<p>So there was this dinner thing at cal state san bernardino in California. They gave out a Presidential Scholar Award to those in the top 1 percent of their schools in the county. I was invited to go, but sadly I was not able to make it due to personal family reasons. Now I would have received the award because I was eligible for it and all I had to do was show up to pick it up. Can I consider that one of my awards because i was eligible and i had originally planned to go to the dinner to pick it up, but was nto able to do so? I don't have any real awards to put down on my applications, so I was hoping I wouldn't be disqualified from this award because I was not able to make it to pick it up. Thanks.</p>
<p>I highly doubt it was the real Presidential Scholar Award.</p>
<p>Um, it sounds fake if all you had to do was go and pick it up? More details please.</p>
<p>If the sole criterion for the award is being in the top 1% of your class, the award tells colleges nothing about you that they don't already know from your class rank. </p>
<p>In any event, winning an award usually isn't dependent on attending the award ceremony. They may mail it to you.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.csusb.edu/b_news.asp?ch_id=531%5B/url%5D">http://www.csusb.edu/b_news.asp?ch_id=531</a></p>
<p>It appears that it's a scholarship award to students meeting the top 1% criterion who agree to attend CSSB, so it's not an award that you would put on apps to other colleges. The Presidential Scholar Award offered by the US Dept. of Education is a different thing altogether.</p>
<p>yeah, it wasn't the presidential scholar award, it was some award with the word president in it, i just got them mixed up. You didn't have to agree to atend CSSB in order to receive the award, however. My friend went down and was able to get the award, I think you just had to show up. I think it was called the Presidents Academic Excellence Scholarship (PAES) award.
I just wanted to know if I could put it down on my apps or not. I don't want to put down an award that I didn't really receive, but I mean I was eligible and was invited to go to the ceremony, I just couldn't make it.</p>
<p>It's pretty clear from reading the article that it's a marketing device to attract top students to CSSB, but suit yourself. I think it would look silly on an application anywhere else.</p>
<p>maybe it wasn't that award, I don't know the exact title of it, but the point is that it was an award i should have received but was not able to make it to accept the award, does it still count? It's a picky question, I know, but I don't want to go off and lie on my transcript and have any future problems.</p>
<p>It's wonderful that you rank so high in your county.</p>
<p>You could list the award by saying "met the academic qualifications for the XXX award, for the top 1% of students in my county."</p>
<p>That is true even though you didn't get the award since you couldn't show up.</p>
<p>If you really want the award, contact the college that offered it, explain that a family emergency kept you away, and ask if you can go to the college and get the award. The purpose of the award is that the college wants a chance to recruit you in person, so if you offer to go there, they may very happily meet with you and give you the award. They'd probably also welcome your family, too so that the college could encourage your parents to send you to their college.</p>