I’m pleased that as of last night, my DS journey through the process has ended. He applied to 7, all EA. I’m still not sure why he applied to Kansas State other than it was useful as a bit of a benchmark money-wise. He was accepted almost immediately from there. The 6 main contenders were GaTech (his #1), Michigan, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Tennessee. major is Nuke engineering, but the ability to continue bassoon was very important to him. He did not get into GT which threw the race wide open. Deferred from Michigan (still). Accepted at PSU (in-state, no merit), Wisconsin (no merit), Purdue (no merit) and Tennessee (volunteer scholarship plus a 2k nuke dept scholarship).
We had a heart to heart and it was determined that neither Purdue nor Wisconsin were XX thousand dollars a year better than Penn State or Tennessee. So it was quickly reduced to 2. He auditioned at both for minor in music schools. No word on scholarship yet for either, but it is more likely from UTK than PSU. Finally visited UTK and he liked it a lot. Couple that with feeling ‘wanted’ (communication, money, etc) and he made his decision last night, it’s UTK.
Here’s the thing. I made him apply to UTK on October 31. It was not on his radar previously (which is kind of my fault because I did a lot of screening for him due to his crazy schedule). After getting accepted, he still didn’t give it much consideration because it wasn’t on his original list. Starting late December, I started forwarding him information on why it was a really good fit for him (Fusion energy science research at graduate level, relationship with ORNL, etc) and he started paying it a little attention. Then I explained that just because I did a bad job on this school in realizing the fit earlier, does not make it a second tier option. Ultimately he was won over by the school (I only supply info, I don’t push him in any direction).
The moral of the story is to ensure that your kids have an open mind about the process. What they might think will happen when they start might be completely different to how it ends. You don’t know how the dice will roll and what you think is a bad roll may turn out to be the best roll. I honestly believe that UTK is a better all-around fit for him than GT would have been. Department rankings and opportunities trump overall school rankings.