Presidential Scholarship?

<p>I'm wondering how well I fit the profile of people SUNY Buffalo is looking for when it comes to the Presidential Scholarship. I'm not exactly asking you to chance me; I just would like to know if I'm the type of student they try to grant it to.</p>

<p>Oooh, do you think you could chance me for admissions while you're at it? Much obliged :)</p>

<p>Ohhh! And my mum is an alumna of the University at Buffalo. I don't think that will help much with this scholarship, but will it open me up to others? And will it help at all with admissions?</p>

<p>Numbers
[ul]
[<em>]GPA (frosh through junior):
[list]
[li]Weighted (weighting only APs): 3.78[/li][</em>]Weighted (weighting APs and honors): 4.1
[<em>]Unweighted: 3.57
[/ul]
[li]Number of honors courses (frosh through junior): 6 full-year, 1 one-semester, and then 1 course that could be either honors or AP[/li][</em>]Number of AP courses (frosh through junior): 3, and then 1 that could be either honors or AP
[<em>]Number of honors courses senior year: none
[</em>]Number of AP courses senior year: 3, but I'm considering taking 2 additional AP tests beyond that (AP Spanish literature [different from Spanish language, which I took already], and AP Composition).
[/list]</p>

<p>Test scores:
[ul]
[<em>]SAT:
[list]
[li]Critical Reading: 740[/li][</em>]Math: 780
[<em>]Writing: 720
[</em>]Total: 2240
[<em>]Just CR+M: 1520
[/ul]
[li]ACT:[/li][ul]
[li]1st sitting:[/li][list]
[li]Eng: 34[/li][</em>]Math: 28 (Yes, I am a math whiz who got a 28. Let this be a reminder to all to make sure your calculator is in degree mode if it's supposed to be, and radian mode if otherwise.)
[<em>]Read: 36
[</em>]Sci: 33
[<em>]Combined E/W: 31
[</em>]Writing: 08 (outta 12)
[<em>]Composite: 33
[/ul]
[li]2nd sitting:[/li][ul]
[li]Eng: 35[/li][</em>]Math: 33
[<em>]Read: 35
[</em>]Sci: 28 (Oh well. The science section isn't really science anyways...)
[<em>]Comb. E/W: 30
[</em>]Writing: 06
[<em>]Composite: 33
[/ul]
[li]Superscore (taking my overall best score for each section): 34.25[/li][/list]
[li]SAT subject tests:[/li][ul]
[li]Physics: 640[/li][</em>]Math Level 2: 760
[<em>]Spanish (2nd try, taken after my student exchange): 730
[</em>]Spanish (1st try, taken before my student exchange): 670
[<em>]World History: 700
[/ul]
[li]AP tests (not including senior year, of course):[/li][ul]
[li]AP World History: 5 (so not sure how I got this)[/li][</em>]AP US History: 4 (ditto)
[<em>]AP Spanish (taken before my student exchange): 4 (even more ditto. I screwed up the conversational part sooo bad... I was supposed to tell someone I couldn't go to their party and I misread my instructions and said "Oh! Yes! I'd love to go to your party! Will your brother be there? He's sooo hot!" You can imagine my embarrassment when I heard the recorded response: "Oh, that's too bad that you can't come... Maybe we can hang out another day?" :o)
[</em>]AP Physics B: 3 (OK, this one I'm not surprised at. My class was an honors class, not an AP class, and we only covered half the material that would be on the AP test. Which I discovered, much to my chagrin, after I had already registered. And my school has a strict no-backing-out policy.)
[/ul]
[/list]</p>

<p>Academic distinguishments:
[ul]
[<em>]National Merit Semifinalist (haven't received word yet on whether or not I'm a Finalist, but my college counselor has told me I have upwards of a 90% chance of making Finalist)
[</em>]Junior year--member of National Honors Society (couldn't do it this year due to tyrannical parents)
[li]Taught myself a full year's worth (or more) of Spanish in 6 weeks my sophomore year, which is why I switched up from 3rd year to 4th year at the semester's end. To get into 4th year Spanish, I had to take and pass the final, and I did better than all the students who were actually in 4th year Spanish.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Student exchange:
[ul]
[li]I went to Chile the summer before my senior year. (Well, our summer, their winter. Brrrr!) I lived with a host family and went to school at my host sister's school--which included taking tests, midterms and finals (the first week I was there was their finals week--I failed the history and literature finals, but did surprisingly well on everything else, including biology. No clue how I did so well on the biology one, as I haven't taken bio since frosh year, and even then I sucked at it. But I digress...). I stayed in Chile pretty much the entire summer, with only a one-week break between when my (American) school let out for the summer and when I started school in Chile, and then a two-week break between when I got back to the States and when my (American) school started up again. So I've basically been going</a> to school almost non-stop for almost 16 months now. Anyways...[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
[ul]
[<em>]Light crew: I'm fully in charge of running my school's 12-person light crew. We do 3 shows a year, and I'm in charge of designing the lights as well as working the light board during shows and keeping everything running (i.e., telling everyone what to do, when to do it, and making sure they follow through). I spend about 25-30 hours in the light booth per week when we're running a show, and 2nd semester of this year I've managed to get approval to take an Independent Study in Lighting Design. We do have a faculty supervisor for light crew, but he's pretty chill and just lets me run things :)
[</em>]Volunteer: I volunteer with AFS, the exchange organization that sent me to Chile. I work at my local chapter. Every few months, they hold orientations for incoming exchange students as well as those who've been in the area for a while. My job is to give them an "average American teenager's" perspective on cultural stuff (what words not to say in polite company, how to act at a party, what kind of dancing that you really shouldn't do if a dance chaperone is looking but that you should do if s/he isn't looking, etc.) and to provide them with the perspective of someone who recently got back from an exchange (what you should and shouldn't "give in" on culturally--food, religion, social customs, how to address a parent, etc. as well as how to get used to being in a totally alien culture).
[li]Music: I was in a professional-quality youth choir from 5th to 10th grade (tyrannical parents made me pic light crew or choir after 10th grade--couldn't do both), and through the choir I've worked with world-renowned choir directors and composers of choral music. Through that choir I've also participated in numerous festivals, one tour and two operas. Outside of choir, I've been in three musical revues, taken piano lessons for upwards of 8 years (I think it's more like 11 but I'm not exactly sure when I started), and I was my church choir until I stopped going to church. (Yay Deism!</a>) I have since quit all of that except my (very crappy) school choir due to vocal fatigue from overworking my voice.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>I don't have a lot of ECs, I know. My parents think that a C in an AP course where somewhere between 50 and 75 percent of the class are supposed to get Cs is a complete and utter failure on my part, so they ground me any time I get a C. I always have exactly one C 1st semester (Social Studies. I suck at history, etc. and I"m always in AP social studies), so all I can do is light crew (can't even see my friends). But I'm hoping my dedication to light crew is enough!</p>

<p>Sorry for making you wade through all this....</p>

<p>Did you decide to apply for the Presidential Scholarship?</p>

<p>Yeah… That’s why I was asking to be chanced…</p>

<p>Have you gotten scholarships anywhere else that you’ve applied?</p>

<p>I’ve applied regular decision to all my schools, so I haven’t heard back from any of them. If I make National Merit Finalist, though, I’ll have a $2,500 minimum scholarship to SUNY Stony Brook and a full tuition scholarship for Washington State University. I’m also guaranteed admission to WSU (a mid-tier school in my home state). Guarantees admission to all high school seniors from Washington State who have a 3.5 GPA or above and meet a certain minimum SAT score.</p>

<p>I doubt you’ll get the presidential scholarship. Probably just a provost scholarship (max of $3000 per year).</p>

<p>I believe the presidential scholarship criteria is only the GPA, recommendation letters, SAT/ACT score, and essays on the application.</p>

<p>Can’t say anything about your GPA, since the description on the buffalo site is on the 100 point scale. Your SAT score is good though, according to the site, last year’s average scores were 1503 SAT and 33 ACT (98 h.s average).</p>

<p>I applied I also. Like you, I have a 1520 SAT, 800 M, 720 CR but a 35 ACT. I hope we get it!</p>

<p>Cortana, your name shows you are going to Cornell. Are you still applying to UB?</p>

<p>Ohh I need to change that. Cornell didn’t give me any aid so it is highly unlikely I will be going. Yeah, I applied to buffalo the same time as I applied to cornell</p>

<p>Too bad on Cornell. Did you consider the Ag school where it’s less expensive? Good luck on the UB scholarship.</p>

<p>Just curious, but did anybody receive an invitation to the presidential scholarship interviews? I was told early January and have yet to receive anything. Just wanted to check if I was still being considered or not. Thank you in advance for any help!!!</p>

<p>Nothing yet. We were curious too so glad to see your post! Please post if you hear anything and I’ll do the same. Good luck!</p>

<p>I’ll be sure to let you know. Thanks for the response!</p>

<p>I realize this thread is old, but is there anyone else here still in the running for the scholarship? I attended the interview session last Friday and I’m curious if anyone else was there, and how much of a chance you think you have of getting it.</p>

<p>what was your interview like?</p>

<p>I interviewed last Saturday and I don’t think I have a good chance at it. </p>

<p>I think almost 70 people got invited for interviews and they all have such amazing stats. I do think my interview went well though.</p>

<p>I thought my interview went well too, but yeah, I think they said there were ~75 kids there and only 25 will win the scholarship. I think I have a chance, but who knows what they’re looking for?</p>

<p>The only question that stumped me was “If you had one week to do whatever you wanted, what would you do?” I really didn’t know how to answer, so I said I’d like to be dropped off in the middle of Europe and do whatever I saw that looked interesting for a week. </p>

<p>My stats if anyone cares were 98.1 UW GPA, 1530 SAT, 35 ACT (one sitting both) and 3 5’s on AP’s (the only 3 my school offers).</p>

<p>And each set of interviewers was probably looking for something different too. </p>

<p>That question was hard for me too, but I like your answer better. I said I would read all the books I’ve been meaning to and finish the book I wrote in November. Which sounds kind of boring. </p>

<p>My stats were lower than that; 1520 SAT (superscore), 34 ACT, 96.1 UW. I don’t remember putting APs anywhere, but I have four 5s and two 4s (one of the
fours was from a class I didn’t take)</p>

<p>They’re actually shooting for a class of 25 Presidential Scholars. Knowing that some who get an offer won’t accept, they’re going to offer more than 25.</p>

<p>I’m not supposed to share exact numbers, but around half who interviewed should get offers.</p>

<p>My son did hear last week-Wednesday Feb 13 that he received a Presidential Scholarship. His interview was on the first day so I’m not sure if that makes a difference.</p>