My D21 was nominated for the Posse Scholarship and received invitation to her first round interview. She knows that there will be 3 rounds of interviews. First round will have both large and small group activities. I think this year’s process may be a little different especially considering that the first round is entirely virtual. Any thoughts about the process this year or please share your experience from previous years. TIA
The DAP 1 interview this year is very different from that of previous years. The “traditional” DAP 1 group interview consisted of about 100 nominees doing activities as smaller groups, while being observed by Posse staff and volunteers, and then they wrote an essay.
This year they cannot have the traditional larger group activities, since nominees cannot only interact with a few of a large group on something like a Zoom meeting (the interviews will be on a Zoom-like platform, and can also be done on Zoom). So there will be more focus on the smaller group activities, and these will be done online.
DAP 2 will also be different - I understand that it may have more of a group component than it had in previous years.
The new methodology has been developed by veteran Posse staff and by Deborah Bial, who founded Posse, and who developed the interview methodology for the “traditional” Posse DAP interview process.
My main advice to Posse nominees is to remember why they were nominated, and to allow the same character traits, because of which they were nominated, to shine through. Most importantly, since the point is to attend college as part of a 10 person posse, they should try and be the sort of person who they would love to be with in such a group. They should be themselves, but try to be the best version of themselves (a great idea overall for life).
One of the most difficult parts of the DAP process is that one cannot end up as a Scholar by competing with other nominees. You cannot do it by “proving” that you are a “better choice” than others.
Good luck to your kid.
Which Posse city?
Thank you @MWolf . That is really helpful. Do you know how many kids are usually selected for DAP2? Also, is there an essay component in DAP1?
Posse City: Houston.
Dap one will be done on zoom and groups will probably be set up into breakout rooms where they will be observed.
there is no essay component in DAP one.
You should hear in about a week to 10 days if student has made it to the DAP 2 process, which takes place late august through early september
Thank you @sybbie719 . My D21 has a very amicable demeanor and can be a consensus builder when she is in a group. So, hopefully she will have fun and if she gets the scholarship, that will be wonderful!
There is a writing component in DAP 1 - we may have different definitions of essay. I am not sure how it will differ now that the interview is online, but it will still be there.
I am not sure how many applicants advance from DAP 1 to DAP 2, but after DAP 2, about 25 finalists are paired with each partner college. While Posse will try and make sure that students are paired with one of their 3 choices, their primary selection criteria are fit (my kid was paired with her 2nd choice, which was indeed a better fit than her first choice).
The students then decide whether they are willing to apply ED1 to the college with which they are paired (some don’t).
In DAP 3 interviews 10 (sometimes 11) finalists are chosen as Posse Scholars. Finalists who are not chosen are added to the Posse Access list, which increases their chances to be accepted RD to Posse college partners.
@MWolf , One of the technology requirements in the interview notification states “Ability to participate in an online writing exercise (Keyboard)”. So, I think there is a writing component. Do you remember what the essay/writing component was about? TIA
As far as I understand, the writing component changes, and differs between Posse cities.
Ultimately, though, the most important thing is, as I wrote - she should be her best self. The worst case scenario is that your daughter will spend some time interacting with some other great kids.
My daughter participated in a Zoom like DAP1 this week. It did have a writing component/essay. She said they did break out into smaller groups and that there was a DAP1 chat where they could interact with the 90-100 other DAP1 participants. She was nervous at first (did not know what to expect) but she actually thought it was a good interview exercise after having some microphone issues at first. I think Posse did a good job from what I can see working to make DAP1 online accessible and engaging/interacting.
My D21 had her DAP1 last week. There was an essay component as well. She said that it was a really fun experience.
@liveonboca good luck to your daughter.
@Momof0ne Thank you, and also to your daughter. My S18 is a Posse Scholar at Dickinson, just started his junior year. The scholarship is wonderful and we hope that D21 can also find herself at a Posse school next fall.
Thank you @liveonboca .
My daughter is interested in STEM field, should she only choose the colleges/universities that are designated as STEM partners or can she choose a college that is not designated as a STEM partner?
Also, @liveonboca , could you please share some of your S18’s experience in the posse? The pre-college training and the guidance/mentoring he has been receiving at the college? TIA.
@Momof0ne If your daughter is selected as a Posse Scholar, she can major in anything that she wants to, so long as the college has that major. There are some Posses which are designated STEM Posses, and they get some extra STEM preparation during the pre-collegiate training program.
@liveonboca I remember you from the Posse thread that was started in 2017 (I stopped by in fall 2018 for advice). Good luck on your Scholar’s junior year!
My daughter heard yesterday that she is moving to DAP2. She is continuing to stay connected to her DAP1 group via a chat group. She is researching the schools, working on her common app, and trying to stay engaged in 6 online classes in her HS senior year.
@Momof0ne my son had only good things to say about the pre-college training. We were very fortunate that we live only 6 miles from downtown LA and the Posse office because he met weekly and you could not miss any classes/PTC? (he was allowed to miss ONE PTC for tennis championship/playoffs) and he could Uber back and forth on his own gaining some independence and responsibility.
Did it help, well, he had a rough first semester at college, but he met very regularly with his mentors at the college a lot in the beginning and his advisors and teachers really reached out to get him some support if they saw some disconnect or his grades started going south. He learned to ask for help, take advantage of tutoring and office hours. There was some turnover of mentors in the first year, but I think it has balanced out, though his mentor from FR, SO years retired, so a new mentor now for JR year. I think he has benefited from having the Posse cohort and the mentoring.
The school/professors/advisors/mentors has been wonderful, IMO, very personalized. They email him, giving him rah rahs/kudos after each semester’s grades and if he had some struggles that grading period - really mid grading period to avoid bad final grades - if the professors saw issues - they immediately reached out to try and get him some help/talk/support. They want the kids to succeed and finish. As do I!
Overall, the Posse experience, from my view has been beneficial to his growth personally and academically.
@liveonboca ,Thank you! That really helps!
Did your daughter fill up the Semifinalist application before they called? Did her nominee portal change before or after they called?thanks!
@liveonboca , congratulations to your daughter and good luck on DAP2.
Congratulations to your D, @liveonboca!.
My D19 also really felt that she benefited from the pre-college training. We were only a train ride away from the Chicago Posse office, and it was a 10 minute walk from her high school to the train.
Another benefit of Posse is that students not only have their own Posse and their Posse mentor for support, but also have the other years, and, when there are more than one Posse, the Posses from other cities are supportive as well. My kid’s college has three Posses, so as a first year, she had 90 older Posse Scholars as well as her 9 and the 20 from other Posses.
My daughter’s nominee portal now has the second round interview date and time. She RSVP’d yes. She completed her Semifinalist application last Thursday after researching her top three schools. She interviewed with one of the schools a couple of months ago (in June) another one is a state school to which she will be an auto admit.
When filling the semifinalist application, she had so many reasons why she wanted to attend those institutions its was hard to pare it down to 255 characters 
. Now she just has to upload the documents that they are requesting.
Fortunately, her high school classes, will start not start until the 8th of September and we chose to be virtual for the first 9 weeks. This week she decided to complete most of her essays and submit applications to a couple of non-posse schools.
@MWolf , thank you!
Congrats to your D21 @Momof0ne. The portal changed first and then she got the email days later.
Also, amazing that your D21 is also completing/completed her essays and other applications. Envious. I did see my daughter logged into the UC and Common App so far. That is a great accomplishment, and before school starts! Yes!
My D21 DAP2/next interview is Sep 7 or 9th (I forget). She is still working on her 5? schools and I guess her semifinalist application. I was so hands off with my son’s process. Really, I had no idea he was even doing Posse. I remember him asking me about schools and locations, not believing that he was even in real contention for the scholarship. He did everything himself without any real input from me until he called me and said he had like a couple of hours to say yes to Dickinson and DAP3 and then the family meeting. I am so embarrassed now to say it, but it is true and I am proud of him and his counselor for working it all out.
D21 told me that she asked her guidance counselor about obtaining a transcript from her HS and she needs to send a transcript request form to the community college where she has taken some classes over the past 3 years. Hope they come in time. Gulp.
Also, thank you @MWolf - it’s getting real.