Welcome, @NamePoster ! Your kiddo’s GPA is exactly the same as my D’s, which I think is great. But you’re right, relatively speaking, isn’t enough for some schools. My D is top 5% at her school. She is likely NMSF with a 225 SI in Texas. Since we are mainly chasing NM scholarships (close to full ride), her GPA won’t hurt her at the colleges that offer that. There are a couple of schools (like Baylor), where she can get automatic tuition with NM scholarship, but there are some competitive scholarships (that stack), where her GPA could be an issue.
@DiotimaDM - it’s funny we did ask our NM tour organizer to set up a meeting with a professor from film department. We ended up with a professor from the wrong department. He was interesting to talk to, but his field is mainly viewing/critiquing different genres of film. My D will definitely take those kind of courses, but she is mainly interested in production, lighting, screenwriting, editing, etc. We will make another trip to visit Gaylord. We are in TX, so it’s not a difficult trip. The building looks amazing from the outside! I’d love to hear more if you got to talk to ppl at Gaylord.
Um, that should have a been an PSAT SI of 220… I don’t even know what an SA is 
Oh well, quick Swarthmore tour notes:
Beautiful campus in a pretty, quiet suburb. There’s a lot of residential area around the campus that’s very nice (had just come from Temple so it was dramatically different!). There’s a small mall nearby but not tons else that we saw in driving around. Of course you jump on the interstate a couple miles (or take the train, which we’ve done in Philly a few times and have been generally impressed) and are in downtown Philly. Pretty nice setup really.
The “intro” talk was helpful to know what kind of students match well with Swarthmore, but I could see why some people get the sense that they are being a bit snooty in the presentation. It’s a lot of “if you are this type of person you probably aren’t a good match”. There were a couple of good moments though where it seemed like it connected with S18 and would definitely challenge him in some ways that he’s not really been before.
Tour guide was decent. He had a few fun anecdotes but probably spent more time pointing at things across the campus than actually taking us to see as much as I would have liked. Biggest concerns would be quality of dorms (didn’t show) and food (didn’t even walk through but wasn’t well hyped). I think the “quirky” bits really connected well with S18 - like their “Screw your roommate” which has a fun cosplay/silly vibe. But the extreeemely small classes and the seminars where the students would be responsible for providing the content and/or being very conversational was a bit intimidating as that’s not really his thing.
It’s still high on the list but as we’ve gone along, quality of dorms (essentially assigned at random) and options for privacy have started to turn his eye elsewhere.
@DiotamaDM, there was a girl with high stats and she was NMF applying in 2016, if I remember correctly she got full tuition at Pitt, full tuition plus at Tulane, full ride at WVU and U Toledo, a competitive full ride at UCF and U Delaware, quite a bit of merit at Case Western and Drexel.
If your S is premed, I would be careful of taking CC classes, especially compressed summer classes, and that many.
The GPA he gets will be included with his college GPA, and some med schools might not accept CC classes for premed requirements.
Yes, UCs don’t give aid to OOS students, so I believe they cost $55k OOS.
For premed advice @mom2collegekids and @WayOutWestMom are good sources to question on here.
Thanks, @mommdc. The CC classes are gen ed requirements (e.g Intro to Film for his art requirement) and his EMT stuff. He knows not to take any of the premed reqs.
I’m still thinking he shouldn’t take 15 hours though.
We’re in-state and full pay for the UCs. 
I hate to knock on them, but they’re not worth the money (if we had it!) over UNM or Texas Tech for free.
@crazy4info We talked to a professor in the Professional Writing program at Gaylord, and it was the best part of our whole tour. The man knew his stuff cold. I can’t speak to the film part, but the Prof’l Writing program is unique and top-notch.
@DiotimaDM Yay! That makes me excited to go back and check it out. I spent some time this morning looking at the site from the link you sent. Gaylord looks pretty phenomenal!
DS ACT scores from April posted last night. He got a 29 composite which is a good baseline and opens the door for some automatic scholarships. He is planning on giving it at go again in June and aiming for the 32. He has 2 AP tests coming up in May. English he’s already taken a mock test on and got a high 3 so he expects to be able to nudge that up to at least a 4 to get credit for both. Otherwise a 3 gets him Comp1 and he will take the other English AP next year for Comp 2. APUSH is his other test and it is early on in May. He will have to score a 4 to get credit at UA or Texas Tech. He’s taking practice tests for both this weekend. The hope is he can focus on prepping for APUSH and then after that test is out of the way get back to focusing on the ACT. That would give him about a month to prep less anytime he needs to focus on finals.
@LOUKYDAD, we were at a visit last week, the Admissions Counselor said that the majority of college students stay within 2 1/2 hours from home. 
@1822mom, I like and agree with your point about cultural fit and close to home…close to home is where you will find your people…because they are your people Makes total sense!
back from our college road trip. Daughter is looking for an audition based BFA in dance with the ability to double major and/or at least a solid minor.
Up:
We drove from Philly last Sunday to visit James Madison on Monday. They were hosting a special “dance department visit.” Got in to Harrisonburg, Virginia late on Sunday and drove around the area. Very pretty. Small town. Arrived for our visit and realized that it was also admitted students day, so campus was very busy. Sat with another family for a very personal admission information session. Wonderful explanation of the program and how the BA works at JMU. A lot of good information about how the audition works. This was followed by a tour of their fabulous to Forbes Performing Arts Center. My daughter was allowed to participate in a freshman Modern class. She was a bit nervous going in, but the teacher and other students were so kind and welcoming. We were not able to participate in a general admission tour of the University because of admitted students day. We did take a map and walk around ourselves. Campus is lovely and the traditional quad was bustling.
Down:
George Mason: Drove up to suburban DC after lunch in Harrisonburg (JMU). Long ride and daughter was feeling a bit ill by the time we hit the area. Swung by the Courtyard Hotel (felt a bit seedy) and decided to do an exploratory drive the University to find the Performing Arts Center. Area is full of strip malls and traffic jams. Drive to GMU took a lot of time due to the traffic. It was surrounded by large, flat parking lots. The building were concrete and seemed very blocky and 70’s. Daughter looked around and said, “nope.” We knew there were a lot of commuters, but the campus did not offer the traditional campus with a quad or an urban campus that integrates the campus with the city. This made me a bit sad, because on paper the dance BFA was wonderful. I guess it is good to learn what they don’t want in a campus, too.
Way up:
Elon: cancelled hotel reservation and email to school to cancel Tuesday tour. Power drove to Elon. Found an amazing BBQ place in route and arrived at the Drury Hotel late on Monday night. Nice, new hotel outside of Elon. $79.00 rate. Includes breakfast buffet, free popcorn and soda all day, cocktail hour (2 free drinks) and a themed free dinner buffet. Indoor/outdoor pool and exercise room. Spent the free day driving around the general area. Found an outlet mall which made my girls happy;) found a lovely cafe for lunch and back for swimming. Toured the campus after dinner to fine the Performing art center. Wednesday we had emailed and they allowed daughter to observe a freshman ballet class. Daughter really enjoyed the teacher and students. Felt like the instruction was high level. Then walked in to town (across the street, lol) for lunch and back to meet the Chair of the Department. She was wonderful and spent a good 30 minutes describing the program. She was the person who was building it up had wonderful incite. Described the difference between their BFA and BA (daughter wants their BFA) and the audition process. Such a great balance of nurture and challenge for her students. Center was very nice. They also have a great Theater dept. Elon has an extensive study abroad program. Approximately 70% of students participate. The dancers can go to a program in Israel or London. Very exciting. She sold the program.
Thursday went to the admissions seminar and tour. Very comprehensive. Admissions person was ok, but there were so many prospective families that they had to open smaller rooms to accommodate everyone. We did not get a main person, but she was fine, if a bit rushed. Our student tour guide was fabulous. Great tour and great information. Daughter is love with school. NOT the result we expected.
We had seen George Washington and Goucher on different visits.
Headed home for a long drive to Philly on Friday. Good trip.
Has anyone that has visited Texas Tech gotten a solid answer to why their 4 year grad rate is around 35%? And has fallen since 2012. Husband asked this very question at a Texas Tech recruiting thing last year for DD’16 and was quite literally ignored.(At least when I asked this question of LSU I got a sheepish, “yes, we are working on that…”. ) It is one of the drawbacks to TT for us. The low 4 year grad rates at some Texas schools are not so bothersome when you factor in their transfer out to other school numbers, but Tech doesn’t really have that issue as an excuse. UT-D 4 year grad rate is up from 30% to 53% over that past 5 years, so they at least seem to be working on changing.
Not me. I didn’t know it was an issue. I’ll be doing some follow-up emails with some of the TT folks, so I’ll ask.
@DiotimaDM Thank you for the tour-by-proxy! It’s so very helpful.
This may not be a big deal for your S, but I do want to point out that Lubbock doesn’t have the nicest weather. My D refuses to even consider going there because of this. Hot summers she can handle, but it’s dry, dusty, brown and WINDY in the winter. And the occasional tornado finds it way there, too.
Welcome @NamePoster - my D18 also has just about the same stats as your S18 - PSAT, GPA, AP classes, ACT score, in top 10% - all basically the same. I would say her ECs are on the pretty good side.
Just like for your S18 - really good scores/stats, but maybe not enough for the reach schools and ultra competitive merit scholarships. So (as you can tell) you have lots of company out here!
D18 knows the reality of the top schools - how kids with perfect test scores and GPAs are routinely rejected each year, so I think she’s well prepared to apply to a couple of these schools with a “lottery ticket” mind set.
Other than that, we (like most everyone else) are trying to identify good match schools as we also look into potential NM matches for her as well.
I hope you stick around - it should be an interesting year comparing notes with you!
I just wanted to say thank you to those filing tour reports. I’m listening and “taking notes.”
Looking forward to our interactions over the next year +/-.
Thanks @LMHS73 - our son is mentally prepared for the trauma… I mean… experience as well I think there are some really good competitive scholarship options out there, but it’s very time consuming and stressful on top of everything else. It’s hard to not just want to take the “guaranteed” money from NM. UCF or USF would be free or practically so because of it… and he wouldn’t be upset with either really. UF is probably his best/favorite in state option so far, but then we won’t have nearly as much clarity into cost, etc. for quite awhile. A top 20ish acceptance with 100% need or something similar would just be icing really. Oh what fun!
Florida Tech visit report:
We visited just last month. The school is not very well known (also goes by Florida Institute of Technology and FIT), located in Melbourne, Fl on the Atlantic coast. Melbourne is a nice size town, though one of the main roads crosses alongside campus (with some housing and the admission offices on the other side of the road)… so they offer a free trolley system to get around an otherwise fairly small campus. It’s got several new buildings and was a pretty campus, but not awe inspiringly so. I would say it’s got a fairly typical Florida vibe, which is nice if you are in to that kinda thing.
Our tour started with about a half hour discussion with an admissions officer who talked through the schedule and then had a mix of evaluation of our S’s interests and such as well as a good Q and A, where they were able to offer some good info on Florida Tech. They had been kind enough to schedule us to visit with the head of the Chemical Engineering department as we had shown interest in that department when we scheduled, even though we had not asked for a meeting specifically. We also had a tour scheduled of the engineering design center. We definitely felt like they were giving us a lot of personal attention, which was much appreciated.
The campus tour itself actually had two guides and was fairly brief but informative. There are some nice, quiet spaces on campus, a very well appointed library… we saw one of the engineering teams carrying and working on their concrete canoe… that is apparently a thing. The freshman housing options were a big plus with a nice variety, including “modern” apartment style buildings with private rooms, but they also had more typical dorms as well.
Once we got through the main campus tour, we were given the engineering design tour, which was just a short walk through their dedicated design building and a discussion about the various design projects of the past and current students. There is a push to get underclass students involved in these projects, it seems, and the hands on approach was very cool to see in action. This definitely gave our son the sense that this was someplace he could fit in.
We were given discount tickets for lunch in the cafeteria. It was a good meal but not overly so. Some dishes were definitely better than others. There is also apparently an on campus pizza option that even delivers and several other cafes and such around campus. No worries about the available food choices.
We then met with the amazing Dr. Tomadakis. He spent over two and a half hours with us, sharing documents, a DVD, and an seemingly endless enthusiasm for his school, the chemical engineering department and chemical engineering as a profession. It’s way too much to go through here, but to sum up: Florida Tech cares about teaching first and foremost, that they do very well respected researchbut not to the exclusion of teaching and that chemical engineering is a very atttractive choice of majors if you are looking into STEM in any way. Oh, and they have a very new, cool nanotechnology minor that you can get for nearly free with a certain track of chemE courses.
To sum up: expensive school potentially, but they have their focus on the right things. They are fighting to improve their reputation in the broader market, but in engineering circles, they have a good and generally improving rep (I had concerns about their acceptance rate being too high for example, but there are some great students and recent grads that really calmed my nerves). We really did not have high expectations going in, but it’s now one of our top Florida options if the merit aid is there. I definitely recommend others take the time to look into it, as there is quite a lot to like.
Ah @NamePoster you’ve taken me back! FIT was one of the 4 schools I applied to “back in the day”! It was actually the only school in the east or south that I applied to (I was in the midwest). I was a huge space geek at the time and was very drawn to their historic connection to NASA.
I got in, but my Dad hated it (no clue why) and would never have let me go. I think he felt he was indulging me far enough to take me for a visit and let me apply! It all worked out, I ended up in CA, where I have lived happily ever after! ;))
After our visit to WashU last week, I think it has climbed to #1 on S18’s list. A chance meeting with a current WashU parent set the tone for the visit. I’m not sure what gave us away, but as we walked toward the admissions office, a man walking his dog on campus asked us if we were visiting for admissions purposes. He introduced himself, spoke highly of his family’s experience, offered to answer any questions we had, and wished S18 well in the college admissions process. It seemed to put S18 at ease before an on campus interview. After S18 checked in, we left him to sit in on classes and explore campus on his own for a few hours. In the mean time, H and I sat in on a general information session, went on a campus tour, and had a private tour of the new athletic facility. In the interest of full disclosure, I graduated from WashU in the early 90s and always did like the campus. But I liked it even more this time around. The new academic buildings complement the style of the older existing buildings on the main part of campus. Almost all of the dorms are “new” within the last ten or so years, with very nice common areas and amenities. And the athletic facilities for both varsity athletes and recreational users are fantastic. We met back up with S18 in the late afternoon for information sessions specific to Arts & Sciences and the Business School. S18 had the same favorable impression of campus. He also shared that he appreciated the level of engagement that the students and professors displayed in the classes he observed. And, he said both professors and several students were welcoming to him, making an effort to talk with him before and after classes and as he sat on campus with a map trying to figure out how to get to a certain building. The A&S information session was not bad, but (due to audience questions) covered a lot of ground that can be found on the school’s website. The Business School facilities – particularly the newest B School building – are very impressive, with well-designed classroom space, interview suites for on campus recruiters, a career center devoted just to the B School, neat gathering spaces, and an attached on campus hotel that you would never recognize as a hotel unless someone told you it was there. (I’ve stayed in that hotel, though. While the hotel is very nice, the rooms are a tight fit for more than one or two guests. It is really designed more for a single business traveler than for families visiting campus.) The weakness of the B School information session was the two student facilitators, both of whom were freshmen who seemed very nervous and unsure of themselves. Overall, though, S18 was impressed enough to say he could see himself going to school there. Now we’re crossing our fingers that he can bump his ACT up a point or two (he’s taking it today at school) to increase his admission odds and holding our breath that he’ll get enough financial aid to make it financially do-able.