And H & WS has a very picturesque campus right at the end of one of the Finger Lakes. If you’re a parent that loves visiting wineries, it would be a great place to have your kid attend. My recollection is that our western NY HS seems to send its top lacrosse players there most years.
1 Like
Congrats! there’s a lot of work involved in applying through the process. More essays! It’s very competitive and if he wins in May def a prestigious award. My Dd friends - I hope they do the work to apply but for them the invitation to tour DC is not that exciting since we live right 30 mins from there and they won’t find out until April if they are selected for semis and then May if they are finalists but since decisions are already made for schools before then, a couple of her close friends aren’t as motivated- but tried to convince them that could help move waitlist decisions if they win. And a lifetime of networking if won so worth applying if nominated.
4 Likes
Skitcher wins the award for the most original college tour bingo card item I’ve ever seen! I’ve heard blue lights, climbing walls, even “we’re proud of our cheese club” (looking at you, Brandeis!). But it’s definitely “top milkshakes” for the win!
I am convinced that these cheese clubs do not exist. All of the admissions officers got together at a conference once, made it up, and decided to insert it into every single college tour. I think every school we visited mentioned it.
3 Likes
Thank you!! That’s the part I am dreading,more essays. It’s a long shot with so many talented kids. But it’s definitely an honor to be nominated by the school. Thanks to your post, my day has started well, thank you!
The cheese club at Princeton had dwindling membership so they transformed into the Cheese and Bad Movie club where they eat cheese and watch a bad movie. They screen the movies in Einstein’s old lecture room. My D17 attended once but never joined.
5 Likes
There is also a part with the student’s favorite teacher. Can’t remember if you need another rec but if you go to DC I believe the teacher is also invited.
The timing does take away from the motivation and in 2017 my D didn’t really want to visit the President at that time.
2 Likes
Congrats on your daughter getting it. My DS21 was also nominated but didn’t proceed further, so am not holding any hope here. If they can take a teacher along and my son gets it, I know who’s going with him. 
It would make sense if this is done in the junior year, might help college admissions . The timing is not helpful at all.
Oh well, it did give a kick to see his name in the document and perked me up on a rainy Thursday morning
1 Like
I think it’s hard to do it junior year because the initial academics nomination is based on high SAT scores so they prob want to give more juniors time to take it during junior and early part of senior year. So if it’s based on SAT scores for academic for actual initial nomination they prob have to gauge when most have taken it by as seniors. Maybe cut off is like Nov of senior year SAT tests, who know what is the deadline for determining the high SATs.
For the arts portion- nomination is by Young Arts.
Regardless it’s still an honor (some
May debate since we are in an TO climate) and not everything has to be about admissions. But something to be proud of.
1 Like
so, is it solely based on SAT scores? I thought some counselor rec is also involved for the initial nomination. But it makes sense, some schools have 23 kids nominated while our school has 4.
It is also based on state, like NMF. So D17 was nominated in a lower population/lower SAT taking state. (We had to drive 2.5 hours on 2 lane highways to even get to the closest SAT site. Sorry- each way) S23 is not nominated in a high NMF cut-off state with more students who are High SES with particular academic foci, take tests multiple times, do test prep etc.
Their SAT/ACT scores were basically the same. Actually, S23 has a higher ACT. Didn’t prep beyond two practice exams and took it once in school. But S23 had no chance at all to be in the finalists. (And D17 didn’t make the final cut.) Her father was a winner back in the day and loved it, but DC was exciting. He grew up in a town of 1000 in the countryside.
3 Likes
I think the counselor rec is part of the application process but can’t recall- you can look at the presidential scholar website but my DD friends who got nominated last year and this year told her initial nom was based on high SAT scores.
1 Like
dc is fun- since we live so close, people don’t appreciate it as much or realize people pay thousands to visit Dc.
fyi
My D23 got this email yesterday.
"On behalf of the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars and the United States Department of Education, we are pleased to inform you that you have been named as a candidate in the 2023 United States Presidential Scholars Program. Congratulations!. Your candidacy is based on either your outstanding performance on the ACT Assessment or the College Board SAT, or nomination by your Chief State School Officer or one of our partner recognition organizations. Of the nearly 3.6 million high school seniors graduating this year, you are one of approximately 5,000 students to receive this invitation. "
they estimate 16 hours to complete app. She was her HS nominee (Nov '22).
7 Likes
Yes, Presidential is based on top scoring 20 males and 20 females in each state, plus have to include all the ties. Some states have a 1590 or 36 cutoff, other(low population , low scoring) states have mid-1500s. I suppose some probably have a 1600 cutoff. I agree it does sound rather intensive to apply!
Becoming a US Presidential Scholar is quite difficult
Nominee (not sure how many)
Candidate (5000)
Semifinalists (650)
Scholars (161)
All stages require an application. Nominee stage application was not that time consuming.
1 Like
And what is the benefit? Is there a separate scholarship?
2 Likes
Right, it seems a bit late to help with admissions, although if you were deferred and have this nomination to add to your file, that would be nice!
3 Likes
Presidential Scholars: My D17 was invited to apply for the Presidential Scholars program, but by then she was so wiped out from senior year and the winter darkness up here that it just didn’t seem worth it (even though DC is arguably her favorite city to just hang out in in the entire world).
Last-minute touring: Since the University of North Texas is the only one of D23’s three most likely colleges that she hasn’t toured (fun fact: we actually drove past Denton two summers ago, but figured it was unlikely enough she would even apply there that we didn’t take a break to do a tour; insert line about hindsight here), we’ve scheduled flights for me to take her down to Texas during spring break for a tour. (It’s also UNT’s spring break, so not the greatest time to check out a campus, but when you live this far from anything you do the tours when you can rather than when you want.) We did a similar thing with D19 during her senior spring break, which resulted in her realizing that she did not want to go where we toured; we’ll see whether UNT and their media arts program makes a better impression.
7 Likes
Benefit- nice prestige if win. Apparently networking is good too.
The nomination unfortunately doesn’t help with getting into schools - my DD two friends got nominated last year but didn’t get into any top 20 schools but still got into some nice schools- we live in a high stats/ very strong students. Even criteria for NmF is high compared to other states - 221 is cutoff.
1 Like