For all of those applying to Furman, it is CSS profile school with a pretty early deadline if my memory serves me correctly. Check all of your deadlines because they do not budge on meeting them. Also for the more lucrative scholarships like Duke, Hollingsworth or Townes, there are additional essays required . They are extremely competitive . When DS16 applied, they had over 1200 applicants and only 48 we’re invited to interview. Good luck!
@lizzo4477 Congrats to your son!! I thought there was another Furman Scholar in this class. My son said today that Furman has moved to the top 3 now. LOL!! Binghamton is #1, followed by William & Mary and then it was Lafayette but now Furman has taken over that spot. He is looking forward to visiting Furman now. Everything I read about it looks great.
As far as a girlfriend, my son had one at the end of sophomore year and she broke his heart right before they went back to school junior year. It was a huge blow to his confidence with girls. He has not dated anyone this year. He said he is done with high school girls and waiting for college. LOL. At first it bothered me but then I got over that and was fine with him concentrating on school and just having fun with his friends.
My kid currently has a list of 5 ‘will apply’ schools, one safety, two match, two reach. I am campaigning for another safety, since I strongly suspect he would be unhappy at the current safety within a year. There is another match and reach we’ll be visiting later this summer for consideration.
I had a twinge of strange emotions reading everyone’s worries about following a romantic interest to college. When I was in high school I had a bad news boyfriend. I really should have had nothing to do with him after the way he was treating me, but what does a 17 year old know? Anyhow, I had two acceptances and I chose the one that was further from home in part because it was closer to him.
It turned out to be the wrong matriculation decision. But then, a lot of things would be different if I had taken the other path. Who knows what would be better or worse?
Kids make bad decisions for dumb reasons. But they also make good decisions for dumb reasons. Eventually they struggle through and figure out their own life.
@lizzo4477, congrats on the Furman scholar! My S18 received one as well, and Furman remained a strong contender until the end. Beautiful city. Good luck!
D17 started dating her current boyfriend in October of her senior year, so they had been together for six months when she made her college decision. I wondered how the relationship would influence her decision as he is a year older and not going to college (works in restaurants), and I wondered if he might try to sway her to go to the state flagship that was a strong contender. In the end, she decided to take a chance and go 15 hours from home and surprisingly he encouraged her to go. She is home now after freshman year and they are still together. They talked and texted a lot, did face time while they watched favorite shows/movies and visited each other during the school year. While I would like her to move on eventually and try other relationships, and hopefully end up with someone who has pursued education, he has been very kind to and supportive of her, so I’m glad she has had a good experience with a first serious relationship.
We’re visiting Furman in a couple of weeks. So excited! OOS. Pretty sure it will be a great fit for DS19. Thanks to you all here on CC for bringing it to our attention!
Oh…and our list so far is 10 schools. And DS says no girlfriends until college…they are too expensive 
Hi @brentwoodmom ! My S19 is heading toward a small list as well. A lot has changed over the past few months on his end. His preferred school is competitive for the main campus but offers other pathways. He has decided that the other pathways to main campus would be a preferable “safety” to his other in-state options.
He’ll probably still apply to one of the other in-state options. And maybe one or two additional schools.
Of course, this current plan could totally change by next month. :))
@cakeisgreat S19 says the same thing! Too expensive!
@cakeisgreat - Same for my S. He is the most frugal kid ever - drives me crazy! Even when it comes to my money, he makes it so difficult just to treat him to something or give him an opportunity. So, I’m pretty sure he hasn’t even entertained the idea of a girlfriend because of the cost. Surprisingly he did open his wallet for prom this year and had a great time.
@elena13 When S19 was little, I would take him to the toy store to pick something out with his birthday money. He would sit in those aisles and cry because he couldn’t decide and ultimately because he didn’t want to let go of his money. He would say “if I SPEND the money, then I won’t HAVE the money anymore” and then he would melt into the floor and not know what to do. lol. My husband is ridiculously frugal. I don’t know how S19 picked up on it at such a young age but it’s fully ingrained now for sure.
We have a long list for S19 as we are hoping to rely on the Tuition Exchange and its competitive for the better schools and those that have civil engineering, his intended major. My first brush has 25 schools but about 10 of them are way too far (Rose-Hulman, CWRU, and likely UAH although nearly free would be fab) and some are high reaches for the TE (Villanova and UPitt) and others are lottery schools like Cornell which we will likely skip. Three are the UMass schools have civil, although we are hoping to avoid them. One is the institution hubby works at and they only have general engineering so its our true safety. The actual list is probably 10.
@homerdog Are you seeing many of these “preliminary applications”? These are just getting on our radar. Are these a thing for LACs that we should be tuned into? Noticed this for Carleton and now Grinnell. Hmm.
@ninakatarina I think most human decision making is flawed. We’re swayed by a recency effect, we can’t properly weight all the data, we’re influenced by small factors too much. It worries me lately, in part because I haven’t really been impressed looking back on my own major life decisions and the soundness of them. Having recently gone to a graduation party for our old friends’ son, I realized that I used to be pretty influenced by this couple when we saw them more in earlier years, and so was DH. So last weekend this couple and both their sets of parents were all talking about the public university system in our state and how great it is, and so there I am yesterday researching one of the UC campuses for D19, even though that hasn’t been her focus at all. That’s why I keep saying I want some sort of incredible software to generate a college list for D that’s objective yet also understands the intangibles and emotions behind it all. Ha.
Yesterday my two younger kids went to the movie theater together (aww) and it was a zoo…because it was our local $5 Tuesdays, and the first Tuesday of summer vacation. Everybody wants the same deal…! They saw Incredibles 2. Got lukewarm review from the 14-year-old, and thumbs up from the 11-year-old. They ate popcorn for dinner… Meanwhile I still haven’t retrieved D19 from her uncle’s house. Reality is finally going to hit at some point here with the to-do list…
Orthodontist and dentist appointments this week for all my kids…the summer vacation ritual! Our family seems to inspire dental professionals to retire. Weirdly, we’ve had one pediatric dentist, one orthodontist, and one adult/teen dentist retire on us in the last few years. So today we’re going to a new dentist…fingers crossed.
Thanks for your comments on the relationship issue. It is uncharted territory for us. (I met DH after college). D was happily going along, never having dated or showing interest, until she met the boy of her dreams at a music class and they became instantly inseparable. (The comment about girlfriends being expensive is really funny too- because she asked him if they could go to the local arcade and ride the go carts last weekend and he said no, that it was too expensive!! :)) She was fine with that, lol)
I just really don’t want it to be a factor for her at this point, and I’m worried. But we have a while to go and hopefully D will continue with her mature thinking - that college is the most important issue in her life right now.
Neither of my son’s have ever had a girlfriend. They say they take too much time, cost a lot of $$ ,and they just don’t have the time to deal with them on a regular basis. . I’m fine with that. Plenty of time to have girlfreinds in college and after, not worried.
@SDCounty3Mom where are you seeing these preliminary apps for Grinnell and Carleton? I’ve heard Grinnell has one but I did not know about Carleton. Just checked S19’s spam folder and found the preliminary one for Grinnell in an email but nothing from Carleton.
One of my subconscious worries about kiddo going off to college has been food. He has been an incredibly picky eater his entire life. I used to joke that he had a toddler diet; he always chose the blandest food, and never tried anything different. Mac n cheese, chicken nuggets, etc. It’s been a bit of a trial.
Then last winter he discovered that he liked hot wings. I was astonished, but kept it to myself. He added several types of Chinese food to the list over the course of the spring - every time we ate Chinese he would order something different and discover that he liked it.
And today, ah, glorious day! He said that he had gotten interested in Indian food and asked if we could go to a local buffet.
He loved it, every dish.
I’m so proud of him. And I’m in the market for a good basic Indian cookbook.
@ninakatarina My D17 is a picky eater. Her friends at college tease that she eats like a 7-year old. She eats hamburgers, chicken tenders/sandwich, grilled cheese, pizza. You get the drift. She did not like dining hall food but made it work. Your son will be fine!
@ninakatarina Join the Cult of the Instant Pot. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/the-butter-chicken-lady-who-made-indian-cooks-love-the-instant-pot. We even have a CC thread for the IP: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1848269-instant-pot-pressure-cooker-tips-recipes-p56.html
@Corinthian - thanks for the links. I got my Instant Pot last fall and I use it regularly but not as much as I’d like. Will definitely check out those recipes.
@homerdog - Yes, we had similar experiences with my son and spending money over the years. He would just agonize at the stores and often not buy anything. At least he’s happy he’s discovered Good Will now. I don’t even want to know how many gift cards he has store away over the years, not being able to justify the purchases.
It’s funny how money will likely end up being the topic of his common app essay. It’s definitely an issue for him and he’s also in an interesting place in his thinking about money since he goes to a very socioeconomically diverse school.