Duke just announced it’s test option this year.
Edited to add Harvard also!
@NateandAllisMom – I have family in both Denver and Boulder – really great area! I think Denver is attracting lots of 20 somethings these days – kinda like Seattle did in the 90s. It’s just a great part of the country. We get a kid or two from our high school who goes there every year.
I don’t know much about their engineering, but I thought I’d heard that CU puts a lot of kids into pre-engineering instead of directly in engineering? So then you have to apply again to actually get into engineering? Is that right? My S is a 4.0 kid with a lot of rigor so I doubt that’d happen to him, but there was something I researched that gave me pause about CU – just can’t remember exactly what. Can you share anything about this? (Of course, I’m also not sure he wants to go that far away.)
@NJWrestlingmom - I went to grad school at the University of Iowa. Well known for the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, but also good programs in business, and health sciences (which is where I have my degrees). Nice campus, good performing arts center, and probably one of the best hospitals in the state of Iowa. Great bookstore called Prairie Lights. Iowa City is a gem of a college town. Football is big at the school. A lot of kids attend from Illinois. Winters can be brutal.
D21 resumed one of her usual summer volunteering positions yesterday and came home happier than I’ve seen her in a long while. Also found out she and her D23 sister have been doing an online writing group once a week with their friends and one of the friend’s parents (who leads the group). They have been doing what is basically an extra writing workshop/class since March and I just found out. This explains all that time holed up in their rooms. They say its been a nice outlet for them during quarantine, and an extra excuse to see their friends (on Zoom).
Their extracurriculars have started again, all outside and one with major adjustments, but things feel almost normal. Still waiting to see if their dual credit courses will be at the colleges or online.
As far as college essays - D21 has her Common App first draft nearly finished and a handful of Why X essays done. She has also almost finished with the interview process (at least for those colleges where scheduling an interview yourself is possible). She started the college visit process early, knows where she wants to apply, has a few favorites in mind, and needs to get it all done early if possible since she has an insane fall semester planned and she knows she will be too busy at that time to give college applications the attention they need. She hopes to be finished, or almost finished, the college application process by the end of August (with the exception of interviews where she would be invited by the college if the college is interested in her). She is busy this summer too, but everything she is doing this summer is more flexible with the timeframe/scheduling each day. Starting everything this early makes her feel less stressed overall since she knows she doesn’t have to write anything perfectly right away, she has plenty of time to edit etc. It’s a long process but relaxed, and she always does better that way than waiting until later and then feeling stressed about having to get everything done with a deadline looming. She does this in her classes too…if there is an extra credit assignment she does it as early as possible because it is less stressful for her when the deadline is far away as opposed to right around the corner. Also, she is applying to a lot of reach schools, most of which have supplemental essays, and those essays take time, and she will not have time to do all of them (at least, not well), once school starts again.
Today both daughters and I are getting COVID antibody tests. I suspect D21 already had COVID back in March when she was strangely tired - extreme fatigue- with major headaches and a sore throat for a couple weeks and vomiting for two or three days. She had never been ill in that way before, and she spends two days a week in the Boston area out and about with friends. If I am right and she had it, then I am hoping her sister and I already had it as well…fingers crossed.
@AlmostThere2018 re CU I had to look that up so thanks for bringing it to my attention. So it looks more like a default admission probationary period is required, with a fast track route for 3.3 GPA after only one semester. Could possibly be an issue for smart kids who get caught up in the party scene, and Boulder has a pretty healthy one I understand.
@NateandAllisMom – Ah, got it. That’s better than some student getting admitted directly to engineering while others don’t. You’re right – gotta make the first semester work for you!
We’ve been told by a number of local parents to not take D21 to Boulder unless we want her to go to school there. It’s so beautiful that kids fall hard!
@homerdog it was consistently nice, though the dorm room we were shown was pretty tight and my DS is a tall human. Boulder and the campus are gorgeous and their presentation was very, very well done. It’s also a comfortable direct flight to home from Denver, so that’s a big plus for us. There really wasn’t a lot not to like and I’m so grateful we made it there last summer.
Thanks @carlson2. Syracuse is her current (very expensive) #1, so hard winters don’t seem to scare her! Is the campus walkable? She wants a bigger school, but doesn’t want to have to take a bus to get to class.
@NateandAllisMom I think dorm rooms are far down the list of what kids care about if they are looking at big universities. I’ve now seen rooms for many of them (either from in-person tours or photos that parents have posted on FB) and I have yet to see a public university that has awesome freshman dorms.
Unfortunately for D21, she has seen S19’s Bowdoin room and now has dorm envy that I’m afraid cannot be matched very easily. Lol. She’s definitely looking at dorms, especially because many of the schools on her list have most kids living on campus for four years.
At most big universities, kids are out of dorms after freshman year so they just suck it up!
@burghdad (and anyone else!) Looking for some thoughts on Pittsburgh area schools. S21 loves the city of Pittsburgh. Really likes Pitt. And I would like for him to have another option in the area.
Thing is, we are PA-resident merit chasers (in-state Pitt COA is within budget, could go a bit higher). He doesn’t have test scores yet, but I’ll say that otherwise his stats make Pitt a match for his desired English and art major/minor path. He’s also an XC/track kid and would like to run at the club or extra c level.
I thought about Duq, but art is not really a big thing there? And I think of Point Park as being a theater arts school. Is Pitt the only option? Help, I have Pittsburgh FOMO! 
@homerdog dorms are big for my D21, but she’s looking at big state schools. Might be why she loves Syracuse so much! Of course, haven’t gotten to tour any other big state schools to see what the dorms look like. Rowan has great freshman dorms (NJ state school), but it’s not one of the big names you see on this site. She won’t apply to TCNJ because the freshman dorm was that bad (and I agreed with her - way worse than my Rowan freshman dorm back in 1987!!). When I was paying $3k it wasn’t a big deal; if I’m paying close to $30k, I don’t need to be wowed but I’d like to not be disgusted!
@NJWrestlingmom - yes, the campus is walkable - that said, it is a pretty big campus.
@NJWrestlingmom my nephew just graduated from Syracuse. He got enough merit to bring the price down to the cost of SUNY.
I live in Boulder and it’s definitely booming here.
I’ve watched a few friend’s kids go through pre engineering, and I have nothing good to say about it. CU has looked at the student’s application, their rigor, their GPA, their test scores, and CU doesn’t think they can make it in engineering but if the student wants to try to prove them wrong their ok with that. Most students, 75% I think, don’t make it into engineering and are dumped back into A&S with a bad GPA. The ones that do make it work their tales off in almost every class just to make a B. I’ve never heard a parent of a student that went pre engineering say anything better than “it was ok I guess”.
If you have a kid looking at CU, but might not make it into engineering, check out Montana State or one of the other mountain west flagships.
@AlwaysMoving whoa that’s good to know. I wonder what CU’s acceptance rate is for engineering period. Sounds like, if you’re not accepted initially, it’s too risky to go the pre-engineering route.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the engineering school’s acceptance rate. CU as a whole is 80%.
@Aguadecoco that’s what we hope for! I know a few kids there and they all say they got great packages. I don’t know specifics on their incomes, so fingers crossed!
@AlmostThere2018 check out this thread on the subject http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/2174187-cu-boulder-vs-purdue-engineering.html
Had a 3.9 UW and and ACT 33 and only got pre-engineering at CU. My son has a 3.87. 
Love CC but sometimes it’s a reality check for sure!