<p>mspearl, it is great to hear that she loves all these schools. My DS would hate the size of Ohio, but with her academic interests it is great that she will have so many opportunities at the school. How is the financial aid there?
Miami of Ohio is one school that DS would consider if he livd in Ohio, and I have a friend that attended Ohio U and loved it.</p>
<p>Mizzbee, the total coa in state is around $22,000. I don’t think their merit scholarships are as generous as Miami but there are some available- the morrill scholars program looks like a possibility for her. There are students from our county that have received it, I think because our area is considered appalachia??. She exceeds the gpa and test scores required too.</p>
<p>I never thought she would feel so enthusiastic over a big university, though she has talked about osu over the years. We still have more visits and I think she realizes there are financial considerations. I think it is humorous how much she enjoys every college we visit. I always thought she was kind of picky but I guess not!</p>
<p>Her dad thinks there is irony in the fact she constantly complains about where she lives but for college admissions what she claims to resent/hold her back, may help give her an edge!</p>
<p>Morrill Scholars Program at Ohio State</p>
<p>Just talked to a teacher at my daughters highschool and was informed that my county is most definitely considered an appalachian county by Ohio State. Also googled it 
and it is considered appalachia by the governors office too. A graduate at D highschool this year was a recipient of this scholarship. That is good news. I was never so happy to be considered a hillbilly in all my life. </p>
<p>But if anyone has any other knowledge of this scholarship, please educate me. Another question, does living in an appalachian county give D an “edge” at other schools besides OSU? Will they take this into consideration? Very curious about this whole thing.</p>
<p>And concerning our geographical area, Is this why, on the extremely off chance that a graduate from D highschool applies to big name schools like Cornell and Harvard (this year was an acceptance at Cornell and wl at Harvard, last year another wl at Harvard) this tends to happen?? (Get accepted/ waitlisted) And this is a clearly disadvantaged highschool wih limited courses/few AP classes.) Just wondering…</p>
<p>mspearl - here are some links from CC about that scholarship - it’s great she loved the school!</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ohio-state-university-columbus/1032151-official-morrill-scholars-program-class-2015-a.html?highlight=morrill+scholars+program[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ohio-state-university-columbus/1032151-official-morrill-scholars-program-class-2015-a.html?highlight=morrill+scholars+program</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ohio-state-university-columbus/432115-morrill-scholars-program.html?highlight=morrill+scholars+program[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ohio-state-university-columbus/432115-morrill-scholars-program.html?highlight=morrill+scholars+program</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ohio-state-university-columbus/793537-morrill-scholars-program-ohio-state.html?highlight=morrill+scholars+program[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ohio-state-university-columbus/793537-morrill-scholars-program-ohio-state.html?highlight=morrill+scholars+program</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ohio-state-university-columbus/142479-morrill-scholars-program.html?highlight=morrill+scholars+program[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ohio-state-university-columbus/142479-morrill-scholars-program.html?highlight=morrill+scholars+program</a></p>
<p>I just checked out the website, and the essay question looks great. She can talk about her childhood in the appalachians, discuss her desire to study ESL/linguistics,etc.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! Appreciate it. Her new facebook status says “visited osu. Loved it.” <3</p>
<p>mspearl, I think geography can play a role in admission, especially if the area is under represented.</p>
<p>My older D was one of only 4 students from our state in her entering college class at a selective LAC. It’s hard to know for sure, but as schools are trying to build an interesting class, you never know what distinguishes one student from another, since so many have similar scores/GPAs/interests.</p>
<p>The other 3 students were children of wealthy doctors in other regions of the state and were also an ethnic minority for our state. D was not a minority, but from an urban public HS with a very low graduation rate and a high poverty rate. Our income was not poverty-level (no free/reduced lunch) but just above. We always joke that for her school she represents the “poor white trash contingent” of our state.</p>
<p>Collegequery: the poor white trash contingent - that is great. Hey, if it helps get her into college I will be the best redneck around- Lol. I can actually look to several close friends for advice. I say that with love and they know how much I love them. </p>
<p>D left the house very confident and relaxed for the act. This test doesn’t “scare” her like the sat she says. I don’t know why.?? she only had to drive 10 min. today instead of 35-40 min. for previous tests. She will be with many close friends. Perhaps she will get a good score.</p>
<p>If she at least is average in math we will be ecstatic. Probably do flips naked! Oh dear have been up over 24 hours, time for bed.</p>
<p>DS is up for the ACT as well. Please send positive vibes, since he didn’t really get the chance to study this week.</p>
<p>Good luck to msdaughter and anyone else taking the ACT today! Up over 24 hours, mspearl? I hope you sleep all day!</p>
<p>Well, S had his final day of school two weeks ago and he’s been to Detroit, Iowa, and Alabama in the last 2 weeks. And he starts work full time on Monday. He’s got two weeks off between now and the first day of school, and they’re both filled in with travel (for fun, not college). Poor kid doesn’t have much down time over the summer! At least he loves his job, but still. I’d love for him to have a month with no alarm clock!</p>
<p>mspearl - it’s funny that at this point, after all the digging around for colleges,your D likes her state flagship the best at this point - that’s kind of where we’re headed too! I think my son’s list may be shrinking down to about 4 schools, two of them big state schools and two of them medium to largish privates. The more I’ve learned about one of our state schools, the more it seems to offer what he needs. I still wish he could get out of our state and spread his wings, and I like small to medium sized schools better than huge schools, but still - I feel like he has good options. I’m starting to think that his application process may be pretty straight forward and non stressful. (Ha - someone remind me of that in November!). We shall see.</p>
<p>Anyone else taking the ACT today?</p>
<p>MizzBee - has he taken it before?</p>
<p>good luck all the ACT parents! Hope all your kids get the best of the scores they need!</p>
<p>Good luck to ACT takers!</p>
<p>Looking back at the GPA conversation, my school ranks based on weighted but UW appears on the transcript. My W GPA has fallen due to art, cooking, and my favorite-Latin (unweighted versus honors/AP French and Spanish.) </p>
<p>Every time I visit GC she says “you know you could be valedictorian if you had taken French or Spanish.”</p>
<p>CPU - I suspect the schools you are targeting may be Latin snobs. So it is probably worth it based on where you are aiming (Wellesley, Smith etc).</p>
<p>It used to make me angry when I super cared about rank/GPA, but I don’t anymore. I even considered dropping Latin last year. </p>
<p>It made me sick how obsessed and competitive everyone (including myself) had become, and we were all friends. </p>
<p>Now I just try my best in all of my classes; I’ve matured enough to know that GPA alone isn’t a make or break deal. </p>
<p>ACT:
I didn’t like the time constraints of the ACT, but I did OK on it. The science part was painful. I was running out of time so I randomly bubbled in half of the questions and came out with a 23. So ACT is out. </p>
<p>I hope your kids do well! I have one more test sitting in October (SAT IIs- bio, ushistory, and mathII) and the June scores come out the 23 for all those who took a June test!</p>
<p>CPU - As MIMK6 mentioned, I have noticed a similar trend in my local high school over the years where students are ranked 15th and get into Harvard and the valedictorians end up in Rice. Some of the colleges look at how well you did in what you took and also whether you are following your passions. So if a class is regular but it is in music, debate or something which you are interested in that makes up more than doing every class at a higher level to control your GPA/rank.</p>
<p>My S produced the end of the year film for his Latin class and he included a screen with this line as a reminder to the school’s Spanish students:</p>
<p>DAMNANT QVOD NON INTELLIGVNT</p>
<p>Good Luck ACT takers!!!</p>
<p>My son is awake, not for the ACT, but he is helping out with a kickball game for kids with Autism and other disabilities. His primary EC/community service is being part of Buddy Sports program where they mentor kids with disabilities through sports. He pretty much does this every weekend yearround. He started with it in 8th grade. My nephew has what my sister calls “recovered Autism” (but I call high functioning Asperger’s Syndrome) and dealing with his cousin got my son interested in this EC.</p>
<p>mspearl: I’d be careful with those naked backflips – if anyone finds out it could jeopardize your redneck hillbilly status. ;)</p>
<p>CPU: [Latin</a> & Verbal SAT Scores | Salvete discipuli!](<a href=“http://salvetediscipuli.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2008/08/15/latin-improves-verbal-sat-scores/]Latin”>Latin Improves Verbal SAT Scores | Salvete discipuli!) Latin correlates with higher SAT verbal scores. Latin students score (on average) ~150 points higher on SATcr than students of other languages. Now we all know that correlation =/ causation, so we can argue whether Latin improves verbal abilities, or whether being smart and verbal inspires people to take Latin. But either way, aren’t you glad you did?</p>
<p>PN: at this point, our flagship is high up on my D’s list too. A surprise, since she started off saying she wanted to go away/back East. But we took her to visit, and she liked what she saw. :)</p>
<p>seiclan: what a wonderful generous way for your S to start his summer!</p>
<p>GOOD LUCK to all the ACT’ers!!!</p>
<p>S is also at the ACT. Third time’s the charm? His older sister took it 4 times!</p>
<p>First time was sophomore year and he scored same as his sister’s 4th (and highest) score. Second time was in April and he felt very ill, and had same composite score as 1st, just distributed differently. His closest friends have scored very high, including one who has perfect ACT and SAT scores, so I think he is trying to keep up. </p>
<p>He took a quiz that’s supposed to predict if you’ll do better on the ACT or SAT, and he came up in the middle - neither test was preferred. But depending on what today’s scores are, we might look into the SAT for fall.</p>
<p>He mentioned this morning he thought they should offer standardized tests to teenagers at times OTHER than early in the morning. </p>
<p>Wedding anniversary was last week. Earlier in the week I asked S what he was going to get H and I for our wedding anniversary. He had that panicked look (no job, no money) and asked what we wanted. I told him we wanted him to study for the ACT. He said he would study on Thursday (our anniversary). </p>
<p>He did end up studying some this past week. I told him that it was up to him - he was the one who wanted to take it again and wants a higher score. A higher score will give him more options and possibly more $ at some schools.</p>