nominated yet, it’s unfortunately too late. Your school has probably chosen already but maybe didn’t announce the nominees to those that weren’t chosen.</p>
<p>@Hawkace Yep. Passion gets you far (I apologize for this abruptness in posts, I should start refreshing the page to see if anything new popped up :P)</p>
<p>Our school didn’t even have rounds hahaha They just called the two people who got nominated into the office without ever talking about gov school.
My theory is that it was purely gpa based first, and then out of that the teachers had a lot of input on who was suited for each school. Apparently my math teacher pushed for me for engineering which was awfully nice of him to do. </p>
<p>@ryan96
You needed to do the online part and print the confirmation page to put on the application.</p>
<p>I’m also the founder of the engineering club at my school which will probably help me. The essay for helping children was the only essay about something other than engineering and I nailed it. It’s to show myself. </p>
<p>There was</p>
<p>So, uh, does anyone know anyone who went to this program? It would be cool to hear first-hand from an alum instead of some stuff written on the packet.</p>
<p>I believe that Ryan is close friends with an alum. We can ask any questions that we have to him.</p>
<p>@porcupinecup
Why wasn’t that on the checklist? Anyway, I should be fine. My guidance counselor has had a few kids attend the program before, so he knows what he’s doing.</p>
<p>I don’t think taking a ton of APs is all that necessary. I’ve only completed two before this year, but I’m taking 4 this year which I would guess is around average among applicants.</p>
<p>I don’t think that there was an online section to the application so I’ll be fine. I’m taking only 2 AP this year but 6-7 next year</p>