@payn4ward - I don’t think applying EA gives you much advantage (while ED is a different story). But we’ll probably submit EA to everywhere we can - just to get it over with… 
@thshadow I think EA can give an advantage for merit. Admissions perhaps not but for merit, I believe so.
I hope I don’t dream about spreadsheets tonight after reading about big spreadsheets you all coming up with. Mine is an illiterate version with very basic info 
No visits, no financial restrictions or big scholarship expectations.
For those that are concerned about the SI conversion for the conforming SAT score, remember that the max SI for the SAT is 240 (40+40+40*2), not the 228 max for the PSAT. For instance, D17 missed almost exactly the same number of questions on the SAT as she did on the PSAT, but her SI went up from 220 on the PSAT to 227 on the SAT. I think the thing most people are upset about is that NMC is being unnecessarily vague about the cutoff. FFR, if you think your child will be anywhere close to being a NMSF, have them take the SAT spring of junior year, so you are not scrambling to try to beat the cutoff in October.
Rice is right next to medical center which has two medical schools, Baylor and UT Houston within walking distance. Summers are brutal but school should close for almost 3 months until around 20th of August which means they will suffer through about a month and a half of summer if they don’t live here during summer. We have beautiful climate from October through April with occasional spells of cold weather.
In terms of the sat for NMF, they will not have a score requirement above the lowest state score. So unless you live in a state with a 209 cutoff and sat scores hovering near their non-concerted PSAT score, I am pretty sure you have nothing to worry about.
My file method for schools is a sheet of notebook paper with my chicken scratch info. :). Very low tech and definitely not organized! Oh well. It’s working!
Visits: visited all schools, most of them with a 1/2 hour drive, LOL.
Spreadsheets: I have some scribbled notes on the Fiske guide. That’s it. Seriously.
Otherwise it’s all been figured out. Everything is filled out and now we are just waiting on teacher recommendation and GC recommendation and then we’ll submit. Timeline Oct 1-7th. Things are strangely relaxed and low key. I think we have a good grip on things and everything is going to work out fine.
** About that million dollar spare change in the attic, **
I know I am in the minority who will be inclined to spend every dime of it towards college while driving my car for another 200K miles (knocking on wood,) not upgrading formica kitchen, and going further than anyone has gone with all home appliances and clothing (vintage fashion anyone?) because that is what my parents did for me and my siblings and some cousins.
DH on the other hand has very different attitudes. He never received a dime from parents while MIL cruised around the world. The times are different though. He was able to graduate debt free on scholarships and aides but one cannot earn the tuition with a summer job. [-(
@srk2017 We are also in the 0% visit club. S hasn’t even seen the school his sister is a junior at.
QOTD #1: Yes happy with the list, mostly. He has 9 schools and it feels like too many.
QOTD #2: We are still visiting. He has an interview plus three more tours to go, and hopefully we can wrap this part up by the middle of October. There are a few that he just won’t have time to visit. Still deciding about ED to one school.
QOTD #3 (spreadsheets): Yes we have tabs. Can’t match @dfbdfb’s 123 columns, but for a non-spreadsheet person like me, I think it’s a thing of beauty. I include dates that he sent test scores to each school, application deadlines, availability of his interests, total cost over 4 years, number of LORs required, how many essays, and the number of students in his major for each school. Also it’s color-coded and has a graph to show the 4-year costs. I might make more graphs, because I like graphs.
We use www.trello.com which is a basic project management tool for free. You can put due dates and deliverables, etc. Once you have 1 board set up it’s easy to copy to make new ones for the next school.
Found out today that S didn’t know the difference between UCLA and USC. :)) He thought they were both “the college by the museum where they have the Space Shuttle” (USC). He’s never been on either campus, despite multiple visits to the museums near USC. I’ve only been on the UCLA campus once and never USC. Guess we should visit both–only a couple hours away. I hate LA traffic, though.
People laughed at me when I though the elementary schools near us called “Mountain View” and “Monte Vista” were the same school, just different languages. So, karmic turnabout or something.
@MotherOfDragons The my.mit site has not been down for S that I’ve noticed. It is up now for us. What error are you getting?
QOTD2 – Happy with the list? I wish there were a not-so-reachy private on the list. There are matches and safeties among the in-state publics. But, if he wants somewhere he can major in physics (Letters & Science) while still taking CS courses (typically Engineering), that becomes difficult at most publics. Also, if he decides after his 600-person math class this fall that he wants to avoid schools with classes that large, we’re hoping for a private again. Highest admit rate for privates on his list is 16.5%.
Spreadsheet: One tab, 18 colleges, 26 columns. I guess I’m an minimalist.
QOTD #1: The list has stabilized at 9 schools - 2 public safeties, 2 small universities, and 5 LACs. Only one is a true financial/admissions reach. Before she started on this journey, I had only previously heard of 3 of the 9, one of them being our state flagship!
QOTD #2: She has visited 7 of the 9 and has figured out enough about her preferences to take a chance on the remaining two being reasonably good fits.
QOTD #3: I have an excel file that doesn’t deserve the name of spreadsheet. But I do have detailed notes on campus visits. I do better with narratives than tables.
QOTD1 - pretty happy with the list, although I periodically get a twinge of panic and think we might be leaving out 1 or 2 good choices. Although one of those is USC (carolina) which DS had refused to consider, but he just got invited to a swanky dinner by them for “top scholars” which I think he will attend for the food and maybe then reconsider.
QOTD2 - Has visited most, but not all. Will visit WashU in November. Our nephew is there so we are looking forward to that one. For those of you considering where to visit, check as to which schools count interest. I know that WashU does. They really like to see you visit. I believe Emory now no longer considers interest so we are waiting to visit on that one until after decision time.
SPREADSHEETS - we don’t have one, I hate spreadsheets, but I am now feeling super stressed that all of you do. What do you mean by a tab for user names? Do you have a different one for each school? I have no idea what my DS has done with regard to that. Deep breath. Same with things like LORs. If schools are on common app, don’t they just get the same 2 letters that are submitted by the school?
With respect to scholarships, some schools require you to submit early, or by a certain date, to qualify. I know that USC is one of those, for example, and maybe Richmond as well.
@pittsburghscribe welcome and join me in the rebellion against spreadsheeters!! We must stay strong. Post it notes stuck inside college guides will work just fine. Luddites unite.
No spreadsheets here either. We are likely going the file folder route. DD’s list is in flux with probably 5 definites and a very obvious top choice. She is probably not going to shoot for a reach unless she gets a burst of energy and wants to write more essays and take the SAT II she would need.
@pittsburghscribe we are also headed to the USC Top Scholars event. Ours is lunch. We did their open house two weeks ago and even though she was born in Columbia and is familiar with it, she didn’t like the campus. That said, the girl is ruled by her stomach and wants to see what kind of money they would give her.
^^ trello.com emulates post-it notes since basic project management techniques often starts with post-its.
We visited UCSD over the weekend. I was underwhelmed by so very much concrete. It felt blah. We were going to do SDSU but were all a bit burned out and skipped it. It b is a safety safety, if the worst case scenario happens, she’ll visit.
I am pretty happy with our list but always think there might be one more we should look at. I think ds will apply to 12 schools when all is said and done. Some we are hoping for the Big Mac, some others are only possible if he gets a ROTC scholarship but there’s a good mix of schools in there. As far as visits we have gone to 5 that have remained on the list (and 3 that have fallen off) 1 more visit is planned this month and then we will wait until later in the process to decide where we need to go visit. 2 safeties in our home state he doesn’t want to attend so we are not visiting and 2 others are on the west coast so they will have to wait as well. Other than the 2 safeties that are in our home state, all of the schools are at least 10 hours away to visit so there were only so many we could do. I think we are both ok with holding off on visits for now.
DS17 List - No. I am not happy with his list. There are only 3 schools on the list. One reach, one match and one safety (in-state public). I asked him to add 2 - 3 more match schools… His GC said 6-8 schools is the target. I try, every day to get him to add schools. UGH.
Visiting - we have visited all 3 on his list. He has visited 4 - 6 additional schools over the years. Some with his older sister, some as an effort to get him to add schools to his list.
No spreadsheet… you all make me nervous. But, I suppose with only 3 schools on the list, it’s not so hard to manage. I’ll put together a due date spreadsheet for the financial aid stuff when my DS finally finalizes his list.