Anywhere Else to Visit/Consider?

College Search & Selection
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Bit of an update from the last post we made about schools on DD’s list now that application season is upon us.

Accepted, all with Honors Invitations or acceptances:

Pitt - Including pharmacy program acceptance
UCF
Toledo - Including pharmacy program acceptance
West Virginia

Still waiting to hear:

Delaware
Case Western
Tulane
Drexel

Dropped from her ‘final’ list:

USC - The crush of essays, cost and plenty of other faraway schools cost the Trojans their spot on her list (-;

Some observations along the way:

Some schools are doing a fabulous job of continuing to draw her interest and recruit her in ways that put them in a very good light:

Pitt has the best sense of humor to go along with their sharp content in anything they send she or I, which is very much a fit with the visits we have had there.

UCF has been amazing in terms of making she and our whole family feel wanted and showing their best side to us at the same time. We are going down for an Honors College/School tour around Thanksgiving and they could not have been more accommodating, friendly and personal.

Toledo is a dark horse, but they play their cards very well.

Case and Delaware are still keeping themselves very much in the spotlight with timely and interesting materials as she awaits hearing about acceptance, and for Delaware, the Honors Program.

Then there is the other side of the coin - Drexel.

Had a great visit, saw some concerns posted in various places about administration at Drexel not being the greatest, and hoo-boy, are we ever seeing that.

They had some sort of issue with NMSC over the name of their automatic NMF scholarship name and have pulled the entire thing from the website and won’t say if it will ever be coming back. There were some other screwy things with the way their supplements to the main application worked or more truly didn’t work that basically precluded her from getting the Honor’s college supplement until a few days before it was due and with schoolwork had no time to get it done before the deadline. So now she is a BS/MD applicant, likely NMF and isn’t able to apply to the Honors College.

Definitely a good reason to have more than one financial safety. Drexel had been in the upper half of her list of favorites before all of these boondoggles, needless to say that pending the visit in a few weeks, UCF has moved into that spot and Drexel is drifting downwards.

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Skates, this sounds very promising.

Having gone through this process with our S last year, it is amazing how the school selection process winnows down based on the interactions with the schools and their personnel.

Pitt Honors has a terrific reputation, and Pittsburgh itself is a very underrated city, IMO.

Curious to see where CWRU comes in. They offered my nephew a terrific package last year.

You are blessed already with some wonderful options.

Good luck!

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Thanks @ColdinMinny , DD has definitely worked hard to put herself in this situation and as a family we have worked hard to help her find places where her grades and scores could pay off AND she could be happy. The process has been helped immensely by all of those here on CC, and I find myself helping to guide other parents locally who really kind of got into the college search and selection process late and under prepared. Like me, they thought the current process was just like when they were getting ready for college and are shocked at how things have changed.

We will have visited 14 schools once the UCF visit is complete, mostly one multi-school trips by geographic location, some official visits, others just walking the campus with a map and reading all that we could. It is pretty amazing how the schools start separating themselves out by feel, academics, environment, and administration.

Pitt is like the city it is located in, a place that is high tech, full of opportunity and yet has a big heart and a sense of humor and pride about itself that both appeal strongly to her.

Case has that geek is chic feel, a smaller feeling school environment amidst all of the advanced opportunities, especially in the medical fields, within University Circle. Can’t say I am a huge fan of Cleveland in general, or the weather having once lived on the Great Lakes myself, but the school felt really right to everyone.

Delaware has an amazingly beautiful campus and is my personal favorite. The programs they offer are perfect fits for any of the futures she envisions for herself and the suburban location feels wonderfully safe. It has the most versatile set of majors for her and the people of Delaware are always personable and friendly.

All three of those schools are her top choices, different things she likes about different ones and in the end a lot will depend on finances. Given that none offer automatic scholarships, UCF has really jumped into the top of the tier below those three, with expanding medical opportunities at their Lake Nona facilities, an Honors College that really carves out a smaller school from a larger one, with their Medical Scholars program being incredibly appealing. Add in weather, plenty of personal attention and responsiveness from the school in the admissions/recruiting process, and the Orlando location offering cheaper flights than other schools beyond typical driving distance, and it becomes one of the big four if she likes it as much as we hope after her visit.

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Yes, I agree she has some very good options! Good to know she is accepted to Pitt and Toledo for pharmacy and honors. And great that several schools are showing her the love while she waits for acceptances.

Wow, what a headache with Drexel. It’s a big difference if they offer that NMF scholarship or not!

Well, she has four great acceptances already before Thanksgiving and can relax some!

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Now that the year winds down, maybe plan to get ready for tax season and file FAFSA early next Jan.

Do any schools on the list require other FA forms?

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Can’t wait to see if she goes UCF!

We are partial to schools in the southeast (coming from Florida we have become accustomed to warmer weather).

The big complaint I always hear about UCF is the size - but it sounds like she can carve out a smaller niche. Otherwise Orlando is very fun, just hot in the summer. You’re relatively close to both coasts. You can fly almost anywhere from Orlando too.

Best wishes! Your daughter sounds like a great kid!

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Yes, UCF sounds like a great option for your D as well! And much warmer!

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Tulane, Drexel and Case require the CSS profile. Another great example of Drexel not impressing. Our finances are pretty straightforward, jobs, pensions, a little in straight savings and other retirement accounts and the family home, so I had the CSS profile filled out and submitted shortly after it became available. Checked with College Board to see that they reached the schools and they did. Case and Tulane were aware of receiving it, while Drexel sent out the form letter that sounded like they hadn’t received it, until you get to the bottom of the message and they acknowledge that they may have received it and just not looked at it yet and to disregard the message in that case. Not a big thing, but when the other schools are impressing the heck out of you, those little annoyances (and some big ones) really add up.

DD has lived all of her life in cool/cold weather locales, but does have some issues with a mostly benign condition that makes her hands and feet have circulation issues that are aggravated by the cold, so UCF has that advantage as well. (-: