I have a S19 and I do have a spreadsheet. He is targeting engineering so my sheet started from abet.org as accreditation is a must. We also have access to Tuition Exchange (consortium benefit for college employees) so that information is relevant and includes whether the institution participates and if full tuition is provided. The TE benefit is not guaranteed so S19 must be competitive for each school he applies, so all that info such as average scores, gpa, etc. are important.
@4MyKidz Welcome! Look forward to your insights gained from your D14ās experience.
Given I have two 2019ās who couldnāt be more different, Iāve had to create separate folders for each college, for each childā¦jotting down notes here and there on loose leaf and plopping the pages in the relevant folder. Folders were created for each school they have expressed an interest in (whether it be based on the specific program, major or location). Right now we have way too many folders for D19, so the list will be whittled down significantly (I hope). While I know itās completely selfish, my dream is for them to attend the same cozy college, which is strong in both their desired majors, but just large enough that they wonāt be in each otherās space.
Right now weāre just in the gathering as much info phase. Towards the beginning of next summer, information from these folders will be turned into a spreadsheet where all the info will be available in one place (hopefully).
Welcome to @4MyKidz and @MAandMEmom and anyone else who has joined!
No spreadsheet so far for us. DS has participated in camps sponsored by the coach for his sport on the West Coast (last summer) and East Coast (this summer). Theyāve given him a good feel for different campuses and communities and what it would take to compete on the college level, which he thinks would be possible at one school but not the other due to their level of competitiveness for this particular sport.
Besides athletics, heās traveled, practiced the instruments he plays, and done some academic work. What he hasnāt done is cleaned his room. He is teetering on the edge of what he and his siblings call the āDreaded Mom Sort,ā which is pleasant for no one, as Mom invariably stays slightly cross during the entire āsortingā process. 
I was friends with a close set of twins at my college. I also knew a few siblings (not twins, different years) who went to our college.
My younger daughter currently says she is adamant that she will not go to the same college as her big sister. They would only overlap by one year, and there is a good chance it would be a large public anyway. Iām hoping she relaxes that stance and chooses the best college for her situation when the time comes. Luckily, I have a few years before itās really an issue. And as stubborn as she can sometimes be, sheās also a pragmatist in the end.
I forgot to add that DS19 also had his wisdom teeth out earlier this summer. That makes a cumulative 11 wisdom teeth out for my kids with 4 still to go (DS13 had only 3 wisdom teeth!). 
So my son attended a soccer clinic at Tufts this weekend. I was able to take a tour, sit thru an info session and went to an engineering info session too. It was a good use of my time, son was playing soccer for 6 hours. Crazy long day for him playing in the heat.
Anyways, I have mixed feelings on the school itself. I think you have to be the right kind of kid to thrive there. That kid would be someone that has a lot of interests and wants to pursue numerous things in college.
I was surprised at how āuniqueā the types of kids who were attending the info sessions were. Lots of colored hair, nose piercings, etc. The front desk was worked by a boy with a man bun and blue fingernail polish, and the two tour guides were with a young man with purple hair and short shorts and a girl wearing a rainbow bandana and flannel shirt with boots when it was about 90 degrees out. The admissions office was like a snapshot of the melting pot of the world. Nothing wrong with that, just an observation. I personally donāt mind a diverse campus, itās good to meet all kinds of people from assorted backgrounds.
The engineering school was pretty neat. They have a 0% attrition rate. Only about 10 majors. 250 kids per grade, so about 1000 kids in total. Very hands on and the professors know every kid. Specifically no weed out classes. The only possible downside to the program is that they were very upfront in stating the kids would be required to take non-engineering/stem classes throughout their 4 years, such as English, writing, philosophy etc. The speaker said some kids really donāt enjoy being forced to study non stem subjects, so the most successful engineering kids are the types that want to expand their horizons by learning and studying new things. She basically said if your kid can not handle this concept then Tufts is definitely not a good fit.
The school is set atop a big hill. It has a nice view of Boston. The kids live on either side of campus. There is a cafeteria on either side, kids rarely venture to the other cafeteria. You have to walk up and down the hill at least 1x per day to get up to the zone where the academic buildings are. I was fine walking around there, but I thought it must be difficult if you were handicapped or disabled in some way that limits your ability to walk the hills. The buildings were all nice, and the grounds looked well kept. I have seen better campuses, Iāve seen worse. Basically, some nice old buildings set up in a long rectangle quad on top of a hill with some nice trees and an elephant statue.
Itās not as easy to get into downtown Boston as I though. You need to walk 15 minutes to a T stop and then take a 15-20 minute ride. Iām comparing this to BU and Northeastern where you just walk out your door and you have immediate access to the city.
The admissions people said the school had a record # of apps this year, their best yield ever, and scores all increased.
I think the average ACT was 32, range 31-34. They really look into personal fit there, and require an interview I think.
I donāt think my son would get in there unless he was recruited for soccer or track. His grades would be āokayā but I donāt think they have a huge need for white men from the the local burbs. Heād probably stand a better chance if we lived somewhere else, as Iām sure the competition for local area kids is fierce. They made a big point of having kids from all over attending their school.
My son liked it, but I donāt know if that would be his number one choice. He is not politically aware or even remotely interested in politics, and isnā't passionate about human rights, world sustainability, LGBT awareness, etc. Heās just a happy kid that likes to play soccer, study, hang out with his friends etc.
So weāll see what happens.
@RightCoaster Thanks for the long reviewā¦very thorough!! I do think Tufts is getting harder and harder to get into. Out here, we usually have a handful get in but 0/19 got in this year. The average ACT of the kids who applied was a 34. Three perfect 36s with high grades were denied as well. Perhaps they are particularly interested in fit and these kids didnāt show much interest. Who knows!
I do like that engineering kids have requirements outside the major. Northwestern is like that as well. I also know many STEM kids who hate that idea. :))
No spreadsheet yet, but weāll get there.
D14 applied to five schools for engineering and kept track of things on a whiteboard in her room.
D16 applied to 10 schools, mostly LACās many of which had additional scholarship application processes. We had a spreadsheet for that. It was very helpful!
S19 will be a music major of some sort (he could potentially audition on two instruments, and hasnāt decided between music ed or performance). Music is a different process. All his schools will require two applications. Even finding potential schools is a totally different challenge, particularly with respect to affordability. Weāll need a spreadsheet just to keep track of audition requirements! We have a few lists now in google docs, but not yet a spreadsheet.
We are all over the map and itās going to take a lot of soul-searching to narrow it down. If it were just based on finances, thatād be one thing. But D honestly is flitting around like a butterfly as far as interests. I think sheād be best-served by a small LAC, but then I think, if sheās going to take her time finding a career path, shouldnāt she be at a school that has oodles of majors, like a big state U? (Not that PSU is affordable for us; itād mean going to a cheaper OOS public land grant university.)
And I am stuck there right now, not knowing which way to focus.
Thing is, she takes the SAT on Aug. 26. I hate to waste the free score-sends, but how the heck do I decide where to send them?
Tufts sounds interesting. I think I would have loved it for myself!
I saw on one of the threads one time that the atmosphere of PHF (purple hair factor) can matter to some kids as a plus or a minus. My d19 isnāt one to want purple hair or similar styles for herself, but she tends to appreciate the diversity of it around here and tends to be more comfortable around kids who are into PHF than into preppy or name brand type stuff.
Tufts does sound interestingā¦ My son would rather be around pierced purple-haired people than preppy kids. Now, if I can find a place like that where S19 would actually be admitted, that would be cool. Tufts seems to take 2 kids with VERY high stats per year from S19ās HS.
@gatormama My S19 seemingly has no clue about anything college related right now, so heās probably not going to send the free score reports. (Iād rather see the scores first anyway). However, as an experiment, I think I might tell him about the free reports and ask him where he wants him sent, just to see what he says and whether he can even name four colleges. 
Tufts accepted two kids from my D17ās class, too, but I donāt know how many applied in her class of @ 110 students. The two who applied were (well, are) not just high stats kids, but also very creative and artsy. Sounds like theyāll fit right in!
We had a similar experience with diverse kids/tourguides when we visited Tufts with DS17. I also agree with all the walking/climbing up and down in the spread-out campus. I liked it, but DS17 could not leave the campus fast enough. I donāt think DS19 will consider Tufts either. 
They would want to get away with minimal non-stem classes. Come to think of it, that is what I did. I graduated with as many math/physics/engineering classes as humanly possible and got away with the required 1 humanity and 1 social studies classes.
@RightCoaster just curiousā¦ while you were there, did admissions tell you exactly what the yield was for the class of 2021? Exciting to hear that it was the highest yield ever! And average ACT was 33 for class of 2021 
I checked out of the library the Book Of College Majors. And my d19 actually flipped through it! We confirmed that we are on the right track with thinking chemical engineering. She likes the parts of it that lean towards materials and such best. It was neat because she was reading descriptions out loud of a few majors that appealed to her and I actually heard some interest in her voice.
@mom2twogirls, I need to see if my library has that book.
Confession: she might not have flipped through it to start with if I hadnāt given her the choice of looking at it or washing dishes
Once she started flipping through it though, it did catch her interest.
@mom2twogirls LOL, We all do what we have to doā¦
D is reading her AP lit summer reading book - itās some analysis book about Shakespeare from decades ago; forget the name. Not that thick. Anyway, she came out of her room last night grousing about how there were āso many wordsā in it. LOL
@Gatormama Hilarious!
Both S19 and D21 have summer reading. The school changed the way they do it this year, though, and gave each grade a list to choose from. Each student only needs to choose one. They surveyed all of the teachers at the school this year (from all subjects) and asked for some of their favorite books from the last few years. Sounds better, but the books for S19 are dense. Warmth of Other Suns. A Visit from the Goodsquad. Katherine Grahamās Personal History. Colton Whiteheadās Underground Railroad. There are a few more but I donāt remember them. He just got home from XC camp yesterday and started Underground Railroad. He had the same reaction as @gatormamaās D. Each page has so many words!! I think itās interesting though. He doesnāt balk at classics during the school year, even Dickens. But, when heās asked to read contemporary adult fiction, there are a lot of words. Too much.