@2muchquan yeah, I figured I would do that on the essay organizer…once we had a final or close to, list.
The only site I’ve found that aggregates…is my spreadsheet. Certain things earn a point and then that gives us a stack ranking of the schools. LOL!
@payn4ward , you need to give me a lesson on CC emojis :)) Your use of them always dazzles me(insert whatever you think I need to use).
D will not go to another school visit and will wait until she is admitted before visiting any more schools. She asked GC how to show interests without the visit. We did visit 5 schools on vacation and her school trips last year. We will have to get information as you all suggested.
Any of you getting outside people (other than teachers and staff members) for LOR? GC said to have people send the letters to him to upload to Naviance.
@WhereIsMyKindle Loved your description of paper and notes and scratches. That intermixed in chaos is more my cuppa.
@SincererLove – RE: additional LORs. My son’s GC suggested that he ask EC faculty advisors to write ‘informal’ LOR and send directly to GC. She can then quote from say the debate team advisor’s comments in her GC LOR. The teachers will realize that they only need to write a few sentences, not a full LOR. (Actually, I have no idea how long a full LOR is supposed to be.)
My older son had a non-teacher write a LOR and upload to CA. This was three years ago when CA rolled out their new model and every single transaction was a logistical nightmare. Only certain schools will allow submission of additional LORs so the GC’s suggestion of including quotes from other teachers seems like a good idea.
@CA1543 – Cornell does not have anything like Rochester’s underground tunnels or MIT’s infinite building. (I could not believe how easily my son navigated that complex. He has attended the Splash weekend at MIT since 8th grade so I suppose he had time to familiarize himself but I just kept hugging the walls so as to not be knocked down. I have no sense of direction.)
Cornell provides all freshmen with a free bus pass their freshmen year. ($200/year thereafter as the county runs the bus route.) The distance from the dorms to the academic buildings has not changed since I was there, so I don’t understand the need for a bus pass, but my son says it is very convenient and faster than walking. If your child is applying to Engineering, the bus trip there is a straight shot.
But not to alarm you about distance, I never took a bus, so it isn’t truly needed.
I am also trying to gear up for the CMU/Rochester/Cornell loop but seriously unexcited by the driving involved. (I have complained of this before on here…) My new mantra is ‘along the Amtrak line’. If I ever created a spreadsheet, Amtrak access would earn many bonus points.
@ct1417 Ds was wearing his Fitbit yesterday. And he said that between walking in and out of various buildings and across campus, he climbed the equivalent of 43 flights of stairs. Guess he is going to be in great shape by the end of the summer!
He said today he went for a walk and just randomly came upon a lake and a waterfall.
Trying to read this entire post and join you all!
@Mom2aphysicsgeek – I must have missed something. Is your son at Cornell for the summer? He couldn’t be as the summer programs have not started yet. Research perhaps?
The first time I took my son up there for an informal visit, I dragged the family everywhere and logged 100 flights on the FitBit.
The campus itself is fairly flat, but the West Campus, where freshmen used to be housed (now upperclass housing), is at the bottom of an EXTREMELY steep hill. Climbing that hill must be the equivalent of nearly ten flights of stairs. Once one wanders off campus and over the gorges or down to Collegetown, then yes, there are many steep hills. I guess there is a gradual slope walking back to North Campus, but the main academic quads are quite level.
Suggest that he go up to the 5th floor of the Johnson Art Museum. Stunning views of the lake from up there.
@Tgirlfriend My son has a friend who almost took the OU offer as a NMF. He visited the school a couple of times and really like it. But in the end, he picked the state flagship.
@CT1417 Yes, REU. We live near the beach, totally flat. Several yrs ago we lived on the side of a mountain. still, he said it has some of the steepest hills he has seen.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek – Congrats to him then! Tell him to beware the descending hordes of Reunion-goers this weekend. It will quiet down then for a while until the summer program students arrives. The campus remains busier than many during the summer due to the presence of a large # of grad students, the HS summer programs, and Engineering co-op. I lived up there one summer. It is lovely. Hope he has fun!
Where is your son from my son is an Eagle Scout from Maine?
@CT1417 , D doesn’t want to do Penn State/Cornell tour at all. We had to cancel it. We have to walk through the campus through your post.
D has a classmate who is doing instagram posting of his visits at Harvard, Brown, Duke, Princeton, etc. And then kids in the same math class where he struggled, all commented on how unlikely he is to get in those schools.
Thought about this… Common App is actually like a dating app, all about finding the perfect match!! 
We are in Florida too (not too far from you). UF is my D’s top choice right now since she (and my budget) wants to stay in state for undergrad.
I looks like some sections of the Coalition are not ready yet , so I am wondering if UF still going to use SSAR this year. I did see mention that they will have a supplemental essay.
Hahaha @SincererLove that cracks me up how kids can be so brutal to each other. It kind of cracks me up that a kid would ‘brag’ about his tour in that way, so I guess he deserves it. 
There was just a thread that touched on this recently, whether it was more important to visit your safeties or reaches if you can’t see them all. My D also had a classmate who ‘did an Ivy tour’ over spring break, but I think she kept it a bit more under wraps.
@STEM2017 I like the idea of a checklist to go through when adding/researching a new school. I would like to just leave certain tabs open on my browser (and try to) in order to consistently pull data. Instead, I forget the order and never do it the same way twice. Very inefficient. Maybe I’ll get better by the time D2 comes along.
Welcome @jeepgirl. Take your time, we’re not going anywhere. Welcome @fun1234. Not sure who you were referring to on your question, but you’ll figure it out if you hang long enough.
Thanks @1417 – appreciate that info re Cornell - my DS has been to Splash/Spark too since middle school & got pretty familiar with the MIT layout! I think we’ll fly to CMU & then on the Case afterwards. I agree re Amtrak line - puts RPI, Boston schools and Philly all in a relatively good position! We have a stop also about 15 min. from home so that’s nice.
@SincererLove – RE: additional LORs. S is asking his FRC program director for an additional LOR. I think if there is some outside activity the kids are really passionate about that has an adult associated with it, that would be a good additional LOR. Frankly, he probably wont need the extra letter, but…it never hurts to ask.
Regarding the QOTD the one thing I check sometimes I haven’t seen mentioned yet is the reddit forums for the school. Some schools are very active, and some aren’t but it can give you a sense of the campus. I don’t think you can link reddit on this website, but it you can find a list of reddit college subforums under r/college/wiki/faq on the website.
Welcome @jeepgirl - you’re a braver woman than I - I read back 50 or so pages before jumping in, not sure I’d ever have time to read the whole thing.
UCF has rolling acceptance and generous aid. It may be a good idea to apply early (September) while the merit money pot is still full. With UF back in the NMS game (for in-state) UCF is down in their NMS counts and may be more aggressive in the coming application cycle.
UCF has newer campus with a lot of modern building. Some complain that it looks like an office park, but the center of the campus mature has trees and a some undeveloped area.
Due to size I think the honors program is a huge plus.
Reddit is a good one. I forget if it was here, or the 2016 thread where I learned about YikYak. I still look at the Yaks from some of the schools we visited. YikYak is a location-based anonymous chat app, where you will only see chats from other Yakkers in your vicinity. Kids use it on campuses a lot. You can also set it up to see what the chatter is in a certain spot, like I have ‘eavesdropped’ on Case Western or UofSC from our home. Some pretty funny stuff.
Two more birthday wishes to D today: LSU (Louisiana) and OU (University of Ok).