This is one thing (among others) that annoys me about the chance me threads. Upward trend in grades? Doesn’t mean anything without test score to validate. Great score? Don’t expect it to outweigh your GPA (..even if it’s on an upward trend). Plus this quote above. Basically, unless both are fantastic or both are dreadful it seems no combination of GPA and test score is enough to please all those replying to those threads 
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I fully recognize and will admit that in posting a ‘chance me/match me’ thread, I was opening myself up for a wide range of feedback. 
And I DID get a lot of really great suggestions on colleges to consider…that part was interesting because I learned there’s a lot more places that offer this sort of program than a lot of people might think.
Will my D26 end up working in some supercomputer super secret think tank where they’re developing the latest & greatest cutting edge cybersecurity applications? Well, if mega-math is required for that, then the answer is probably going to be no.
But there’s a boatload of various cybersecurity jobs out there. And heck, there’s a lot of opportunity in this area even in our home state. I’m confident that she’ll end up in the right place for her and she’ll end up in a job after graduation that is a good fit for her.
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I’ve been MIA because life here’s been so busy. I had to catch up on almost 90+ posts here!
I posted a Chance Me earlier this month for my son (he requested it) after we sought feedback on colleges to look at based on our needs back in the spring. For the most part, the responses and feedback have been supportive and constructive.
S26’s Common App is mostly complete except - for all the essays - it’s been so. SLOW. Transcript and LOR requests have also been sent. It’s just the essays and his writing portfolio.
Marching band is keeping him very busy, but it’s been so worthwhile for him, fun and memories are being made with friends. His marching band won 1st place in their division in the last 2 competitions so they’re off to a great start in the season! S26 knows the deadline is looming and his weekends are full of competitions and football games. He said he’s got it, but it doesn’t help me at all (LOL). I’m a hot mess of anxiety! I’m not sure he knows the work that goes into writing/editing essays, but he’s a writer, so I should trust him, right? Right?! Sigh…..
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~
So, we just got notice that D26 will qualify as a NTID ‘supported’ student at RIT. This means an obscene reduction in tuition (along with other potential means of reducing the overall cost)!!!
I have so many emotions over this!
-First was excitement- the most expensive school on the list will now most likely come in as the least expensive.
-But second- sadness?
I think I have been in denial (as odd as that sounds) to the level of issues that she faces.
Like I obviously know she struggles with her hearing disorder- but it is our/her day-to-day norm and therefore seems ‘normal’.
I think I have lost track of the fact that this is in fact not the norm for everyone!!
The news of her getting approved for this (still has to get accepted into RIT) kind of felt like going back when she was first getting her diagnoses as a young child. It re opened the old emotional wounds.
Trying to not be all sad and stuff- but just needed to share with someone. I assume there are others on here that occasionally have that ‘re-awareness moment’ with their children.
She still may not decide to go here (or may not get accepted). It is a 3-way tie for first place right now.
(Though the $$ part of this is making it my current favorite 
).
I assume that the accommodations that she will have access if she attends RIT will blow her away!! Though good now- nothing compared to what they could be!!!
But at the end of the day- she will (hopefully) make the best choice for herself.
ETA:
Extremely Simplified Summary 
:
National Technical Institue for the Deaf
One of the colleges at RIT
Can attend under the college of NTID
or
The also provide support (accommodations among other services) for students at any of the other colleges at RIT (Business, art, engineering …).
Because of their funding source- students who qualify for their support services, receive reduced tuition and many other great services.
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I’m clueless, so I had to go look up what NTID is.
And holy cow, that’s AWESOME! SO AWESOME!
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D26 got an email offering $0 app fee if she applies to University of Nebraska-Lincoln between 9/26 & 10/6. They don’t have a major she wants to study and pretty sure it’ll be too cold there in the winter, so it’s a no on that.
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LOL
My D26 feels guilty when she gets those from places she doesn’t want to apply to.
Says it makes her feel like she is ungrateful for the gift!! 
She gets over it pretty quickly though
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Oh have I been there. With twin boys. Who were not writers. They are both sophomores now at great schools, but let’s just say some supplementals that they SAID were done and dusted actually got finished at 11:58pm. FUN TIMES.
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First, yay for reduced tuition! There is another CC member – @zozoty – who I’ve messaged back and forth with a lot. Her son is at RIT and also part of NTID, and she has a ton of information about the program and about the school, and what the culture has been like for her kid. I bet she’d be happy to message you privately if you reach out.
Second, I get it. My S25 has both physical and cognitive disabilities, and it has been a loooong road getting him to college – something we never thought would be possible until the last couple years. But at home, he’s just himself – and we tend to forget some of the things he can’t do. Like I have to get on a video chat with him and talk him through putting a fitted sheet on his bed – and it might take 30 minutes before he manages it. I’m currently fretting because he doesn’t have the dexterity to clip his fingernails or toenails, so he needs to find a nail salon and have it done. So I told him to call around and see if anyone will do it for cheaper than a standard mani/pedi price. (But of course, he’s an 18-year-old boy, so he has to actually get around to DOING that.)
I have so many examples, but activities of daily living are just hard, and it’s always sobering when I think of another one that I know will be a challenge – something that maybe hadn’t occurred to me earlier. And I have spent many, many hours of my life (and I can’t even think of how many hours of physical, occupational, speech and every other kind of therapy) trying to help him figure stuff out.
When he was little, we used to get a special pass at Disney World to keep him in a stroller in line – and usually they let our whole family cut the line to go on rides when they saw this pass. Which was great for his siblings, of course, but I always felt guilty about it. Until a friend pointed out that we weren’t taking advantage of anything that wasn’t necessary for our kid (because it really was), so we may as well enjoy it.
So, I’m passing along the same wisdom to you – if your kid will benefit from NTID, and it comes with a huge reduction in tuition, then fantastic – you know the school is trying to help her succeed.
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I love that this such an active and supportive group! It is hard for me to keep up with it all, but I am glad to have a sounding board and place to celebrate our kids.
Two things:
First, has anyone’s child written to their admissions counselor to ask about submitting test scores? This is something I have seen mentioned on CC, but cannot for the life of me imagine how that email would go!!
Second (for those not on the Pitt thread), we got great news last night that D was admitted to Pitt nursing and received a guaranteed admission spot for their nursing grad program (PhD or DNP - NP or CRNA) subject to maintaining a fairly high GPA. Because Pitt was high on her list, this means she will cut several schools from her To-Do List! Yay!
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That’s fabulous news! Congrats!
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Talk about cutting it close! Wow!
Awesome! Big congrats! I remember Pitt was one she really wanted, so hooray…this makes the rest of application season so much easier. 
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My D26 is that kid with regular school writing assignments. The only reason applications went better is because I almost literally sat on top of her to finish essays ahead of time, lol!
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Congratulations! That is such fantastic news. Must be a relief for her to be into somewhere she is excited about already. And getting to chop the list down is a dream!
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Just introducing myself. Although I have checked in on this thread here and there I really had to skip most of it so HELLO!
On my second (and last) child to go through this process. My DS is thriving as a sophomore at University of Delaware. MY DD is a senior now and the process has been so different for her. Although we work with a consultant she keeps me very up-to-date and involved with EVERYTHING. (I just paid the application fees for my son!!!)
Starting to get to crunch time and that has us both super stressed. Really want to get UPitt in this week but essay is not 100% there yet. SAT scores coming out on Friday. Her scores are already very good - but really hoping for a little more to make deciding on whether or not to submit for some school and easier decision. UMD application deadline is sooooo strict (remember from my son) and although we have a month that one always stresses me out!
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Welcome (back)! My D26 also applied to Pitt, but she was trying to create a STARS account last night through the portal, and it kept erroring out. Unsure why.
Yes, this next month is crunch time for sure!
What is UDel like in terms of the surrounding area and culture on campus? My older kid is looking at their SLP program for grad school, and we’ve never even been to the state.
Just to note that STARS absolutely sucks. My D26 was getting frustrated with it, so I ended up taking over just to enter in her grading system. I fought STARS for a couple of HOURS and finally got it to work right. It took multiple saves and then go backwards and then see when I reopened how it looked, etc. Real pain in the butt!
And side note - I’ve found that I’ve now become pure logistics/admin in this college process. D26 does all the cool stuff of thinking about and writing her essays and talking to her recommenders about what she’d like them to emphasize, and I’m filling in forms and acting like a project manager that keeps track of the dates. She asked me yesterday evening, “So, what’s my next essay that I should write?”, and then I realized I knew the project sheet so well that I just answered!
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So, my kid’s school claims that they have an easy way to populate STARS through Blackbaud, which is what they use for grades/transcripts, without having to manually type everything in.
But, my D26 didn’t even get to the point of trying to figure that out, because she wasn’t able to even create an account. She was so annoyed and wanted to chuck her laptop across the room at 10 p.m., so I told her to leave it alone and go to bed, lol.
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Hi! I’m not a 2026 parent but ended up here thanks to SpreadsheetMom tagging me in her post. My son just started his 4th year at RIT/NTID. He’s in a 5 year program (1 year of coop) for Software Engineering, so he is what is called a cross-registered student – his degree will come from RIT but he has all of the NTID supports. And yes, their support is amazing. I’m happy to message you directly and I’ve also written a few posts on this site here and there about how amazing RIT has been for my son so if you can search for my past posts, you should find them.
Just a little background because your feelings are touching a nerve with me…. We didn’t know my son had hearing issues until he resoundingly failed the Kindergarten hearing screening - his development was normal and he talked and interacted fine, but apparently he just copes very well. So well that I was in denial for a few years and refused to get him hearing aids until 3rd grade, when the audiologist actually put me in the booth and adjusted the settings to let me hear what he was actually hearing – that was a huge shock because it was so much worse than I ever imagined – did I mention that he copes very well?!?! Then he hated them - and got bullied for them - so he flat out refused to wear them and every day was a huge battle. I finally made a deal with him in middle school that if his grades stayed up, he wouldn’t have to wear them, and he was a straight A student all the way through high school. But now, at RIT, where over 10% of the student body is deaf/hoh, he has started wearing them because he no longer feels like the odd man out – and he tells me it is so much easier to get through life with them that he wishes he had worn them sooner. He goes to deaf culture events and has learned sign language and the school as a whole embraces the hard of hearing population - everyone signs along with their chants at hockey games etc. Anyhow, I won’t waste any more of everyone’s time talking about how much I love RIT and how awesome it has been for my son – it’s a really amazing school and I’d definitely recommend it hands down for kids with hearing issues but also for kids who are quirky/nerdy/different and never really felt like they fit anywhere…..because it’s the kind of school where almost everyone is like that and so everyone finally feels like they have found their people.
Feel free to message me if you want more info or have more questions. I’m happy to share all the details! And good luck to everyone on this thread - enjoy the ride!
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