My son is considering Alabama too, it along with Michigan State and Temple are his 3 safeties because of the big scholarships. He doesn’t care about Alabama being in the south, he is more concerned about the weather - he actually likes cold weather better. We were in the 80s last week and he complained bitterly about how hot it was, so I don’t know if he will be willing to go that far south. The other issue is travel, since our closest airport is a small regional one and Tuscaloosa is a small regional airport getting there will take all day. Detroit and Philadelphia are two of the few places we can fly to directly from our local airport, which gives the other two safeties an advantage. But he is keeping Alabama on the list for now, and he will visit in the winter if he is seriously considering it. He understands our cost constraints and has no problem going some place that will give him money.
@RightCoaster …I tend to agree. If that happens here she is aware she would most likely get two years of grad school completely funded by us.
The south is not that bad. Whenever D and her friends start going on a rant about the south I do politely point out that they have found their people at the high school and it would likely be the same at any school in the south.
@dfbbdfbb …doesn’t every family, Southern or not have interesting relatives? :))
D does like to point out that my (from Tx) relatives are indeed much more interesting than Hs (midwest) relatives. For instance, I do have stories of relatives that extensively involve guns, chopping up rattlesnakes and family that grew up in a converted chicken shack.
If our kids do end up at UA we MUST arrange a special reception for the parents from CC Class of 2017.
re: CWRU’s name: My dad is a Western Reserve alum (from the days when Case and Western Reserve were separate, apparently rival universities). He finds the name extra weird as a result (actually, he kind of bristles at it).
re: Alabama and other schools with great scholarships: I wish I could get my DS interested in some of the schools with great merit scholarships that people are mentioning. He knows we have saved enough to send him to our state flagship, and isn’t interested in looking for financial deals beyond that (even when I point out that he can use the college fund to pay for expenses during grad school). If he makes NMSF, which I think he probably will, we may need to revisit this discussion (state flagship doesn’t seem to do much for NM Scholars).
On an unrelated topic, I recently learned that my alma mater offers a limited number of free college counseling sessions for children of alums (not focused on applying there, but just general assistance with deciding where to apply, etc… My theory is that they do this to keep alumni from becoming bitter when their legacy kids don’t get in, LOL). I found it by looking around at the alumni website, and thought I’d mention it in case other posters have similar resources available via alma maters.
We don’t have Naviance or (so far) any help with college search/applications from guidance counselors at my kids’ HS, so I am grateful to have access to this assistance. I scheduled DS for a phone conference with an admissions counselor on Monday, and am excited to see how it goes!
Thanks everyone on the PE waiver, I know it may seem like a silly thing but it’s nice that his gamble (two team sports he did solely for the hope of a waiver) that was completely self planned (and I thought was a long shot), actually paid off.
@itsgettingreal17 and @RightCoaster can you explain what you mean by the SAT scores being uploaded? The only thing I see in Naviance (unless I am missing a feature which is entirely possible) is the graphs by school showing acceptance (or not) by GPA/test score for both old SAT, new SAT and ACT. None of the class of 2016 would have had the new SAT for their admissions so that wouldn’t impact our graphs. Which makes me curious what you can see in Naviance that I can’t lol!
@RightCoaster, Bribes are good! We did that with D15 (although she wanted to go to a small LAC and needed at least full tuition to go there). For her it’s a car and our ability to help her with grad school if needed. However, knowing her, she will find a way to get it paid for by research grants, tuition discounts, etc. At least she’ll have a car. 
We’re working on S who will likely be a NMF. He is helping the process along by wanting to have his tuition paid for by others. Also, he doesn’t want a car (doesn’t like to drive). He probably want me to stop nagging him about how much time he spends playing on the computer.
UA is actually still on my WBOD, but only as a parent’s choice. We’ll leave it, but really, without a good fit for her major, I don’t have much of an argument.
3 of the top 4 choices for D (these are schools she has visited) are in the south. So it’s not that.
@262mom I think we have the same state flagship, right? What’s your S looking to study? And, you’re right, they don’t do much for NSF. Heck, they don’t do much for anybody! 
@2muchquan yes - we’re in Illinois, so flagship is UIUC. DS’s interests right now are funny - he wants math and computer science…but not engineering…and not a math-compsci combined degree (which UIUC has through LAS). Getting into the engineering compsci major there is just as difficult as anything else he’s considering applying for (and he knows this), but he says that’s not what he wants to do. On the other hand, he says he wants to double major in math and comp. sci. if he goes to UIUC (but definitely does not want the math/compsci combined degree). Basically, he needs more information about these options. I told him we’ll have to visit (again… already visited last summer, when he thought he wanted chemistry, a plan that changed this year when he encountered the lab component of AP chem LOL), and learn more about all of the math and computer science offerings. I actually think the combined math-compsci major would be perfect for him (more theoretical/conceptual, less hardware/technical). So we’ll see. Also, there’s a lot of time between now and Nov 1 for him to completely change his mind about what he wants to do (honestly, I think he’d be better off at an LAC since he can go in undecided…)
@eandesmom On my D’s Naviance account, I click on “colleges I’m thinking about,” which brings up her list of schools that she is interested in. Right hand menu has under “resources” transcripts and test scores. All test scores are listed for my D now, including March SAT. So then when you look at the graphs or compare me for each school, there is now a “Single SAT 1600” viewing option.
@itsgettingreal17 Our Naviance has had that selection ever since I first logged in, about a year ago: SAT (1600 Scale). I always thought it referred to the M+CR sections of the old 2400 test.
We haven’t taken the SAT, so I never paid much attention. Your D has an actual value on that chart? (Her red circle isn’t in the lower left corner) That is strange, seems wrong.
@262mom, My S also wants to do a double major in CS and applied math. Not a dual major, two majors. At least these are subjects that are offered at many schools, unlike Arabic for example. You are luck to have such a good state flagship for CS. I wish ours was great. It is for engineering and some other sciences, but not CS.
@2muchquan Not SAT 1600 Scale. That has always been there. What’s new is Single SAT 1600. D does indeed have a circle on the graphs with her March SAT score. What I want to know is how they got the comparisons on the chart (i.e., converted old scores or whether its just M + CR from old 2400 scores). In studying it further, it seems they are using the M + CR from old SAT because my D’s March score only shows up under two columns, “Single SAT 1600” and “Combined SAT 1600” and when you look on the list view with all her schools under compare me, only her score and a few others appear under the Single SAT column. Hope that makes sense.
@mtrosemom I’m not sure why my DS wants the two majors, but he is pretty adamant about it (not for all schools, but for UIUC in particular). He has a HS friend who just graduated and is going there for CS, so maybe he’s learned some things from talking to him. We are definitely lucky to have such a great program available, but as far as I can tell, the CS stand-alone major at UIUC (which is in engineering) is just as competitive as an ivy (or similar), so he definitely can’t count on being admitted (and as I mentioned above, he says he doesn’t want engineering even though this is the only college with a stand-alone CS major…so he needs more information). But you are right, at least math and CS are available at most places.
@2muchquan is your D considering UIUC?
@262mom – I have one to join your son in the Theoretical CS/Applied Mathematics majors. I have no idea why, but he also wants the double major. Columbia’s very structured core was off-putting as he thought it would be challenging to complete the core and the double major.
CS seems to be the subject he focuses on when choosing a school as he thinks math is great at a lot of places.
UIUC is also on his list (but as OOS), and I have also heard of the low admit rate to CS.
@eandesmom regarding SAT scores in Naviance. When I pull up the graphs to compare my son to others, I can now see his March SAT 1600 score. His red circle shows up in the graph now. I can also toggle it to change it to the ACT score, which I like to look at better
So, my son has 2 scores in there now, march SAT and ACT. I don’t know what it will look like with more scores from June this summer.
My son’s gpa from last June is still in there, I guess they get updated in the summer too, into Naviance.
So, it looks good in Naviance now, because we can see data back 5 years from his high school and compare gpa/act/sat on the schools he is interested in. He has 2 schools where he is right at the point of intersection on the graph’s lines, and the rest he falls well into safe zone. He doesn’t have any where he is in the “danger zone” The only thing I’m concerned about is his GPA, because his weighted GPA is not super high. He got all A- freshman year, so he had a 3.7 unweighted and weighted, then last year upped it to 3.7 but 4.3 weighted, averaging to 4.1 weighted overall for 2 years. He’ll probably stay around the same for Junior year. He’ll probably have an overall 4.2 weighted this summer. Some of the kids that have gotten into the schools he is looking at had higher weighted gpas, around 4.5. That’s my only concern.
@CT1417 & @mtrosemom I guess my S’s desire for a double major (not a “combined” major) in math/CS is not as idiosyncratic as I thought. Now I just need someone to explain to me his aversion to engineering! (That’s got to be pretty unusual for someone with his interests/aptitudes). He gets the most excited when he finds a school that has a CS department outside of an engineering school. I recently pointed out to him that UMich has a CS department in its liberal arts and sciences college (in addition to one in the college of engineering), and he said “that’s what I want” (without learning anything about the two programs, what they offer, how they are different, etc. … not to mention the sky high OOS tuition rate at UMich!)
Sometimes I think it’s because of all the crap Wolowitz gets on Big Bang Theory for being an engineer LOL.
S doesn’t mind if a CS program is in the engineering department. But one thing he has learned from FRC is that he does not want to be on the engineering build side of things. He participates in the mechanical side under duress (beware the programmer on the drill press!), but he jumps into the fray when it comes to programming and electrical as it relates to programming. Cal Poly is one of the schools high on S’s list and their CS department is part of their engineering program. I guess it depends on the school and what requirements go with a CS pathway.
Edited: Just checked Naviance and S’s GPA isn’t entered yet. However, the grades were not due from the teachers until today, so I think the schools updates over the summer to have it ready to go in fall when they really get to work!
@mtrosemom are you in CA? My S is visiting several CA schools in June, and we wanted to include Cal Poly in the tour, but then learned that Cal Poly wants 5 years of English. My S will have 4 years, but not 5 without significantly changing plans for next year (which seems silly to do just for one school). Around the same time I learned that UC and Cal State schools all require a year of fine arts and since S quit band and chorus after 8th grade, he doesn’t have that either. If he loves one of those schools he may be willing to take an art history class online through our local CC or something, but I can’t see him doing that AND an extra english for Cal Poly. But it’s a bummer, since it looked like a good option when I first started exploring their website (and OOS tuition there is lower than UC schools).
DS’s GPA from last year or so is in Naviance, but none of his scores. I think he just needs to ask his GC to enter the scores if he wants to move the little red circle out of the lower-left corner. They must put the scores in at some point, but I don’t know when. The data for how many kids got accepted and enrolled where does not seem complete for our school; I don’t know how or when they collect it.
This weekend, my plan is for DS is to work on the Naviance Brag Sheet and finish cleaning his room. We might at least get a clean-ish room out of that…
No math major plans here. He’s still thinking physics/CS and isn’t too picky at this point about whether the CS part is a 2nd major or just some classes that interest him. I’d expect that there’s a lot more course overlap between Applied Math and CS than between Physics and CS (where the main overlap is math).
Sort of relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/435/
@262mom We are located fairly close to CalPoly. They give extra points on the “MCA score” for a 5th year of English, but they don’t require it. On the page at http://admissions.calpoly.edu/applicants/freshman/criteria.html, the right column that says “CAL POLY SEMESTERS DESIRED” really means the maximum number of semesters you can get points for on the MCA score, which is how CalPoly ranks applicants.
There’s a helpful thread on here about figuring out your MCA here:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cal-poly-san-luis-obispo/1694769-confused-about-mca-score-p1.html
If you have questions about the MCA score, ask the user eyemgh, who seems to be the expert on CalPoly.
@Ynotgo funny comic! (DH and I are psychologists, so we’re pretty far from the “pure” science side of things, but despite being female the mathematician in the cartoon is a symbolic dead ringer for my S, so that probably explains his aversion to engineering!)
@mtrosemom thanks for the info on Cal Poly. That is super helpful! I actually contacted someone in admissions via email to inquire about the extra year of english, explaining we were OOS and that 4 years is typical here. The response did not indicate that the extra year was optional, but just indicated that many people take a CC class to meet it. At that point, I pretty much gave up on Cal Poly (since S is also short a fine arts), but I will look into the thread you mentioned. Thanks!!
I am experiencing debilitating Naviance envy!