@kac425 she’ll tour Bama this fall, but the rest will wait until/if she’s accepted (she did a tour of 4 in MA over the summer to see if she likes it up there-she does).
Bama because it’s fairly easy to drive to (although surprisingly farther away from Atlanta than I thought it was). Bama and UCF are now her two safeties. She’s been to Orlando a bajillion times, so she knows she likes the area, so I don’t think she’ll tour UCF ahead of time.
Bama is such an unknown we think she needs to visit it if she’s going to go through all the hoops that the honors college and CBH have you jump through.
We are done with visits for now. My D’s one issue is that she saw Bama without students and loved it. Right now it is number one. Debating if we need to go back with during the semester? 15 hours away makes it an expensive weekend that we have already done once and will have to repeat for orientation. Would you go back? In D’s mind, that is where she is going.
@jeepgirl …D just had a friends mom who saw her in line at registration and came up to chat with her. This lady is fantastic and outgoing and amazing in every way. D was telling her “her list” of colleges and this lady said “I don’t picture you at Bama at all”…because of the sorority issue. D is NOT into sororities at.all. Does anyone who has visited have any opinions on this?
@MotherOfDragons …good point about visiting Bama to make sure the kids have a feel for it. The honors stuff does require a lot of hoop jumping and D needs to get a feel for that.
If Bama is your D’s #1, a fall visit will likely solidify that rank. Bama in the fall will be exponentially better than Bama in the summer. Better weather, better student atmosphere, and better football.
@carachel2 D17 is not into greek life or sororities, either. There is no interest in her part. But from what I’ve read, Bama is big enough, and the honors dorms supposedly provide their own geographically heterogeneous social culture, that it stays on D’s list.
@jeepgirl I think you’re ok if she liked it empty. Accepted students may be too late for her make an objective decision IMO. I’d either go in fall, or just let it ride. You’re in a good spot.
@carachel2 I have a kid of color (I.e., not blonde) who is open to 'Bama. It’s too bad that nincompoop felt her opinion was necessary. You already have heard the drill about OOS % and non-Greeks. What does D think?
I think we have 1 more visit we are going to do before school starts in September. It’s the closest school on ds’ list @ 4.5 hours away and I think he will do one of his ROTC interviews while we are there so 2 birds, 1 stone. Any others we have not seen will wait until we see if he is accepted.
@MotherOfDragons …I think we need to find time for a fall visit. But NOT a football weekend. She hates football and all the hoopla around football. It would lower it in her mind honestly.
@2muchquan …that particular woman is a great lady but a lot more social than we are and she is probably heavy into the greek thing so maybe that is why the comment? IDK. But we do need to visit.
Fee waivers: D is getting a few of them but they don’t out and out say “fee waiver” on them (except for Clemson which was an official letter in the mail). These are emails with “Chancellor applications” and then when you read closer it says these applications come with “no fee to apply.” I think she got one for Champlain (beautiful school, she isn’t interested though) and RPI.
if there is a fee waiver you’ve got nothing to lose. especially since she’s OOS and highly competitive. they are diligently working on their reputation and ever expanding their STEM offerings.
but i’d strongly suggest a visit if accepted and it becomes a serious contender.
@2muchquan Any time I mention to someone that we are looking at Rowan (another NJ State public school) they always steer us toward TCNJ. I’d love to consider it but my New York kid refuses to attend a school called The College of New Jersey (ridiculous but what am I gonna do?). It’s an excellent school with a very good reputation in the area. Take a look at the Virtual Tour. Could be a nice Big MAC option for your DD.
We are off to Boston next week for vacation/visits and then we’re done. We’re visiting Northeastern, Boston University and MIT. Seeing Boston and a day trip to the beach - Rockport I think. Applied to fly-ins for Rice and Harvey Mudd so hoping for those or they are off the list.
Essays and short answers moving along OK. After reading the Cursed Child she decided she needed to re-read the whole series again so that’s taken some time.
@STEM2017 Ha! The name might be just what draws her in. I recall they nave some new STEM buildings. Looked cool. But the whole pants thing removed it from the list. Now that D is considering Northern schools again maybe worth another look.
@motherofdragons I did explain the TAMU thing to the registrar. That was the point where she told me that “colleges say they need the transcript but they really dont.” I confess I was stumped at how to respond to that.
@NCComputerNerd were you having transcript issues too? Mostly I worry that S doesn’t have an “ultra competitive” app, so he needs the head start to earn a spot (after the auto-admits). I think I need to have more faith in him. Even TAMU told me not to worry about it the timeline so we’ll see.
@2muchquan Once you’ve completed the Common App tab, you can (and should) go back and review the individual sections in preview mode one at a time to check for typos etc. When you do that, you will see 2 sections in bold: 1) race, 2) parents’ educational background and cuirrent employment. This goes to my pet peeve from last week.
As for visits - D will be visiting Ole Miss at the end of the month and Pitt in October. She will not do any more visits after that until acceptances and merit offers are in hand. She will definitely visit every school that is still in play at the end in order to make an informed decision.
@flatkansas …what do you think about the 3.5 GPA requirements for most of the merit scholarships at TAMU? My S visited the college this summer and over liked it however we can not get past the 3.5 GPA to keep the scholarships. Being an Engineering major that could not go well.
