Eandesmom: I lurk, but I’ve had a few posts, lol. My son has thus far been accepted to Colorado Boulder, Colorado State, Appalachian State, Ole Miss, University of Alabama, University of Kentucky, Western Carolina, Samford University ($9,500 per year merit), Berry College ($9,500 per year merit), and High Point University ($5,000 per year merit). He was deferred to regular decision for Furman University and University of South Carolina. Waiting to hear from Clemson and Virginia Tech. (No rejections yet.)
@klinska so happy for your D! Fingers crossed for that merit letter to show up. Often they are sent separately so I would not despair at all!
@eandesmom My S is accepted at MSU with $8000/year merit, $3000/year legacy, and a 1-time $3000-$5000 study abroad award. Also in at SUNY at Albany with $4300 per year merit (in state for us). Still waiting on Buffalo. No other applications…
@klinska --Congrats on American. I’ve heard great things about their programs!
S is enjoying a few days of relaxing now that his break has finally started. He’s out with buddies tonight, hiking in a snowy park (in the dark?) Whatever works to burn off energy! I’m finishing wrapping, making some cookies and candies, and enjoying the Christmas spirit. Our new tradition is Star Wars movies on Christmas Eve (started last year, lol) so we have tickets for Rogue One tomorrow afternoon. Merry Christmas, everyone!
Congrats at @klinska! I love Christmas cookies and movies does sound like such a nice time! Great news for her!
@klinska My DD16 got into American last year. No merit, no financial aid…just loans. Much as I liked the school, it just wasn’t doable for us.
I will be back to catch up and thank you all for the updates both in the thread and PM, I’ll get the outcomes updated!
Good mail day here. Accepted to Allegheny with 12K per semester. Which exceeded the NPC (10K per semester) so very happy about that. It is now the most affordable OOS option and finally one under 40k! With the opportunity for more as they have reached out about a non major music scholarship. His first personalized letter in a packet too which definitely made an impression, it talked about his theater work. No min gpa on the scholarship, love that!
Of course a packet from UVM from his college arrived and that is the one that went up to his room with him.
Hi Guys - been reading along and wanted to share that Daughter got another acceptance - to University of Redlands -with a nice merit scholarship.
Congrats to @eandesmom’s E for the nice package at Allegheny!
Congrats to @klinska on AU acceptance! I’m sure merit is on the way.
Congrats to @CAtransplant on Redlands package!
TacoSon was accepted to Pitt in October (rolling), and yesterday received a package in the mail. It was a drawstring bag with the School of Business logo, but it was really nicely presented with a note from the department. It’s not like our kids really need yet another drawstring bag, but how nice was it that a big school would think to send anything at all. I wish more schools were tuned in to the fact that little tokens mean a lot to these kids who are making decisions.
@“Queen’s Mom” that’s what I’m afraid of. This is our first encounter with an NPC that came in a lot lower than the actual. I guess that gives us an out, but sure doesn’t leave a good taste in my mouth.
Congrats on all the new acceptances.
As for the come on down and apply so we can reject you emails, I actually undercounted. When I went into my spam folder, there were almost twice as many there!
Techson’s friend is at Skidmore and encouraged him to apply but we looked at the website and I honestly told him that his numbers were not that competitive. Unfortunately, he is only now realizing that a little bit more work in HS might have resulted in In addition, I have decided not to apply to any schools that ask for the CSS.
@snoozn, I’m envious – I spent one Christmas in Germany back in my travel writer days. Are you in the southern mountains? Enjoy the snow. It is pouring rain here on Christmas Eve! 
I’m so sorry about your D’s WPI deferral. Ugh. That makes no sense to me. I hope she gets better news in the RD round. Is WPI high on her list? Kudos to her on those DE grades!!
Congrats to all on new acceptances and YAY @eandesmom on the $$ from Allegheny!
@klinska, congrats on your D’s ED news and my fingers are crossed for a big merit award that has just not reached you yet.
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays everyone! 
Quick update before I go to bed…admit envelope came from Lewis & Clark and no mention of merit, so that’s a bummer. NPC had said $10K. Not sure it’s high on D17’s list, but I think it might be a good fit, so was bummed not to get anything.
Happy holidays to all!
@kt1969 Congrats on Lewis & Clark! Maybe merit notification comes separately later? That’s how it was for us with U of Oregon. I don’t know if you saw, but my D got admitted to U of Redlands - same merit package as yours - you haven’t visited it, right?
@CAtransplant - Congrats on your D’s admission to U of Redlands. We are East Coasters with some interest in CA schools and that was one we looked at, but D did not do the application (yet). I’d be interested to hear what you liked about it. My D has 2 Southern CA school admits (Cal Lutheran, which I liked, with a generous merit aid package, and Loyola Marymount, which she really liked, without any info on aid yet), but I’d still like her to look into other options if there are good schools that are offering good merit options for B students. Thanks.
@suburbancat I don’t know anyone personally who’s gone there but I remember my husband talking to a colleague who said his niece was doing really well there and that it was a little different from some other schools. I think he mentioned the program they have where you can create your own major - my daughter thinks it’s too hippie-ish for her as they all live in the same dorm and don’t have grades - but it seems like a friendly school and I did hear they give good merit aid to students with good stats. My D’s grades are a bit higher than the title of this thread and they may give more merit aid to students with higher than their average GPA but I’m not sure. We haven’t visited yet so depending on where else she is admitted we will make the decision whether to visit later on.
D has a college-stuff-only account she shares with me. I un-subscribed like a mad-woman during the initial deluge which was all over the map. Schools with 80%+ selectivity, Ivies, WUSTL of course, schools that didn’t even offer her major which she had included on the PSAT/SAT forms. So either the unsubscribing actually works or they’ve just forgotten about her. Either way, good riddance!
Rankings: meh, we don’t pay attention. I only know the ranking of one of her schools and that’s because they put it in something like 64 pt font at the end of every email. I’m glad rankings are not much of a thing here or on the main 2017 thread.
@CoyoteMom, one of those beastly x-ray machines ate my S’s belt! H and I were watching from the veranda level above as the kids made their way through security (going to visit grandparents on their own). They were standing around the machine for a really long time, talking to TSA agents and we wondered what was going on. Once they got to the gate area he called and said his belt had gotten lost in the machine and they were never able to find it. A belt! :-??
(Glad your license came to a better end.)
@klinska, first, congrats! My understanding is that finaid office does need-based while admissions handles merit and they are often sent out at different times. Just depends on the school. Good luck!
@tacocat333, I agree about the trinkets. Rose-Hulman sent a cute pair of cardboard “nerd glasses” with their acceptances. Sure, D is 18, but she had fun with those, we took pics, she made everyone in the family try them on including the dog. Yay for trinkets!
@eandesmom, very nice to get a personal note. D hasn’t gotten any, but I remember how cool it was for oldest D when she got a couple.
@cameo43, sure I’m in Germany now, but you used to be a travel writer – how cool is that! We flew into Frankfurt, down to Heidelberg for a recovery day, on to Rothenberg ob der Tauber which I love and which at Christmas I LOVE (for the non-travel writer types, it’s a beautifully preserved walled medieval city, but it is also still a real city). Went by Ulm to climb to the top of the Minster. We’re now in Garmisch. We’ll do the Partnach Gorge tomorrow, other stuff, head north and hit Neuschwanstein which the kids will love. Then visit the tiny village we used to live in and take some side trips to the village H’s ancestors are from and the Wormser Dom where my great-great-grandfather was baptized (Dad was quite surprised to find out a branch of his family was Catholic!) Well, don’t get me going on travel/genealogy lest we be here all day…
WPI was high on the list, but luckily not number one. She doesn’t have a strict ranking system aside from RIT as #1. I say she has globs, which are not related to selectivity or USNWR rankings. The globs also tend to squish around and re-arrange themselves. Out of three globs, let’s say WPI is towards the lower end of the top glob. See how much easier my system is to understand!
@snoozn , your trip sounds amazing! I’m so glad you have this opportunity for an amazing family trip. I love your “globs” system of classification and will likely borrow the terminology because it pretty much sums up TacoSon’s feelings. He has a number of schools that he likes and will give him the education and experience he is seeking. The lower end of the top glob makes perfect sense to me! And any school that sends a token of its esteem will go up a half a glob or so, I’m sure.
@snoozn: I love all of the places you are visiting on this trip! I remember the first time I saw Neuschwanstein, it had been on my to-do list since I saw the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film. I don’t know why, but somehow I got the idea that English was spoken just about everywhere in Germany and when I arrived in Mittenwald after flying into Munich, I went to an inn and asked for a room ( in my hastily -acquired traveler’s German). They brought me a sandwich. I thought, maybe the sandwich comes with the room? UM, no. Turns out I had asked for something other than a room! LOL. One of many little misadventures on that early trip. But I had a great time. LOVE the little villages and Munich too. I’m glad you are all able to enjoy this trip and get away from all the college season brouhaha! I think most if not all of us wish we could get away from it too! Also love your description of the glob system. That was my D as well. She couldn’t care less about rankings, etc. She read a lot and just chose schools that sounded good to her, and sought advice from her college counselor at school and reached out to alums who were attending those colleges. We were able to visit all on her original list, and then some of the globs just oozed away.
@CAtransplant Unfortunately, I don’t think so, because some folks on the L&C thread got their awards a while ago. So I guess she is out of luck. From my calculations, 92% of kids get either merit or need-based aid, so while we haven’t heard about need-based, I’m not expecting anything there, which means she is one of very few with no aid at all. I shouldn’t be surprised, I guess, because it was a reach for her, and she is def at the lower end of their stats. But still kind of a bummer. I hate when NPCs are wrong. That’s cool that your D got into Redlands also! Kind of surprised my D got the same aid package as yours since mine really does fit in the stats for this thread. They also gave her $5K in need-based aid, which no other school has done. We have NOT visited, but I’m guessing that my D will want to before she makes any decisions. We are in MA so it’s a hike to visit and honestly I’m not enthused about sending her that far away, but if she loved it I would of course let her go. So we’ll see.
@snoozn I like the globs also. I wish I could even say that my D HAS globs, which I’m not sure she does. But it makes sense to me.
Congrats to @eandesmom’s on Allegheny, @klinska on AU, @CAtransplant on Redlands, and @kt1969 for Lewis and Clark.
@snoozn Your post brought up very fond memories. My father’s work took him to Germany and the low countries fairly frequently and we typically accompanied him during the colder season when tourists were fewer and prices were lower. There is nothing quite like the Christmas season in Bavaria.
D got acceptances to Case Western and Wooster in the days leading up to Christmas, both with enough merit to make them possible. Still waiting on five schools but it sure reduces the stress to have good options already.