Question: Have any of you ever been to one of these workshops? http://www.freecollegeplanning.org/classes.html
I think I am going to go to one this Saturday out of curiosity. It says for parents of Jr’s and Soph’s - but I have a D17, S19, and D21.
I have a feeling it will just cover I already learned here, but it’s free so why not?
And it says to bring the kids. So I am making D17 go with me. I am hoping it will decrease my anxiety some and increase hers a little 
@stlarenas You could teach that workshop!!!
But seriously, you will probably hear a lot of things you already know, but there’s a good chance you will learn some things so it’s probably a good idea to go if it’s not expensive.
Keep us posted if you attend.
ETA: Sorry, I see now that it’s free. You have nothing to lose by attending.
@stlarenas We fill out NCAA basketball tournaments in our house. No one really follows college basketball other than me (and I do not follow it that closely). For my daughter, I search for brackets by team color and mascot. She uses those. She often does well in the first rounds. That she loves horses and thus Kentucky has been helpful in recent years. LOL
@BigPapiofthree wrote (all the way back in post #13688, I’m so behind)
Which Miami? FL or OH?
University of Miami ^^
@itsgettingreal17 @Tgirlfriend and anyone else thinking about OkSU: It seems like a lot of students really like it and had good visits, which is why I was curious about @disshar DD’s visit. It may be the best fit for other students; it just didn’t feel right to us.
Did anyone get the email from Purdue for the “Women and Engineering” Day?
Purdue is on Ds list and she has visited. I’m trying to dig further: Do they consider interest at all? For OOS merit scholarships is stats based only or ECs also? I read through a whole string of merit posts from last year and it was just all over the place…I couldn’t figure out a pattern at all.
I agree with @IABooks It was ok but nothing really hit home for us. @Tgirlfriend the dorms at OK State were WAY nicer than OU. The OU honors dorm rooms were not open but we did go into the building. It was older and traditional style. The tower dorms at OU were a suite style. Basically it is two two person rooms with a connecting bath. In my opinion those rooms were small compared to many of the other two person rooms that I have seen at other schools. In comparison, the dorms we saw at OK State were beautiful and much bigger. We were shown newer buildings.
@Tgirlfriend as for Bama, my eldest is a Presidential Scholar there starting her second year. She lived in Honors housing which is so nice. She is in an off campus apartment this year. Feel free to ask questions. Just to give you an idea of what she is involved in so if you have specific questions: She was pre-med with Chemistry major but after some medical issues and some self reflection, she is now an English major and hopes to be a professor. She also has a music scholarship on oboe. She went to Honors at Oxford this summer, was chosen for Freshman Forum and will be an intern with that this year, is a Health Ambassador, and participates in Greek Life as an officer.
Is anyone considering Trinity University? I woke up with a panic attack this morning thinking that somehow dd’s list is completely awful and she needs to have a list of different schools. (Completely irrational bc we have investigated just about every school,out there.)
Trinity is one I actually hadn’t looked at before. It is not an option for dd bc it is still too expensive, but they do have some pretty big merit scholarships (just not big enough for our tiny budget.) I noticed they do have a neuroscience major.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek I have to laugh or I will cry. Big, big hugs!
deleted - question answered
ETA: Trinity University was very high on son’s list until we did some research on the engineering program. It is Engineering Science vs Mechanical Engineering - off the list. Otherwise it looks like a fantastic school.
I have a friend who was accepted to Trinity College in CT and another who is attending Trinity College in Dublin Ireland. I’m guessing Trinity University is different? @Mom2aphysicsgeek
Trinity in San Antonio? I’ve always heard fantastic things about them but we do not know anyone who attends.
Trinity University in San Antonio. 
I have gone through an entire new list of schools today. (Every minute between kids doing school work.) And the grand total of possible additions: 0.
Then it appears the list you have is a good one @Mom2aphysicsgeek!
We’re going to the US Merchant Marine Academy Open House on August 26. Mainly because its close by.
It starts at 7:30am sharp. :(( :))
@Mom2aphysicsgeek, I have a niece who lives near San Antonio whose dream school is Trinity. When we visited that branch of the family a couple years ago we toured it with her. Nice school, very red-brick campus. They made a big deal about the fact that they have a huge endowment (which is true, especially considering their size), and they can use that for merit awards—no idea how much of that was marketing and how much was reality, though. Very much not my oldest’s cup of tea (and she really, really likes LACs!), but I suspect most of that is a desire to ever spend as little time in Texas as is humanly possible, not any concerns about the school.
I don’t know that this is informative, but I wouldn’t write it off. My big worry about regional LACs would be their financial stability, but that isn’t a concern with Trinity, so IMO it’s worth a solid look.
@STEM2017 – perhaps the early start time is to weed out those who do not understand what that school will be like?
I try to avoid info sessions that start before 10am.
@dfbdfb – I so agree with you about being concerned about long term viability of many of these regional LACs. The Northeast is littered with these, and yet they all remain open for business. I truly thought the financial meltdown of 2008-2009 would have hastened the demise of some, but other than Sweet Briar (resurrected, IIRC), I haven’t heard of other closings. One of these days the student loan market will lose its backstop. Until then…
The endless discounting (AKA merit aid) alarms me with these LACs. I am much more comfortable with Franklin & Marshall than Dickinson, b/c F&M offers generous FA, but Dickinson discounts to get them in the door. Nothing like say Drew in NJ, but I still wonder how long this can continue.
Musing over…
@dfbdfb That is why I mentioned it. Most people on this thread seem to have much bigger budgets than our strictly room and board. They have an automatic merit scholarship calculator and they are pretty generous…just not the equivalent of the full tuition she is chasing.