<p>Whoaa, there are three people from my school on that list. In CA. :eek:</p>
<p>I recognize that this is a wonderful honor for students. But lots of these kids have done too many essays, apps already and are DONE! Are there truly good reasons why a kid SHOULD do this, other than the possibility of yet more public recognition?</p>
<p>It is a great honor, and there is that trip to Washington, if you win - but I don't see any $$$ tied to it, and my D is SICK of doing essays! I hope to convince her to do just a few more - actually, alot of the questions on PS app are very similar to those written for other scholarships and applications, so hopefully it won't end up being TOO much work. It's a nice honor to have "under your belt" but by the time you hear about it, most college applications are finished, and there isn't anywhere to list it. Hmm.</p>
<p>If there were money involved, I (and everyone else who got invited, methinks) would be clamoring to fill out those essays. You'd think the government could put just a smidgen of its budget towards scholarships for presidential scholars.</p>
<p>Hey everyone. I got the invitation to apply last year, and really didn't want to. Nearly cried when I saw the number of essays (here I thought I was finally done) Besides, a few other kids from my school got nominated and they were all amazing students whom I thought I really couldn't compare to. As it turns out, I ended up being a semifinalist though not a finalist. Granted, I got nothing except a letter from Schwarzenegger congratulating me, but it made me feel really good and I'm glad I applied. I was also shocked that none of the other students from my school made semifinalist status (two of them went to Harvard, one to Princeton, one to Oxford). So I think I made semifinalist b/c of essays</p>
<p>The essays were crazy. I reused/cut up a lot of my college ones, and didn't finish the application till the day before it was due and had to FedEx it overnight. I nearly had an ulcer as I typed slash bs-ed my last short essay trying to finish. </p>
<p>Anyway, here are my stats, if you're curious:
GPA: 4.3 W
Rank: none</p>
<p>Female // Chinese-American // CA</p>
<p>National Merit Scholarship winner // AP National Scholar // Cum Laude </p>
<p>SAT: 800 Math, 800 Verbal </p>
<p>SAT II: 800 Math IIC, 800 Writing, 780 US History</p>
<p>AP's:
Calculus AB / Caluculus BC / US History / Bio / Physics B / Art History / Geography / English Lang / English Lit [received 5s on all except for Bio and Physics, which I got 4s on]</p>
<p>EC's [main ones]:
Exec. Editor of Newspaper
President, Amnesty International
Volunteer, Public Library
Chair, community service conference for teens</p>
<p>:eek: Wow... no wonder you got nominated! You are AMAZING. Nice work.</p>
<p>I was nominated but there is NO WAY I'm filling out that application, that is about the longest app I have ever seen, and you don't even get anything but a trip to D.C. It's nice to be nominated, but wow. Even if I wanted to write all those essays, I would feel bad asking a teacher to write that long of a rec. Do you really think that that many people will apply? I would assume that a large number of people don't, but maybe I'm the only lazy one :)</p>
<p>this is crazy - it's as if they think that we have nothing else going on with our lives, but that's stupid considering the type of students they're seeking. Plus, a week in June is right in the middle of my HS baseball season. No way I'm doing all this.</p>
<p>ya i got it too...
whats the deadline lol?</p>
<p>Thanks, all, for posting your input on this. I knew if I kw-searched "Presidential Scholar" there'd be other CCers who were on the list!</p>
<p>Congratulations and good luck to all of you. Not sure what S will do about this. IB is non-stop, and right now he's at a math competition in London. IB Mocks (internal exams) start next week, so not much time.</p>
<p>Take Care,
AnudduhMom (who's on CC so S doesn't have to -- he's too busy)</p>
<p>sort of bumping this thread but also curious:</p>
<p>what percentage of candidates actually apply?...the app is huge, full of technicalities and overall a pain in the a$$ (i spent my whole lunch yesterday running back and forth between the counselor and principal trying to figure out who received my recommender's online password)</p>
<p>at my school there are five candidates and i'm the only one trying...anyone else have stats or input? (i know roughly 1/5 get semifinalist but that could be basically the number who take the time to apply)</p>
<p>Is it possible to be one of the actual 40 students from your state, if you were already nominated with a 2400, but only have like a 3.6uw gpa? </p>
<p>would you be rejected on this aspect?</p>
<p>If only I had selected the photo prompt for my Stanford essay instead of the "influence" one.... 'twould be a lot less work right now for this stupid thing.</p>
<p>Does having a green card classify you as being an American citizen??</p>
<p>if you were nominated with your sat score, but only have a 3.6 gpa, would you not be chosen as one of them?</p>
<p>Jason, honestly, you have some tough competition. I'm not familiar with this competition, but I wouldn't be surprised if anything less than stellar could keep you out.</p>
<p>I'm feeling lazy. But I guess i'm trying to do it. This is really long and annoying.</p>
<p>I really don't wanna write these stupid essays. I have like a 3.6 UW and I'm by far the worst of the 4 from my school.</p>
<p>I'm bumping this up. Do you know what they look for? There's pretty much no room on the application for awards, whereas awards are my main thing. I'm pretty bad with essays, and it seems a little frivilous of them to base an award entirely on essays.</p>
<p>Well it's not entirely based on essays, because to even get invited, you have to have amazing SAT scores and stuff...</p>