Derek Huang, Vishal Maini, and Katherine Cai were recently named three of twenty 2009 Flinn Scholars. The Flinn Foundation Scholarship Program is an extremely prestigious program based in Arizona. The foundation awards a full scholarship to any in-state university and offers numerous benefits, including trips to Europe and various rare opportunities. It is truly a great honor, and we are very proud of Katherine, Vishal, and Derek!

For more information about the Flinn Foundation Scholarship Program, click here.

On January 10th, Xi Lin was declared the Champion in Lincoln-Douglas debate at the Arizona State University Southwestern Championship. He received his second bid, which automatically qualified him to the Tournament of Champions.

On January 4th, Paul Gu broke to quarters in Lincoln-Douglas debate at the Victory Briefs Tournament and received his first bid to the Tournament of Champions. And today, January 19th, Paul was declared the Champion in Lincoln-Douglas debate at the Golden Desert tournament in Las Vegas! He also received his second bid, automatically qualifying to the Tournament of Champions.

The Tournament of Champions will take place on the first weekend of May in Kentucky. Good Luck to both Paul and Xi, and congratulations again!

Xi Lin, a member of the PathAspire staff, has been accepted to Cornell University, an Ivy League school, under its Early Decision Program. He applied to the college on November 1st, and received his acceptance notification yesterday, December 11th. The decision is binding. Congratulations, and good luck!

Barack Obama, 47 years old, has won the 2008 presidential election. He will be the first African-American ever to become a U.S. president. Obama swept the Electoral College votes, coming out with 349 versus McCain’s 163 (there are still a couple of states still counting). Obama won 53% (63,809,261) of the popular vote, and McCain 46% (56,361,250). Both gave very inspiring and gracious speeches last night.

Furthermore, the democratic party has dominated the Senate and House of Representatives — 56 to 40 for the Senate, and 254 to 173 for the House of Reps.

Statistics from CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/)

The weekend of Sep 12-14th at the Greenhill Invitational near Dallas, Texas, PathAspire staff member Xi Lin advanced to the octo-finals (top 16) and earned the first of two bids necessary to qualify for the Tournament of Champions!

Xi also took the trophy for 15th speaker in a field of 131 competitors.

Congrats Xi.

It’s official — The National Merit Scholarship results are out, and all semifinalists were officially announced and released to the public today. PathAspire is proud to announce that six members of the team have been named 2009 National Merit Semifinalists. Congratulations to Katherine Cai, Grace Do, Paul Gu, Derek Huang, Vishal Maini, and Eric McKay for qualifying for this prestigious program! They will be entered into “Round Two” of the competition to find out who will be named National Merit Scholarship Finalists. Best of luck to them, and another Congratulations!

For more information about the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), please visit our article here.

The most often referenced college rankings, US News and World Report College Rankings, have just been updated for 2009. Among the changes, Harvard College has retaken the #1 spot from Princeton University after 8 years.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college

According to Democratic sources, Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama has chosen Delaware Senator Joseph Biden as his vice-presidential candidate.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/23/biden.democrat.vp.candidate/index.html

Welcome to the PathAspire Blog. Here we will keep you updated on the lastest news related to college admissions and on major changes to the site.