My daughter got mail from schools that she honestly had no prayer of getting into. I have no idea where they might have gotten her name from.
She did get mail from some schools I’d consider matches/safeties and we did look into them. So for those schools, they got some bang for their buck. Even though she didn’t apply to any of those, they were on the radar for a bit.
@swtaffy904 Yay for the awesome Temple scholarship!
@RoonilWazlib99 First baby in your college class… Guessing I am a bit older than you. 
I’m a ‘91!
I also agree that the selective colleges aren’t after the app fee cash; they’re chasing ranking. To use Dartmouth as an example: its endowment is almost $5 billion for 6400 students, and about 40% of them are full pay according to Forbes. Dartmouth certainly doesn’t need the cash from app fees. The beautiful mailers are sent to entice more applications. Sure, some of that is to give the school more qualified candidates to put together a “better” freshman class (however Dartmouth defines that), but a lot of it is to attract more applications for the same number of freshman spots and make the school look more selective for the rankings (USNWR et al). It’s definitely a game, but not a game to make a few hundred thousand in profit after paying for the materials and labor involved in the admissions process.
Today is a waiting day in the Traveler household. McDermott early applicants are supposed to be notified of their status today. The golden ticket is to be one of the ten students chosen early to be finalists, but I suspect S will just be told that he is qualified to be considered with the final applicant pool in January. Usually 50-60 finalists are chosen, and I feel pretty confident that he has a good chance to be a finalist but it would be really huge if he were one of the ten notified today. Of course I’m prepared to sympathize with him if he’s told that he’s out of the competition; you just never know who you’re up against in this kind of thing so it’s certainly a possibility. Of course today S has a super busy day and won’t be home until probably 6:30 this evening, and he’s not great about checking his email. So of course I couldn’t resist reminding him to check his email and McDermott portal regularly throughout the day and let me know as soon as he sees anything.
@traveler98 we’re waiting right there with you! Will they even say anything if you are not one of the chosen 10 today? It sure would help with planning! I wonder how many people applied for early considertion vs. regular deadline?
Please let us know if you hear anything! Crossing fingers that all the CC kids are one of the lucky ten! (I’m pretty sure we have less than ten that applied)
@3scoutsmom, S hasn’t checked with McDermott specifically so I don’t know for sure how the notifications are done. The McDermott site does state that “early applicants will be notified of their status”, which I interpret to mean that they will all hear something one way or another (early finalist, qualified for consideration in January, or not moving on for consideration in January). I could be misinterpreting though. Good luck to your S and to all the other CC applicants! Will update when/if S gets anything, and if anyone else’s student gets info today please pass it on!
@MomOutWest at first I read your " I’m a '91 " as being your age, not your class! Wouldn’t that be something.
@traveler98 @3scoutsmom keeping my fingers crossed for your kids and you!
@traveler98 some of the applications for various things asked for a parental email address too, do you recall if McDermott asked for this? It would be really nice a parents got an update notice too!
Oooh, good luck to @traveler98 and @3scoutsmom for happy notifications today!
It’s so interesting how things progress, isn’t it? There was a time early this year when I was pretty sure S and I would be waiting right along with you. 
I really hope both of them get it. :x
@bearcatfan Yay for Nutcracker. My DD has her final (10th)! Nutcracker next weekend. Shes waiting for ED and still doesn’t know the release date. The senior ballerinas have a pack not to discuss college during performances and to protect each other if an innocent tries to bring it up!
Fingers crossed for our McDermott candidates!
@MomOutWest - I’m a '99, so just a little bit younger. I’m really crossing my fingers for happy news come April. I would LOVE for him to attend and think it is such a good fit for him.
In other news, my S18 seems to be suffering from the syndrome where the first college you hear from grows in your mind until you just want to confirm your acceptance and move on.
He was accepted into his safety via rolling admissions a month ago. He doesn’t hear back from most colleges until Feb/March, with a few sprinkled in Dec/Jan. He is sick of waiting and just wants to be done with the whole college thing. So he keeps saying he will just go there. It doesn’t help that his best friend has already committed to attending there and another good friend just got in as well.
But the kicker is that he has never seen the campus, hasn’t visited, etc. I’m hopeful for a couple more acceptances that will make him have to think more about his choices. I think he just wants the stress of it all gone.
In even more other news, if you have a kid that applied to Engineering at Virginia Tech, don’t forget to have them fill out the first step of the Davenport Leadership Scholarship!
@RoonilWazlib99 I think those exact words were spoken in my house just yesterday… “I just want to be done!” . These 6 month waits are emotionally exhausting!
S’18 had a music audition/interview today for scholarship opportunities at one of the schools. Feels it went well. This is just a first step. Hoping he moves onto the next round, but don’t hear back until Feb, so more waiting.
He has 7 apps in and 2 left to complete before 1/1. I can’t speak for him, but I have application fatigue.
Thanks for the good wishes everyone! @3scoutsmom, I only saw the essays, and those only briefly, so I’m not sure what contact info the app asked for. I agree it would be very nice if parents were cc’d on important notifications.
Good luck McDermott hopefuls! Hope 10 of you make it! My S18 hasn’t finished the application yet. :)>-
I really wish the waiting wasn’t so long! Its hard enough during this year of wanting things to slow down, but then you are so anxious to find out results and for decisions to be made that you just want that next month or day or whatever to get here already. I really don’t remember it being this hard when D16 went through it.
" 12-02-2017 at 7:49 am
I would think that any kid who could be convinced to start writing essays/completing apps during summer before senior year would be a kid who would not be at much risk of waiting to the last minute even if he/she didn’t start in the summer."
I wouldn’t be so sure of that. My daughter started apps in July and was going to be done before school starts. We are still plugging along. We have 1 app, 7 scholarships and at least 2 honors apps to go. She is driving me crazy.
@PlateauMama - I feel like we might know each other! Are you on the Eastside?
Mine started in the summer too, and isn’t done. She’s not waiting until the last minute. She’s proactive – she just has extremely limited time due to school work.
She was bemoaning that she has to wait 4! more! months! to get decisions back, but in fact she hasn’t even applied yet for those. The process has been dragging on and on, but the colleges haven’t even started their part.