University of Delaware (visited and admitted)
George Mason University (admitted)
UMBC (visited and admitted)
West Virginia University (admitted)
Penn State University (admitted)
University of Pittsburgh (no decision yet)
University of Maryland (visited, no decision yet)
University of Virginia (no decision yet)
DS16 and DD18 both submitted 3 - for DS16 two were a match and 1 was a reach; for DD18 2 were safeties and 1 is a high match (or maybe a reach, can’t tell). Even if we didn’t have to pay the application fee for each, it was more expensive for DS because we also had to pay for transcripts to be sent from his HS and his DE community college, and both his ACT and SAT scores. For DD, we only had to add on the SAT cost.
Visited
Boston College
Holy Cross
Penn State
Pitt
UVA
William and Mary
UNC
Fordham
Northeastern
Emory
Michigan
Colgate
UConn
Clemson
D18 Applied to all except William and Mary and Emory. We learned with my D17 that if finances are a consideration, as they are in our case, you have to apply more broadly than your fully funded peers. Merit scholarships are too unpredictable and our net price varied considerably amongst schools. We have had pleasant (Fordham Merit!) and unpleasant (Not a dime from Michigan) surprises and know we have to cast a wide net and be patient, flexible, and willing to subsist on Raamen noodles for a while.
@DiotimaDM I’m sorry to hear about the scary events in your life, and I hope everyone can make a full recovery soon.
Hi everyone - joining a bit late on this thread. Going thru the process second time around so not as many questions. My DS settled on Industrial Design after extensive research, visits, and summer camps. Many of the programs required portfolios (he only started back into drawing during our search process this year) and many had significant weed-out rates so as you can see from our visit list - his choices were quite narrowed down.
Visited
University of Iowa
Iowa State
University of Minneapolis - Twin Cities
University of Wisconsin - Madison
University of Illinois - Champaign/Urbana
University of Illinois - Chicago
Purdue University
The Ohio State University
University of Cincinnati
University of Oregon
University of Washington
Rochester Institute of Technology
Syracuse University
Applied
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (admitted)
Iowa State (admitted)
University of Illinois - Chicago (admitted)
University of Cincinnati - (admitted)
His first choice is the University of Minnesota but I’m trying to get him to take another look at Cincinnati because it is a top industrial design program and it is co-op. He feels nervous about co-op and he prefers Minneapolis to Cincinnati. Older brother is at Minnesota already. We can afford both but with the recent tuition hike at Minnesota for OS Cincinnati is costing less (he would also qualify for a scholarship there).
Visited and applied:
Stanford - rejected REA
USC - applied
GT - applied EA
Rice - applied RD
UGA - admitted EA
Bama - admitted
Did not visit but applied:
Duke - applied RD
WUSTL - applied RD
Penn - applied RD
Clemson - admitted
Visited but didn’t apply:
NYU
UChicago
Northwestern
Northeastern
BU
Pitzer
She doesn’t like cold weather (none of us do) and that showed in her final decisions on where to apply – all but one are in the southern half of the CONUS. I think it was a wise move given her tendency for colds to turn into pneumonia.
@DiotimaDM wow. Hang in there. That is a lot of scary that has come your way. The driver of the car, did he recently lose his mother? I thought I remembered that’s who had the other kitten.
As for number of schools applied my D did 14 and honestly I think it was too much. She is my only and I didn’t discourage her from that number. The rest of the story is that she is high stats so although her numbers are in range for admitted students they ‘are reaches for everyone’. Also the money matters. So that was our reasoning for thinking 14 was a good idea.
In hindsight it was a LOT of work for D. While they have now all been submitted it is still work. Having her keep on top of the portals, emails etc. recently we found out that at least one didn’t receive our FAFSA and CSS information so there is that to deal with.
Bottom line is I feel like 4 could have come off. Two reaches, one match, one safety. In my mind she is unlikely to attend any those 4 for varying reasons. But hindsight is 20/20
Sharing this in case it can help someone else.
Visited and applied:
USC
Baylor (Accepted EA)
Rice
Wash U
Emory (Applied EA)
GA Tech (Applied EA)
Vanderbilt (Accepted ED)
Northwestern
Did not visit but applied:
ASU (accepted)
UofA (accepted)
Alabama (accepted)
UAB (accepted)
Visited but did not apply:
University of Washington
UCLA
Duke
Wake Forest
College of William and Mary
U of Richmond
Notre Dame
Liberty
Kind of all over the map; literally and figuratively!
@DiotimaDM I am so sorry that the start of 2018 has been so rough for you but it sounds like the physical healing for both your son and your sister will come soon so that is good news.
Son applied to 10 schools: 4 safetys, 4 matches and 2 reaches. Of those, and in hindsight, 3 or 4 could have come off but with average stats, he cast a wider net to make sure he had some good options.
Once we started visiting schools, we didn’t know whether it was a good or bad thing that he liked every single one as different as they each were. But he eventually was able to realize more specifically what he was looking for and that helped to narrow it down.
Visited and Applied:
University of Vermont EA (admitted)
Lewis & Clark EA (admitted)
University of Redlands EA (admitted)
Whitman College RD (withdrew application)
Colorado College ED (admitted/attending)
Bates College- would have applied if deferred/rejected from Colorado College; otherwise she would not have submitted any more applications as she would have been happy with her EA acceptances and the possibility of admission to Whitman in the RD round.
Visited but did not apply:
University of Denver
Occidental
Chapman
Scripps
Pitzer
Willamette
University of Puget Sound
University of Washington
Visited and applied:
Flagler College (accepted)
Appalachian State (waiting)
University of Tennessee (accepted)
Auburn University (accepted/visited after acceptance)
University of South Carolina (waiting/visited when touring with D15)
Virginia Tech (waiting/visited when touring with D15)
Did not visit but applied:
University of Kansas (accepted)
Louisiana State University (waiting)
University of Kentucky (accepted)
Indiana University (accepted)
Visited but did not apply:
Florida Gulf Coast University
UNC- Wilmington
Elon
James Madison University
Flagler was his lone wolf school- so very different than the others but he loved the city of St. Augustine and would have loved to end up in Florida. He also strongly dislikes the cold (which is what I think helped to take App State and Indiana out of the running once he was accepted to schools in warmer climates).
Visited:
Texas A&M
UT Austin (visited twice)
UT Dallas (one day visit fall 2016 plus several weeks in residence summer 2017 for coding camps)
Rice
U Tulsa
MIT
WPI (did two weeks in residence summer 2016 for STEM camp)
Stanford
Applied:
UT Dallas (accepted auto admit)
S applied to 8 private LACs and 4 public directionals (so he would have a choice). So far he’s 7 for 7. He actually only cares about 3 and he’s been admitted to them with good merit, so now it’s just admitted student overnights throughout the winter/spring at those three before he decides.
Visited:
UMass Amherst
Amherst
MIT
Univ San Francisco
Univ Santa Clara
UC Santa Cruz
Mills
Stanford
UT
A&M
Southwestern
Boston College
Berkeley- Applied/Rejected
Univ Minnesota Twin Cities - Applied/Accepted
Univ Alabama Huntsville - Applied/Accepted
Hofstra - Applied/Accepted
Applied - No visit:
Howard - Applied/Accepted - visit possible pending merit offering but this is Parents last choice and are not encouraging DD to attend.
Hawaii - Applied/Accepted
A&M Corpus - Applied/Accepted
@DiotimaDM Scary, so glad all are OK
@MACmiracle Yay on the Merit!
Visited (Specific trips to the schools and combined vacations)
Ohio State
Miami of OH
Indiana Did not apply
Mizzou
Vanderbilt
Florida
Georgia
UNC Wilmington Did not apply
BU Did not apply
Applied
Miami OH Accepted
Georgia Accepted
Mizzou Accepted
Pitt Accepted
Minnesota Accepted
Ohio State Accepted
Florida Waiting
Probably could have cut the list to 5 but we received application fee waivers at 3 of the schools. Will probably be attending Ohio State with UGA a close second
Visited and Applied:
University of Dayton (accepted)
Indiana University (accepted)
Miami University (OH) (accepted)
Ohio State Univ. (accepted)
Vanderbilt Univ. (RD still waiting)
Washington Univ. (RD still waiting)
Applied, did not Visit:
University of Cincinnati (accepted)
Davidson College (RD still waiting)
Fordham University (accepted)
University of Richmond (EA still waiting)
University of South Carolina (accepted - visit scheduled)
Villanova Univ. (accepted)
Washington & Lee Univ. (RD still waiting)
Visited, did not apply:
Butler U.
Duke
UNC
Notre Dame
St. Louis Univ.
Wittenberg U
Xavier Univ.
A situation at DD school and I wonder how often this is happening.
A fellow student of noninspiring academic notoriety at DD`s school is accepted EA to a top ten nationally ranked school. Students are half joking the student bought the way in a la Kushner, but it seems a parent in charge of the regional alum interview process is more likely the main contribution.
Cases like this make one are very depressing to the vast majority of kids who see this nonsense ongoing - connections count more than abilities.
Another topic I wanted to toss out there is the interview process.
DD was offered an interview and all the times proposed by the interviewer where during the middle of the school day. I told her to email back the times during school wouldn’t work and could they meet after school or on weekend. Still awaiting a reply. My question is are middle of school times commonly being sent out to kids for their interviews? Of the four interviews DD has only one set middle of school times.
Of course the school mentioned in both cases is the same top ten nationally ranked school…
@sekere62 That is maddening about the interviews being during the school day. Is it an alumni interview? Maybe that’s all this particular interviewer had available. How long has it been since you emailed? Maybe another interviewer?
At our HS you can have a certain number of excused absences for college visits and the like, but it doesn’t send a good message that they want you to miss school, lol.
We had a similar situation with a scholarship competition - a choice of two days, but both were school days and, in our case, a few hours’ drive. I guess we would have made it work if she were serious about the school, but at least the one she IS serious about scheduled it on a Saturday. We still need to stay overnight Friday because it’s a couple hours away, but that is much more student-friendly.
@sekere62 - as far as interview times, I think it varies by interviewer and school. I know S18 had one where the latest they would schedule was 3pm which meant early dismissal and missing practice. Another was during school day but they came to the guidance office at his school and he only missed 1 period (alum of his HS interviewing for the college and saw 4-5 kids in a row).
A friend of mine does alumni interviews for her school and strictly sticks to 9-5 on weekdays because she wants to do them during office hours when people are around to keep it public and avoid any appearance of impropriety. She said she knows that the type of kids applying are involved in after school activities but cautioned me to make sure my son took the times accepted without complaint to show the school was important to him. She often has to fit in many interviews in a short window.
@sekere62 - do you mean the accepted student’s parent was in charge or process or friend of family was? I would think a parent would have to recuse themselves for the year their child is applying although I am sure they know the “right” people to contact and put in a good word.