Yes, very generous merit aid at Southwestern, @DiotimaDM. S20 has mixed feelings about the school. He would thrive there, no doubt, but it is EXACTLY like his current small private high school. Same education philosophies, same vibe, and even the interior architecture is similar. It would certainly be comfortable and familiar for him, but he may prefer to move on to a different environment. Southwestern doesn’t have anything close to what D wants to study, so she was just along for the ride, enjoying the beautiful campus.
Thanks @traveler98, I’ll have her contact them & get on the mailing list.
@ShrimpBurrito Welcome to Texas! Georgetown is our home and indeed a very special place. Southwestern is an amazing university. I have tried to convince DS of the benefits of being close to home, but he will not even consider it!
DS submitted his Clemson app today. It was really quick. Then he started the app for Calhoun Honors College and saw that there are 3 thought-provoking essays to write :((
@S18D20mom Well that seals it. I have about zero chance of getting my DS to apply there! I tried to keep Clemson on his list, but lost the battle.
Speaking of essays … a friend’s daughter is applying to physical therapy doctorate programs. Just for one program, she has to write eight essays. 8-}
Back to high school life today, getting ID pics and schedule. The schedule needs a tweak - she wants to drop economics and take anything else she can get into at this point. Worst case scenario, she takes a gym. I told her to stick with econ (it was on her original list) but she’s since heard the class and teacher are horrible. 
D18 showed me email she received from West Point yesterday. Really nice but totally impossible … unless students there don’t need to do push ups, pull ups, or sit ups and can get up at 10am and mosey into class if they feel like it, etc.
@droppedit That’s interesting that the military academies send email. D had been considering the AF academy but never sought out a nomination, so I thought it might be too late.
D actually likes to be in a routine of getting up early, and doing sit ups and push ups. She likes it even better if she has others to do it with.
@MACmiracle – I don’t know the timeline for nominations but can find out (a relative handles them).
My D18 likes exercise even better if she has others do it for her 
I’m so impressed with everyone’s kids working hard on apps.
D is away and on staff at a camp this week and won’t have time to even think about college apps. I’m hoping she’ll have a really interesting experience that might inspire an essay.
She committed to only in job next week and that in a limited schedule so she’ll hopefully have time to make progress on an essay and the common app.
@droppedit, I’d be very curious to get any info on nominations. Thank you!
@MACmiracle – here’s a good place to start: https://www.academyadmissions.com/admissions/the-application-process/nominations/
Timing seems to be congressional office-specific but I’ll let you know what I find out. It’s very competitive. A kid we know, who seemed to be the perfect candidate (ACT 34, athletic, highly motivated, etc.) was nominated but not accepted for the USNA.
Update: just heard that October 6th is the deadline this year (for my district).
Nothing much happening this week here. D is at band camp this week so not much time for anything else. She did look at the common app promts and write down some ideas last weekend, but thats about it. How much does it matter to get apps in super early? I know Nov. 1st is the big first deadline and I’m sure she well have done long before then, just curious if any advantages to doing in Aug (besides just having it done and over)?
@droppedit , It is very competitive and she did not play a sport in high school or take a modern language. And she has a significant medical history, which is waiverable but that doesn’t mean she’d get a waiver. So it’s not very realistic, but through her different activities every once in a while someone will tell her she should try for an academy or an ROTC scholarship, and she’ll start thinking about it again.
@DiotimaDM - Have you done the math (and do you care to share) on total cost of attendance (including spending money, fees, books, food, etc.) at UNM vs. their NM scholarship? I was going to try to figure that out, but I said to myself, ‘I bet DiotimaDM has already figured it all out in much more detail than I would even think of!’
If you would prefer to send me a DM, please feel free to do so!
And after my request, now they do:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/oklahoma-state-university/
@crazy4info
UNM’s seems easy to figure out, if you EXCLUDE travel and spending money. On my spreadsheet, it nets to almost EXACTLY $0 . I would like to see what @DiotimaDM has to say as well.
On our cost compares, we left out spending money because I don’t have enough data to differentiate that to an appreciable degree between the places we are looking, so figure it will be a wash. Travel is the “far right” column and not taken in to account for my personal COA calculation, but presented for each school to aid in any final decisions. At the end of the day, the COST difference between travel to Alabama and Travel to Tulane os probably not going to be a factor. We also include a “Travel Difficulty” column, which seems a little more important to us.
Way to go @DavidPuddy! If my S were interested in doing more tours I would lobby for OSU. A good friend of his who graduated this year is going there, and I found some pics of the campus covered in a few inches of snow. S loved living in Newfoundland and wouldn’t mind going to school where there was a bit of cold and snow in the winter. Of course that was just a nice-to-have and then he found his people at the nerdy UTD campus.
Keep in mind that costs at home will be less with our C18s gone. Food bills and utilities will be less. For us, we won’t have to pay for swim club, racing suits ( :(( ) and other swim equipment, or transportation costs with driving to her meets and other HS events. Of course these numbers will be different for everyone, but be sure to factor them in.
Because karma has a sense of humor, my daughter is taking a cooking class instead of economics. Every other class she wanted conflicted with either physics or calculus. At least she will learn how to cook. :))
I also checked my freshman’s schedule and it looks good - added a gym class she needs to graduate but other than that it was fine.
It was definitely strange to be “back” to high school stuff after nothing but college stuff all summer. 8-}