<p>DS received acceptances today from both of the other schools he applied to. So he’s 3 for 3 and done. It was a nice way to end the week.</p>
<p>Good Luck to all who are testing tomorrow!</p>
<p>Wow, proudwismom, that is wonderful! What a relief that must be. Congratulations!</p>
<p>Thanks Simpkin. I really encouraged (pushed? 
) my son to compete his apps early. His high school wants them all in by Thanksgiving and with his school schedule I knew it was important to get them finished. Waiting for the transcripts to be ready to send was the longest wait.</p>
<p>DS also lacks patience (me too) so choosing rolling admissions schools was a good choice for us. None of the schools required essays or LORs. He did send a personal statement though. And as a given he wasn’t applying to highly selective schools. They are more numbers driven.</p>
<p>I know you said your son had an essay idea. How is it progressing?</p>
<p>He claims to have written a paragraph. I have not seen this alleged paragraph. He’s taking the SAT tomorrow for the second and final time. Of course he did nothing to prepare for it, though I think he is already in bed getting a good night’s sleep.</p>
<p>My son is taking the SAT for the third time tomorrow, but once again, he did little preparation. He has one app in, but will send a second this weekend. perhaps i will recommend one with rolling admissions. It sure would be nice to have an acceptance letter by the holidays.</p>
<p>I would be in your shoes right now Simpkin if my son had to write more than the personal statement! I hope he does well on the SAT. My son took the ACT twice. He scored high enough to be admitted to the schools of his choice the first time so he saw no reason to really study for the second time. I was hoping for a higher score for merit aid but he ended up with the same composite.</p>
<p>MD Mom a rolling admission school does take some pressure off. It seems like most kids apply to at least one.</p>
<p>Thanks. I think he has at least one rolling on his list.</p>
<p>Congrats, Proudwismom! </p>
<p>I just sat down and read through this entire thread for the past hour and there’s some really good advice and info. on schools. I posted early on in the thread, but hadn’t checked back for a while. I tend to “hang out” on the college search forum offering school suggestions :). </p>
<p>I went through the college search the last couple years with my oldest S who is now a 1st year at UVA. I also have a HS junior D with a 3.1 GPA, and we’re guessing she’ll have btw. an 1800-1850 on SAT’s (based on PSAT sophamore year, and she’ll be taking it again in about a week). She has a few C’s in her transcript. She has a talent for Japanese language and art. She’ also has ADD. We feel that an LAC would be best for her. I took her to the following visits this past spring and summer:</p>
<p>-Whittier (we were on vacation in CA)-she loved Whittier, and the town. They also have a 12K art talent scholarship. </p>
<p>-Goucher-She liked it, but wasn’t fond of the surrounding area. I have no idea why really. I don’t think she’ll be applying. </p>
<p>-Hiram (offers 10K for 3.0 and also an 8K art major scholarship)-she actually really liked Hiram. It had a great feel, and she said she’d be applying.</p>
<p>-Earlham-I was realy hoping she’d love Earlham since they have one of the strongest Japanese programs in the country. She wasn’t feeling it, but mostly bc she didn’t like the town.</p>
<p>-Antioch - She liked it, but it’s not even accredited yet…DH and I hope it gets taken off the list by application time next year.</p>
<p>-SUNY Purchase (good for art program and under 30K OOS) -she crossed this one off immediately.</p>
<p>-Virginia Commonwealth U. (we’re instate and it has the #1 art school)-what a cool urban school! </p>
<p>-Emerson -too reachy, but we were in Boston and decided to stop. What’s not to like? It’s right in Boston Commons and very nice urban feel.</p>
<p>-U of Mary Washington (too reachy probably)-beautiful campus and highly rec to others with more of a B+ kid.</p>
<p>As you can see, my daughter is putting a lot of weight into the town and surrounding area of the colleges. Part of me understands since I also am greatly effected by my environment, but she takes it to an extreme. I’m not sure if she grasps that most of her time will be spent actually attending the COLLEGE, lol! I guess she thinks she’ll be shopping and going to Starbucks? I was laughing through this thread at some reasons that schools were crossed off. If my daughter crosses one off, it’s due to the town :).</p>
<p>Some more schools we plan to visit this fall and next spring (depending on where her GPA is at end of junior year):
-Warren Wison
-Guilford
-Ohio Wesleyan (reach)
-Beloit (reach)
-Oglethorpe
-Flagler
-more VA state schools…still trying to determine that list</p>
<p>We’re visiting many schools to possibly apply ED next year, btw. It’s so inspiring to hear about your kids’ acceptances.</p>
<p>@Simpkin, I bought this book on Amazon for my son: On Writing The College Essay by Harry Bauld (disregard the oxymoron name, lol! He’s a former Brown adcom and it’s excellent). It was a very quick read, and it’s extremely helpful. I thought my son would just pick it up and then leave it unread somewhere, but he actually sat and read the entire book one afternoon. I did the same, and so did my husband. You’ll laugh outloud over some of the essays, it’s just that entertaining :). It will also help him avoid some topics. I’m hoping it will “inspire him”. I know, what you are feeling. The end of the college process with my oldest was challenging to say the least. I was ready to send him off by fall, lol!</p>
<p>Hi Jkwimom! I actually own that book. But, you know how it is, you can give a kid a book but you can’t make him read it. I think I’m going to keep him locked up this weekend until he writes a first draft of an essay. I’m so sick of nagging him every day. Yesterday I asked him if he wanted to look at any of the college mail that came for him yesterday, and he said, “No, I’m going to go to Hofstra if I can get in,” and I said, “You’re not going to get in anywhere if you don’t write that essay,” and then he complained that he couldn’t be in the same room with me for two minutes without being nagged about the essay, and I said, if you want me to stop nagging, all you have to do is write the essay. Etc. So sick of this.</p>
<p>I didn’t like the area around Goucher either.</p>
<p>Shoot, I thought the book may work. Leave it in the bathroom anyway ;). Yep, you may have to have a “lock down” to write the essays. I have a friend that had to do that.</p>
<p>Proudwis, congrats on having as perfect a record in September as the Packers!</p>
<p>Thanks yabe–my son is very happy! We’re all hoping the Packers continue their winning streak—GO PACK GO!!!</p>
<p>We just got home from Susquehanna U. Unfortunately, this was a total waste of my time. Nine or so total hours in the car plus a bad night’s sleep in a hotel for nothing. We left the “Liberal Arts Action Day” after an hour. </p>
<p>On the way there in the car yesterday, S said to me that he was sure he didn’t want to go to a small college. Seems like something he could have mentioned sooner. Too late to cancel the hotel reservation so on we went. I was hoping that a really great day at Susquehanna would change his mind. Unfortunately, he woke up sick. Sore throat, runny nose, lots of sneezing. Selingrove was foggy and gloomy this morning. We arrived at campus (very nice-looking campus), parked, and he said, “I’m not going to go to this college, so can we just go home?” I said, no, we’re here, let’s give it a fair chance. Well, this event was awful. I had expected that Liberal Arts Action Day would be focused on, you know, liberal arts at Susquehanna. The schedule (which was not available beforehand) listed introductory remarks, followed by a presentation by someone from the career office, followed by a presentation about study abroad, followed by lunch. Finally, after lunch, there would be workshops focused on specific liberal arts majors. And then a tour. </p>
<p>Well, the introductory remarks were totally lackluster; I don’t even remember what was said. Someone from admissions and a dean spoke, and it was all totally generic and uninteresting, like they could have been reading from the informational materials for any LAC anywhere. Then the career center person did a presentation in the format of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” which was briefly amusing, because some of the kids who participated were really hamming it up and having fun. But it went on too long, and it wasn’t focused on Susquehanna at all, it was really stupid general questions, like: “Which of the following will NOT help you learn about different careers?” (a) visiting the career center, (b) speaking to alumni about their careers, (c) watching cartoons." I am serious. Half an hour of this got really old, and next up was study abroad, which my son really doesn’t care about, and he was sitting next to me looking ill and sniffling and occasionally whispering, “Can we just go?” and I thought about the long drive back on Rte. 80 and said, okay, we can go.</p>
<p>It was frustrating because I really thought (and still do) that this could be the right college for him, but the combination of him being sick and this event being not-so-good destroyed any chance that he will apply. And to be fair, the day may have gotten much better and we didn’t give it much of a chance. But there didn’t seem to be any point.</p>
<p>We’re now done with looking at colleges for the time being. I think he’s kind of burned out on it and more visits will not be productive. He actually did write an essay, finally – it needs work but it does exist and has potential to be good. So he’s going to submit a few early action applications and we’ll see how that goes, and then figure things out from there.</p>
<p>Sorry for the bad visit Simpkin. But at least the essay is done even if it needs work. Has your son visited a mid-size school–somewhere around 9-10,000 students? That seemed to be the sweet spot for my son. He didn’t want anything as small as his high school but nothing as huge as our state flagship.</p>
<p>Yes, I think that is the sweet spot. He visited Hofstra, which I think is about 8,000 students, and loved it. Hofstra is definitely the favorite. But he still wants to apply to McDaniel and Lycoming, which are both quite small, so I thought Susquehanna had a chance. He’s going to apply to Ithaca, which is about the same size as Hofstra, but I am not driving all that way unless they accept him. I hope they don’t hold the lack of visit against him. I think some of the SUNYs are also in that size range.</p>
<p>Simpkin this is such an exhausting process. Not to mention frustrating, time consuming, thankless and expensive. I feel your pain.</p>
<p>Is Ithaca scheduled to visit his school? Maybe he can show interest by attending a school visit.</p>
<p>I don’t think they’d hold not visiting prior to appying/being accepted against you. A lot of kids don’t have the ability to visit until after they’re accepted if then even. As EdieNJ mentioned attending a school visit would also show interest. If your son hasn’t requested info from the school he could do that as well.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about Hofstra, I hope it’s a rolling admissions school. That would ease some of the pressure.</p>
<p>Hang in there!</p>
<p>update for UAB automatic scholarships for oos students</p>
<p>total cost of attendance (tuition, dorm, food) is 20K-24K per year for oos so a blazer elite means out of pocket could be just 5-9K per year</p>
<p>Welcome</p>
<p>OOS costs:
Fall 2011 First-Year Freshmen Estimated
First-Year Freshman Out-of-State
Tuition and Fees* $14,256
Books and Supplies** $1000
Meal Plan $450 - $3,894
Total $15,706 - $19,150
Residence Hall (Blazer/Camp Hall)*** $5,200
Grand Total $20,906 - $24,350</p>
<p>OOS Merit (also has full rides for national merit, achievement and hispanic scholars)
Blazer Elite Scholarship
$15,000/yr
Based on academic achievement (28-36 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)
Blazer Gold Scholarship
$10,000/yr
Based on academic achievement (26-27 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)
Blazer Pride Scholarship
$5,000/yr
Based on academic achievement (24-25 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)</p>
<p>tier 1 research university</p>
<p>urban campus</p>
<p>11k undergrads</p>
<p>ranked 5th for diversity, 11th for student happiness</p>
<p>wonderful honors colleges</p>
<p>great dorms (suite or apartment style)</p>
<p>150K sq ft rec center with huge climbing wall, lazy river pool</p>
<p>rolling admissions, no essay app (there is an essay for the honors college app)</p>