@flatKansas Those are nice choices to have. If we lived in that vicinity we’d probably take advantage of those too. OU is probably closer for you as an OOS than many of our in-state choices are. Congratulations!
Congrats to all the NMSF folks and condolences to those that just missed it! My D cleared commended, but not by enough, according to the Compass Prep predictions for our state. No breath holding here.
Leadership - D is an introvert. I told her not to worry. Consistent participation and involvement is probably more than good enough for most applicants.
@stlarenas Maybe a small bribe is in order to get the college visits going? You’d be amazed how persuasive the offer of a small treat can be!
@WhereIsMyKindle Feeling the love - it will happen. Remember, often it ends up being the school that loves you back! I remember an acquaintance telling me about her daughter receiving congratulatory roses from an admissions office after her acceptance with scholarship. Guess where she ended up?
@Ldoponce What a rude GC! Hope it’s not a sign of things to come.
To all, I’m busy at work so will probably be posting less but I’m still around. We went to college night at D’s HS - didn’t learn much that was new but it was important to show up. Last major GC meeting is in a few weeks when we go through the finalized list and pull up the school’s historical admissions data to determine if it looks reasonable. Of her list of 9 (possibly 10), only four have application fees, so the total will be less than $200 plus sending test scores. D is spending most of her energies/angst on ACT prep for the September sitting.
I recently used my CC accumulated wisdom, such that it is, to advise a friend who also has a senior D and is looking for full tuition scholarships. I gave her a quick rundown of NPCs, EFC calculation, and pulled together a list of schools that might work for their family. She had no idea. It was nice to be able to pay it forward.
Speaking of caring for younger siblings I should remind her that for the last year she’s been responsible for driving her sister to and from school and swim practice which may not seem like much but it has been a huge family responsibility shift.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Looks like they deleted the thread that lead you to drop OU from the list. Do you mine giving a quick explanation about what the concern is about OU?
@stlarenas …yikes!
D does also have negative connotations of a school associated with certain kids who have attended there in the past and also with a certain group of current kids who are targeting certain schools. My stories of how I attended our state university and didn’t even know until years later that certain other classmates also attended have helped D to understand it is indeed a very big pool to swim in.
@mamaedefamilia …good for you to pay it forward! It slays me how much people don’t know about the process. Most are appreciative but some still don’t want to hear it.
@itsgettingreal17 …we are banking on this being true! D has zero class officer titles. She HAS been an assistant camp counselor (if keeping a group of 8 year old girls organized, on task, getting along and rotating through zip lines, swimming, archery and multiple other group tasks all day isn’t leadership then IDK what is!) AND she has a a small personal business where she has had to learn to take charge of adults to guide them through the process they are paying her to complete.
The leadership roles at Ds school (like NHS president) look great on paper but since the organization does very little, I can’t imagine that the leaders are leading too much!
It was about s*xuallt explicit banners hanging from frats and sororities during move in weekend. The city police finally had them taken down under a city ordinance. But they were quite lewd. My dh wanted to know why the university did not tell the Greek houses that they would not endorse the renewal their charters if they did not take them down. (No idea how it really works.) But with all of the publicity about how universities deal with on-campus assaults, he questions whether or nor there is a culture of suppressing victims. Irrational or not, he is only thinking about his baby girl and that was his first impression of the school.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek I get where your H is coming from, the article showed several campuses, not just OU. Here is my take though. Sadly, that mentality can exist anywhere and it may not be visible or as blatantly stupid as this particular fraternity was. Each of these schools are quite large and one fraternity cannot and should not speak for (or doom) an entire school. I’m not making case for OU mind you, for all I know the whole school is like that but I also think that most schools at some level have secret underbellies. We have to educate our kids how to deal with it and not only protect themselves but educate others. No, we don’t want to put our kids at a place we suspect has a larger issue but need to be careful to put it in context of the overall picture I think. We had wiped a school off for being anti LGBTQ but I did recently revisit it, questioning that data point as being enough. There were multiple other reasons for it to come off but I feel better having reevaluated it.
Yes, I also believe instructor, mentor, lifeguard etc and doesn’t have to be a club leader lot of clubs are started every year for application padding and many doesn’t go that far. some even start them in 10th grade. most schools have 20+ clubs and if you multiply that with # of schools, we have thousands of presidents 
My DS started one club after carefully planning it over summer last year and so far it has been good experience for it. He has other experiences such as speech and debate, robotics which can be shown as leadership skills.
@eanesmom I don’t disagree with you. But, this is the first time in 5 kids’ worth of sr yr stuff that my dh has uttered one word of strong opinion about anything. Normally, he just sort of leaves it to us to work through, and then in the spring when options roll in, he shares his POV. I’m not sure dd feels strongly enough about it to want to pursue it. I’m going let things settle for a while. If it is something she really ends up wanting to pursue, I think the 2 of them need to make a visit to campus together and get his questions answered.
Probably not the same thing but the Baylor and Texas A&M rape and sexism drama have effectively marked those schools off the list. We are forcing her to apply to one of those schools just to have an in state option… But I do get what she saying and I respect her thoughts.
I’m a bit late to the party, so here’s some catch-up…
Congrats to all those that made the NMSF cutoff and hugs to those that missed it. Thankfully, D17 is in the former category, but – save for one school on D17’s list that gives automatic half tuition – I don’t think it matters too much one way or the other.
Re: USC (speaking of the one school that gives automatic 1/2 tuition) - in answer to the question about USC Village, I believe that there will be 3 or 4 new “residential colleges,” one of which will be an honors college, other focused on community service, social justice, and I don’t recall the others. They will primarily be for freshman, I believe, but don’t quote me. As for the neighborhood, I don’t find it too sketchy at all (then again, I came of age in NYC in the 70s so everything in relative). All in all, I think it’s an excellent school and a solid choice for many (the jury is still out if it’s a good fit for my D who fears it might be A) too big, and B) too rah-rah (she’s not big on Greek, sports or partying). They do have some great programs, though, so we shall see…still casting that wide Big Mac net and seeing what we come up with.
@Ldoponce Yes, she should have replied, “yes, I am and we will all be the better for it!” Seriously, though, don’t let D17 waste an EA on Georgetown where there is not such an appreciable benefit in admissions, esp. if she has another SCEA or REA school she is aspiring to.
Because, under the conditions of the federal Higher Education Act, public colleges are incredibly restricted in the actions they can take against Greek organizations.
Seriously, the power of the lobbying arm of Greek life is nothing short of amazing.
Does USC have an Honors College? I thought you could do some extras to graduate with Honors but there wasn’t an Honors College.
@LoveTheBard - Thank you for the feedback and support.
Another issue with respect to at least some of the signs at OU were they were on private houses/apartments. If its on campus or university owned housing or at a school affiliated Greek house, the university has a lot more say/leverage than if its privately owned housing with no affiliation or ownership by the university.
Question? Do colleges get notified when you add them to, or complete fields, in the common app before you submit?
The reason I ask is my D was working on the CA today filling in school specific questions and within the hour she got an email from one of the schools requesting an interview (locally). This is a school we have visited, so maybe it is just coincidence. But if so it is very strange timing.
@LoveTheBard @TimEnchanter @Dolemite There is an excellent short video of the new USC Village at village.usc.edu. Although it won’t open for another year, they are very far along. It looks pretty exciting.
Even though we’ve not heard a peep from the school, based upon the reports here, it looks like DD has made the cut for NMSF. But given the seemingly intentional obfuscation by the college board and the Sergeant Schultz attitude of NMSC, I think I will actually believe it about the time she graduates.
From college.
DD will now add a UofK visit this fall. It looks like we will go on a Tuesday. For those who have visited, did anyone attend the “Lewis Honors College Overview”? This session is only offered on Mondays and Fridays at 3:00 p.m. We could make it if we leave Monday at o’dark thirty, but I am reaching out to the CC 2017 knowledge base for opinions on whether it is worth it.
Congrats to all who made NMSF and pats on the back to those who fell just short. The scoring was so compressed that if you just missed you have to realize your score was just as good, you were just unlucky. It’s not really fair, but you will soar to great heights regardless.
As we switch over to the merit chase, I’ll leave us with a movie line. Someone else already said this, maybe even on this thread. I can’t find the correct reference now, so I apologize for the plagiarism.
“May the odds be ever in our favor!”
@Dave_N Did a tour of UKy this summer, though there wasn’t a specific Honors College Overview. However, the new Honors College building is expected to be complete in time for Fall 2017. The building will have classrooms, offices, and all 2 bedroom suite dorm rooms for the Honors LLC. The Patterson for NMF is full tuition, room and board stipend (currently the step below the 2 bedroom suite option), and the lowest meal plan. However, just because you are NMF does not guarantee you will be accepted into the Honors College. They have had a significant increase in the number of applicants to the Honors College and I believe that they only accept around 4-500. Congrats on NMSF, looks like D17 has also made it, though we still do not have confirmation from the school.
@stlarenas – Yes, based on an e-mail received by S17:
Thank you for starting your application to *** through the Common Application! I am thrilled that you are interested in ***.
I was told by his counselor that the U can’t see the application, only that you’ve selected the U.
BTW, only 1 of 5 on C/A sent an e-mail. Hopefully that’s a good sign because it’s S17’s 1st choice!