You know, sometimes you find a message board and you think “these are my people” and you know you’ll be there for a long time even when the purpose of you being there isn’t as vital as it was in the beginning.
And then there are other places where you just have to grit your teeth and say bless your heart some days.
@MotherOfDragons LOL! There are a few posters on this site (not this thread) where bless your heart is my main reaction. And a double dose many times bc they post with such snide authority.
@jedwards70, I think that it definitely helps some kids in their decisions. We are planning to use S’s spring break to revisit the schools he is accepted to so he may sit in on classes and get a feel for the fit. We will visit the top two schools first and if he likes them then we will be done. I will note that he doesn’t have that many schools on his list, so it will be a doable thing for us. D15 had nine schools where she was accepted. She went to two scholarship competitions where she stayed over night and sat in on classes. She was offered generous scholarships and picked one of these schools, so she didn’t need to go and revisit the other 7 schools.
Our D16 applied to seven schools. Of those 7, she had visited 3 before or during application season. (We had visited more schools junior year, near home, as representative of school “type”).
We had confirmation re: merit scholarships at some schools by December. Got a rejection on a competitive scholarship by the end of February. She put two schools at the bottom of the list, essentially scratching them off.
By March, we had 2-3 schools that offered enough $ and were “acceptable” to D. We sent her to U of Kentucky for their Merit Weekend in March. The kids were offered a chance to register for classes without committing. It gave her another look at the school and the chance to meet some of the kids who’d likely be in her class. That sealed the deal.
It wasn’t LOVE, but it was not hate.
I didn’t want to fly her out to the other 2 finalists just so she could see those campuses and possibly confuse matters. The net cost of the attendance at the other schools were higher, in one case much higher.
But yes, I think you can let things play out a bit during the course of senior year, keeping your eye ahead at what the likely finalists will be, and if a March-April-May visit should be prioritized.
@jedwards70 The accepted students days helped our son’s decision become crystal clear to him. We thought the first of the 2 days had brought it back to 50/50, but instead it confirmed his decision to go to the other choice.
@jedwards70 In answer to your question about accepted student visits, they made all the difference for my D15. It became crystal clear to her which school was the right one for her when she spent a weekend at each of her top two schools after acceptance. Highly recommend these visits.
Accepted student days will be our first time visiting most of his list.
@mtrosemom @Midwest67 @youcee @longwood Thank you! His list is short (4 schools) so I think re-visiting will be good once all the offers are in. They are all big flagship schools and I think they will start to blend together if he doesn’t visit again before making a final decision.
@itsgettingreal17 made me think about Spring Break and using that time for re-visits. It seems like it is a long time from now but really it is just around the corner and I like to plan, plan, plan.
@jedwards70 I suspect this will be our first experience with accepted student days. SS11 only applied to one school and SD14 went ED so this is our first “real” foray into the waiting game. They may well be the one and only visit to some but it’s too early to say.
Accepted student days will be our first time visiting for all of his list.We will probably rank them after acceptances and visit in that order. My only worry is conflict with state level science competitions if they are in April.
@CT1417 noticed a few pages back that their school profile was updated, so I checked ours, and it is updated also. Maybe not final, since there are some spacing anomalies.
For the SAT scores, they aren’t including any new SAT scores yet. Instead, they just have columns for mean national and school old SAT scores in each category for 2013, 14, and 15. They dropped the 2012 column.
Q: How did your schools deal with the new SAT in their profile?
For the ACT, the mean school scores dropped a lot from 2015 to 2016! Composite dropped from 26.6 to 24.0. :-q Ouch. I guess either we have a lower-scoring class or a wider range of students took the ACT. Our area is generally an SAT area, and the profile says that the number of students who took the ACT went from 155 in 2015 to 206 in 2016. (Total of 2000 students in the school.)
Our engineering program got “internationally acclaimed” added to its description, but the name of the capstone project wasn’t updated. Somehow, our Mock Trial team got left out, even though they won state and nationwide. DS isn’t on the team, but a lot of his friends are.
No advance word on how many NMSFs. We’ll find out tomorrow, I guess.
They don’t include anything about the GPA range, I guess because they rank. Our GC told me that they will put rankings in Naviance in a couple weeks. :-SS They have been waiting to give people a chance to turn in grades for summer courses.
It bugs me a bit that the list of AP classes offered just says “physics” without saying they have Physics 1 & 2 but never any Physics C. They don’t provide any data on % of APs passed or anything like that. Probably because it wouldn’t look so great.
D was just admitted to the Honor’s College at Bama! We knew she would be, but nice to see. She has had a terrible day that we can’t help her with, so I am hoping this makes her day a little bit better!
Huzzah @jeepgirl Talk about a pick-me-up!
only 1 NMSF here. Completely shocked by that to be honest. @HiToWaMom you get bragging rights on this one! Supplement not yet updated.
@eandesmom Hahaha, even though my D is not one of the finalists, considering the friendly rivalry of the two schools, I accept the bragging rights! Honestly speaking, I was shocked by that one, too.
I guess at least one college wants DS early.
Congrats @srk2017 I saw that in another thread:)
@srk2017 congrats!
(Trying not to obsess about Pitt and admissions! She applied in July and has stats right with or above those admitted into her major… )
Admitted student visits- We hope to have the UK common app, in which she’s applying to the max number of schools (5) done by early October. Since they do rolling admits, we hope to hear back from most by our Thanksgiving week trip. Logistically we cannot visit all 5 so paring it down to 3 or so would be a very good thing.
If she’s admitted to all 5- first I’d have a heart attack, then I’d make her drop 2.
@carachel2 - Thanks. I was waiting to see who will disclose the college name here, jkd. May be they are looking at those who are applying for special programs first. Good luck to your DS.