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After coming back from my campus visit of Cornell University today I found in my mailbox a letter from the National Honor Roll, after reading it, I thought "cool.." and decided to sign up online. I filled out my personal biography and whatnot and decided to do the CANS thing(notification of the award sent to colleges). So I input my colleges of choice (Cornell, Columbia, MIT, UPENN) and paid the $7.50 shipping fee to send the letters off to their places.

I then go around surfing to find out about the merit of this award. The results aren't too convincing. I sit here all hot and nervous that sending such a silly award as this to the universities I wish to attend will thwart my attempts at admission.

Is this award truly the end of my college career? :D

By Fakesnake (Fakesnake) on Friday, November 29, 2002 - 10:33 pm: Edit

I'd also like to add:

Is being Polish considered a minority?

I was born in Poland and moved to America when I was 7 years old...

By Calmom (Calmom) on Saturday, November 30, 2002 - 02:15 am: Edit

Fakesnake, you've just wasted $7.50 but I doubt that it will adversely affect your chances for admission. The colleges must get tons of these.

It doesn't help, but it doesn't hurt either. I'm sure that the college admissions staff is aware that based on the way these awards are marketed, students are led to believe they are more exclusive and special than they really are.

By Olivia Williamson on Saturday, November 30, 2002 - 02:04 pm: Edit

Yeah, they'll ignore it. Now, if you had written a whole essay about this "award" and how special it made you feel, that might be a problem, but just the automatic notification? They might not even read the letter, so don't worry about it.

- Olivia

By C on Saturday, November 30, 2002 - 04:40 pm: Edit

No, you're not a minority if you're Polish.