Actually @NJWrestlingmom I think they are looking for the same place, just coming at it from different directions. She doesn’t want the cut throat atmosphere, but also not the slacker atmosphere which she has now. REALLY sick of group projects becoming basically her project. Everyone caring and working together would be great.
So looking for that Goldilocks school where everyone works somewhat hard, but not too hard to have some social life. And where there isn’t a harsh curve in the premed classes.
I don’t know the cutoff, but I’m thinking that even with her current score she will be in the honors college at the in-state flagship. Which might be honestly the best for her. But that isn’t really what she wants.
D21 was happy with our state directional Honors College (the flagship Rutgers is way too big and she doesn’t want to have to get on a bus to get to class). Then the snippy comments started from some classmates. I think she would be happy at the state school, and may still pick it, but she feels like she has to apply to some big names because it’s what everyone does. I get it - she’s 17, peer pressure. But I’m praying it doesn’t come down to having to break her heart when Syracuse comes in at $55k a year and we have to be the bad guys!
@NJWrestlingmom - I think one of the best things to come out of school closures for my HS kids is that they are not hearing all about colleges from classmates with opinions about their potential lists. The high school counselor tells them to keep it quiet and it is personal, but friends talk, they see what college reps you go hear present and compare. My one child is a strong student with a very open mind and looking at many smaller LAC and several are in the midwest - boy does she (and us adults too) get unsolicited opinions especially being told that she is “wasting” her legacy status - ugh - so glad to be away from the student and parent fishbowl right now.
@NJWrestlingmom if you are full pay The Cuse is going to be more like 70K. My best friend has two sons there now and they both love it. But he blew through his 529 money on the first son.
I made the mistake of having D18 look at schools that were going to be a serious strain on full pay. She fell in love with Vanderbilt but fortunately for me she got waitlisted and moved on without much push back.
I am taking a different approach this time around. Only looking at schools where there is merit money available that brings us in the 35K to 45K range. Fortunately their are lots of good options that fit the bill for what she wants to study, size of school and locations.
LOL @NJWrestlingmom , again I think our D’s are ending up on the same path but for different reasons.
She would definitely be in the honors program at the directional, and would at a minimum have a full tuition scholarship. And that is where 2 of her best friends are going and want her to go. But it is in our town, and probably 1/3 of her HS class will end up there. Including the kids who are just going because someone told them they should go to college. So they take the path of least resistance and go there. Some will drink their way out of school in the first year, some will be happy to muddle through keeping just above 2.0 so they don’t get kicked out. Those are the kids D wants to avoid.
Another usually unspoken but very real factor is that her brother is at an Ivy. I think by any objective standard, she is smarter, which he would agree on. And they get along but have always been very competitive with each other. So going to the local directional with all of his friends who weren’t smart enough to go anywhere else would be a bit too much to bear I think.
@dadof4kids We found that safeties were hard to find for S19 and now for D21. UIUC is the in-state flagship and we prepaid tuition when they were babies so, no joke, we would just have to pay room and board and we’ve saved way more than that in 529s so they would have a chunk of change for grad school. Neither of them have medical school or law school on their radars, though, and would see going to UIUC as a big downer. Other safeties in the midwest, even privates that are easier to get into and have merit, don’t fly with them either as they do not want to go to college where kids from their high school go who were not strong students. I know a lot of people disagree with this attitude but, when you go to a very competitive high school, it’s a let down to go to certain schools.
S19’s answer was to apply to “easier to get into” LACs since LACs are not popular at their high school and he wouldn’t end up with other kids from his high school. His safeties, though, were Grinnell, Kenyon, and Carleton which have lowish acceptance rates but seemed to accept kids with his stats from our school at a 100 percent rate (maybe only two or three apply each year - all high achieving and get in.)
D21 is a different story. She wouldn’t like those schools all that much. She wants more energy. So she is big time lacking in safeties. Denison will be on the list for RD. I actually think she might like Miami OH but I have a lot of reasons to not love it and she sees it as a place where kids go who don’t even take honors classes. If she liked Wisconsin, that could be a safety but she didn’t like it. Lots of smart kids go there from our high school. It’s just tough. I’m trying not to think about it too much. I’m hoping my H will be cool with D using ED, she will choose well, and get in somewhere either ED1 or ED2. I think we were 99% set on that plan and the schools she’s considering for ED are high matches or matches according to our high school’s Naviance but now, if more schools go TO, she’s throwing around the idea of reaching more for her ED1. We have to wait it out and see if more schools go TO and then hopefully make some visits. If she doesn’t get into her ED1, though, she will have to find more safeties.
@goldenstatecat let me know if you have any questions about LACs. S19 only applied to LACs (except for W&M) and maybe I can help?
Welcome @Zinnia203 and @theirchoices !
Next year will be a roller coaster for sure. A daughter of an acquaintance committed to a state flagship a few weeks ago. Then GW called her this week and sweetened her financial aid offer and she switched!! Apparently it had been her first choice all along but just couldn’t get the $$ to work.
Colleges are looking for students now more than they have in many years, and that may be true next year too.
@AlmostThere2018 wow. yeah. It’s going to be the wild wild west of admissions for the next few years.
@AlmostThere2018 A good reason to wait until May 1 to commit!
@homerdog, does Miami OH have an honors college? If so, would that make any difference to your D? I do think the social vibe might be enjoyable for her if it had more cache, so to speak.
Also, OOS admissions are tough, but what about UNC Chapel Hill? My sister lives there (so we visit regularly) and it’s the only largish university my D has ever liked.
@inthegarden No one gets into UNC from our school. No one! It’s bizarre but true. Every years maybe 50 kids try, many of them high stats. The only one who got in over the last three years was an eh student but state champion swimmer.
Yes. Miami has an honors college but even the honors college takes kids from our school who D21 never sees in her classes. It’s just such a party school too. The Instagram posts she sees from the kids she knows there are insane. That’s bound to happen at any bigger school but she’s just negative on the whole idea.
Haven’t posted much lately, as we’ve been in wait-and-see mode about everything. It often feels as if time is standing still, though of course it isn’t. D is just plugging away at assignments buts there is no online “school” for interaction with her teachers or peers. She is being as conscientious as she always has been and getting high grades but the BOE is still trying to decide whether or not to go pass/fail this nine weeks. Even if they do I don’t think she’d be tempted to slack off, as there’s little else to do anyway! She tried to do a virtual ballet class but our connectivity is not strong enough to support it.
I veer between feeling hopeful that the more selective schools on our list (which, btw, my D is becoming more and more attracted to) will have somewhat easier admissions…to feeling dismay about the economy and what that will mean in terms of our ability to pay. Unless D gets merit money we will be full-pay, not because of salary level but because of investments (which may diminish more and more as time goes on, but may still just keep us in full-pay territory). We live a simple lifestyle in a low COA area so never minded the thought of a big proportion of (otherwise retirement) money going to fund an education at a small LAC, but that’s harder to justify with stocks going down, down, down. We’re not highly prestige-oriented, so good but not highly-ranked schools where she could get some merit would be OK, but now, with so many schools under financial duress, I worry about the long-term viability of these nice-but-not-stellar schools (and whether they would even be able to to give merit scholarships anymore). whew! Sorry about the crazy-long sentences if you have followed this far!
That IS strange about your school and UNC. I mean, I know that they do strongly favor In-state students but you’d think there wouldn’t be such a strong bias against any one particular oos competitive high school for no obvious reason.
Has anyone heard how to take this year’s AP tests on the makeup date instead of the standard date?
My S21’s AP coordinator told his to just not open the AP test on the standard date and then he will be eligible on the makeup test date. I’m hoping to get confirmation that this is the guidance others are hearing. Thanks!
@dadof4kids so in our case, S17 is at the same state directional. D21 is without question a far better student, so Honors college would be the only way she could feel good about it! And they are SO different! S17 is all about the frat parties and drinking etc… Not D21’s scene. I know there’s lots of other stuff to keep the kids busy without constant drinking, just hard for her to see it.
@burghdad I probably shouldn’t say we’re full pay - I say that because we are at our state schools. I’ve done the NPC for a bunch of schools - not sure if I’m doing them 100% correct because I get almost the exact same price at all of them! Bucknell, Lehigh, Colgate, Syracuse, BC - $38,000 or so. About $10k/yr more than we would like! High enough to not be able to pay it comfortably, but close enough that i’ll Really feel like crap making her turn it down! I have no experience with the CSS so I don’t know what to expect.
Apparently none of you have ever visited College Station, Texas. If you had, you might agree that Texas A&M could reopen. Brazos county has had 16 covid deaths total, 95% of the students are from Texas, the vast majority live in spacious apartments off campus, and there is more land there than in some entire states. Plus cows. Lots and lots of cows.
Welcome newcomers.
Looks like D’s engineering research apprenticeship and NASA Aerospace program at Johnson Space center are both off now. D has decided she wants to get a job after AP tests. She plans on applying to Chick-fil-A that is in our neighborhood.
D will be going to a “party school” but she is not a party type kid so I nor she worries about it. Also as for as non honor kids going to the same school, she is not worried about them either. She is going to have her hands full wherever she ends up with keeping her GPA up for scholarship in a demanding major (Electrical Engineering).
yes @roycroftmom, I often think as TAMU as its own country. Texas Huge is different than regular huge. And I know about Texas Huge as I live “way the hell out there” in West Texas.
@roycroftmom we’ve visited TAMU a number of times, my nephew is there right now, concurrently finishing his BS and already enrolled in the MS Finance program …S21 has TAMU top on his list. It’s huge, a little intimidating but he really likes it there so we’ll see what happens!
This is correct. The AP Testing Guide (a 51 slide presentation book) says:
You’ll receive your e-ticket by email two days before each test. On exam day, you’ll need this e-ticket to check in to your exam. You’ll get a unique ticket for each exam you’re registered for. (slide 5)
If you can’t test on one of these dates, don’t use your e-ticket for that exam —you’ll automatically receive a different e-ticket for makeup testing in June (slide 6)