<p>I was nominated for Who's Who (sort of like a yearbook recognizing America's top achieving students in classes) and have completed my application and they said they would alert colleges of my choosing that I have been nominated. This is a national award yet I have been hearing rumors that its prestige is waning! IS IT!?? Nevertheless will it be a help in applying to harvard? Especially since I am a Puerto Rican (URM)</p>
<p>"waning" prestige? it never had prestige.</p>
<p>really!!??</p>
<p>OK...maybe I am a bit misinformed...well WHAT IS IT THEN...seriously!!</p>
<p>It really has no prestige at all, almost everyone gets it in the mail. Actually, colleges may even laugh when seeing it because it is rather trite.</p>
<p>No, it does not help.</p>
<p>it hurts... probably.</p>
<p>Who's who among high school students is basically a money-making scheme (people who are in it and their family members will buy the book). It is not considered prestigious.</p>
<p>This is a notorious scam, along with the "National Society of Scholars", or whatever its called.</p>
<p>I got one of those also, it says that it awards people with a B average, which is pretty low for a recognition society. But I have heard that they do give out actual schlorships from people here on CC. So it wouldn't heard to fill out the application.</p>
<p>Yes, it's fine to fill out the Who's Who application. You really may win a scholarship. Since they promise to provide some scholarships, they have to give some in order to avoid legal trouble.</p>
<p>Just don't bother to buy their overpriced goods, and don't bother to mention it on your college applications.</p>
<p>I filled out the info but didn't bother sending in a photo because even that costs money. It was like 15 dollars!</p>
<p>It's a load of bull. I know it, colleges know it, and now you know it. Of course it won't hurt, and it could help if you do get a scholarship.... but will it make you look even a smidgen better to colleges? Resounding no. Well maybe not resounding. Just a no.</p>
<p>Who's Who is a very prestigious award. It's pretty much a guarantee that you'll get into Harvard or any other schools, for that matter. It's as good as RSI or TASP in terms of helping you in admissions.</p>
<p>Are you being serious HH05? You're guaranteed to get into Harvard?</p>
<p>Yes, pretty much. Of course there are the odd exceptions, but it's a pretty good bet.</p>
<p>Here's how "selective" "Who's Who" is for high school students. This comes from: <a href="http://www.commercialalert.org/index.php/external/true/article_id/218%5B/url%5D">http://www.commercialalert.org/index.php/external/true/article_id/218</a></p>
<p>"Name, Please: Surveyor Quietly Sells Student Information To Youth Marketer --- National Research Center Stresses Its College Ties -- Not Razors, Credit Cards --- Many Educators in the Dark
by Daniel Golden</p>
<p>Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2001</p>
<p>Each year, more than one million U.S. high-school students take time out of their school day to fill out a survey asking their names, addresses, grade-point averages, races, religions and social views. The organization that sponsors the survey, the National Research Center for College and University Admissions, tells the schools it will broaden students' higher-education options by distributing their names and profiles to hundreds of colleges and universities across the country.</p>
<p>But colleges aren't the only recipients of the survey results. Generally unknown to high schools, colleges, students and their parents, National Research for at least a decade has also sold the personal information it gathers to the country's leading supplier of young people's names to commercial marketers, American Student List LLC.</p>
<p>American Student List pays for the information by helping to fund the National Research survey. American Student List then sells student names and other information to companies that solicit students for a wide array of goods and services.</p>
<p>Companies that buy student names from American Student List include shaving giant Gillette Co.; credit-card purveyors American Express Co. and Capital One Financial Corp.; Kaplan Inc., the Washington Post Co. unit that is the largest admissions test-coaching chain; Primedia Inc.'s Seventeen Magazine; and Columbia House Record Club, which is owned by AOL Time Warner Inc. and Sony Corp....</p>
<p>"The only other company to which National Research directly sells student information is the publisher of "Who's Who Among American High School Students," Mr. Munce says. Who's Who uses the information to cull entries for the book and then sells copies to students for $45 apiece.</p>
<p>As a 14-year-old sophomore in 1999, Rotem Ben-Ad filled out the National Research survey, administered by her guidance counselor during a school assembly at her Jewish day school in Irvine, Calif. Rotem hoped to showcase herself to East Coast colleges.</p>
<p>She then received solicitations from test-preparation companies, financial-aid consultants, the high-school Who's Who and other marketers.
"I was like, `How did they get my name?' " she says. "I didn't know what was legitimate and what wasn't.""</p>
<p>Is getting into "Who's Who for High School Students" impressive? Hardly.</p>
<p>Who's Who is didly squat, some colleges may frown upon the student's ignorance</p>
<p>I definately don't believe Who's Who is prestigous.</p>