<p>S may be amiably allowing the addition of any schools mom suggests because he hasn’t yet written any admission or scholarship essays . As those start piling up he may become more truculent. Or does he love to write? In our family, essays are a limiting factor. It isn’t just the time required, but the inclination is lacking so it becomes a huge chore. If that is the case have to pick and choose carefully even if you don’t mind spending $$ on apps. If you are looking for non-automatic merit, the essays take on huge importance. They can’t seem canned, or twisted from one app to fit in another. So have to husband that essay writing energy and use it wisely. To have a shot at getting admitted into at least one super reachy school, unless your S is really extraordinary in some way- personality/EC/etc. he does have to apply to many. But maybe not THAT many. He should trim that part of list, think about which of those schools he is most attracted to.</p>
<p>BTW, the Bama app and scholarship app are both extremely easy, no essay needed, just take a few minutes. Their honors apps (regular/UFE/CBHP) are a bit more involved.</p>
<p>I see he is applying to some cold weather schools. The UMN-TC app is very easy, 10 minutes. No essays. Scholarship and honors college consideration comes with the basic app. Since you are OOS, you can get the free golden gopher app if you ask. With his stats he will certainly get a scholarship that waives OOS tuition and probably other scholarships as well and don’t need to interview or anything. There isn’t anything automatic if he isn’t NMF, but it is very likely he’ll get a good package. I’m a big UMN promoter. They have terrific programs there, are underrated on USNews for some reason. Minneapolis is a wonderful city. I don’t know much about their CS though. If he doesn’t object, that is just such an easy one to add. Minimal effort.</p>