@ShrimpBurrito – When we toured four years ago, exactly the same experience. You really feel like your kid will be well cared for there. It stayed at the top of the list until she got in with no merit. 
Thought I could report on our spring break trip.
First visited Trinity in San Antonio. We had spent a few days there vacationing prior to the visit, so we were all relaxed and enjoying their heat wave. They had an info session first, which was fine. The tour guide was not great. The buildings and dorms are nice (look pretty new in a lot of areas), but the actual guide was too self-centered for our tastes (“I’ve done this, I did that”, over and over). But then S18 met with coaches from his sport and that was a real positive. They gave us some more tour, took us to dining hall. Ate lunch which was great.
Next we went to University of Oklahoma. This was NMF day. I definitely recommend arranging this (rather than standard tour) if your kid is likely NMF. It was a long day, but they do a great job of selling their product. There is no general big information session–it is all much more personal. We had study abroad, NMF (money),campus tour, honors, and faculty meeting (1 on 1). The students who we met were all really positive about their experiences. I skipped some of this to take little sister to movie (tours are boring when you are 10). Lunch was “great” per spouse and S18. Dorm rooms were small–definitely smallest of these 3 schools.
Our final spot was University of Tulsa. We seemed to be the only ones there that day, which was not a positive. Also the weather was cool and windy, so no one was outside. Again we had information session, campus tour, honors, lunch. S18 also attended a class. Tour guides were not inspired and our lunch partner did not show! However, some students in the lunch area saw us looking lost and invited us to sit with them. They were great at selling the place. They loved the personal interaction with professors and small classes. My son felt the class he went to was good. It was a pretty campus (they all were). Again, a lot of new construction.
At the end, my S did not love or hate any of these schools. He can see pluses and minuses of each. Touring Tulsa and seeing a class made him think that personal attention and small classes might be nice. But he felt like he could get that at Trinity AND still do his sport. So I’m looking for more high merit aid D3 schools now.
Checking in after attending Junior Preview Day at Miami U in Ohio. The campus was pretty and has a very traditional collegiate feel to it. It has been well kept and looks like they are renovating some of the older dorms. The Armstrong Student Center looked new within a year or two, and looked like a nice comfortable gathering spot for students. There seemed to be a wide range of dining options scattered throughout campus. Miami has a fairly decent (and very bustling) rec center, although I have seen nicer rec centers on other campuses. We didn’t get to see the inside of any academic building other than the lobby and auditorium of Farmer Business School and the lobby of the library. The library looked pretty typical, but the business school was elegant in an understated sort of way. I didn’t care for how spread out the campus was and the fact that some main drag streets cut through campus, but S18 pointed out that the layout created a lot of nice green space areas. I did count four or five sizeable quads that appear to be heavily used for recreational purposes - there were students gathered on one of the quads and volleyball nets set up on another. There were noticeable indicators that some partying had taken place last night, and when we were leaving campus at 1 pm, there was a huge gathering of students in a tiny yard adjacent to campus - many of those gathered appeared to be wearing costumes or pjs, and there were cases of beer stacked up on the porch as if that party was just getting started. That called to mind some of what I’ve heard about drinking at Miami. Also, a complaint I have heard about Miami is that it is not very diverse, and there appears to be something to that. There were about 200 juniors there today, and I only saw one family of color. S18 said he could see himself there and wants to keep Miami on his list. Although Im not quite sold, Miami certainly has some good attributes, including a strong academic rep in this region, a good variety of academic programs, it is in state for us, and S18 is a good candidate for merit there.
If Miami is on your list, though, I would recommend not going on one of these big organized admissions events dates. The info session and panel were fine. After that, they broke us up into 20 or so tour groups, and it appeared there were additional tour groups for admitted students today too. All of the tours started at the same point and followed the same route, so there was constant log jam, and it was next to impossible to hear the tour guide at times.
DS schedule for senior year continues to take hits. Confirmed this week not enough to make a AP Chem or Calc BC class. Potentially he could do as an independent study. Not going to sweat it. Kind of glad in a way. He has pushed himself hard and I kind of want him to have an easier senior year. He will have nine AP classes completed at the end of this year, and at least twelve by the time he graduates. Even in CC land, that seems to be a heavy enough load.
Our spring break is next week. I work in public accounting so not a good time of the year to take off, but he and his mom are going to do some visits together next week. Indiana U, Centre and U of Louisville. We have walked around the campuses of a lot of different schools on vacations over the last couple of years, but this will be the first “official” visits he has done, guided with a schedule, etc.
We are going to chase merit, and right now he is considering about a dozen schools. The three above, plus Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Emory and Vanderbilt.
@LOUKYDAD - any thoughts on that UK Patterson scholarship for Fall 2018? I know this has been discussed on another thread, but when I saw you here, I thought I would see if you have any feelings about it still being available for our Freshman 2018 kids.
@crazy4info I don’t think the Patterson will be there next year. Consider this recent post on their website:
My prediction is that they will kill the Patterson (which was an automatic full ride for NMFs). I think they will offer the Singletary or something like it, but there won’t be as many. 10 to 20. The in-state Governors Scholars with 31+ACT have been getting the full tuition Presidential, but I am betting that becomes partial tuition. (I have no inside information whatsoever, so don’t take any of this as anything other than conjuncture and reading between the lines with a glass half empty mindset).
After finishing my pity party and emerging from a state of mourning, we have regrouped with a new strategy. The old strategy was UK as the “merit safety”. U of Louisville, Alabama, Oklahoma and/or Ole Miss are the new merit safeties (at least a couple of these will drop after visiting). UK is now in the “merit reach” category along with the rest of the list, save Emory and Vanderbilt which we call “merit dream on”.
In case it isn’t already evident, my special snowflake has a spoiled rotten tight curmudgeon of a dad who has this idea that his son’s undergraduate degree should be free for us. The kind of guy many love to hate on CC.
@LOUKYDAD we are also chasing merit. Older D got full tuition and I want that (or better) for this one. I think Oklahoma will be our “guarantee” school. Don’t think my guy want Deep South (yes I know not like it used to be etc–but I’m ok with some limits!)
What I’m really looking for are D3 schools of around 2-3k students where academic merit is possible. I’ve got Trinity, Washington & Lee, Denison, Case Western (?). I think Rochester is the merit dream on for him.
@wustl93 We also went to a junior day at Miami. S liked it a lot. Spouse who accompanied him saw lots of drinking and fraternity/sorority stuff evident. Hmmm.
@Booajo I would like DS to consider W&L too. The Johnson scholarship would be an amazing opportunity. If you visit let us know what your impression is.
Reading all the trip reports has been very interesting for us. Keep them coming! Our kids get a fall break the first week of October, where they will have a week plus an extra day off of school. Thinking seriously about doing a trip where we start at Clemson and then go west to see Georgia, Emory, then Alabama, and Ole Miss. I wonder if that’s even doable if you had 10 days (counting the two weekends)? Am I crazy? I started to add Oklahoma too but decided that would definitely be too much driving, and leave us with a 11 hour drive home (no thanks). Ole Miss and Clemson are both less than 7 hours from home which sounds more doable.
@krishnamg Here is the link you were looking for:
Does anyone know how to figure out the first day that students can apply to particular colleges? It’s very easy to see what the deadline is, but I would like for D18 to do most of her application work this summer if she can. The only school that was easy for me to find was Ole Miss - and they open for applications on July 1. We are chasing NMF merit, so the schools we are looking at are: Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas A & M, Kentucky (if they keep their NM scholarship), and Alabama.
@LOUKYDAD You are probably right. We are going to visit (for the 2nd time) next weekend to visit with the honors program and scholarships. It’s pretty costly to fly there from Austin, TX, but we made our plans before all of the talk about KY going to need-based aid. I guess we will just make the best of it and enjoy learning more for our collective knowledge on colleges in general. Also we will enjoy a day at Keeneland! I can’t help but think that I should be spending that travel money elsewhere, though!
@crazy4info Last year the Common App opened on August 1st. My guess it will be the same this year. The new essays have already been announced and you can find them here so your daughter can start working on them over the summer.
Most of the schools either have common app or coalition app (some have both) Oklahoma, Baylor and Kentucky all use common app. Texas has it’s own app (or uses coalition app) Bama has its own app.
Best way to check for each school is to go to their website’s admissions tab - for undergraduate freshman - and click “apply” and you will see the choices and deadlines for all.
One thing I will also point out when you’re considering application deadlines, is that sometimes deadlines for merit and scholarships can be sooner - so when your children are considering chasing merit, make sure you look closely at the deadlines for each college.
@crazy4info Even though the Common App opens August 1, I think it would be best to wait to submit applications until September, when you have the official NMSF designation.
@LOUKYDAD You go! 
We’re right there with you on trying to find free or almost free undergrad. S is thinking med school, so we need to save our pennies for that instead of spending them on undergrad.
@ShrimpBurrito - that’s a good thought about waiting until Sept. Maybe I can just get her to have the app/essays ready to go, then submit them once the NMSF notifications are out.
@ShrimpBurrito - Although, I’m thinking that her stats alone will get her into all of these schools, and I’m guessing we can update her files once NMSF status is confirmed? I’d be curious to know how other ppl have handled that.
@LOUKYDAD, count me among the “spoiled” crowd chasing merit even though we can afford full pay. Frankly I have no patience for the attitude that just because parents have money their kids should not seek merit scholarships. If S were a D1-recruitable athlete would people say he should turn down athletic scholarships because we don’t “need” them? No, they would say well done, the kid has worked and sacrificed to be top level in sport and so should reap the rewards. They might disagree with the philosophy of colleges spending so much money on athletes but they don’t fault the parents and students for accepting the scholarships. Well, my S has also worked and sacrificed to be an excellent student and he should also reap the rewards of his efforts with merit scholarships. Also a big part of the reason H and I can afford to be full pay is because we live below our means. Technically we could afford a much more expensive house, luxury cars, etc but we are uncomfortable spending that kind of money. That thinking carries over into the college search as well. Full-pay private or OOS flagship to us seems like the Mercedes of education, and we are solidly Honda people. Now if S does happen to get into MIT and wants to go there, we will pony up for a degree from a world-renowned school. Otherwise, his college list only includes schools that are either likely to offer merit or will be relatively inexpensive even without merit.
@traveler98 Used Honda driver here. 200,000+ miles and hoping for a lot more out of it before it’s done! 
@crazy4info, we are in a similar situation. S is eager to get started on college apps and will be working on essays over the summer. He’s applying to two Texas publics and I’ve heard that the ApplyTexas system opens in early July. If so, S can get as much done as possible before senior year starts and then be ready to just hit “send” after NMSF information comes out in September. Or he might decide to submit early and then update with NMSF designation later. UT Austin doesn’t care about NM designation and the NM coordinator at UT Dallas already knows he’s a likely NMF. Anyway, S and I are agreed that anything that can be done over the summer will be time well spent to reduce the college app workload during senior year.
“S can get as much done as possible before senior year starts and then be ready to just hit “send” after NMSF information comes out in September.”
That’s our plan as well for our NMF schools (OU and ASU). D may (hopefully) have some other things to add to her application in September, like varsity sport captain and/or club officer, so she’ll add those in before she officially submits. I’m a bit concerned that something could get lost in the shuffle if we send information in piecemeal fashion.
D will visit USC in October, so she may wait even longer to submit that app. She should be able write a better “Why USC?” essay after spending some time on campus. Deadline for merit consideration at USC is Dec 1, and I read that they didn’t even start reading apps until late October last year, so there’s really no benefit to submitting before then.