DC has been invited to participate. Does anyone who may have been through this know what to expect? All I really got from the invitation was that there’s an interview and a dinner. I assume there’s also something else going on for 8 hours. They did ask how many would be coming, but what do parents do during all of this? Also, how do male candidates typically dress? Most prior interviews for both CNU and other schools have been nice/casual. But, is a jacket and a tie more typical for this? TIA.
My DD went this past weekend. The boys were all in suits and ties. You will have a set interview time and then the PLP program and the Honors program has an open house in their offices where you can meet students in the program and administers in the two programs. There was also some fruit and cheese put out to snack on. That is about all there was on Friday until the dinner that night. We had time to go to our hotel for a couple of hours before dinner. At the dinner they went over a bit more about the program and had students that you could ask questions of. The whole time we were there students in the programs were walking around talking to people and answering questions. On Saturday morning we went on a school tour and then there were meetings from the school president and other meetings about the school. Parents seemed to wait with their kids before their interview and then the parents can also go to the honors and PLP open houses and ask questions. Besides the interview, everything else was optional. On Saturday there were also people who were not admitted on the tours so it was open to everyone. The interview is also with a professor. Hope this helps…
That does, thanks! What did you guys think of the program? The summer at Oxford definitely got my son’s attention as study abroad is very high on his list.
The program sounds interesting although I spoke to a person at work that went there and she said that many of the people in the program dropped out after the first year because they could not keep the grade requirement up. She also said that it was very time consuming with the community service requirements and leadership classes. Sounds like there may have been other time consuming requirements. The overseas at Oxford is only for two weeks not the entire summer. The person I spoke to also said that there were other costs of the Oxford trip that were not covered by the scholarship. She said that it was easier to get in as an out of state student and that she was not that strong of a student except for some stem areas. She thought they let them in to get the out of state tuition and then when they couldn’t keep the grades up they took away the scholarship. She may have just been bitter about her experience and maybe most are happy with the program. I am really not sure what to think about it after talking to her. I did talk to some students at the school that dropped the PLP because of different reasons and so they lost part of their scholarship and only did the honors program.
We were also there this past Friday. When we recieved the confirmation email we were told we did not need to be there at 1:00; we got on campus at 3:00. My sons interview was not until 4:40 (he dressed in a suit) in hind sight we should have waited and got to campus right before his interview. We spent about 15-20 in each open house and then looked around a little; found a coffee shop and waited to dinner. Momofthree55 is correct about Oxford trip it is only two weeks not the summer as implied. One main thing to note is the Presidential Scholarship is towards your ROOM and BOARD if you move off campus you lose your scholarship.
Thanks for the background. I’ve checked with some local parents that are involved in either the PLP, not Presidential Scholars, who say they like the program, but don’t love it. It seems like quite a few drop out after Sophomore year. They felt like doing both PLP and Honors would be quite a bit of extra work. FYI, I did see on CNU’s website that, with permission of the Program Director, you could drop PLP and retain $7.5k of the scholarship. If you dropped Honors and stayed in PLP, I think it was $5k.
Doesn’t everyone except local students have to live on campus for at least 3 years?
Yes but you must also stay on campus your senior year as well.
Has anyone else received communication regarding selection into the Presidential Scholars program?
I did!!
DS received a letter yesterday!
Son has not received anything from Pres Scholars yesterday but did get letters from both PLP and Honors telling him he was accepted to both programs. I was under the impression we would not hear about PS until 1st week of March.
I am not sure about the notification timing, but CNU is asking the first round of Presidential Scholars for feedback - accept, decline or need more time.
DD didn’t get the Presidential Scholars either, just the PLP and Honors. She said her interviewer really looked down on her when she said she was undecided on her major. She told her that she really needed to think about this and decide. Every other college that we have visited has said that it is absolutely fine to not know for sure yet and in fact many students change their major about three times. So her interview was not a positive one . She has also been accepted into JMU honors and Virginia Tech honors so without the Presidential Scholars money it doesn’t look like she will choose CNU. Maybe it will help another applicant but say you know what you want to study, even if you don’t since they seemed to value that so much.
My son received letters from both the Honors and PLP program congratulation him on being accepted to the programs. PLP says as a Commonwealth Scholar he will receive $20,000 over four years; so $5,000 a year. The Honors letter states that he will be receiving his scholarship through the PLP program… I’m assuming this mean he is NOT one of the Presidential Scholarships; since he did not get the $10,000 a year?
Yes, the presidential scholars will get 10,000 a year plus money for the Oxford trip