National Awards You Pay For

National Awards You Pay For

Over the past month or two many of our students have been invited to become members of national award societies, or to attend various leadership conferences across the country.

The invitations and "awards" look very impressive and allude to the great honor it is for the student to have been included. Prices range from $60 for a "one time membership fee," or $500 to as much as $5000 for a conference fee that usually doesn’t include travel expenses. Some are "free" to put your name in a book, but then, when they have all your information, pressure parents to buy the book along with other memorabilia at extraordinary prices.

Parents often ask if these are legitimate awards for their students. They also want to know if we think students should attend these conferences to give them a competitive edge with college or scholarship applications. And they want to know who nominated their students in the first place.

The answers to these concerns are complex – here are Frequently Asked Questions on this topic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will attending or joining this society, conference, camp, summit, etc. help my child get into college?

College admissions officials and scholarship selection committees have told us they are not impressed with awards or honors that parents purchase. Hundreds of thousands of students are nominated each year for honors, memberships, conferences and leadership training.

College and Scholarship competition is much more powerful if students have received awards that mark them above the norm in something they have actually earned, such as the Rocklin High Distinguished Community Service Award.

Paying for a conference might provide a beneficial experience, but it should not be considered an award.

This conference is at my son’s first choice college. Will it help him get accepted there?

Probably not. Beware that many summer offerings held on college campuses, actually have no affiliation with the college. Some organizations rent college facilities to hold their conferences, and loosely use the college name with promises of earned college credits or admission recognition.

Did the school send in the nomination?

Your school probably did NOT submit a nomination for your student – that’s against confidentiality policies.

How was my student nominated?

Students may have been invited or nominated simply because they registered for the SAT, ACT, applied for a scholarship, or something similar.

An issue to consider is that once you have registered with a conference, society or "award," you can expect to receive a plethora of mailings, since these organizations often sell their mailing lists to similar vendors.

My student really wants to attend. Is there a way to check it out?

Contact the registration office for the event and ask for local references (names and phone numbers) of Rocklin students, who have attended previous conferences. See if they can get a previous camper to contact you. Find out things like: Did someone meet your student at the airport? Were the meals good? The rooms clean? Did you feel safe? How did you get back to the airport? What other costs were incurred that were not outlined in the brochure? Do you think it was worth the expense?

Should we spend the money?

I never tell parents how to spend their money. There is absolutely no way to guarantee this is a good value.

If students are ready to navigate a national airport in a strange city on their own, and will benefit from the program, make your decision to attend based on as many facts as you can gather.

What have other Rocklin High students said about these opportunities?

Over the years many Rocklin High students have attended these kinds of conferences; some of them thought it was a great experience while others thought it was a "rip off."

Denied or Waitlisted?

In the next week or so seniors will receive admissions decisions to the last of a lengthy list of top colleges across the U.S.  It really is a life-changing moment for students, as the hopes and dreams are decided by clicking a mouse.

I think it's important to honor your feelings of disappointment, sadness, anger, frustration, or any of the miriade of emotions that wash over you, as you come to terms with a college denying admission. For many students it's the first time anyone, anywhere has ever told them that they do not measure up to an academic standard - and it hurts!

If you have experienced a college denial, I suggest that you let those emotions wash over you for about 48 hours, and then pick yourself up, dust yourself off and make plans to attend a college that offered you admission. If you weren't accepted by Ivy League schools, the University of California, Stanford, CalPoly or a wide variety of other top schools, take heart - you are in good company. Excellent academic achievers have been turned down from all of those schools too.  Focus on the good stuff - where ARE you going next fall?

Waitlisting is a concept that seems to simply prolong the agony of being turned down at a college. Being waitlisted is not an offer of admission and all students who have been waitlisted should begin making plans to attend a college where they have been formally admitted. If students are admitted from the waitlist, that information might come in after the deadline to submit an intent to enroll at another college. Waitlisted offers could come as late as the week before fall sessions begin. This will make housing, academic advising, orientation complicated. Yes, you will probably lose your deposits at a second choice school, if you accept a late waitlist offer,  but counting on a waistlist option is not sound college planning.

If you've received a denial of admission, and you wish to appeal, do not let the appeal side-track you from making plans to enroll where you have been accepted.

If you wish to appeal, this website offers some examples of an appeal letter and what you need to gather to support a successful appeal. Keep in mind that very few appeals are granted, and it is wise to make plans to attend a school where you have been admitted.

Appealing an Admissions Decision

Tis the season of College Admissions Decisions. Students are beginning to hear from colleges on whether they have been accepted or denied admission. It's a life-changing moment for some students, and many feel as if their destiny is about to begin. As jubillant as some students are with an acceptance letter, there are equally emotional moments of grief as students are turned down from life-long dream colleges.

What option does a student have if he receives a denial of admission to his first choice college? Is there any hope of appeal? It depends on the college, the major and what the student has to put into the appeal. Most universities discourage appeals, and grant few, if any. But the University of California undergraduate admission website does give information on what will be reviewed if a student does appeal. "New and compelling information" is the only hope a student has. This is good advice for an appeal to any university.

To determine if a student has new or compelling information, he needs to first look at the original application. Is everything there that he submitted? Nearly all college applications are now submitted electronically, and frequently I find students who don’t even have a printed copy of their application sent back in November.

They honestly don’t know what was on that application!

Students can access their applications on the college website. Print a copy and confirm that all courses are listed, that all the awards, activities, volunteer hours, employment, etc. are there. Verify that the student directed the College Board or the ACT to send the test scores to the college. If the college required letters of recommendation, contact the admissions office to be certain that those letters arrived and are in the student’s application file. Review the essays or personal statements. Try to determine if the student left something important out of the application that he had intended to send, or should have sent.

Then the student should evaluate what new information he has to tell the college that is germane to admission. Being named a National Merit Scholar or class valedictorian might be considered new information, but keep in mind that at a highly selective university, these kinds of honors will be common, so that alone won’t be helpful. New information might include a new, higher SAT score or a community college course you forgot to list. Achieving some kind of talent recognition such as being named to an Olympic team would be considered new information, if it happened since you submitted the application.

Compelling information is the other option for students to submit an appeal. Each year I find myself astounded at what a high school senior thinks is compelling information. The fact that you have always wanted to go there and that you will be a fourth generation to attend the highly selective college is not compelling. Compelling information must be just that – compelling the admissions office to reevaluate your application because of this extradordinary information.

Compelling information is that you are homeless, but you’re still getting straight A’s; and you just found out that you have free housing a few blocks from their campus. Compelling must be serious, related to your application or college plans, and above all it must be something truthful, that you can document.

As students struggle with college dreams shattering with the click of an opened an email, parents often wonder how they could have helped their children achieve these goals. It’s never too early to start talking with kids about college, about career aspirations, about dreams and what it will take to achieve them. Many college denials could have been prevented with prudent and early college planning.