Just to update, D17 did get her official admit letter from St Edward’s today. Probably they aren’t used to having to wait until mail gets to MA from TX before they can email other stuff.
I put it in the main thread, but, D was accepted to Rose-Hulman. It’s a bit unlikely as D is not thrilled with the location (Terre Haute, IN). We’ll see what the merit is before looking further – seems pretty unlikely it will be enough. It’s still cool to be accepted as it’s a top engineering school (that no one’s ever heard of!)
The more exciting news is that she was accepted into CSU honors! This makes the safety a good bit more appealing and she’s decided not to apply to CU-Boulder.
I love seeing the list – thanks @eandesmom! Once a week sounds good.
Regarding kids following their parents’ footsteps: D is going for EE like her Grandpa (my Dad), while H is an ME. S18 wants to major in CS, specializing in cybersecurity, which was my field, but he wants to double in business (not my thing!) Oldest D is a dancer who works at a circus and hopes to be a dance teacher. Not sure where the heck that came from. The D’s look like H’s Mom and very much like each other, while S looks like me.
@kt1969, I’ve heard Austin is a really cool city, especially for those into the music scene. Regarding the “boy overnight,” oldest D was telling D17 about the pros and cons of roommates and mentioned the very awkward time she walked in on her roommate and the BF… well, you can guess the rest!
@kt1969 if it makes you feel any better S still hasn’t received his official packet from Ursinus (and I do know they send one) and his email admittance was a week ago.
Hi guys. Silly question. Do all schools actually mail a letter/package snail mail? Or is notification only done by portal checking? Or both, maybe?
@london203, different schools handle it differently, I think, but of the 5 acceptances my D has gotten thus far, all eventually sent a letter/package. Not all schools sent emails or updated the portal, but all sent something in the mail–it sometimes was the last form of notification, but it’s the only form that all schools have given, if that makes sense.
@london203 - I think they all eventually send a hard copy. My D has received two in the mail first before the online notification, which makes for a nice surprise! When you see that BIG envelope hanging out of the mailbox, you know it’s something good.
@curiositycat333 S17 scores seem upside down to me. He can definitely do the STEM stuff, but it’s not his “thing.” He’s my mock trial, Model UN, politically aware guy. His grades in school are almost always better for his history and social science classes than for math. Our conversations often veer toward historical and/or geographical factors that are influencing current events. And he really never did any prep for SAT or ACT, so I put more stock in his actions & interests than in his standardized scores.
We did get some good news today–S got scholarship notification from MSU. He was awarded the University Scholars Award, Red Cedar Scholarship, and Presidential Study Abroad Scholarship. He’s still waiting to hear from the Honors College, so there may be more. It’s getting close to being economically feasible for him… 
@london203 Portal is often where you see the acceptance the fastest. Some schools send emails, some send snail mail later. Some only send snail mail. From what I remember from my D from 5 years ago, the Cal States only told her via the portal. We never got any mail. But all other schools she eventually get something in the mail.
@curiositycat333, @suburbancat, @klinska Thank you!
@MSU88CHEng congrats to your S on all those scholarships and good luck with the honors college!
regarding footsteps
H is an Aerospace Engineer, I am in Marketing/Business Development.
We have one Music Technology Major/Business Minor grad, a current junior majoring in Biology, S17 plans to do Environmental Studies/Policy/Energy Science and who knows where S19 will land. He’s been everything from Theoretical Physics, to Economics, to Business to Screen Writing!
S17 may come closest to footsteps as it is possible he will double major/minor in politics/poly sci of some sort. I was a poly sci major.
@london203 I agree, it varies. For my S he has heard via email first. One email telling him directly and one email telling him had a portal update. One of the schools had a packet arriving the day following the email, the other a week later. For the rest of his schools two state that they will show admission on the portal, two say by mail only and one doesn’t tell you either way. LOL!
That said, both schools that did email my S, didn’t say they would be emailing so…who knows.
@MSU88CHEng congrats on the scholarships!
@snoozn Congrats again on both, huge accomplishments!
@eandesmom, @klinska, @suburbancat
This is old news already, but regarding the nice handwritten “greetings and happy holidays” note from the alum - there was no email address - only a return label to the alum: Mrs. First Name Last Name and home address - so either that means a handwritten note back to the alum or an email to the Admissions Office to ask them to thank the alum?? Or thanking the AO for finding an alum to write a note? All of this is way too awkward for Coyote-son to contemplate – I can barely get him to handwrite thank you notes to relatives for gifts. I stand by my interpretation that this is a nice gesture/advertising outreach by the particular school to distinguish it from the other LACs. I appreciate the insider scoop from suburbancat that AOS are counting touches; but writing a thank you for a greeting/holiday card seems overkill to me.
Congrats to @MSU88CHEng and @suburbancat and @snoozin and everyone with news on latest outcome list. Thanks to @eandesmom for the hard work of keeping the list. Yay!!
On following footsteps:
My DH is a computer software engineer (majored in EE back in the day)
I majored in Environmental Science
Coyote-son’s current plan is to major in History (but says he’ll double major with Computer Science).
It’s been a major victory here to keep the college search primarily focused on LACs, because DH has told me in private that son shouldn’t major in history cause he’ll never get a job. DH was really disappointed when WPI came off the list, but you really can’t major in History there!
Coyote-son is one of those kids who really does like learning in just about every subject - and I expect he’ll change his major or at least expand into other areas he’s never had a chance to try: anthropology? Linguistics? Economics? And dare I say, maybe Ecology or Environmental Science? And maybe Computer Science if he finds a really great teacher - but he’s always been that big picture/I get the concepts kid in Math - doesn’t like finding and then correcting the simple mistakes that cause a,wrong answer (like missing a negative sign, or transposing a number). Hence the current trouble in Calculus – sometimes getting the wrongoing answer is because one missed the concept, not just a mechanical step!
Oh well - given LAC choices, I think Coyote-son will have the chance to explore and potentially expand his brain beyond his current expectations about what he likes.
Now, if only Thursday would get here so that we can see if he has more than one LAC to choose from. @-)
For the only acceptance received so far, U of Oregon, we learned first via portal and then today a big envelope came in the mail.
Bang, Bang, Bang. That is me thumping my head on the desk. I’m posting this at 12:15 tonight because S17 came to me at 11:49 and asked me to fill out the parent part of the GC packet for his CC application. At first I thought he wanted me to fill it out by morning, no he just wants it back by tomorrow evening so he can turn it in Wed. GC asked for 3 words, one will NOT be whatever the opposite of procrastinate might be. Since the packet hasn’t been turned in yet, that means he hasn’t met with the GC yet, which means it won’t happen till January. I guess that’s still in time for a Jan 15th deadline. In his defense she did ask he wait till this month, since she had a ton of EA/ED kids to get through. (We were told several times that GC would NOT be writing letters over the Xmas break.)
And earlier in the evening he informed me of the parent meeting for his main winter EC at 5pm tomorrow. Right before the holiday band performance. (Which he though was last week but wasn’t…) I am not a happy mom right now.
@london203 S17 showed me the email announcement for the Cal State admittance he saw on the portal last week. I guess I’m wrong that the only place you hear in that case is the Portal.
@curiositycat333 if I had a nickel for every time one of my sons pulled that, I’d be a very wealthy woman. I actually have a few good friends who had sons in s1’s grade that used to keep me up to date. He loved walking in the door and hearing, “Guess who I talked to today?”
Yup… he’s been doing this forever. Although he has gotten better. There was the infamous 5th grade project where S17 informed me on the way to his martial arts class, on a day I was babysitting a friend of his, and he had other homework that he had the major arts & crafts part of his huge social studies project due the next day. It had been assigned 2 weeks prior. I just look at him and told him, that HE would be telling this teacher why he didn’t turn it in on time.
Congrats to everyone on latest round of good news, and @snoozn Terre Haute is not without its charms!
Limited data set so far but responses have all come first by email. My son is not that into checking portals though, so who knows what we’re missing.
Mine hasn’t checked any portals. If it didn’t come by mail or email, I have no idea about it.
@CAtransplant, congrats on UofOR acceptance!
@curiositycat333, disorganization is not an issue for D17, but it certainly was with oldest D. In HS I still had to bring in her forgotten homework sometimes and when I found her senior year LoR it was dated Dec 15! S18 is incredibly organized but equally obstinate. Trying to get him to do something he doesn’t want is truly like trying to nail jello to a tree.
@93pilots, good to hear about Terre Haute. After we look into the school I’ll probably have questions…