<p>DD received a notice today that she is a Presidential Scholar Candidate. </p>
<p>It is not something we knew about or applied for, it just showed up.</p>
<p>Is this worth emailing an update to the schools where she has applications outstanding? I am sure it is not a huge deal, but it does seem like a plus.</p>
<p>Thoughts, please?</p>
<p>Much2learn</p>
<p>Same thing for our son. I checked into it a bit and it seems that it may be even a bigger honor than being a National Merit Finalist. Only 3,000 seniors are Presidential Scholar Candidates whereas 15,000 are National Merit Finalists. If our son had not already been accepted at his 1st choice college, I’d probably encourage him to send info on this as supplement to his college applications. Good luck with it!</p>
<p>Hi there! </p>
<p>I got this in the mail today too 
I think it’s worth sending out to colleges as an update if you have other things to add along with it (more awards, new leadership positions, etc). I believe everyone who gets a 1600 CR+M in one sitting will automatically qualify, so colleges can pretty much tell whether you’ll be a candidate or not based on your test scores, but it’s still definitely a cool honor!</p>
<p>Good luck, and congrats to your kids!</p>
<p>Hmmmm, good idea. I thought someone said it’s the top 20 of ea gender from ea state. But I didn’t read the paperwork. </p>
<p>Tall blondes, I looked at the 2014 candidates PDF. There are way more than 40 students from each state (for some), others there are less. The actual awardees (referrencing the 2013 recipients) are between 2-12 students, most states have 2. </p>
<p>Kitten23, from the fact sheet “approximately twinty females and twnty males are selected as candidates from each state… In additon, each CSSO may nominate three male and three femail cnadidates…” And then there are YoungArts candidates (60 of them). But as you said, it’s not exact by any means. Well, glad to be on the list anyway :)</p>
<p>The difference in numbers is between being a PS Candidate and an actual Scholar. As far as being a Candidate, I don’t think it makes much difference if you update colleges or not, as the most important thing to them is your high score. It’s a little like AP Scholar, NM, etc., where they colleges can see by your score that you will qualify.</p>
<p>Congrats!</p>
<p>Congratulations to all 2014 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program candidates. You should see your/your kid’s name on this list:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www2.ed.gov/programs/psp/2014/candidates.pdf”>http://www2.ed.gov/programs/psp/2014/candidates.pdf</a></p>
<p>With all due respect, there are 15k NMF and only 3k on this list. 1.2 % are NMF, 0.2% chance to be a PS Candidate & 0.01% chance of actually being a Scholar. I’d say there is a statistical difference in all 3, but we are still talking about some pretty smart kids here no matter what the list. </p>
<p>^Please reread my post, I’m not referring to the selectivity of the honor, but the fact that colleges can tell by the score/# of APs that you will/will likely qualify and so it will not be like updating with a brand new award unrelated to testing scores. D1 was a PS Candidate, my comment has nothing to do with the quality of the honor, but rather the basis on which it is bestowed. Note: this is only true at the Candidate level, Scholars go through another level of evaluation.</p>
<p>Note also PS selection occurs well after admissions are made. Being a candidate may help, being selected won’t by definition</p>
<p>Oh, I think I read your first post wrong entomom… was thinking you meant that if you are NMF than you most likely would be PS (omg, the acronymns). Anyway, got your intent now. Thanks for claryfying. And yes Erin’s Dad, by definition won’t help now but may help in later endeavors. But oh my, one more application… I thought for sure my D would say never mind bc the award was not financial, but she is all for it. </p>
<p>It would be a fun experience, congrats and best of luck to her in becoming a Scholar!</p>
<p>MiddKid86: the link you sent was not to the correct list for USC. My D received a letter of acceptance with invitation to interview for Presidential Sch, and her name is not on this list. Your link is to the US Dept of Education, some financial aid program funded by Congress (??)</p>
<p>@mama111, I think you have gotten your D’s award confused with this one… MiddKid86 is not referring to the USC award, this is a completely different program. The Presidential Scholar program is a federal program to honor high-achieving students. Many colleges have a “Presidential Scholarship” but this is unrelated to those.</p>
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<p>The link I posted opens a PDF document titled “Candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program,” which is what this thread is about. It has nothing to do with USC.</p>
<p>ooo, sorry, my mistake!</p>
<p>Sending an update about this to colleges might be redundant… Presidential Scholar Candidates are chosen based on ACT/SAT scores and you would have already indicted those scores on your applications. </p>
<p>Lots of confusion on the U.S. Presidential Scholar. My understanding is that you get nominated if your SAT or ACT score is perfect. Some 3,000 seniors are nominated every year but only 1 male and 1 female are chosen from each state and territory, plus 14 at large. So it’s a huge honor to even be nominated but very difficult to get, especially if your senior is from CA or TX. </p>
<p>Just to clarify, a perfect score is not needed to be asked to apply to the program. The 20 males and 20 females are chosen from each state, but in the event of a tie (where the top 30 students from one state have a 2400, for example), more than 20 are named as Candidates. Like C8ntW8t said, the difficulty of being nominated depends on where you live–as a military kid stationed abroad, I received the letter asking me to apply, but I only got a 2250 on the SAT. </p>