<p>Congratulations DDahwan and Naggymom on the recent admissions. DDahwan. How cool to be done already.</p>
<p>expatCanuk; Isn’t it amazing the difference and impact one teacher’s attention can have! We have a similar story and I will always appreciate that teacher.</p>
<p>Linymom, I love it. I’m so glad to know I am not alone in the “signs of life” detective work. For me after too many silent days go by or even if it hasn’t been too many, l am known to share something like a humorous anecdote. The simple reply "Haha’, tells me what I need to know.</p>
<p>expatCanuk, you are right about the oos tuition – I am so behind in terms of $ considerations, I’ve been so worried about would DS get in anywhere. He did get offered a nice merit aid packet there. So, that brings it down to a more “normal” range. However, that same day, he did something so immature and impulsive (I’m embarrassed to say what!) that he is now grounded for 2 weeks. So now my worry has shifted to, once he’s in somewhere, is he going to do stupid things and get kicked out?! sigh. It feels strange to get these nice letters from UVM while knowing that my son has just done something so ridiculous and they don’t know yet this is the kid they’ve admitted.</p>
<p>May I ask which LACs your son is looking at?</p>
<p>I didn’t realize (and am surprised to hear) that UVM offers merit aid. I was under the impression that public universities didn’t offer merit aid to OOS students.</p>
<p>expatCanuck- University of Alabama and University of Arizona are both public and offered merit awards to my OOS D. Search merit scholarships on the schools’ websites for info.</p>
<p>Muhlenberg has a very active Hillel. It is one of if not the biggest organizations on campus. They have a beautiful new building and offer many different types of services and activities. My son is a Junior at Muhlenberg. However, and please don’t take this the wrong way, if your son gets mostly B’s then (as maybe you already know) Muhlenberg would probably be a “reach” school. I did see that you said his GPA was between 3.5 and 3.9? That seems more than just a “B” student to me so in that case it wouldn’t be a reach. Another school you might want to think about in Quinnipiac. It’s in Hamden, CT 10 mins from New Haven. They had no classes for both days of Rosh Hashanah which makes it easier for the kids to come home for the High Holidays. Good luck.</p>
<p>D took her first ACT today. Said it was difficult. Still, we’re hoping for the best.
I can’t believe I’m on this merry-go-round again…
Her PSAT scores were good, but not National Merit good, which is fine, of course. Over on the Class of 2015 thread, I feel a bit out of place, as the kids there (as reported by the parents, anyway) are pretty much all testing superstars.</p>
<p>So, I’m going to hang around here for awhile. Are the older kids home yet for you guys?
S is back next Friday.</p>
<p>expat: miami of ohio offered my oldest son a LOT of money - & we are out of state. They have a chart posted on their website & if you plug in your numbers you can see the guaranteed range of scholarship for oos based on your child’s stats.</p>
<p>college4three: second S took his ACT yesterday, too. Also said it was hard. We, too, are hoping for the best. When I was on class of 2013 thread for 1st son who had amazing stats, I still felt like he was an under achiever. Haven’t even tried class of 2015 for 2nd son since he has a 3.4 GPA and doesn’t have the test confidence of my oldest. My third starts HS next year & she is completely different from my boys. Can’t even imagine what thread I will find for her. </p>
<p>S1 is coming home from 1st semester freshman year this Thursday night. College has been an adjustment for him but I think mostly a good adjustment - & not just because he does laundry & folds his own clothes now. Good luck to all those college students on their final exams.</p>
<p>Once we have S2’s ACT scores we will have a better idea for school search. Think we want to stay midwest. Ideas for midwestern “B” student schools that offer merit $$?</p>
<p>Tootired, what’s your budget, and which types of schools might your son be interested in? I’m familiar with the Hillels at almost all of the flagship and major directional Midwestern institutions, but less so with the smaller schools. </p>
<p>I would start by looking at UIowa, any of the Ohio public schools, Illinois Wesleyan, College of Wooster, and possibly Butler</p>
<p>Too tired: My younger D (Class of 2015) is so different from her sibs, too. I’ve got my virtual feet planted in this thread. It is a valuable resource for all kinds of students.</p>
<p>Here’s a data point for folks concerned that their student’s stats
are too low:</p>
<p>My son applied EA to 6 U.S. LACs (and 2 Canadian schools).
So far, he’s been rejected by 1, WL’d by another (which I treat
as a rejection – to me, ‘wait list’ means “We don’t really want you,
but we’ll allow you in if no one more qualified comes along.”),
and accepted with healthy merit awards from 2. I anticipate
that he’ll receive one more acceptance and one rejection.
(Oh, and he was accepted at both Canadian schools.)</p>
<p>His intended areas of study are Environmental Science and
International Relations. His GPA is 2.8, his SAT 1830,
and his ACT 29. (Doubtless, the 31 ACT Science and 780 SAT
World History scores help.)</p>
<p>How has everyone’s freshmen’s first semesters been? My son has one more exam tomorrow. I think he has had a good semester at Goucher, done well, made friends, enjoyed activities. It has been a good fit for him, as we had hoped, but of course not without some bumps that may be typical for freshmen. </p>
<p>I think UVM highest merit scholarship for OOS is 12K, which brings the total (including room and board) to 38K. Still steep for public uni but might be less expensive than some private LAC. I do too question if OOS public would be that much better than lesser ranked instate.
But it seems that quite a few students around here choose OOS public (maybe they get big merit awards?).</p>
<p>It is a good choice for a Jewish B student looking for a nice active Jewish community in a Rah Rah school in a college town not far from a city (in this case - 40 minutes from Kansas City).</p>
<p>mozika, I had that Q too; UVM is smaller though than U-Mass, which would be better for DS. It seems like DS and a few of his friends from school got offered Honors at UVM and the full oos merit award.But today, he is now saying he’d like to go to Elon (too bad it’s too late for ED).</p>
<p>naggymom, I think it’s good to have choices for next year, and if after all the decision are in and OOS public is clearly #1 choice/best fit I have to confess I would pay.</p>
<p>I’ve not posted here much since D1 went through the 2011 admissions cycle, because I gathered up so much great info for D2 back then. I’m checking back in to report that D2 was accepted at Pitzer, to much rejoicing. Jewish geography being what it is, it took only about five minutes for two friends to ask me if I knew so-and-so, whose daughter had also been admitted to Pitzer. Sure enough, so-and-so and I went to college together. Small world!</p>
<p>Hi ST congratulations. S1 was part of the 5C community and it is amazing. He wasn’t active with Hillel but birthright was wonderful! He was even given the opportunity to do “volunteer work” at our local JCC in order to earn a $500 stipend toward the trip. He went freshman year no waitlist issues at all!</p>
Jewish geography being what it is, it took only about five minutes for two friends to ask me if I knew so-and-so, whose daughter had also been admitted to Pitzer. Sure enough, so-and-so and I went to college together. Small world!</p>