<p>My son was a Presidential Scholar last year, and it was an excellent experience. He was disappointed that he didn’t get to meet Obama (they met Biden instead), but overall it was definitely worthwhile. I think the deadline to apply is Feb. 25, so if any of you are on the fence about this, I would urge you to apply. (There are some cool events parents can attend, also.)</p>
<p>How long was everybody else’s long essay? I feel like mine is short at only 600 words.</p>
<p>Can you be selected with only junior year scores? If yes, wd that be in your senior year anyway? Thanks!</p>
<p>^^Yes. Son was a candidate based on scores from October of junior year.</p>
<p>Thanks WJB. Just to clarify, he was nominated in his senior year based on his junior year scores? Thanks.</p>
<p>True of my son too–nominated in senior year, based on junior year scores. I don’t think they superscore.</p>
<p>Great, thanks all. Will keep an eye out in the fall…</p>
<p>They do not superscore. The qualifying scores have to be earned at a single sitting.</p>
<p>I’m a candidate (Rhodes Hambrick, from KY). Just now finishing my application - this thing is a piece of work! Any last-minute advice of what I should or shouldn’t include?</p>
<p>^Split Infintity, I’m in the same boat. The application is grueling and has some different and new essays to work with. Does anybody else have a lot of trouble with those boxes that you have to put your EC activities into? I mean I know how to do it, but I find them annoying (on other apps as well as this one) because I feel they don’t represent my activities very well. You get like 30 characters. Even just being able to write 2 sentences about what it was, when you did it, any awards, etc. would be easier.
It’s also tough because it asks hours per week and beginning to end timeframe. So if I do something 20 hours a week between march and june, but only do it every other week, then that’s not represented, so I have to modify the hours to make it fit. But, alas, it is what it is, so I guess we can only do our best:) /rant.</p>
<p>Anyway, good luck everybody!</p>
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<p>Actually, the notifications come out in late January.</p>
<p>I’ll use this thread to digress a bit. My son is laboring to finish all his essays so he can submit the application tomorrow. I sincerely doubt he will win the PS honor, just because of the odds and the obviously exceptional qualifications that most candidates must have, but he has been a good soldier about it. We would be thrilled if he “merely” became one of the 12 semifinalists in our state. But even if he advances no further this process has already given us something better. He told us for days that he was struggling with writer’s block for the main essay, and when he finally handed it to me last night he told me he didn’t know if it was any good at all. Once I read it I knew it would be a keepsake forever. It was a beautiful, introspective essay, and didn’t have so much as a comma out of place as far as I was concerned. </p>
<p>Our son is a wonderful kid but we used to joke that he was a “silent Cal.” He saved words in conversation like they cost money. So in the college application process, with all the essays he has written and that we have read, we have gotten insights about him we never had before. It has been very gratifying. This essay may have been his best yet. </p>
<p>And just as a piece of advice, practice really helps. From our son’s first essays for the schools he applied early to and the Common App, through the regular decision apps, until now with essays for this program and also for our state’s “All-State” scholar program, his essays have become better and better and better. It’s hard to expect a high school kid, in his or her junior year, or the summer before senior year, to put pen to paper with practice essays, but if you can do it, I think it will really help when application time comes along.</p>
<p>MilwDad - It is great that your son has blossomed in the essay department. My son also completed the Presidential Scholar application and we finally got to the “just get it done” point. Writing is not his strong suit and he does not enjoy it one bit (and he comes by that honestly - neither his father or I thrive in the written word department).</p>
<p>Congrats to your son on his perseverance and even if he doesn’t become your state’s Presidential Scholar at least you got a chance to see a little bit more about who he is.</p>
<p>MilwDad- it’s so true. We too have learned so much about our D from reading her essays.</p>
<p>Agreed, 10scholar. I feel like a mime when trying to describe what I’ve been involved in. Oh well, and best of luck to you! :)</p>
<p>DS declined to write the essays. Oh well. :(</p>
<p>ihs76 - I don’t blame him. I wrote the essays with the mindset that I wasn’t going to get anything from them and that’s a very tough thing to get somebody to buy into, I know I struggled with it a lot. This was by far the most grueling app I’ve ever done. Fortunately I got off easy with the college apps, so perhaps I wasn’t burnt out from them.</p>
<p>Also - anybody else feel bad for our counselors? They’re busy enough right now and their forms were almost as bad as ours haha</p>
<p>what was on the counselor’s forms?</p>
<p><a href=“https://wdcrobcolp01.ed.gov/CFAPPS/PSAO/download/SSR_10.pdf[/url]”>https://wdcrobcolp01.ed.gov/CFAPPS/PSAO/download/SSR_10.pdf</a></p>
<p>Like 8 specific questions about the student. Not terrible, but more intense than most of the stuff they have to do</p>
<p>So my counselor just now finished my recommentation. I have been sweating bullets all day. lol :D</p>