I wonder if my niece will get her August SAT in. I tend to doubt it because she’s in NYC. I may never know since my brother is mad at me over…wait for it…politics!!! LOL but that’s another story!
We have in person visits set for Bucknell and Susquehanna. D is excited - not that either is high on the list, but she loves tours and has been bummed we missed so many. Bucknell specifically is an in-door info session, masks required, temp check required, every 2nd row blocked off. Then we’ll be given a mask and can self-tour, not going in buildings. I think Susquehanna is very similar.
@dadof4kids Frustrating with ACT change of location, but at least it’s happening! We just got notification that our local administration is now cancelled altogether - with one week notice. Again! D21 has spent the better part of the last two weeks prepping after getting notification that her location would be open. So annoyed with ACT.
@homerdog it sounds like your D21 is in really great shape with her application process. I have essay envy! We’ll be switching gears now and shifting focus to the CA.
I’ve had such trouble getting on this site lately. Anyone else? I could only see the posts from today.
I also just got the official notification from ACT about the cancelation. Glad to hear it directly from ACT, instead of wondering. Will ACT apply the canceled registration fee to a future test date once we register, or is it better to request the refund?
@homerdog I have essay envy too! Your D21 is way ahead of things! My S21 is still working a college list. That said, we did some recent self-guided walking tours of a few schools and he was able to get a better idea of what he likes. One was Wake, which is too small for him but his sister loved it! Looks like we’ll be giving it a closer look when its her turn.
@Solstice155 yes definitely better than a cancellation. But this isn’t across town. If they move someone’s test center over 100 miles you would think an e-mail would be in order. All I got was the standard check your admission ticket email that everyone gets.
They have gotten away with horrible service for a long time. But I think that is going to have to change if they want to stick around another20 years. People are going to realize this fall that they got by without taking the test 4 times, or maybe at all. Their business model is being broken.
I tried to post a reply earlier, I am not sure why, but my post was flagged for moderation. Does anyone know why? I was just posting the Tweet from ACT that I saw this afternoon.
Hello all, I have not been on for week now, will catch up tomorrow. I got back home earlier from driving 2490 miles round trip with D. D slept 80% of the car ride and I drove 100% of it. We fell in love with Huntsville, AL. We wanted (ok, it was Me) to check out the city as it is a major hub in the aerospace industry. What a neat area to live in, we hiked and loved the downtown area too. Then we toured Mississippi state (gen tour, honor, housing, engineering and meeting face to face with dean of engineering. D absolutely loved the campus and could see herself there for sure.
We loved the little town too. Then when to University of Alabama and walked the campus for 3.5 hours (closed campus). Wow is all I came say. Gorgeous, Gorgeous,Gorgeous. I was in awe over the football stadium
We hope to make it back there but it is so far. Anyway she loved MSU has the campus is quite a bit smaller and compacted compared to UA. 40K undergrad vs 22K undergrad.
Our school has not put out their plan yet. I look forward to catching up.
EDIT: for AUTO merit chasers. Look at Mississippi STATE: right now My D would get 4 years full tuition, 1 year room and board and study abroad 4K and engineering scholarship (don’t know value yet).
I wanted to ask how your daughter’s admissions interview came about…I thought Tulane’s application didn’t open until August 1st? My d19 was accepted EA to Tulane but I don’t recall there even being an option for her to interview.
Anyone know much about William & Mary? It was never on our radar screen, but S21 is falling in love virtually, after being directed that way by our school’s headmaster whose daughter matriculates this fall.
We did the virtual admissions session (admissions rep was a bit lame, but the senior who participated was great - seemed smart and quirky and just generally a down to earth nice guy). S is reading everything about it and thinks there would be a good fit for his goals of Economics/Finance/Public Policy/Law. He was looking at larger colleges, but W&M might be big enough. S is smart and quick-witted and his own person. A math whiz who has no interest in STEM, politically involved, a drama kid who especially loves improv. He needs a similar peer group, which has been hard to find in our small town. And he wants diversity and “real” people - turned off by WashU, Wake Forest, etc.
And of course, visiting right now is impossible. He did set up a Zoom interview for next week. His SAT and GPA put him at the top of W&M’s range, but as a state school the number of slots for OOS is limited.
Right now, the only other schools on his list are Clemson and UofSC (safeties) and Duke (reach).
@SammoJ – I’ve heard good things about W&M. I’d call it a ‘serious’ public – more academic than rah rah. Unlike Duke, for example, which is both academic AND rah rah (and, of course, not public). @homerdog’s S19 considered W&M so I’m sure she can share more.
That’s a pretty diverse set of colleges you listed. Since he seems to be looking at schools in my neck of the woods, would you mind sharing more about him and his college priorities?. Might be able to offer more insights if we no more about what he’s looking for.
@SammoJ we visited W&M and S19 sat in on a class. He thought the prof was warm and welcoming and the kids were bright and friendly. We are OOS and he was accepted RD but via their early postcard in Feb which is like an early write. I liked the size and the college definitely fits the bill of being “LAC” -like but with more students. I think he would have really liked it there.
For him, in the end, he really wanted the small school experience. The other thing that worried him was that 80 percent (I think that’s correct) of kids are from VA and he felt like there would likely be friend groups already from high schools and kids might go home fairly often. We found students who said that was not true but also found quite a few that said it was. It’s not a commuter campus by any stretch of the imagination but, when most kids can hop on the train and go home for a day if they want, he felt like that was pretty different than the other schools he was considering.
But I have nothing but good things to say about what we saw or what we found doing research. Yes it can be stressful but all of the schools he was considering are intense. The college is on the edge of being on D21’s list but she was creeped out that it’s next to colonial Williamsburg. (She was with us for the visit.) I think that’s a dumb reason to keep it off of the list.
Thanks, I like that description of W&M, more academic than rah rah. S21 is very social, but more in the gang-to-play-D&D category than head-to-the-big-game.
He has good stats - 1490 SAT (way back in December, wants to raise just to beat brother, so trying to take again), GPA > 5, 6 APs so far, waiting on this year’s scores. Wins math competitions, student leader, drama. Unlike big brother, not entirely sure what he wants to do in life. He says NOT STEM (his AP Calc/Chem prof laughs and says “We’ll see.”) Has always followed politics and issues, worked on a campaign this past year, but a pragmatist rather than an idealist. I think something that says a lot about him is he picked up the book Freakonomics when he was 15 and loved it, reads stuff like that. So he now has a vague idea of some combo of Economics/Finance/Policy then law school. Why law? Who knows, but I can actually see him liking the logical argument stuff.
We are in SC, so Clemson and UofSC are obvious choices. S21 has already qualified for the Palmetto and with his SAT (1490) and GPA would likely get departmental scholarships on top of that - so quite cheap. Doesn’t like Furman - totally because of many kids he knows who attend that he doesn’t think highly of. Invited to Duke last year for a weekend thing, liked the students he met. He is one to be very inspired by his peer group. Now W&M.
He is late to caring about which college but has suddenly taken an interest. Doesn’t want to go west of the Mississippi or to the Northeast (doesn’t like the logistics of travel). With S19 we learned that our GC is useless - tends to focus on the mid-stats kids, doesn’t know what to do with higher end kids.
@SammoJ you will want to find out about financial aid and W&M. One, they don’t really have any merit scholarships. I think they have something like five total. Five students. S19 did get some named scholarship but it was one that is like an honors program with perks but not money. Don’t remember the name of it. And I don’t remember your budget.
Sounds like a great kid! My H and I were both poli sci majors and he’s a lawyer in the public sector so your kid speaks our language! Both our kids are STEM which we find amusing – how did THAT happen?
I can’t remember if you have $$ considerations. What’s your budget and have you run NPCs to see what’s affordable based on your EFC? Are you looking for merit?
Thanks @homerdog! Your insights are valuable. W&M is about as small as S21 wants to get, so that’s fine. And he and I just talked about the “OOS minority” issue. For him, he really dislikes elements of the Southern culture he would find in abundance at our state schools (we are originally “left coasters” from Washington State - SC is a continual adjustment). He actually likes the idea of a school whose student body is predominately from further north. (Yes, VA is “the South” but not quite as much, I think. Maybe?)
We are full pay and able to pay, but only if we feel strongly that a school would offer a substantially better experience than our state colleges. (For example, S19 was accepted to places like Wake Forest, but we all decided the honors program at the UofSC business school had just as much.)
That’s funny with your kids. My H and I are both engineers, so kids who interested in finance (S19) and politics/law (S21) are just…foreign. Fun dinner time conversations, though!
$$ - never like wasting money, full pay, but comfortable paying if value is there.
May I ask what type of work your H does? I could see S21 bringing economics and law together to do something using in the public sector.
Maybe UGA. Solid public, variety of degrees, diverse and social student body, and taps the Atlanta job market.
ETA: I see you mentioned he wants less of a southern feel. For the big publics I think UGA and UF are the least southern. Both states have a lot of transplants. Emory doesn’t feel southern at all to me. If you think he might be a hidden STEM major, maybe GT?
@SammoJ my D18 is at Clemson (obviously) and is a BS Econ major with a minor in public policy in the Clemson Honors College (no longer Calhoun) She is currently studying for the LSATs which btw is now going to be online and basically cut in half. She has loved her time at clemson and found the programs to be good.
When she was looking we toured W&M with her. As we were walking off the campus from the tour my wife and I were like we would both apply EA that is how much we both liked the campus, the size, the vibe Etc. . My daughters response was I don’t want to go to school across the street where all those old people are walking around i.e. Colonial Williamsburg. And it is literally across the street from campus As @homerdog mentioned 2/3 of the students have to be from Virginia and you are going to pay the full sticker price for OOS students.
Both our kids are STEM which we find amusing – how did THAT happen?