<p>My son is applying to Towson, Salisbury, UMBC, UT Dallas, SUNY Binghamton and USC. I think 6 schools is more than enough.</p>
<p>My only suggestion out there is to be sure to have at least 2-3 affordable safeties.</p>
<p>Salisbury is test optional with a 3.5 GPA (see its website). I like Salisbury, especially with its new Business building on the horizon. However, it is far and little there for Jewish activities.</p>
<p>USC is very hard to get into, but a great school. </p>
<p>SAT vs. ACT–I just don’t care that much anymore about these tests and I recommend not stressing your kids over these tests. If they want to re-take these tests, ok. If not, I would just let it go and find schools which match the scores your child has. If you think your kid has a score which is very close to a merit scholarship, then advocate for them to re-take the test if they want to.</p>
<p>mhc - thank you and I like your list - we overlap quite a bit. Can’t recall if you have a junior or a senior - but Indiana and Tulane give pretty quick answers - if you are a strong applicant. I know several students who have already been accepted at both schools - do not know of anyone who has been deferred or denied yet - so it seems to me they do a bit of cherry picking and send out some acceptances first. </p>
<p>mdcissp - like your list as well - 6 is a good number. Has your son submitted Towson yet? You might get a quick response there. We are still planning to look at Towson in the fall - not sure about Salisbury - maybe we’ll visit in the spring. I agree with you on the testing. We are planning a few private tutoring sessions - and then he’ll retake in February - hoping that will be it. I really hate seeing kids re-testing and stressing in the fall of senior year.</p>
<p>First, I am very sorry to hear about the tragic student death you were concerned about.
It is terrible and I hope the universities learn from this tragedy to cancel games during hazardous weather conditions. My heart goes out to the family.</p>
<p>Second, my son has not received any decisions from any of the schools he applied to. Is he supposed to hear early from Towson? Do you know when Towson starts to notify applicants?
I thought it was in February or I am mistaken?</p>
<p>Towson: Rockville Mom: I am very impressed with the presentation given by the head of the Towson undergraduate Business school. I think you will find that Towson has everything you are looking for and will be an excellent school for your son to apply to.
It is worth your time to visit.</p>
<p>mdcissp - I was under the impression that Towson released admissions decisions on a rolling basis, beginning in the fall, but I can’t locate the answer on their website. I am pretty sure that I recall some other posters mentioning how nice it was to have a yes from Towson in the fall - but maybe that has changed? Does anyone reading this know when Towson begins releasing decisions?</p>
<p>Ok - found the answer on Towsons admissions FB page - December 1 is when they start sending out decisions - rolling basis after that.</p>
<p>Emilybee–we were at U Rhode Island over the weekend-- it seemed really wonderful (D and I both preferred it to UNH by a lot)-- and sailing is a big sport there. The campus is so beautiful, the kids were friendly and bright-eyed, everyone very welcoming. There’s merit money, there’s an Amtrak station a mile away that connects to the whole Northeast corridor…might be worth a thought as another safety. D just loved it and it will be her safety (or maybe more.)</p>
<p>rockinmom, I’m not so sure that testing in Senior year is so bad. This is my third time around (D of the 16 Apps is a Senior) and I’ve always thought that Junior year is the hardest amd most stressful. It’s usually when they take the hardest courses that will count in their GPA, and senior year usually only first semester really “counts”.Plus there’s the test prep course and taking the test “for real” for the first time. Taking one last shot at the SAT or ACT early in the Fall of their Senior year seems to tie in and focus them on the application process. Besides, they’ve taken the test(s) once or twice before and maybe the prep course so they can coast on the stress but focus on the areas they need to improve in.</p>
<p>3 more apps & essay sets to go in my family and the stress here is over until March or April when daily envelope checks start and then the decision has to be made.</p>
<p>I am speculating that the state schools are going to be swamped with applicants this year because of the economy. Therefore, I told my son to get his applications in early with the thought of first come, first served. </p>
<p>Funny thing Rockville Mom, I checked the Towson web site and it says decisions go out Feb. 1. Perhaps this has changed? Is FB more current?</p>
<p>U. Rhode Island: This is the nicest time of year in the East with the trees changing colors before the cold winter sets in. I heard that it is a very cold winter at U. Rhode Island if that matters to you.</p>
<p>Haha, mdcissp, we live in Mass so the winters won’t surprise us. Since Emilybee’s S is applying to St. Lawrence, Ithaca, and Bates, sounds like he’s ready for a kind of cold that goes way beyond anything Rhode Island can produce! But for others it could definitely be an issue.</p>
<p>Climate is personal. Some people love the cold winters (ice hockey, skiing, hot chocolate, etc.) whereas others feel better in a warmer climate. For my kids, they just like being in a location which has fun things to do.</p>
<p>14 midcissp, but for us it’s less a trend than based a lot on idiosyncratic family and individual child considerations which the rest of you don’t have. 3 years ago my son only applied to 3 or 4 schools</p>
<p>But if I were going to extrapolate to any trend, I’d say that public schools which were normally safties in years gone by, will have many more high stat applicants in this economy who might not have applied before. Whereas some private schools or flagship State schools normally out of reach at other times may be more receptive to an applicant whose parents are willing to dip into savings to pay. Therefore one might need more “safties” this year but conversely might have a better shot at more private or out of state higher tuition reaches. At $45 to $65 a pop, I and my ex are both willing to forgo a bit this year to give our D the widest range of choices that she can qualify for. </p>
<p>In part it’s also that I am convinced that my two older children have benefitted enormously from going to the best schools they could get into. I want her to have that chance too.</p>
<p>But it’s based on a lot of different considerations, both positive and negative and choices. Every family makes its own.</p>
<p>Nice to have a chance to read the posts from the last few days. D’s first applicaton is due Nov 10 and she’s putting the finishing touches on it. Took the SAT for a second time earlier this month and is happy about her super score of 2100–her reading score went down quite a bit, CR up by 10 and she jumped a bit in math. While she was disappointed to see her writing score decline, we’re all very excited and proud of her super score!</p>
<p>She’s applying to: Kenyon, Elon, Bucknell, American, USC, UC Davis, University of Oregon, University of Washington, Puget Sound. </p>
<p>Definitely some reaches but some solid matches as well. She’s applying to one school that’s rolling and one EA but the others are all RD. It’s going to be a long five months! Best of luck to everyone who’s kids are submitting applications!</p>
<p>Gwen, my cousin’s son graduated from RI in 2009. He liked it as far as I know. </p>
<p>It’s a bit bigger school than my son really wants and if I can get him to add another school it wouldn’t be another safety but thanks for the suggestion. </p>
<p>He actually isn’t a huge fan of cold weather but we live in the Cap.District so he is use to it.</p>
<p>Re: Towson. My D applied last October and got her acceptance letter in mid January. We did hear earlier from URI (including merit $) UConn, and SUNY Albany. (applied to all in October)</p>
<p>Good luck to all those playing the waiting game right now!</p>
<p>Here’s my daughter’s list:
BU (ED), Northeastern (EA), NYU, American, UMDCP, Pitt and Towson. All applications are submitted except NYU and American, which she will only submit if she doesn’t hear good news from BU in mid-december. When I first discovered this thread, I considered her a B+ student, but thanks to a strong junior year and good ACT score, she’s more of an A- student.</p>
<p>Towson has rolling decisions and they used to turn around applications in a matter of weeks, but it seems to take longer the past year or two. I was hoping for a quick decision from Pitt, but they are reporting that her transcript is missing even though they sent a postcard back to her HS saying they received it. I tried to convince her to apply to Drexel or Indiana just to get a quick early acceptance, but she thought it was silly to apply to a school she wasn’t really interested in.</p>
<p>In terms of SAT/ACT, my daughter did better on the ACT and liked the test much better. She took a Kaplan SAT prep course that only helped minimally, and did ACT prep from the book on her own with more success. My older daughter’s scores on the two tests were almost identical. I think the best strategy is to have each kid try a practice test of each early in the process, and then pick one test to focus on.</p>
<p>Best of luck, everyone. Remember to stay calm when you first hear of someone getting an acceptance to a school you have not heard from–random events can determine the order, such as “we’ll; process the first 500 that came in, then the next 500 2 weeks from now” or processing OOS first, or 1 counselor is slow to finish preliminary review; etc</p>
<p>All the lists seem well thought out, whether they are 6 schools or 14. I look forward to hearing of pairs of you–or quints–meeting at Accepted Student Days (while your kids bond over the embarassment of their parents having met online)!</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone who is the parent of a senior. I know how stressful this time of year can be - hope everyone has happy results - please share your news with us!</p>
<p>mhc48 - I’m sure testing in the fall of senior year works for some kids - but I also know some who do worse in the fall - perhaps due to pressure. I also hate seeing kids who could be applying to EA or rolling schools postpone sending in apps - hoping their test scores will improve - those are usually the ones who don’t improve - and now they have squandered the opportunity to get earlier decisions.</p>
<p>By the way - I got a kick out of my new name - “rockinmom” ???</p>