@VikkiG5 I like the ambition your kids shows - Gamestop has a tough acceptance rate.
@ShrimpBurrito - for USC, it’s my understanding that only those students invited to compete for a scholarship are notified in January; basically meaning that they are accepted whether they get the scholarship or not.
I don’t believe that all NMSFs would be notified at that time because they have to be accepted before they’d be offered the Presidential Scholarship.
Thank you, @sushiritto . It’s partly my fault. I should have told the GC to send the form to ME because the email from the school says:
“Hi X,
I have received your request below. I have attached the Early Decision Agreement. Please have all parties sign the form and email it back to me as soon as possible. When the form is received back, I will change your application to Early Decision per the request below.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Apphelp”
Sounds to me that attaching the form with all signatures would have wrapped it up and that whoever is on the other end of this correspondence is aware of the situation (as opposed to the people who answer the phone).
@Kayak24 It has been our experience that you cannot always trust the person on the other end of the admissions office line to know the real answer, unless it is the admissions advisor themselves and even then it can be sketchy, depending on how long they have worked in the office. It is highly dependant on the person who answers.
Just sayin’ that sometimes the labegg house has been known to call back a few hours later in an attempt to get someone else answering the phone and 50% of the time will get an entirely different answer. Except it seems for the one school DD applied to in New York, they have been consistently rude and unhelpful.
@labegg , I would love to call now but on the East Coast it’s nearly 6pm and Admissions is closed. 
Sorry for the experience you have had. For the record, that’s how most New Yorkers are that we deal with at work too. It’s a much different culture. :">
Yeah, my one attempt to phone a school kind of went like that. The deadline was approaching and D had not received something the school said they would send. D emailed the rep and got an out of office reply. It included a phone number to call if it was urgent. I called, explained, and the person transferred me to… the voicemail of the person who was out of the office.
I did have more luck the second time I called.
Today’s milestone - the giant to-do list of applying is now officially shorter than the giant list of completed to-dos. We are adding to-dos all the time, so it could change, but good for now.
@labegg Seeing as his entire common app was based on video games, what life lessons he’s learned, it’s not entirely a stretch 8-}
@Kayak24 I think ya’ll have gone out of your way to show some definite “demonstrated interest” and that has to count for something! Fingers crossed for ya’ll! When do you find out a decisions again?
Lol this thread had me cracking up today!!
I couldn’t begin to play the odds game, with 14 schools on the list I’d be up all night juggling odds. Plus remember we are playing the lottery. So at least 6 of her schools have single digit odds.
We are heading to Vermont tomorrow for the final pre-acceptance college tours. Friday in Vermont, Saturday in N. H. We are going to freeze our arses off both days.
Someone said their kid wouldn’t look at anyplace that got cold. My D refuses to go south of Pennsylvania. We’ll see how artsy, non-sporty kid likes the school in the mountains… I’m being silly, I bet it will be beautiful. Just wish it wasn’t going to be so dang cold this weekend
@labegg , if ED goes through we will find out in mid-December. If not, I guess sometime in the Spring.
The one big pro of ED is finding out sooner. I’d love for D to either be able to sigh relief next month, or be able to dust herself off after knowing her top choice isn’t an option, and head into the rest of the year with an open mind about the other options. Right now, they are all compartmentalized as Plan B for her and have been even when she had applied RD to this first choice school.
I think I may give it another hour or two to see if by some miracle D’s GC replies to D’s email tonight and then have D reply to the formal email correspondence with the school. I’d want her to include an attachment of the document which at least includes our signatures, and explain that her understanding is that the formal document was sent by the GC but since she isn’t sure how the correspondence was transmitted, she wanted to be respectful of the deadline. Hopefully it can’t hurt. 
@MomOutWest - Ditto but enjoying watching you all play 
@labegg, do you really want your D to go to that NY school? If admissions is that rude and difficult, imagine how bad the housing or any other dept is going to be when you need help. My niece goes to Georgetown and had a housing issue and it took them months to fix it and were rude to my niece and then rude to my sister when she finally had to get involved. And for that she has the pleasure of paying almost 70k/year. Sigh.
S was admitted to the UNM Honors College today.
@labegg my dd’s been dealing with a very rude and unhelpful admissions counselor at a NY school as well. At one time, though a reach, it was her number one school. It’s definitely been taken down a few notches, which is unfortunate since it’s a great school. But it’s coloring her perception of it. Out of the 12 schools she’s applied/applying to, it’s the only unfriendly admissions person she’s dealt with.
Congrats to your son @DiotimaDM!
@Melvin123. Good point! Several schools fallen by the wayside recently for DD2018, for all sorts of reasons. It’s such an interesting process this college application circus!
@taverngirl I think you have summed our current perception of the school nicely, lol. it is probably just not a good fit for my DD, it might well be an excellent option for someone else.
Undoubtedly our perception of this school is colored by our experiences here in “The South”. Which is so odd to me, as my husband is a native New Yorker and I am from Ohio. I guess we have grown accustomed to southern culture over the years we have lived here and I would absolutely characterize DD as a “Texan”
It is so difficult to access a school solely from the “outside” , sometimes it really does take multiple interactions beyond the campus tours, perspective student weekends and glossy brochures to get down to the nitty gritty! It’s so nice to have such a wonderful sounding board here on CC. We are a lucky Nation to have so many outstanding options for higher education to choose from; all be it daunting to wade through so many excellent options to find that “Goldilocks” school!
Cheers to all of our kiddos finding their collegiate home!
Yay @DiotimaDM, so happy for your S! And you too!
I heartily agree with your sentiments @labegg ! What a wild journey this is to a hopefully happy ending for all our kids, one way or another!
@Kayak24 your journey has been wilder than most in just the last 24hrs!! I’m on the edge of my seat, wishing you guys all the best through this!
I am in the “don’t want to jinx it” club, wrt odds making. BUT, I do think about these things, if not commit them to print. I find the comparison to prior thoughts interesting as well. I know when you all started doing this back in August, my thoughts about this were different, as were hers. Several schools that were highish on the list are now gone from the list completely! The school I thought was a long shot for her affections, has risen to what I believe is now a tie for the #1 spot in her mind.
But my kid is fickle and quixotic, and I expect many changes of mind between now and April. Those 2 favorites won’t be giving her a response until January, so I wonder if her affections will be lured away by schools that are quicker to woo her with admittance and, hopefully, merit $$. Time will tell…
Wow busy day on this thread. I too am cautious about the odds game…how can I possibly predict what seems like pure confusion. Pretty sure he is dropping 3 schools from application list, so I’ll say not those!
They emailed a reply this evening. “Oh, check the portal, it is admitted.”