@swtaffy904 , how bittersweet!! I really wish you nothing but the best. Would ED have been an option had she seen it earlier or would she have had to apply RD anyway? I’ll be rooting for her! Good luck! =D>
@LMHS73 - my D16 started UTD with 68 AP credits- I don’t know if that is considered “mega credits” if that’s what you mean. She has had to go through reviews with her advisor before being able to register for classes to remove holds twice because she has been considered a junior before spring semester of freshman year and a senior before fall semester of sophomore year. To answer your questions, she was worried about whether she should accept all of her AP credit and it was her choice whether to actually accept all of her AP credit. That is something that she did at the beginning on the fall semester of her freshman year, but she first went to the national merit office leader at UTD (Michael) and got his assurance that it was okay to do and that it would not affect her scholarship at all (which it is). She does have a choice to take masters classes through a program called FastTrack during undergrad, I think there’s a limit on the number of masters classes through FastTrack. She could actually graduate in 3 years IF she was able to get her classes lined up right with prerequisites but they don’t seem to work out that way. Instead she ends up only having 6 credits each of her last 2 semesters. She just decided to double major in EE and CE (originally she was EE only) so now she will have an additional 24 credits added in the next 2.5 years. Also with the CV (honors program) at UTD, she always find interesting additional classes to take. This semester she took a 1 credit honors class about bees and they got to go the the apiary on campus. They got all suited up and saw the actual bee hives which she thought was really cool and something different than math and science classes all the time.
@Kayak24 thank you so much! I am following your D story as well. It is so hard figuring all this out. I feel like it’s a huge chess game.
ED would not have been an option as we really do need to weigh costs. So at least we are not kicking ourselves over that part.
Rooting for all our kiddos that they are all happy with the choice come May!
@swtaffy904 following along on your journey as well. This process is such an emotional Rollercoaster. We’re all here for you as you wait and worry. I am sending all the positive vibes!
Absolutely nothing has changed in our college world. Still waiting on a few December 15th responses, still in weird limbo on one portal and her #1 has not produced a merit package yet. So we are just waiting… Impatiently. She has a special day set up at her #1 and has meetings with various faculty and admissions folks. Hoping this is a positive thing. I will not lie… It is so hard reading all these incredible merit packages offered to very deserving kids for her top choice and getting that worry in my gut that she’s really 1 ACT point shy. Started second guessing her essays and wondering if she was too rushed getting everything in so early so she didn’t have to do it in season. I hope I’m just being paranoid!
S has a homeschool phone interview with Furman Monday morning. It’s the last component of his application. Fingers crossed!
@lifegarding congrats on the final performance but I know how bittersweet this is. I can totally relate. May I ask what show she is performing? My older D15 was heavily involved in MT and I loved those days and shows! Exciting stuff… Enjoy the performances!
@S18D20mom, did Clemson offer a scholarship? What were his test scores?
We had mock interviews with our S as well prior to his interviews. I am an alumni interviewer for my alma mater and have been for over a decade. I have never heard of an interviewer being so argumentative. It was disheartening.
Actually, S said of the interview he thought went well that the interviewer was asking him those questions you hear people ask of potential investment bankers to see how you work through a seemingly impossible problem. Like how many quarters would you need to stack to go as high as the Empire State Building.
Both interviewers asked him the question, “If you got one million dollars right now, what would you do with it?”
@RoonilWazlib99 - I agree - I have never heard of an interviewer being argumentative. Part of the interview is selling the student on the school.
I like the million dollars question. S18 was asked “If you were an ice cream flavor, what would it be?” He had no idea how to answer that one!
So funny; neither of my D18’s interviews were like that. Mostly just a discussion of what her interests are and pretty benign stuff like that. Not “interview-y” at all.
My daughter is still lagging her applications.
But this week, when I got mad and told her we would send her to the local cc next year, she calmly replied that since she already got accepted to UTD, she wouldn’t have to go to the local cc. With NMSF - likely NMF - UTD is a great safety choice.
It is an extremely frustrating semester trying to get DD to apply anywhere. Her school typically has four or five kids a year get into the HYPSM schools. My DD was talking with one of the other NMSF from her school and the other NMSF told her the kids at school were scared of her as she is the top girl candidate this year, with only a male national prize winner having a better profile. The top kids at her school see her getting into to almost anywhere, but it frustrates me to no end that she won’t apply to anywhere.
It’s like sitting on a winning lottery ticket but the kid won’t try cashing it in… will be glad when the new years comes so all the deadlines are past.
If DD continues with her no application track, at least the application I arm twisted her into doing for UTD will get her out of the house and out of sight for four years.
@shelleee How did her AP credits affect her National Merit scholarship because of APs? Are you saying they won’t honor the scholarship past x amount of credits? We were told that UTD’s scholarship was for eight semesters and didn’t matter the amount of credits and that you could use it for master’s level classes You can chose to use summer as a semester and you can graduate early if you like but for the McDermott you are required to spend four years on campus. Is this not really the case?
“If you got one million dollars right now, what would you do with it?”
How about - make a big donation to your school so I can get in? LOL.
Sorry I didn’t write that very clearly. We were told AP credits do NOT affect NMF scholarship and she will get 8 semesters of scholarship at UTD even though she has 68 AP credits when she started, and she is taking 17-20 credits per semester so far.
Sorry for your second question, she does plan to spend 4 years at UTD with her double major. She already used the NMF scholarship for study abroad this summer between freshman and sophomore year in New Zealand and she might do a second study abroad during a semester of her junior year if she can get the right classes, but only if it doesn’t make it so she doesn’t graduate in 4 years with her double major. She would just have her scholarship pay for her tuition at the college in the country where she studied instead of UTD and she would use her stipends to pay for housing.
One more clarification, the study abroad is a separate bucket of money from UTD for the NMF scholarship. You do actually have to apply for the study abroad funding even though they say you get “up to $6k”, you have to apply for it and write where you want to go, how it applies to your field of study, how much it will cost, etc. then the board decides how much they will grant the student up to $6k. I don’t know what goes into deciding whether the student gets the full $6k but my D16 did get the full $6k. Her study abroad actually cost her a little more than $6k once she paid for the program and the plane ticket. She was able to apply for and was awarded an additional small outside scholarship for study abroad, which was like $350. She also went a week early to her study abroad program so she could explore New Zealand on her own and site see and then she went on the Australia after her study abroad for a week so she could site see, so her whole summer was quite an adventure.
@shelleee; yes (in my book) your D16 started school with “mega” AP credits - well done!! To have the option to accept junior-year status in the 2nd semester of freshman year is amazing! I’m glad to hear though that she still has the option to complete 4 years at UTD if she chooses to do so.
My friends’ case at UNLV still sticks out in my mind. Their daughter (mechanical engineering major) explored a couple of minors the first two years. Since she also basically had junior status coming in, she figured she could spread out her engineering courses and take her time completing them. Her parents never read the “fine print” in the scholarship and they were all shocked when the school was about to pull the plug on her NM scholarship! Thankfully it worked out for them.
My D18 is accepted at UTD & we’re waiting for news about the McDermott Scholarship; NMF status; and reach schools before any final decisions are made. In the meantime, I’m still trying to educate myself on the nuances of her different options so that we’re not “surprised” somewhere down the road like my friends were.
Your explanation about your D16’s situation helps a lot - Thanks For Sharing!!!
@LMHS73-good luck to your D18! We had not even considered UTD an option until mid-Jan when McDermott wasn’t even an option for her but honestly she would have been too shy to even apply so the NMF scholarship with all the CV has offered her has really worked out for the best. We live in Ohio so I was shocked she went to UTD so far away but UTD has been such a wonderful opportunity for her. She has done so much there that I don’t think she would have done at other schools. She is even doing a full year honors research program this year as a sophomore. She doing maker space. She’s just having a lot of fun. I think she really feels more of an individual there and not just a number… It is a smaller school than the other larger schools she was considering closer to us and I think it has been good for her. Anyway, I’m sure everything will work out for your D18!
@pkgny2022 @labegg Yes, the Clemson admission came with a $15,000/yr merit scholarship which I think is their highest (aside from National Scholars). He has 1550 SAT/34 ACT and 4.0 UW/5.8 W
Re: Financial Aid… I want to send a letter of explanation informing the colleges that I did not receive nearly 50% of the earnings listed on my tax returns. I have two separate documentation letters (one from an estate executor and one from a company president) that I’d like to include.
Would you send this by Priority Mail or call the office and get an email contact?