@WhereIsMyKindle … Is your child applying to Pitt? Message me if so.
@Ynotgo – I had not bothered to look at the SAT scores until you asked…and it appears that they have punted on that one. They copied the entire chart over from last year’s profile but changed the heading to read class of 2016. The profile includes a few different reporting bases.
GPA is for the class of 2017 only, never updated beyond 6th semester GPA.
AP scores are for anyone in any grade who took an AP exam.
I have always wondered if the SAT scores really were for a specific class or simply anyone who took the test during a school year. I will have to ask Guidance, only b/c I am curious.
Same question for subject test scores: class-specific or anyone who sat for exam, regardless of grade.
The head of guidance commented this summer that the profile would be delayed as they were waiting for CB to send them SAT scores. They must have given up waiting.
ACT scores have been updated. Ten more test takers (210 now–class size = 330 +/-). Subscores changed but composite remained the same at 27.1.
We attended a college rep visit tonight at a nearby private HS for Boston College. I thought it was worthwhile. Only 1 hr. Admissions Officer for our region spoke about half the time, then 3 young local alumni spoke. Only a few Q&As at the very end. Most people stayed to visit after, but my D had to come right from practice and I think she felt out of place at the expensive private HS in her tee and shorts so we snuck out. (In a room full of Catholic private school kids) She did make sure to sign the visit log.
Even though the admission rate is pretty low I actually do think she might be a match/low reach for the school. Especially since they Superscore the ACT. They talked quite a bit about the Jesuit education and I thought it might scare my D off but she actually seems drawn to it.
Tomorrow is another one for ND, Emory, JHU, and UVA. She wants to go, so I signed us up. But I don’t think it will be as good. And I think these 4 schools are probably out of reach and not as good of fit for her. But I guess every little bit of info helps.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek I’d love to hear about your Wake Forest visit if you want to share.
@Dolemite - Found it – thanks!!
I think you had to answer some of the preliminary questions first about which school and which major so that you get the school/program specific ones. Good thing you mentioned something; it wouldn’t have been pretty if D discovered an additional 500-word essay right when she was ready to submit her app!
I know that for architecture, for example, they have a whole other series of questions. The 500 word essay is probably for Humanities/Social Science/Liberal Arts-y kids. But strange, since it’s about the residential colleges.
D17 is going to visit later this month. Have you and/or C17 visited? Impressions?
Wow, I was gone for two days, and missed so much.
S got Bama admission letter in mail. I must admit, it was a huge disappointment. A regular size envelope with a boring letter. What happened to 11by14 big bright envelopes with a congrats and some nice graphics. The weakest marketing effort I have witnessed to date, and this is my 3rd. He was non plussed by it. Also got email for honors college…Anyone know when they notify about scholarships. His app for that has been in since the first day available.
Looks like there was some real drama here with lots of edits to posts. I know why and who about. First amendment is not allowed here… From now on, when the National Anthem plays, take a knee for those who lost their voice.
Which schools have October deadlines?
@nw2this You may find this list helpful on deadlines.
http://www.collegesimply.com/guides/application-deadlines/
This doesn’t list EA/ED, etc. Note that some colleges (like Georgia Tech), require that you apply EA (10/15/2016) to be consider for some of the merit scholarships.
@nw2this The earliest EA deadline on our list is North Carolina State - Oct 15. And they are very strict about it.
Otherwise most other EA deadlines are Nov 1, Nov 15, or Dec 1.
I would argue that this is the case with MOST schools.
I made the scholarship competition spreadsheet. We are holding off from committing to the spring break trip as there are 2 competitions during that time. D can sign up until February so it’s still a possibility. But missing the trip would be a great problem to have.
( @Mom2aphysicsgeek and @WhereIsMyKindle I looked at UMD B/K for my spreadsheet. I wanted to correct the scholarship #s. It’s 400 invites, 250 full rides awarded, 150 partial. 150 scholars expected to enroll. Also 3-4 Stamps. Good luck!)
@LoveTheBard Have not visited with no plans to do so. Not sure D will even apply - she got the fee waiver. If she feels like putting effort into that essay then I guess she’ll apply.
@BigPapiofthree, I hear you an the Alabama acceptance letter—it looked for all the world like the “thin envelope” bringing bad news back in the day. Kansas, for their part, sent their acceptance in a big bright blue envelope with a cartoon jayhawk and the words “good things come in blue packages” in large type—less “classy”, I suppose, but really much better done.
Hey I have one worse than UA. Yes UA sent a regular envelope but Ole Miss hasn’t even sent that yet. Even though he was accepted back in July and it says it on the portal. They have sent other stuff but not the acceptance letter…
WF: I am super tired after a very long few days after a very long trip. This is the condensed version…
Very nice campus. The admission’s presentation touted all of the benefits of a small LAC. People were all very friendly. We were already familiar with area, so no surprises there. They were very proud to boast that they have just been recently ranked 5th in the country for undergrad experience.
Main highlights: Dd sat in on 2 classes: a 100 Russian class and a 200 level French class. Our experience in those classrooms closely resembled the other classes we have sat through on other campuses, right down to the same textbook. Maybe our expectations were skewed, but we expected to see something different or a difference in student abilities…something. But even the class sizes were similar to classes she sat in at schools like UKY. (After sitting in those classes today, dd left feeling confident that she is a very strong student and is completely unintimidated by the entire college thing.)
Summer sessions at Indiana and Middlebury were the prime recommendation for Russian vs study abroad. Semester broad was a possibility, but they didn’t recommend a yr abroad bc of cost and getting behind on campus. (Totally different philosophy from other schools that have established semester and yr abroad exchange programs.)
Impressions/thoughts: Keep in mind that I am not a CC philosophy groupie. 
The advantages of a LAC…other than a few large freshman lecture hall classes, every single pro of an LAC that was presented during the admission presentation has been equally true at my kids’ large public universities. Small upper division classes, only taught by professors, UG research, professors who want to mentor, etc. (Dd pointed out that her brother at Bama has experienced every single point that they were stressing as a pro.)
I’m pretty sure it is dropping off the list. (IU-B might be coming back on. She sort of laughed at the mention of going to IU-B for summer language. Her thoughts were why don’t I just go there to begin with. They are equal financial, incredibly unlikely, merit stretches. Drop one time intensive application for the other.)
Major, major, major pro of the day: Dd has totally lost her stress about where she goes. UKY moved back up onto her list of schools that she is content to have as an option b/c the classes were honestly and truly pretty indistinguishable.
Major pro for WF might be their employment/grad school rate after graduation. Their career center seems very strong. (can’t remember exactly, but it was something like out 90% class participation, 98% reported being employed or in grad school.)
So the talk earlier about visits and interviews in the spring got me to thinking and I just checked our calendar. Official spring break is week of March 20th this year (and only 1 week - in the past we have had 2 and 3 week spring breaks). I am thinking most RD acceptances won’t be in by then - correct?
Still playing catch up as you all have been quite busy the past week. Thought I would pass along our USC trip report from Friday. I know that several on here were concerned about the surrounding neighborhood, and even I remember it being sketchy 20 years ago when I visited there, but honestly we didn’t see anything other than the college campus. We took the Exposition Blvd. exit off the 110, made the 2nd right and 1st left and we were in the parking garage. They are certainly trying to create a larger campus neighborhood, and we saw the ongoing construction of their new “residential village”. Slated to open fall 2017, it will have retail on the ground floor (possibly Target, Trader Joes, etc.) and student housing on the floors above. This will be a huge help in making it so the student would never really have to leave campus to handle most of their needs.
Once we were on campus, there was definitely a buzz of activity as they were getting set up for the football game on Saturday. The 30 minute info session was pretty standard. USC does not have EA/ED, but they do have a December 1st deadline in order to be considered for merit scholarships (NMF is pretty much guaranteed 1/2 tuition, with the possibility of full tuition, but not all NMFs are accepted), otherwise the deadline is January 15th. The tour was informative, though we did not get to actually see inside any of the dorm options. We did however get to see all of their Heisman Trophies, including OJ’s. Our tour guide was a business major, so D17 talked to her a little bit afterwards about their Business in Cinematic Arts program, which is D’s latest fascination. Overall, she was impressed with the campus and came away saying she felt like she could see herself being there. USC would certainly be a lot closer to home, Grandma and Grandpa live about 20 minutes away, and she wouldn’t even necessarily need a vehicle as the Metro station is adjacent to campus. Now we just need to see if she gets in and can make the finances work out.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek my D felt the same way about Wake. It went from being a top contender to totally falling off the list.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek …good trip report. I think it is a good thing your D has seen all types and can make the comparisons. Having an older sib in college would truly help also as she has a real life experience to gauge by!
Pssst…I think our bill for the first semester was ~$300 on the Patterson Scholarship at UK. Not counting books, health insurance, or tax liability for stipend. It’s…nice.
Go Wildcats!
Well, one part of the angst is gone. School’s daily news blurb has announced that D was named a semi-finalist. Her score was above the projected cut, but it’s nice to finally see something official. I can finally relax about some snafu causing her to not be selected. Now I can obsess about something causing her to not advance as to NMF. 8-X
As far as I know, no one at the school has contacted her yet though. For historical purposes here are the schools # of semifinalists for the past 8 years. (Thanks google)
Year #
2016 36
2015 33
2014 53
2013 29
2012 26
2011 24
2010 28
2009 27
So this means off to UofK for visit, keep the SAT reg for Oct 1, and nothing comes off the list.
@TimEnchanter How easy is parking at USC? Is there a big parking structure or something for visitors?