<p>I know there have been a few threads about this topic, but I am still confused about the scholarship. I was named a Presidential Honors Scholar and I think it caused me to receive $20,000. </p>
<p>In order to stay in the program (obviously want to do because of the money) I must join a Freshman Honors Seminar. What is the difference between a Freshman Honors Seminar and a Collegiate Seminar? What are the guidelines of the study abroad, which I must do and community service and the other things part of this program. Benefits? Negatives? Etc etc, anything about this will be helpful.</p>
<p>I only ever took a FHS, I think the main difference is that the professor you take your Collegiate Seminar with has the opportunity to become a kind of “academic mentor” to you for the remainder of your college career. I can’t attest to the quality of the seminars but can say that everyone I know who took one enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed my FHS a ton too. </p>
<p>Freshman year, the Presidential Honors is split into sections, each of which is led by one faculty member and one member of the advising staff. You’ll meet roughly once every two weeks to discuss various things: at first it’s very much concerned with the program itself and the expectations upon you to perform well academically. Then you’ll begin to talk about research opportunities and in your Freshman year you’ll probably have to come up with a draft research proposal, there’s a small competition of sorts where you present your proposal within your section and if it’s judged to be one of the best then you present to the whole program. If it sounds too overwhelming, don’t be worried: you get out of the program what you put into it. The amount of extra work required for the meetings is not enormous and will be manageable. </p>
<p>The study abroad doesn’t factor much into your freshman year but under the Presidential Honors guidelines you will have to study abroad for at least one semester of your time at NYU. Again, something to be taken as a blessing. In the Freshman Presidential Honors program you’ll travel to Florence together for a week over Winter Break which is honestly fantastic. A beautiful city and NYU treat you exceptionally well. Definitely one of the greatest perks of being in the program. </p>
<p>The community service requirement is something they stress pretty keenly: at the end of each semester with the program you’ll have to write a one page summary of what you did over the semester for service. There are so many opportunities to take part in community service activities both with NYU and throughout the city that you shouldn’t find this too hard. You also have to attend 3 lectures per semester outside of class time (either one of the many lectures provided by the Presidential Honors Program or a lecture of a similar stature) and write a report on each one. Again: not too hard and though they vary in quality, some of them are really great. </p>
<p>The negatives I can think of are that occasionally the meetings will conflict with busy periods of school work but they’re generally understanding on this matter. Particularly when it comes to midterm/finals periods, the meetings are usually short and they’ll cut you some slack if you don’t show up and have a reasonable excuse. It also depends somewhat on which section you’re placed in - some people do find their Presidential Honors faculty adjunct a little tedious at times. Mine was great though.</p>
<p>Sorry if there are any repeats here. Here is what I posted a while about scholars. </p>
<p>"the situation with scholars is that there is an additional class that meets once every other week (it doesn’t interfere with credits or gpa since it is pass/fail). the workload depends a lot on the professor (some give essentially no work, others more). for freshmen there is a trip to florence during winter break at a VERY good price (it’s something like $600 for all expenses paid). additionally scholars looks very good because it requires your gpa to be higher than 3.65.</p>
<p>pros:
-winter break trip to florence (it is a lot of going to museums and getting drunk on wine)
-get close to a professor (as a premed there is not a lot of student-prof contact so this is one way to easily have a professor that knows you personally for research opportunities and other connections)
-meet other students
-looks good on paper</p>
<p>cons:
-it is some work (at the least, you have to write research abstracts and go to 3 lectures a semester)
-i think there may have been some community service requirement but it was never mentioned in mine
-it’s annoying to have another class
-pressure to keep your gpa up</p>
<p>additionally if you maintain the gpa and continue scholars you have to do the honors track in your major. you’re encouraged to do research which can be good if you were planning on it anyways (scholars provides a lot of research and professor connections as well as additional help with grant proposals and other apps). sophomore scholars is better too because you get to choose where you want to go on your trip (which is during spring break) and you can also choose according to your interests (meaning if you’re a premed an opportunity to get close to a science prof)."</p>
<p>I dropped to a 3.62 one semester and freaked because I thought I’d lose my scholarship and get kicked out of the program. I decided to be proactive and went to meet with my advisor to tell him about it. He took a look at my transcript and shrugged - I wasn’t that far under, and as long as I came back up the next semester, no one cared.</p>
<p>What I took away from all this was that a small slip, maybe even down to just about 3.5, was just fine, but you needed in the long run to be 3.65 or above.</p>
<p>Sounds good. I am doing pre-med so keeping a high GPA is necessary. I was just worried that it would be 3.65 or higher, or automatically getting kicked out. That’s a sigh of relief that there is a small place for error.</p>
<p>D: You get money for being a Presidential Honors Scholar? I was one (they sent me the letter after I got admitted for Fall 2010) but I had to reject NYU because they didn’t give me any money with it and because of that I couldn’t afford it. I really wanted to join the program and go to NYU! Sigh.</p>
<p>Maybe it has something to do with me being an international student. May I ask the OP if NYU specifically stated that that $20,000 was due to the Presidential Honors Scholar offer or if it was just generic financial aid?</p>
<p>God I hope they do…
NYU isn’t even like my dream school…Its like my heaven school. lol.
If I got in and got a scholarship…
I’d probably brown myself. lol.</p>
<p>note: the program is NOT linked to the scholarship.</p>
<p>i got a pretty heavy scholarship, but i wasn’t interested in the presidential honors scholar program, so i opted out. still get to keep all the money though.</p>
<p>so if you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to. i wanted to spend breaks home with family&friends, not going abroad. i had a few other reasons for not wanting to do it, too.</p>
<p>After being accepted to NYU my daughter was offered a place in the Presidential Honors Program, but was not offered a dime of money. We called to ask if there was any money associated with this program and was told NO. She is going to NYU, but did not accept a place in the program, since she also prefers to spend breaks with family and friends instead of going abroad. Of course if there had been $20,000 attached to the offer, she would have accepted it. Now, instead of doing community service she’ll spend any extra time she has during the school year at a part time job to help pay for tuition.</p>