Welcome @MomStudent2017
Great news on the nomination for your D @2muchquan
worst case scenario my D gets into her ED and we get no merit and we are full pay. However, that’s her best case scenario since money isn’t her concern. Brat
The Western Washington U reviews have been very helpful. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this could be D’s “love-thy-safety” as well. I will have to look into the impacted majors though. Luckily D doesn’t care about dorms!
@mommdc, yes, Smith and WPI both give merit aid, but I doubt D will get what we need (assuming she gets in). At either school she’d need one of their top two scholarships and I don’t think her stats will put her in that territory.
@Dolemite, D and I visited NEU and BU and had lunch near BU one day and in Cambridge the other (walked over the bridge – very nice). The place in Boston was Noodle Street (no website, but their menu is at https://www.grubhub.com/restaurant/noodle-st-627-commonwealth-ave-boston/63596). The Cambridge restaurant was Veggie Galaxy (http://www.veggiegalaxy.com/menu.php). Both were excellent and much appreciated at the end of our spring break trip filled with college dining halls and lots of blah restaurants.
QOTD: Worst case scenario for S17 is UNC - CH. I thought it would be a good idea to visit; very bad idea 
Anyone else have a student applying for the Morrill at OSU? D and I were brainstorming on that essay tonight. It’s a tough one at 250-500 words.
@stlarenas …D got a 36E and a 19 on writing :((
Edited to add: also, the online prep is wonderful according to D. She really only used it for the math though. The test bank is deep deep deep and really lets you get in the repetition for specific types of problems. She used it a LOT.
She said science was hard to use just because of the way you have to flip back and forth online between the passage and the questions.
@itsgettingreal Yes to Morrill. It’s on the schedule for end of month. It looks like a ‘Why OSU’ type of question, but I show it as 350-500. Too long? Too short?
My S15 was awarded a Presidential (not Stamps but close just a few less perks) at GT but declined. We know 2 girls who were offered Stamps this year and 1 accepted and 1 declined. So even though there are only a set number given there are a lot more offered becasue people do decline. I think 300 were interviewed for Stamps as semi-finalists (did not have to travel to GT) and then 100ish were finalists (did have to travel to GT at your own expense). Some of these had already been offered Provost (mine was). My memory is a bit foggy over a year later so my numbers might be off. It seemed like it was a fairly even split of girls/boys and in-state/out of state. The vast majority of the kids had major leadership stuff on their resumes and were the outgoing type. It was a hard thing to turn down but my son felt very strongly that he belonged at UChicago.
Car freshman year - No. He doesn’t like to drive that much anyway and he won’t need it. He may not even want one after the first year. D15 is bringing a car back for sophomore year.
Downsizing - No. At least not yet. We love our house and neighborhood, and may think about it if a lot that we liked came up for sale in our neighborhood.
Vaccines - Both kids got the HPV series with no side effects. Now we are working on the meningitis vaccine.
D15 was accepted to Colorado College. They didn’t offer much merit aid and she wasn’t sure about the block system. She declined the acceptance.
@2muchquan I think the word limit is limiting. And I don’t think this is a why OSU essay at all.
Wow. I just finally tallied up all the essays/short answers for schools on D’s list: 39. X_X Hopefully she can eliminate some of these before they’re due.
@2muchquan We feel your pain! What is the point of the common app if everything requires supplementals??? And they have to excel at school and ECs and perhaps enjoy their youth?
@itsgettingreal17 Yes, they’re all limiting. I went back and read it more closely. Still a “Why Us” essay to me. What unique qualities in your background will help you contribute to our student body? Simplified, but Why Us-y.
We are in CO, but I don’t hear much about CO College. It looks like it is 85% oos.
https://www.coloradocollege.edu/offices/ipe/enrollment.html
I’d imagine that is because we have great publics that cost less.
Bringing me to our worse case scenario: Getting shut out of reaches and attending CU Boulder at almost full pay.
@‘What!!!’ Well once a upon a time… before the common app. Student just applied to fewer schools. Who remembers typing your application to college? And in the early days of online apps, you had to enter the same basic information in for every school.
** worst case **
Until recently I thought it was the same as @curiositycat333 's, that S would only be accepted to his safeties or any other acceptances wouldn’t offer enough merit to be affordable and he would be wanting to go to Humboldt State over the other safeties that we prefer by a landslide.
However it seems to have fallen completely off the list. New fear is either somehow he doesn’t get into the one affordable safety, WWU, (which is ridiculous and illogical but it’s still a fear) and we are left with unaffordable matches since he may at the moment only have one safety on the list and only one truly known to be affordable option. It is good they are one and the same at least.
Best case? Well it might be that he has to go to the affordable safety. My wallet would like that and he does love it and I would see him more! For his sake I hope it’s wherever he decides he loves the most but I’ve no clue where that will be.
Other Q’s
No car at school
Has had HPV but I need to check on the meningitis situation as I am unclear.
Diversity. Not so much. 16% Asian/Pacific Islander, 9% Black, 9% Hispanic, 59% Caucasian, 6% Multi, 1% Native American. S Would like to be in diverse school and is part of wanting out of the west coast though he intends to come back.
@mommdc S will not look at any schools that have a religious affiliation so that limits things a bit. I would love Miami of Ohio personally but it’s not affordable at his stats so I’ve not even mentioned it. And of course he’s decided the state is a no although I think he’s wrong and would like much of it. Still, I’m picking my battles!
NC is definitely outside of his geographical target zone.
I have never heard of Robert Morrison, that one looks worth peeking at, thanks!
@2muchquan I respectfully disagree. The Pitt #3 essay is your why us essay. To answer that one, the student should give a lot of thought to what programs and special characteristics of Pitt makes Pitt a good fit for their personal and career goals. (Straight from an adcom’s mouth). The OSU essay is different and is what I like to call a reflective essay that should tell a story: 1) this is who I am, 2) this is how I got here, and 3) this is why I have something special to contribute.
@stlarenas I paid to restore for my daughter. She got a 30E and 36R, so it just doesn’t make sense to us. They just cashed our check, so I’ll let you know what happens.
Addendum to Pitt review: if you attend an info session, study up on movies shot in Pittsburgh (e.g., Silence of The Lambs), and you may get some swag if you yell them out. Also, turn in your survey for a free t-shirt. I think there were sunglasses in the string backpack, but with the rain D never got them out.
@2muchquan Last night my Dd created a document with every single short answer/essay question she has to write. She has decided to generate ideas for those specific questions, using their overlap as much as possible so that she can eliminate more than 1 at a time.
But really, she wanted to see the whole elephant. Now she is going to work on it one bite at a time. She has until E the NMSF letters come out. (If she does t get one by the beginning of Sept that is an answer in and of itself) But the goal is to be done early Sept.
Her French tutor has gone home to visit her children and grand children. She gets back the week after Labor Day. She wrote her LOR before she left. It is in the hands of the person translating it. But, when she gets back and gets her letter back, that will be the last piece.
(And we are back school. We have already finished more than 2 weeks. It is rough. She doesn’t want to think about this stuff at night. I think she is planning on locking herself in her room for the weekend bc our weekends aren’t busy yet. She has until the middle of August until all our normal during the school yr stuff starts back up.)
I hate to be the bearer of bad news for the essay counts( maybe you all were smarter than me when you counted them up) but don’t forget essays needed for departmental scholarships and honors college essays if applying( usually around 5 ) Also, be aware that many of these essays have early due dates of Nov to Jan to be eligible for merit or admittance into Honors programs. Many of the essay topics are not released until the application to the college has been completed , so watch your timelines. I just know that last year when my son thought that he was done writing , another one popped up. He only applied to 5 schools and completed over 20.