<p>@Choatiemom, that’s an amazing story!</p>
<p>My husband’s undergrad prof at UW-Wisconsin told him he should go to grad school in engineering and named four good possibilities, including UT-Austin. He called all the schools, and when he got through to UT, they put my dad on the phone! Dad listened to his qualifications, then said, “Yeah, come on down to Texas and we’ll get you a research assistantship.” So DH drove down to Austin in his '68 Chevy pickup. We met on January 18, 1985. We had two classes together and were pretty much inseparable. On April 17, he proposed and I said yes. We waited a year to make sure, but we knew. Dad was DH’s supervising professor on his master’s thesis. DH and I mixed concrete together in the lab - so romantic! </p>
<p>I applied to one U–our state flagship & attended. After 1st semester, I researched and applied for as an exchange student to ONE U–the U of OR, since it was one that I had heard of (they had sport and were on the West Coast). I was accepted and after attending one year, they liked me so much they gave me merit & FAid to stay & graduate. I applied to several law schools and got into two and attended the more “rural” one, sight unseen (UCDavis). It was a great match and I loved all 3 of my Us.</p>
<p>Applied to one college, drove myself to the audition at 16, about 200 miles from home, got a flat tire and missed the audition, called the director from a pay phone and auditioned at her house while she taped it on a cassette recorder. No Internet, no smartphone, no gps, no parents. </p>
<p>The dean called two weeks later to offer a scholarship while I was out. My mother left a message, “Dean called. Got scholarship. You applied to college?” </p>
<p>Apparently, I had neglected to tell her that I was planning on graduating a year early.</p>
<p>I arrived on move in day without ever having visited the school. </p>
<p>I’m the youngest of five children. The youngest tend to be pretty independent. </p>
<p>I went to the same tailgate U my parents and grandparents attended. Almost 100% of our high school went there. They had open admissions. We just showed up on registration day, payed a minimal amount, and signed up for classes. Since I knew grades weren’t going to matter, I didn’t bother about them in high school and probably went out five nights a week, dating junior and senior college boys during my junior and senior years of high school. Instead of homework, I took naps in the afternoon.so I would be fresh in the evenings.I graduated with a C average, which didn’t bother me one bit. At Tailgate U, my standardized test scores placed me out of any math or English distribution requirements but I couldn’t be in the honors classes until I brought up my GPA, which I did, because the male students in those classes looked very interesting to me and the young professors even more interesting. (I think I had two female professors in four years and five summer schools and took two or three classes from each) So I decided to take grades seriously And I enjoyed college very much.</p>
<p>adding: one of my aunts went to a small private women’s college, which doesn’t even exist anymore. They wrote me a letter and offered me a scholarship, based on standardized test scores. I did not apply there. I did not consider that offer. </p>
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<p>Did the small private women’s college get merged into another school, or did it just go out of business?</p>
<p>merged</p>
<p>I’ve never really thought about it or considered it unusual that it was just assumed I would go to college. Looking back, dad went, as did his dad even though it was around the time of the Depression. My mom’s dad was a Dr. so I guess it was just sort of a given. </p>
<p>We were middle class but my parents never pushed me to go instate. I applied to Va. Tech, UVA, and JMU instate, and PSU OOS. Despite my IS choices I ended up at PSU because nobody in VA had the major I wanted. I remember it cost my parents 20k for me to go OOS and how expensive that was when I knew our nice middle class house had cost about that much just 13 years earlier.</p>
<p>I also remember hand writing the application and thinking how 4 schools was quite a few to apply to. </p>
<p>I forgot to mention that I was hung over when I took the SAT. I have no idea what my score was, don’t know that I ever looked at it. My D, on the other hand, can tell you how many she got wrong and what the curve would have been in a different month. </p>
<p>I distinctly remember getting tired of doing the math problems and just filling in the grids at random.</p>
<p>ACT was required for Tailgate U. A teacher said it was good to take SAT just in case you ever wanted to go to college anyplace else. So I took it, but I have no earthly idea why. I vaguely remember thinking I might get married before graduating from college and if we lived in another state, I’d have the right “test” to finish up. I like to be prepared.</p>
<p>Went to college night at my large NYC High school. My dad & I were sitting in the SUNY-Stoneybrook room listening to two “hippie-ish” students describing how great their parties are, when I noticed another college brochure on the floor. It was from Rutgers. Asked my dad if that’s a good school and we went over to their presentation, which was a bit more academically focused than Stoneybrook. I was interested in becoming a veterinarian, so applied to a few neighboring state schools that had an ag program (including Rutgers), the big SUNYs to use my Regents scholarship, and CUNY, which had free tuition at the time, but was strictly commuter. Was accepted to all except Cornell ag, where I was WL. Visited Rutgers after I was accepted and decided I wanted to go there, that was my only college visit. Out-of-state tuition was $585/semester my first year but my mom went back to work, so I was able to complete undergrad loan free. I never even considered applying to privates, I think annual tuition at most of them was over $3K at the time!</p>
<p>BTW, dropped the idea of becoming a veterinarian midway first semester, but did well and had a great experience at Rutgers.</p>
<p>The State of Washington at that time had the Washington Pre College Test, which was a much bigger deal to Washington publics than the SAT. In fact, I don’t even remember if I took the SAT.</p>
<p>I lived at the time in a small town in eastern Washington. At my HS, upon graduation, most of the class picked up and moved en masse to Washington State University. I didn’t like those people and had no desire to spend the next 4 years with them in a different small town in eastern Washington. So I applied to, and attended, the University of Washington in Seattle. Much better fit for me. :)</p>
<p>I only applied to the two schools (WSU as a safety). Out of state and private schools never entered the conversation. Applications were one sheet of legal size paper, both sides, completed by hand, of course. </p>
<p>Tuition at UW was $188/quarter, increased to $224/quarter in my senior year.</p>
<p>I went to a small evangelical Christian high school that strongly discouraged students from going to “secular” colleges. I did not buy the religious dogma and was at the top of my class, with high test scores. I knew I would not be challenged at most of the Christian colleges. I started my list with good schools I had “heard of”–Cornell, Brown, Vanderbilt, Emory. The school guidance counselor had gone to Northwestern and suggested I add it to the list, so I did. It was the only school I visited, and I fell in love with it. That was it. I was admitted to the others too but I loved the idea of being in a different part of the country (I had never set foot in the midwest before) and that was that!</p>
<p>ChoatieMom, that is an incredible story. Did you learn enough during your short stint in beauty school to be able to cut your kids’ hair, at least? :)</p>
<p>I applied to 5 schools. I ultimately visited the 2. One because I figured an in-person interview would help my chances (it didn’t) and 1 because I was invited to interview for their merit scholarship (I turned it down). I ended up at the school that was furthest away from home.</p>
<p>For grad school, I told my advisor what I was looking for and she handed me a list. I went to the one that gave me a full-ride my 1st year.</p>
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<p>Had a sign advertising $5 haircuts on my dorm door all four years. Always had plenty of pocket money. DH and ChoatieKid’s hair still look fabulous today. ;)</p>
<p>I went to college in the late 70s. I took the SAT once, no studying. Very few people did otherwise and the ones who did were considered obsessive and over the top. I didn’t take math or science my senior year in high school and it never occured to me that a college would care – and they didn’t, because I got in all three that I applied to. I filled out my apps by hand. There were no essays and it was no big deal. </p>
<p>I applied to Penn State Univ Park, George Washington, and Syracuse Newhouse, with my original major being Journalism. I was familiar with PSU since my brother had gone there, but I didn’t even see the other two until I went on accepted student tours in the spring of my senior year. I liked all three and couldn’t decide, although I think I eliminated Syracuse because I visited in April and it was snowing. I ended up going to PSU because I didn’t see the sense of asking my parents to pay for private school tuition if it didn’t really matter to me.Of course, tuition, room and board back then was: PSU: $2500/yr; GW: $5000/yr; Syracuse: $7000/yr (minus a $1000 grant). </p>
<p>Three schools seemed to be the avg amount people applied to. My daughter just applied to six schools and that almost seems below average these days. When my mom heard my daughter applied to six schools, she thought that was a huge amount. lol</p>
<p>I didn’t take math or science my senior year either! NYS had very minimal distribution requirements for high school in the 80’s and my school thought we should be able to take what we wanted after satisfying those, rather like an open curriculum college today. Not for nothing was Brown very popular with my HS, I guess, and some other open curriculum Us.</p>
<p>I only took one year of foreign language, because that’s all my HS ever offered. I got some sort of exemption from the UC system, which required 2 years even back then. I doubt they make exceptions to the a-g requirements nowadays. The other colleges I applied to didn’t seem to care.</p>
<p>@neatoburrito - “Dean called. Got scholarship. You applied to college?” STILL chuckling over that one.</p>
<p>@alh - “And I enjoyed college very much.” I’ll bet you did. :)) </p>
<p>@MaineLonghorn “DH and I mixed concrete together in the lab - so romantic!” - Awwwww</p>
<p>@TV4caster - “…thinking how 4 schools was quite a few to apply to.” - Wan’t that the truth</p>
<p>I went to a nontraditional open school where we developed our own schedules and even taught some of the classes offered. I played bridge, banjo, and hardly studied at all. Math in high school? not me! I was a NMS, took the SAT once and had no idea what my scores meant. Wanted to major in dance, so went to the Public u that had the department I liked the best, on a scholarship. </p>