@Gator88NE “Heaven forbid we do anything that conflicts with X-country…” Yes, heaven forbid :)) Coach actually advises avoiding scheduling testing for SAT/ACT dates on the practice schedule.
@MonroeMomof3 Rising seniors to do list this summer for college: work on essays; review the website of every college he is applying to and make a list of any outstanding questions/ reservations he has about a school and follow up with admissions offices on any questions; send emails to teachers requesting his LOR ; study for last two SAT subject tests in October.
Welcome @MonroeMomof3. My D16 to do list as of this moment is cheer practice three days a week, going out with her friends as much as possible! School has been over for a week and that’s the last thing she has on her mind right now. Hopefully I can get her to focus in a couple of weeks.
@IAbooks - if you have a national merit kid, a comparable choice is A&M (probably not as fully funded as OU). I would recommend University Houston also for full funding.
UT Dallas is a great option for those who don’t have national merit but inside of Texas, it is considered 3, 4, or 5 depending on the major. They are considered a better choice for a premed kid due to greater ties with UT Southwestern medical school while UT, A&M, UH and Texas Tech are more preferred for engineering majors.
Thanks @texaspg Not sure about NM (is anyone this year?), so we’re hedging our bets. Looking at engineering for sure, though, so I appreciate the advice. DS wants a smaller mechanical engineering program than the local university (which means almost anywhere as Iowa State has a yuuge ME program), lots of opportunities to get hands on, and good merit for his stats, which are good but not off the charts. Of course, local opportunities for co-ops or internships and a campus he likes are important too. He’s likely looking at honors programs. We haven’t seen many schools down your way yet (just OkU and OkSU) so we still have a lot of research to do.
@srk2017, that is a great news on your S’s research internship. As I am buying plant ticket for my D’s 7-week-internship, I kink of wish hers was 35 miles away.
QOTD-So what is on your rising seniors to do list this summer as far as college is concerned?
My S would have nothing on his list if it were up to him, lol. He would happily ignore the whole thing until it hit him in the butt. He will be starting college-specific apps that don’t also use the CA when they open… ASU, UA, and UT Dallas open in August. He is trying to find honors college essay prompts so he can start on those painful essays sooner than later. That is a biggie, essays.
And for S, UT Dallas I’d kind of an outlier. A&M didn’t interest him. Neither did OSU. Not sure why, but truthfully, I don’t think Texas (or OK) is really where he wants to be. He wants to stay in the western states.
@MonroeMomof3, Adding schools is over for us, at least as far as an active search. D will be spending time writing essays and looking further into her schools through their websites. We’ll also be visiting three schools. My D is going into EE, with a focus on renewable energy. We’re in the process of looking for scholarships and currently I have a bookmark folder full of scholarships I haven’t yet looked into. We’ve looked at quite a few northeast schools with EE. Are there any specifics you’re looking for in terms of program type, school size, selectivity, etc.?
@srk2017, Congrats on your S’s internship – a genomics lab sounds fascinating!
@paveyourpath, funny, I had to really prod D to get down to our current 14! I guess I’d rather lean toward having too many. I’m the kind of person prone to worrying about “what could have been.”
Finally classes are over for us here. 2 more finals to go and it is summer vacation for son17
QOTD-So what is on your rising seniors to do list this summer as far as college is concerned?
1st priority for son 17 is getting ROTC Scholarship applications complete and submitted. Then that process can really get started. 2nd we are visiting a few schools in July and finalizing the apply lists. 1 list for if he gets/decided to go with a ROTC Scholarship, 1 list for if he does not. Have about 10 school left on the lists right now so hopefully we don’t lose too many more. LOR have been requested so next up after ROTC apps are starting essays and getting some help from AP Language teacher on those. It’ll be a busy summer but hopefully not an insane Fall.
My kids are 4 year apart. Several of the schools they applied to had many of the same prompts 4 years later for 2012 and 2016. Each school changes some questions but not the entire supplement when the supplement is long.
QOTD: My senior will be touring the University of Alabama to see if it stays on her list, filling out the early bits of applications, and writing essays. She got started on the whole process of deciding on schools early, so there’s not actually a lot left on the pre-applying side.
Good luck to everyone getting SAT I and II scores tomorrow!!
@eandesmom Congrats on getting the short cast and no precalc grade slippage! Does getting the short cast mean he had an Xray and the bone is on track for healing well? The extra week sounds prudent in any case.
@srk2017 Congrats on the research internship in genomics! Sounds great for your son! Hoping he will love it and learn lots! Persistance paid off! <:-P
There are only 21 days that he isn’t at his 6-week summer program or on vacation with us until school starts back up. Sigh. He still has a little prep homework for the summer program to do. Luckily, he had a pretty good handle on the programming and math aspects already. There are some astronomy things he’s supposed to learn in advance.
He’s working some in his UC research lab and on the side learning a programming environment for a possible consulting gig. He’s mostly finished cleaning his room, which had piles of stuff where the lowest strata was from late elementary school. (That was a big one on mom’s list for him.)
We do have the list of colleges pretty much firmed up. The list of college things for him to do is:
– Make a Common App account and fill that out including figuring out a draft of the activities section.
– Naviance Brag Sheet for his recommenders (lots of short essays).
– Update his resume.
– 1st draft of Common App and the 4 UC essays.
I don’t know because we are on the other coast, but I wanted to point out your request so it didn’t get lost among all the other great questions you asked.
Disappointing SAT II here. 800 on math 2, but only 720 on chemistry. She didn’t study for either, instead relying on AP prep. I think she should retake the chemistry. I already paid for 2 more tests that Collegeboard let her defer from June. This would be used to apply to UDel’s honors program and top merit scholarship. What do y’all think?
@itsgettingreal17 , I thought she is not doing STEM, right? If that is the case, math 800 is going long way. What is her intended major now? She may take Bio if she is going to medicine. Congrats!! They are good scores!
We are home from our vacation. I need to spend today recovering! I am exhausted.
@MonroeMomof3
My kids have to have merit scholarships to attend college. We have been through this process a few times. )Our current college student is attending AL on full scholarship.) The FA forum has a pinned link to multiple links with scholarships (competitive and automatic) as well as low cost schools. That is a good place to start. Spending hours upon hours researching individual colleges is the next step. Also, search schools’ websites for dept scholarships.
The scholarships offered by universities themselves are the best ones. I would not waste my time in sites like FastWeb. Many of those small scholarships are non-renewable. Many have a need component, etc.
Our plans for summer are working on applications. I am going to start on course descriptions, counselor letter, and transcripts by next week. Dd is going to start her essays. We need to visit 3 more schools, one a simple day trip, 2 we need to make travel plans.
I think she should retake the chemistry. I already paid for 2 more tests that Collegeboard let her defer from June. This would be used to apply to UDel’s honors program and top merit scholarship. What do y’all think?