@rightcoaster Good luck to your son at the tournament!! The heat & dust in summer LAX can be brutal. It would be better if they let the kids on the sidelines stand underneath tents instead of sweltering under the blazing sun w/helmets & pads on!
UWisc: I called them a couple of months ago after reading the article in Inside Higer Ed. Basically the response was, heck, no, we are not increasing merit. The actual language was more along the lines of it was mentioned as a possibility but IHE distorted our position.
Dd even contacted the critical language flagship about scholarship money. She sent them a video portfolio of her Russian. The response was extreme praise for her ability, but goes on to say that their scholarships are only for study abroad and to contact admissions. Admissions response that they don’t offer merit.
@fun1234 D15 goes to school on the other side of the country and loves it. We deal with it because it is where she wants to be, she got merit and it’s proven to be a good fit, but it’s tough on us! Can’t even describe.
@4beardolls not sure where else your DD is considering, but D15 toured the dance programs at Tulane, CWRU, Ohio State, Skidmore, USC/California & Vassar. She is only a dance minor so it was secondary to engineering, but was still a consideration in her decisions. PM me if you want details on any of those schools.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek, that’s too bad. The IHE article (and related chatter here) was the source of our hope. Looks like maybe it was false hope.
I clicked “Helpful” for your post, but definitely not “Like”
@Dave_N, how about Ohio State?
@itsgettingreal17 yes, my understanding from our GC is when they move it to colleges I am applying to, it may require them to choose which type of application, although I am not sure. I plan to log in as S and peek next week. I believe that they require all transcripts to go through naviance as that triggers the application moving into the naviance data pool but again, am not positive.
The rest, outside of enrollment, is all self reported which explains why we see discrepancies between the total applications and scattergrams. Not unsurprisingly, the kids don’t seem to be as good at reporting when they are denied or waitlisted. They are “required” to for graduation but I don’t see it enforced beyond the matriculation aspect.
@fun1234 that seems like a pretty huge jump in workload if he didn’t have any AP’s last year. I would be concerned that it is setting him up for failure personally but you know your child best and I have no idea what your other options are. While admissions will be based on junior year stats, a poor senior year can end up in an offer being rescinded. Colleges definitely don’t want to see you taking a significantly easier load and increased rigor, to a point, I think is also good but this (on paper) looks like going from zero to 60. One should never choose a schedule simply based on hearing other peoples schedules on this site, I hope that isn’t really the reason. This is not the group to try to keep up with. Kids should take what meets their needs and goals best. While it is helpful to know what others are doing, there is no one right path. My child will take 3 AP’s, required PE and Civics, one pure elective and 2 music classes. Even if he didn’t have fairly busy EC’s and 2 jobs, I still think it would be the right schedule for him.
@RightCoaster good luck at the LAX tournament! I hope it goes well. I remember recruiting games, they are stressful. It will all work out however it should be.
@mommdc, thanks for that. It may be a good idea. Tied for 12 in OT has MOT and DOT. Out of state merit possible too.
On the other hand, DW and I attended U of I and she forbids the word Buckeye in the house. I mentioned Ohio State for DS '14 and she made a point of animatedly googling “Vindictive Divorce Lawyers.” DD '17 and I may need to come up with a code for the application process.
Fun fact, U of I was the only football team to defeat all of the other 9 BIG ten football opponents.
Go Illini!
@fun1234, D15 also goes to a school across the country that is not easy to get to at all. She is there on merit. It is a great fit for her. Much better than anything near us would have been and she is thriving. She can’t wait to get back to school and classes. S17 is looking closer to home, but still a couple of states or so away. At least the schools he is interested in are either a long car ride or a no more than 2 legs flying (mainly direct flying), so logistics will be easier.
Our Naviance isn’t updated yet. Although S moved 3 schools to the “I’m applying” page. Two say “pending” under the materials sent column and the other says “initial materials sent”. I have no idea what those initial materials might be.
@mtrosemom Our Naviance says “initial materials sent” for the UCs and Calpoly on his “Colleges I’m applying to” and “pending” for all the others. Which is odd, because the UCs and CSUs don’t want transcripts until after you decide where you are attending in May, so I also don’t know what initial materials would be sent.
@Dave_N Re: Fun fact…over how many years?
I hear you about OSU, and you know we are in IL. I went to UMich. D17 will definitely be applying to MSU, and possibly to OSU. Even though a triple legacy of UMich, it’s likely she won’t even apply. And, she’s not applying to UIUC either. I’ve had to swallow a lot of pride since beginning this college search process… >:D<
@eandesmom Oh he had 4 AP classes last year AP Calculus AB, AP Physics, AP Latin, AP Statistics so really the only change in his schedule is instead of a level three class social studies he’ll have an AP class Psychology. The AP Psychology is really easy on line class. I have been told by someone who took it and did take 5 AP’s and was on the swim team said she was fine. It was a lot of work, but since my son doesn’t work or do sports I know If he has idle time he will just try to sneak games. He did that all last year until I figured him out around Christmas. One of his grades started slipping . English isn’t his best subject, but the level 4 English teacher is so hard and unfair he would rather work harder and possibly get a lower grade in AP English . I fell like he can do it. He just can’t play games or his grades will suffer. He though will have an extra lab. I feel like he’ll be good. His lowest grade right now is a 92 once in English and once in Calculus AB. So the only class I feel like he will struggle in is English. I see people taking harder schedules than that. He kind of took three college prep social studies classes in the past maybe not a good choice from the class rigor stand point so he wants to prove that he can do a social science class and what better class than psychology since there is a lot of science in it. It was very interesting to him. He is smart in English but he just isn’t fast writing essays so that is what will be hard. I am telling him do as many essays as possible this summer. He thinks I am an over the top mom. He said none of his friends are, but I know he just won’t have the time otherwise unless they do it in English class. Maybe he can use them for his English class and then get some help. I did hear they do some.
Save me from hotshot teenagers who think they are the **** and don’t like being corrected. /
(not mine, one on here who’s throwing their 5 on an AP score around like it’s the bee’s knees but can’t catch a simple change of phrase).
@eandesmom What is also good is the online classes don’t do midterms It helped him out a lot last year. I have heard Calculus BC is a lot of repeating material too.
@fun1234 my apologies, you made it sound like all he had last year was one pre-college (I am not sure what that means) and 1 honors. Going from that to 5 AP’s seemed a bit extreme
@mitrosemom what school does your child go to that is far?
DH is also Illini! Another fun fact, Emory has a undefeated football team, aka, they don’t have a football program 
@4beardolls, I would vote for AP Gov first, so that the schools see more AP class for the vigor. She is probably not taking the test anyway. Also depends on how many AP classes she has in the last year and want to show an increase. Or if she is going to be so busy, just have that period open in the second semester. Have her decide, it is her decision, with your input.
@Ynotgo, the school for S that says initial materials sent is Cal Poly SLO.
@fun1234, the school D15 is at is Washington and Lee University in beautiful Lexington Virginia. It is a great school. Roanoke Municipal Airport does not have good flight schedules for us.
Finally received the fancy U. of Chicago postcard. 
So glad you were not left out of the Chicago spending spree