@TexasMom18 Those are some great choices. 
We’re in the same boat with no reaches and cost/ merit as the most important variable. My S adored Texas Tech, but it’s been edged out by University of New Mexico. He’s applying to both because they’re neck and neck for him.
S didn’t want to see Bama - too far away - but it’s a great school and I’d have been proud to see him there if that’s what he’d chosen.
Yes they will!!
Have faith, at the end of every roller coaster is a great big smile, either because you had fun, or because you’re glad it’s over. Either way you can look forward to a smile! 
@TexasMom18, I think there are a lot of us “little unconventional by CC standards” I proudly wear the banner of
Auto Merit Chaser!
We’re in the unconventional club as well. Her list of accomplishments probably won’t fill a paragraph let alone require scrolling. If she has any reaches they will be financial. All the schools on her list are matches at most for admission and almost all have admit rates well over 50%. I’m not worried about her getting in, I’m worried about how much merit $$ they’ll give her as none of them use the words “auto” and “merit” next to each other, alas.
It’s starting to look like the unconventional IS the conventional. Maybe I’m part of the “new unconventional.” ;))
I’ve heard of private universities/LACs doing “Early Writes” and “Likely Letters.” Early Writes being when a school sends an early acceptance letter to a small number of top applicants ahead of its stated decision date. Likely Letters are similar, but more like a “we like your application and you’ll probably get in once decisions come out” note to woo top applicants. Both seem to happen around mid-February.
I’ve heard that Tulane isn’t officially rolling but sends out acceptances periodically in a way that kind of resembles rolling. They also post updates on their admissions blog along the lines of “we’ve responded to all applications completed before X date, so if that you and you haven’t heard from us, email your admissions rep.”
Mom, Dad and S18 visited a couple schools yesterday.
One was UTD. Two of three visitors were … not impressed. Teetering on the brink of not applying.
Also toured TCU. Interesting dynamic there. It is interesting how one small detail (for example the student rour guide you happen to get) can change the whole tone of a visit.
@DavidPuddy I’m curious about what might have turned you off about UTD…
FYI. Often, students selected to move on for competitive merit awards are notified early that they are accepted. Makes sense. A student making the semi-final round for a competitive merit award (or the first cut if there are more rounds than that) are students who the school knows will get in.
Same is true for students who are invited to a “weekend” on campus - often diversity weekends of some sort.
@DiotimaDM The reason I ask is that I had heard from a GC that Northwestern will take a look at early RD apps and send out acceptances on an unofficial “rolling basis” and I was wondering if there is such a “double secret” process with other colleges.
S has been attending coding camps at UTD for the last few weeks, and the experience has confirmed UTD as his number one school. He had a small list to begin with (UTD, U Tulsa, MIT, UT Austin and WPI) but he’s now firmly decided to drop WPI and UT Austin off the list entirely. And he doesn’t actually want to GO to MIT, he just wants to see if he can get IN there (probably not, as he is well aware). Still waiting for his SAT subject test results though, and he gave almost no effort to studying for those even though he definitely won’t take them again. If he doesn’t get MIT-level scores on those (700+ I guess?) he might decide he’d rather not spend his time applying there since it’s just out of idle curiosity and a huge long shot anyway. I’m surprised Tulsa is still on the list considering the things he loves most about UTD (no football team, no Div 1 sports, huge CS program) which are the polar opposite of Tulsa with its rah-rah sports atmosphere and teeny-tiny, though high quality, CS program.
He used the free score reports from his June SAT subject tests to send scores to MIT, UTD, Tulsa, and National Merit. So unless the reports get lost or he adds more schools to the list, we hopefully won’t have to pay for any score reports. I initially spaced on using the free reports from the June sitting because he was taking subject test and not the regular SAT, but of course the reports can show ALL tests including his December 2016 SAT. Luckily I remembered that in time to order the free reports. I never used the December free reports because I didn’t know that they could be sent early; I thought we had to wait until senior year.
@traveler98 is your son doing the cyber secuirty camp at UTD? My DS20 is signed up for that one for 3 weeks starting on 4/10 and will be dorming for three weeks. DS18 is still only planning to apply to UTD. I just can’t imagen the grief we’d get from one side of the family if he got in to MIT and then we couldn’t not pay for it!
@3scoutsmom, no, he isn’t doing cyber security because he did a similar program last summer at WPI and he wanted to try something different this summer. We’re picking him up next Friday 7/7 so he won’t meet your S20, although how funny would that have been if they’d crossed paths? My S also is staying in the dorms and he’s having a blast. He LOVES having his own bedroom in the UTD dorms, compared to last summer’s experience in WPI’s small triple rooms where the kids were stacked on top each other like cord wood. He had a great time at WPI and got along well with his roommates but now that he has the UTD dorm experience for comparison it’s no contest.
The whole “applying to an elite just to see if I can get in” has been discussed recently in our house, and I just don’t see an upside to it. What if she gets in?
And what has been the response(s) from everyone to this discussion?
D has been getting lots of mail from Yale, so she’s done a little reading and sees that it could be a good academic and social fit. I tell her attending Yale for undergrad makes no financial sense for us as a full pay family with five kids. She understands and doesn’t push. I say she can apply to Yale (and anywhere else she wants) for grad school, and we will happily help finance it. Or, she can apply to UChicago and/or Hopkins for undergrad, where there is a (very, very slight) chance for merit aid. In our minds, UChicago doesn’t make sense at 50K/year tuition, but 35K/year would be worth consideration, should she catch that unicorn.
I hear what you’re saying @ShrimpBurrito. For us, it’s not an issue. I’ve told D what I can afford to pay. If she wants to throw a hail mary app up, I’m fine with it. She knows that if she’s admitted, it would still have to come in under my number. Your situation sounds different, and trickier. I’d worry about her getting in as well.
@ShrimpBurrito, my husband also thinks it’s crazy that S would apply to a school he has no plans to attend, but I don’t see the harm. He’s only applying to a few schools, and his senior year course load should be easier than his junior year. If he wants to give up some of his free time to write essays and get recommendations for MIT instead of, say, playing video games, it’s not a problem for me. If he had a large college list, if we still had lots of college visits to do, if he had other huge demands on his time, or if we couldn’t afford to send him to the school in question, then I’d also agree he should not be applying.
It would be tough to turn down Yale, if accepted, and not be able to go. I see your point.
I recently took a look at Yale for my D’s HS in Naviance, because I, and a young local female Yale graduate, thought she would also be a good fit. But, in the last 2 years, 43 applicants and ZERO students have been accepted. So, while I would love for D to apply to Yale, from my perspective, Yale doesn’t like her HS for some reason. And they’re not dummies.
OTOH, Harvard seems to like her HS a lot more than Yale does, but not sure D wants a big city back East.