Anybody have the link to the Amtrak ticket discount for student/parent taking college-visit trips?
@sseamom Your daughter is very responsible . Sheās in a good place. My son is very similar to your daughter in that he understands the financial implications and can see himself happily attending any of the schools heās applied to.
Thanks @EastGrad for keeping the acceptances tidy! Iād be helping out but Iām traveling and living life for real rather than being online as much as usual 
We visited a college today (Eckerd College), knowing that it was technically closed. Managed to wander around and even talk to a professor dedicated enough to be at work during break. There was a lot of construction, and with no students it really didnāt shine the way it would when full of life. On the other hand, it was possible to see the size and geographic advantages. Might have to send him back for an accepted student event.
Mainly Iām just loving the one-on-one time with my son!
@crowlady I live in the pacific northwest nowā¦but grew up in Florida and I would think the 85 degree weather this week would be rather nice and possibly a selling point (meanwhile we have 18 inches of snow in the northwest!)ā¦I would encourage your S to have an open mind and possibly re-visit the campus when students are there. I have heard wonderful things about Eckerd! I attended one of the Florida flagship universities and lived for 4 years after college in the Clearwater area and absolutely loved that part of Floridaā¦especially when there were blizzards in other parts of the country and we were playing beach volleyball every Friday evening through the winter!
@EastGrad in the interest of moving you toward āsenior memberāā¦could you please fix the double entry for Univ. of Central Florida on the acceptance thread (@2muchquan this will impact your summary as well)? OCD I know, but it is bugging me. I read the thread regularly to see acceptance updates (and quietly celebrate all!), but not yet to the point of posting S16ās acceptance info or fixing small details like that. Thanks!
@4kids2graduate I grew up in Florida too, so Iāve loved being back in the home habitat. Amazing birds, and the Dali Museum had a very cool Escher exhibit. But the 85 degree weather is a bit eerie ā it is too warm even for a Fla winter! S seems a bit put off by the small size, and the possible lack of research opportunities outside marine science. Still, Iām glad heās considering it ā I donāt think anything is off the table at this point. He still has 5 schools to hear back from, three on the west coast which may be his vibe. And he is not sneezing at the full ride at the nearest safety school, either.
@skates76 @dcplanner While we are keeping our options open, I think it is great that your kids are narrowing things down and are mature enough to release their spots to others. Iād say hang on to them until there are no doubts, which might come sooner in your cases.
I spoke to D16 and she agreed to withdraw the two applications discussed earlier and to keep the other six alive. One of the two was financially untenable anyway and the other was a triple duplicative safety she has not visited yet.
At this point she has seen one of her top three schools quite often including attending open houses and a month long summer internship program, which is really what hooked her. The second she has visited twice, once on an alumni weekend (we just happened into that going for a Sunday visit when we thought the campus would be mostly closed in the summer) and once for an open house. If it is going to be affordable it would be after an invite for their big scholarship weekend (invites go out in January, crossing fingers).
Speaking of the lovely weather in Florida, her third of the top trio is UCF where we spent Thanksgiving vacation and several visits to the campus for a football game, carnival and a day long, one on one tour of everything we wanted to see and meet. It went from safety to in the running for number one on that trip. Loved the Honors Collegeā¦and I would not mind visiting again, just for the school of course (-;
After that she has two financial reaches and one additional catch-all safety left, so we are comfortable cutting loose the two schools at the bottom of her list and still being in good position to both make a decision in time and to have plenty of back-up options.
@crowlady On a totally different subjectā¦ I never heard how things went for your S in November with NaNoWriMo. I remember you talking about it awhile back, and I thought it was a really amazing endeavor! It was something that was totally outside any of my childrenās pervue. It is definitely an astounding pursuit! I would love to hear how the process went for your S.
@4kids2graduate Ah, NaNoWriMo. He crashed and burned earlier than usual this year, I am quite sure that college stress made it worse. At one point he gave himself through December to work on all those words, but now we are at the end of December and he might only have worked on it once since November 15 (last night). He had spent October prepping a rough outline, but found he should have made it more detailed.He also realizes heās never worked on the ending of a novel, though he has started several. I tried very hard not to keep asking about it. He thinks about it all the time and gives himself enough grief; he doesnāt need me poking at his writerās block. Heās learned a lot even if he hasnāt yet produced his masterpiece. Weāll see in the next few months if heās kept enough passion to take a gap year and work on it more, or if heās developed his passion for psychology research enough that he wants to dive into that immediately. I would not be surprised either way.
Universities of Central Florida merged, @4kids2graduate! Happy to oblige. Looking forward to your return to the nest, @crowlady, but enjoy your flight. We would happily take the top of that 85 degree weather.
Question - why do some put deposits down on 2 different schools?
We spent over $1K in application fees & that is with some waivers! For each school there were the ACT scores & transcripts to pay for from 2 different colleges b/c her pre-calc class was through the local Community College & her Science Research Program through a different University. Canāt imagine what the total cost would be if I added in the visits!
I donāt have that spreadsheet in front of me, and there are many spreadsheets related to the epic college search for D16, but for eight applications I think we spent about $400. Three schools sent application fee waivers or gave them out for going to an open house/tour and one has no app fee. SAT + ACT to each school, CSS profile for two schools. I did not keep track of how much was spent on school visits, but quite a lot I imagine, though they were really neat experiences and the more distant ones that required overnight stays, or in one case airline tickets, were turned into road trip vacations for D16 and in or the entire family in some cases. Other than a harrowing visit to Rutgers because of a snowstorm we drove in on the way home, all were quite enjoyable, plus the added bonus of souvenirs (always bought on the clearance racks of course).
We also spent over a 1,000 on applications, including 2 fee waivers. We didnāt spend anything on school visits, since the schools we visited were part of our vacation travel and the rest will be attended as part of admitted students days.
Looking back now, I think it was a smart decision to apply to so many schools. It is completely unpredictable were a high stats kid can ended up in this game.
I guess when you add in the college visits, we did spend a lot there. We started the spring S16 was a sophomore and made a road trip out of each one - Boston, Maine, DC, Pittsburgh and Philly (that one was just a day trip). Some places we visited more than once. We pretty much stayed within a 6 hour driving limit. I think D18 will venture further. She was with us on all these tripsā¦and claims she didnāt really like any of the schools we already visited.
According to all my letters of acceptance , it was explicitly stated that you could only send deposits to one school at a time and that if you sent deposits to another school, they could withdrawal any merit or financial aid offers given at time of acceptance . Does anyone elseās say this? Are you just talking about housing deposits and can you send a housing deposit without accepting admission?
@carolinamom2boys - perhaps i misunderstood, but I saw posts 10538 & 39 so was curious about it.
He just finished the last of ten Conmon App apps. It says at the end that you can only make one deposit and you agree to that. I thought someone mentioned - somewhere on CC - that they were making two and was wondering if t was allowed, perhaps for a common app and non-common app school? I think we have a clear favorite. After Feb, thatāll either be solidified or more visits will ensue. I donāt want to make more than one deposit, but can see why some would, maybe for housing purposes.
@Kat2013 I saw it too, and I was confused. Thatās why I asked for clarification , because Iām new to this with my oldest son , and I didnāt know if I misread or misunderstood.
Iāve learned so much about the college āprocessā with D16 - Iāll be starting earlier with S18. Heās coming along with us to the scholars weekend at OU . They pick up part of the hotel and some meals so itās kind of like a free college visit for him:-) I doubt heāll end up at OU but I think itās good to look at a variety of schools and weāll also visit UT Dallas on the way home.
D didnāt apply to any schools using the Common App. We put down a deposit at one school, but I havenāt seen anything on any other letter sheās received about not being allowed to place another deposit somewhere. I should clearly double-check though. Wouldnāt it be great if all the acceptances and financials came through at the same time so you didnāt have to play wait and see games and worry about making deposits that you may end up losing?