Way back in the 90s, I was a Presidential Scholar semi-finalist. There was no money associated with it (too bad!) but because of the distinction, I was invited to the “Weekend of the Golden Plate Award.“ I really don’t know how to describe that experience. As far as I can tell/remember, some entity gave out Golden Plate Awards to famous people who had been nominated by other famous people for excellence in their discipline. The year I went Elie Wiesel and Picabo Street got awards, along with a bunch of other people. In addition to the famous people who got the awards, other famous people were there to cheer for them. But that wasn’t enough! They also needed to have a throng of high school students to be wowed by the proximity to notoriety, and to cheer for and make the famous people feel important.
The weekend was actually quite impressive. They flew us all to Sun Valley, Idaho, where we stayed in fancy lodges, ate fancy food, and rubbed shoulders with famous people. I gave Bruce Willis directions, I ate barbecue with Sam Donaldson, Larry King blocked my path with a throng of starry eyed young men asking him questions about his life. I had an actual conversation with Scott Hamilton while we were waiting in line for something. He was friendly & generous with describing his life experiences and inquisitive about my life.
Anyway, besides letting me tell a fun story that I don’t have many opportunities to tell, the point is sometimes even if there is no financial or admission boost, an award can lead to other fun opportunities.
Haha, he was humble to the point of making me feel bad about myself when I met him! He was basically like, “why are you even wasting your time talking to me? Please leave and go do something useful with your life…”
For anyone wondering on the Presidential Scholars, here is the info and there is a link to all of the nominees. (I’m out of the country so I had to check to see if my DS23 was on the list. He is. Do I tell him I know, or wait to see if he tells me??)
D25 loves to talk colleges and plan out her future. Always interesting to see how different siblings are as age wants the opposite of her brothers.
She will be TO and around 3.0 gpa. Looking for criminology or forensics (she likes both chemistry and social/psych). Must have either a dance minor or a dance team. Prefers smaller schools with support in suburban area. She is Latina and is hoping to have more diversity than she does now (which shouldnt be hard as her school is like 90 plus percent white). Fachex or Tuition Exchange a huge bonus.
It is crazy how siblings can be different. I know my girls are different, but man I was not ready for it in terms of the college app process. D19 was totally type A regarding the whole thing. Ran with the whole process and us parents did very little. D23 was not that way and we were blind-sided by it. All of a sudden we were worrying about details and deadlines.
Both are great kids, but process and attitude has been different. Ironically D23 could end up where D19 is going now.
Might want to take a look at Cedar Crest College for your D25. Strong forensics program, criminal justice, psychology and dance. Small school in Allentown, PA. All women’s on the undergrad level, coed grad school. A stone’s throw from Muhlenberg. Lots of academic support, great school for a B student. https://cedarcrest.edu/
These are Schools that seemed to have good numbers/percentages of forensics or criminology majors. All are tuition exchange schools, unless otherwise noted.
Arcadia (PA )
California Lutheran
College of St. Rose (NY)
Framingham State (MA) – no TE
Lycoming (PA )
Mercyhurst (PA )
Saint Ambrose (IA)
Saint Anselm (NH) – no TE
Saint Vincent (PA )
Seton Hill (PA )
Stonehill (MA)
U. of Lynchburg (VA)
U. of New Haven (CT)
York (PA )
I didn’t check all of their demographics, but the ones I looked at were more racially diverse. You’d need to double-check on the dance stuff.
@2plustrio - If your D25 is more open to urban schools she should be able to find some more schools that fit the bill for diversity. In NYC you have John Jay college of criminal justice thats part of the CUNY system. At a minimum she should look through their list of majors to see if there is any specialty areas she is interested in. The other is St John’s NY, they are located out in Queens and have well regarded program with ties with the major agencies around NYC
My D23 submitted an app to SUNY ESF about a week ago. It’s one of the SUNY’s that would offer our state flagship cost with the new program.
The problem is that I anticipate a change in major at some point and there’s not a lot of variety at SUNY ESF (Environmental Sciences & Forestry), obviously.
She would be able to use a lot of the resources at Syracuse and take a few courses there, which sounds good at first, but if she decided to change her major and transfer to Syracuse to pursue a completely different interest, we would have a problem because it would be way out of budget.
I don’t think schools do the nominating. It sounds like it’s done at the state level by someone and focused on the highest test scores. Technically only the top 20 M/20 F, but if not enough perfect scores, then they have to go down a notch. And everyone at that level gets pulled in. Our state went down to at least 1590.
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.
