@nerbmom88 The question “what are the commitments of honors college” is a really good question for anyone who is not yet familiar with honors college requirements to ask. One of the school’s honors college had a core requirement of 8 - 10 courses that had to be completed over the first two years. The course list looked interesting but for kids looking to double major or do a dual degree program, it would be problematic and something a student should consider.
@dfbdfb Sometimes the “middle finger” approach works. I’ve guided my S to wave the finger on a couple of occasions…we’ve had mixed results. :))
@paveyourpath This is my S’s major concern about honors colleges, especially considering his engineering major. He is looking very carefully at the different honors programs he has been accepted to and, in the end, there’s a 50/50 chance that he declines the program. If the honors coursework can replace and/or enhance his required coursework, then he’s in. But if the honors coursework is piled on top of his required coursework, its a no-go.
I actually started a related thread a few days ago to solicit some feedback…
@mamaedefamilia @smcirish @dfbdfb Hello, I’m a 2018 parent lurker on this thread. Would any of you be willing to post how much big MAC Macalester offered? I had removed Macalester from consideration for S18 because of too little published merit. If there’s more available, maybe it’s a possibility. Thanks!
@appalachymom $20,000/year.
Congrats on the MacCalester news @mamaedefamilia , @dfbdfb and @smcirish, great news !!!
@MotherOfDragons, seems like your D has her head an heart in Bama already, that’s fine! That seems like a great opportunity for her and your family. She’ll do great there! I wouldn’t worry about GT for a minute, they don’t realize they lost a good candidate.
Good luck making a final choice @firstwavemom, sounds like your D has some super options.
My son told me yesterday that one of his good friends was accepted to RPI as well for bio-tech program. My son would probably like to go to a school where he at least knew someone, even if he didn’t hang with them 100%.
His friend was also accepted to NEU via ED, but wasn’t offered enough $$ to make it viable. Neither my son or this kid were awarded any merit $$ with their decisions, so they are hoping to hear in the next few weeks. At the tour we took at RPI they mentioned that virtually all kids accepted this year would be receiving some merit, unless you were an international or multi millionarire, so we’ll see.
Should be a busy week for son17 in terms of acceptance dates.
He was happy to win the DECA thing the other day, I guess his project was the state winner and his teacher was in shock and awe. I guess that doesn’t happen much at our DECA chapter. He told her" don’t expect me to do a lot of stuff for the rest of the year" ha 
I hope he elects to travel out to Disneyland for the national event. I think it would be a good experience for him. He’s cute, he told me as soon as I picked him up the other day that he wants to update his applications still pending with his new “award”. Decisions are coming out in a few days, and I think they have made up their mind whether to accept or deny him at this point, lol. But he said he’s going to come home after school today and submit his update anyways. I said go for it, at least it’s a “positive” update and it relates to the programs he is applying for. I guess it can’t hurt.
Good luck to everyone this week, I think it’s a big week for a lot of us.
Thanks for sharing @RightCoaster! Love his enthusiasm. Congrats!
Congrats to @mamaedefamilia, @dfbdfb and @smcirish on Macalester!
@MotherOfDragons sorry about GT even though she didn’t really want it it still stings.
Let the good news roll in for all of our DC (I hope) [-O<
Congrats to @RightCoaster 's son on DECA win! (crawls out from under rock and googles DECA…)
@mamaedefamilia DECA is just a business organization for High Schoolers. They meet 1 or 2x per week to learn about business related matters, have guest speakers, learn about careers etc. They pick a category and then make a presentation. If they get selected from their school, they attend a state competition. They work on a new presentation and see what happens at state comp level. If they win that they move to the national convention where they compete in something else I think and there is a big career exploration day and they go to parties. This year it is at Disneyland.
My son has enjoyed participating. He made the states 3 times, but never advanced. He always seemed to get stuck with a subject matter to present and he couldn’t wrap his head around it. He liked his category this year and I guess wrote an awesome report on it and the judges liked it. He was shocked.
Anyways, it’s not that big of a deal in reality, but it just makes me happy that for once he won something and he could feel proud. I think some of the kids in his grade have a little more respect for him now too, great!
My kid will be at DECA Disneyland too, chose this over other conflicting events on that weekend that I consider more important. So, I’m not too thrilled about it.
@nw2this congrats on Deca too, I think, lol. What could be more important than going to Disneyland?
This is such a supportive group. I wish I had known about you all in December and January when my stress level was high! Our March madness is almost over as the finish line is close! Now, I need to figure out my NCAA March Madness picks…
@RightCoaster - Congrats on DECA award. May be updating schools may help with MAC (or wait list)
Congrats on the DECA win, @RightCoaster! That sounds so cool.
There is nothing more important than Disney! Congrats @RightCoaster
@RightCoaster I love Disneyland, so that alone is inducement enough! They may have DECA at my kids’ school but my D has one very time consuming EC which precluded lots of other things. I still think the pickleball win was the best, though!
I agree with @firstwavemom that this is a very supportive group and I wish I had known about it several months/years ago. My youngest is HS class of 2022 and I plan to join the CC group for his class as soon as it starts.
As a relative newbie to CC, I have a couple of questions. #1: What is MAC? (I assume it is merit aid c___?) #2: I’m not sure I understand aid terminology. Our EFC is $39,000. D was admitted to a school with a $60,000 cost of attendance. School gave her a $23,000 scholarship. Is that merit aid or is it need based aid since our need ($60,000-$39,000) is $21,000? The terms “merit aid”, “institutional aid” and “need-based aid” confuse me.
@mamaedefamilia, @smcirish, and @dfbdfb Congratulations on the Macalester admissions!. My D was denied. It was her 2nd choice, and we didn’t think they’d match the $23,000 she’s already been offered at another school, so she’s okay with the denial. Mac is a heck of a good school. I’ve known a few grads from there, and I loved the vibe on campus when we toured. If any of your kids end up attending, I’m sure they’ll be happy. @dfbdfb I had forgotten about that essay prompt. My D struggled with it, too.
So my son came home and decided to update a few of his applications with his “award”. He figured it couldn’t hurt.
As he was typing it one of the schools sent an email to him to say that their decisions come out Friday. He rushed off an email asap, ha. Hilarious. He thinks it still might help. Cute. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I think the decisions are as good as done already.
I told him to send a note to RPI even though he got accepted already, and ask if they had any specific DECA related scholarships he might qualify for. I don’t think they do but it’s a nice way to ask them to “show me the money”.
Other schools on his list have not given an update on their decision date status yet.
It’s going to be a snow day in the Northeast tomorrow. Son17 is so relieved!! A day to sleep in, do nothing.
Zero weather days so far here (including a couple days when there was meltage onto the streets that should have resulted in cancellations), and we’re entering the time when there are almost guaranteed to not be any more. (Snow all by itself doesn’t ever result in cancellation, unless it’s over about 15–18 inches, and even then probably not.)
My children are intensely jealous of all of yours.