Congratulations @Ynotgo @RightCoaster @CA1543 @NoVADad99 <:-P <:-P <:-P
@Ynotgo, congrats on Caltech!!
@CA1543 , @RightCoaster , great news on RPI!!
My DS is also applying CS and it is tough for sure, he has some good options so far but we are still waiting for more to come. I am literally having dreams/nightmares about the coming week(s). I’m sending good mojo to all still waiting for decisions :)>-
What are your son’s stats @lbf ? My daughter’s boyfriend has a weighted 4.3, 34 act, top 5% of his class at a large California public. He’s so far been denied at Purdue, UIUC, UT Austin, UC Davis, and UCSD waitlisted him. He’s freaking out a bit.
@socalmom007 – what is his unweighted?? And did he apply super late to Purdue?
@socalmom007 Wow that is stressful. I’m thinking (total speculation) but since there are so many high stat kids applying these days that it could come down to essays - did you happen to see his?
Congratulations to all who received good news from the UCs, Caltech and RPI! Exciting news! Also congrats on the EC achievements as well.
Hugs to those who are dealing with waitlist or other disappointing decisions.
@NerdMom88 we don’t expect to make any final decisions until we hear back from 6 more schools and can weigh the options and costs. UMD is the current front runner, whereas the previous top choice among acceptances was CU Boulder which is very expensive OOS even with merit received.
Can I just say that the Purdue folks have been incredible to deal with. They have gone above and beyond to be accommodating on 3 separate occasions. I won’t bore you with the details, but they get major points on the niceness scale, even if they didn’t offer any $$.
Positive thoughts and patience to all still waiting on decisions! I’m focusing on clearing my to do list, finishing painting my kitchen, updating and reorganizing our personal papers and getting to the gym. With the occasional glass of red wine [-O<
@Ynotgo Caltech!! Amazing! Is this a top choice for your child?
@rightcoaster @CA1543 @NoVADad99 @thermom Congrats on RPI!
@socalmom007 So sorry to hear how difficult it has been for your daughter and significant other to find a geographical match. I cannot imagine the extra layer of stress that would bring. Hang in there!
As for us, we’re waiting, waiting, waiting…
I think he’s a 3.8 maybe unweighted? Tons of rigor, every AP and honors available. Great EC’s, leadership. I thought his essays were strong. As for Purdue we didn’t realize there was a priority deadline and a deadline, they both applied by 01/01 deadline. My daughter was accepted but not into her major. I don’t think he put an alternate major.
@socalmom007 , I remember you said he is an Asian male. That is the hardest group to get into college. So many kids in that group have 1600s or 36s. So sorry, but a good thing is that most schools and areas are more liberal these days for interracial couples.
@socalmom007 my DS stats are similar he goes to a private school with about 150 per grade and they don’r rank.
He got waitlisted at Purdue for CS, he decided to apply late and he missed the priority application deadline. He didn’t apply to the other schools that your Daughter’s BF did he applied to mostly privates except UMD. I am so sorry for him he is obviously so bright and something will come through for him. I will send good mojo his way!!!
@socalmom007 – yeah it’s likely that his late application is the cause for the rejection at Purdue. They start with acceptances early in October and in engineering and CS I think they just run out of spots.
The same thing happened to a lot of my daughters friends at UT. These kids omg I swear-- they see that the deadline is 12/1 or whatever so in their head they think they have the time. I think it shows a clear lack of interest when you do it so late.
Yes, he is Asian. He will have east coast privates that will be affordable with merit. Whether The tier will be high enough for his parents, I don’t know. Right now we’re waiting on UCI, UCSB, UCLA, and UCB.
Thank you all. I agree @carachel2 I think it shows a lack of interest if they miss the priority deadlines. My daughter was even accepted at UT… not sure how that happened, they must have liked her essays/story. It’s been rough, I think he was very optimistic about what his options were going to be and now he’s just hoping to get in somewhere acceptable to his parents.
QOTD: it seems like most of us are at Decision Time (or soon will be there). For DD, it looks like it’s RPI vs Rose Hulman. We’ll likely do the admitted students day at both, and hopefully have her stay overnight with a student as well.
My question is - what basic facts would you plan to find out about, to help your child decide? Some things I’m thinking about:
- The dorm situation. Can people live on campus all 4 years if they want to?
- Curriculum requirements / flexibility. How many classes of <type that="" child="" doesn’t="" like,="" e.g.="" writing=""> will she have to take?
- Food? Is there anything to find out? I’m sure it will be mediocre / survivable.
- Ease of registering for classes. Do they fill up?
- Switching majors. How easy is it? And if it’s possible - will classes apply to both majors, or will you likely require a 5th year?
- Internships / coops / etc - what’s the story?
- Info about job fairs, to maybe get a sense of how much of a demand there is for their students.
QOTD: I have a lot of the same questions, I was thinking about creating a spreadsheet with all of the class requirements so when it comes decision time he can see what each school offers/requires and maybe that will help him decide along with visits. We don’t know exactly where we will visit yet still waiting on quite a few decisions. Thanks for the list @theshadow I might add time flights etc. of getting to and from, we live in CA.
QOTD:
- Number of guaranteed housing years is important for us. For many kids it's not, but we think with ours it is for a few reasons. He has a couple offers that guarantee 4 years and a likely that guarantees 3, so he should be good.
- Engineering curriculum is pretty rigid/structured, so not so much of a concern.
- Food: He is unconcerned, but we do not like a couple of his choices where all meals are pay by item. For example, dinner might be $7 entree, $2 vegetable, $2 mashed potatoes, $3 salad. For a teenage boy who eats quite a bit these days, it seems like it would be easy to make less healthy choices due to cost. "Those vegetables won't fill me up for $2, but that hamburger for $3.50 sure will." We much prefer the all-you-care to eat plans - Even if they are more expensive it might lead to healthier choices and less stress trying to maximize calories per dollar.
- Priority scheduling: A few places he'd have that, but his top choice he won't. We need to ask about getting into required engineering courses to stay in sequence.
- Ease of switching majors isn't much of a concern with this one.
- Internships: Another good reminder of something we should look into.
- Admittedly if this was the #1 priority a school that has seemingly fallen off the radar might be tops, but I think they'll all be good enough.
We were thinking about visiting several admitted student days or doing spring break tours, but one likely may end up changing those plans - as someone else said, “sometimes it’s just that easy”.
Congrats to the additional folks in at RPI @thermom and @NoVADad99 !! <:-P :D/
A couple of you asked if Caltech is a top choice for him, and that sort of ties in with the QOTD. We tried to ask him some School X vs School Y questions last night. He’s not having it. He wants all the admit data in first before he starts to drill down into the details. There are still 13 schools out and I suppose that up to 8 of those could be contenders if he were admitted. 7 of them are lotteries. Of those, he’s never been on the campus of 4 of them.
He did talk about some of the considerations other have listed for the QOTD. He said that he would probably need a new spreadsheet, but that many of the factors to consider wouldn’t be quantifiable.
I expect that we will have date conflicts for some accepted students days, so some decisions about which of those to attend may narrow the list.
Oh, and I guess I should mention - DD was accepted to RPI! 
With $21.5k in annual merit aid too. 
And as I mentioned on the RPI acceptance thread - I think her 3.4 UW / 3.7 W GPA has got to be some kind of record…
Congrats @thshadow on RP! that’s great news. It is a strong university & many options for research and internships and co-ops too. They seem to offer a number of studio classes - labs connected to class - so immediate hands-on applications. For the QOTD - we’ll be asking about access to professors, ability to get research opportunities, ease of getting involved in ECs of interest and in orchestra/string ensembles, ability to take grad level course and/or pursue higher degree before completing 4 yrs, flexibility to change major, double major or minor and take some classes in other areas of interest. AP credit impact is relevant and humanities & other requirements. Guess we’ll need an expanded spreadsheet too!
Well, congrats to your D also on RPI, @thshadow ! <:-P :D/