Do you think not receiving a WED invite is a bad sign? Kiddo is so nervous about the Auburn acceptance decision, it’s definitely near the top of his list. We’re OOS. His ACT is a 31 but his cumulative gpa suffered during the covid years. Very nervous for Oct. 15th!
Definitely don’t think it’s a bad sign at all. An ACT of 31 is great and above the OOS average last year, so hopefully it will offset any issues with his GPA.
When did he get his application in? It seems like those closer to the deadline maybe were less likely to get an invite, just because of the timing.
Fingers crossed! October can’t get here fast enough!
Thank you for the reassurance! We submitted August 2nd 
We were a little OCD about applications haha. I’m so nervous because last year just seemed so whacky with admissions from what I’m reading!
Last year was definitely crazy! Will be interesting to see if it will be the same this year, or if applications and acceptances will “normalize” some back to what they were in previous years. Unfortunately, I think our kids are feeling some of the effects from last year - with the simplified application which makes it seem like they’re only considering test scores and GPA again. 
Just a couple more weeks… 
Current student here! If your son is attentive and has done his research on Auburn, then he likely won’t learn a TON of new things at the War Eagle Day except info about housing(which is extremely competitive). War Eagle Days is one of the ways Auburn shows interest in prospective students to hopefully pull them more toward Auburn than other schools. If you attend the War Eagle day, then I would recommend scheduling a departmental tour for his major while you are there. These are very beneficial for seeing the facilities of his specific college/major and exactly what Auburn has to offer for his career interests. If he meets the qualifications to apply for the Honors College then a tour/visit with them could be useful as well. Auburn’s Honors College is pretty unique and offers a lot of opportunities for the high level students.
Also, if anyone has ANY questions about Auburn, feel free to reply to this comment. I’m using CC as a way to take breaks from midterm studying without losing my flow and would love to answer people’s questions.
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Thanks for posting…sounds like great advice! My senior and I decided to attend WED even though she’s done the regular tour. Hoping she will know if she’s been accepted by the time we go so we can gather some “what’s next” info…housing, deposits etc. She also has a departmental tour scheduled that afternoon and she wants to tour the Village too.
@SchoolLover22 are you in the HC? Or do you have any insight on the application/acceptance process? I know the requirements to be invited to apply, but I’m curious how competitive it is. And do HC students have a little bit of an advantage when it comes to on campus housing because of the Honors dorms? Thanks!!
Curious if you know if major choice is factored in when applying at Auburn?
Honestly, I think War Eagle Day is more of a marketing effort for the school. They, of course, want to attract the best and brightest but still reserve the right to say “no”. My OOS DS was invited to WED but also Very Impressive Tiger Day, which is personalized to him, his interests and his major. We are attending VIT day instead of WED, but also attended a basic tour and departmental visit last year. I found a description of VIT that indicates the goal is to attract kids with a 33-36 ACT to convince them to attend Auburn. My DS received the VIT postcard the same day he submitted his Common App (8/29) so I think the invitation was solely based on his ACT score (34) which the schools all seem to have access to from the College Board. He is also being heavily marketed to by top tier schools, which he honestly has no shot of getting into, but they still want him to apply. I guess, my point is to take some validation from these invitations but I wouldn’t read into it too much. Colleges base their decision on the pool of candidates they have to choose from and what spots they need to fill. My DS will be missing 3 days of school to attend the VIT day on a Tues (grrrr) but its worth it so he can make the best informed decision, if he gets in. Best wishes to everyone!!
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While I would not worry or see it as a bad sign if my applicant didn’t receive a WED invite at this point, I do think receiving one is a positive sign. Acceptances should come out just days before the WED dates, so I just don’t see Auburn asking kids to attend an invite-only day, only to reject them a week before they’re supposed to come tour. Imagine if you booked travel and then a week before the WED, your student gets a denial…I would be a pretty upset parent! Just my thoughts - could be completely wrong.
I have heard VIT is just for those who qualify for Presidential. It sounds like a great opportunity - hope you guys have a great time! Let us know how it goes.
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Congratulations to your talented child! I am curious…how did Auburn know your son had a high score on the ACT? The College Board sends out top achievers without a student’s permission? Had you self reported the score?, or sent the score before you received the invitation? I thought students had control over their scores.
TIA for any input you or others may have. Good luck to your very smart son! 
You have a very good point! I would certainly hope the school would take travel expenses into consideration.
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Thank you:) I was guessing the ACT organization sent out generalized results to colleges, only because we seemed to get a higher level of marketing lately. Sort of like how companies buy contact lists. But, I realize now that we sent my DS’s scores to Auburn in late July, a month before he actually submitted his application. So maybe from that? If they do buy a list, I would think it would only be to attract applicants and not to exclude anyone as its common for kids to take the test more than once to improve scores. Another admission mystery, I’m afraid. 
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Sorry for the late response, I had this typed out and just didn’t hit reply 
Yes, I am in the Honors College! So, Later in the year, everyone who meets the requirements will be sent an email with the application to apply for the Honors College. Not everyone gets the email at the same time, I believe they do a few rounds of invitations and acceptances, usually based on when you apply. I honestly can’t speak to exactly how competitive it is, but I do know that they don’t have a set maximum of students they admit each year. I know that not all students who apply get in, but if an applicant has a strong essay and extracurriculars in high school then they should have a pretty good chance. Also, if your student doesn’t quite meet the requirements and comes from an underserved community or minority background then it is worth reaching out to the Honors College and expressing interest in joining, sometimes they will allow these underserved and underrepresented minorities to apply and review their application more holistically.
The application will require that they submit a resume(only 1 page if I recall correctly) and two essay prompts. The essay prompts typically aren’t your basic “tell me about yourself” essays, but instead are meant to be more thought provoking and actually show the student’s personality. I’d assume they change the essay topics each year, but for some examples, the essay topics when I applied were ''If you had to give a ted talk about something you are passionate about, what would it be" and “While applying to college you are asked what you want to be, but we want you to tell us about WHO you want to be”(obviously these are paraphrased). Your scores and GPA get you in the door, but admissions is based heavily on the resume and essays.
For housing… If you’ve communicated with parents from the Class of 2026 you’ve probably heard how insane it was… I opted to live off campus pretty early in the process because it worked better for me at a lower cost. Honors housing is slightly less competitive but it can still be very stressful and honors housing is usually in the quad which isn’t as nice as the village. The only way to 100% guarantee housing is to be part of a Residential Learning Community(RLC) which I believe are only for students of the Engineering school or out of state students. If your child is in both the Engineering school AND Honors college, then there is a RLC just for Honors Engineering students. I recommend looking at off campus options if your child is 100% committed to auburn by early 2023, just to see if they might prefer it. January-March tends to be prime time for signing leases for the next school year.
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Super helpful…thanks!
I’m pretty sure when you take the ACT or SAT there is a question about “Would you like the ACT/SAT to share your information with scholarship organization and universities”. The vast majority of students opt in and their information is sent to some schools and other organizations. The VIT invite probably came from submitting the score early to Auburn, but any heavy marketing from other universities is likely from the ACT/SAT sending the score out. Same thing happened to me when I applied, I got mail about what scholarships I qualified for based off my test scores from universities I’d never heard of before.
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@SchoolLover22 Would you mind sharing what your experience has been with scholarships through AUSOM, like departmental ones? With even the top tier merit not quite covering full tuition, I’m wondering how many students are able to “close the gap” with other scholarships from Auburn. Thanks again!
AUSOM houses all non-merit scholarships for Auburn, so it has a mix of Departmental Scholarships and General Scholarships. The number of Departmental Scholarships varies GREATLY by department/college. General Scholarships are very broad, but are usually based on a student’s socioeconomic status/financial need and/or location. The student will fill out a general application which is used for the majority of the scholarships. It’s pretty basic with two short essays, one about the student’s education goals and another about why they are a good candidate for a scholarship(mainly pertaining to financial aid). Most of the scholarships are at least partially based on financial aid, so you might want to work with your child to make sure the second essay really expresses their need. You also don’t usually know which scholarships you qualify for till the scholarships are given out in March because you don’t apply for individual scholarships but instead complete the general application.
I was a pre-nursing major when applying(I’ve now switched to pre-med) which doesn’t offer many departmental scholarships, but I received a scholarship designated for students from my county. 85% of students I’ve talked to received some sort of AUSOM scholarship(Most have more than 1), usually in state students have more scholarships because there are more opportunities from local scholarships managed by AUSOM. My observation(which could be wrong), is most students receive enough AUSOM scholarships to roughly fill the gap between their Financial Need and the sum of their merit scholarship and offered Loans/Grants. So a student with a large merit scholarship and low financial need might not get as many scholarships as a student with a lower merit scholarship and higher financial need, even if the student with the lower financial need is a “better” candidate.
Receiving enough from scholarships to cover Tuition and Housing is virtually impossible unless you have extreme financial need and some non university scholarships.
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In our experience, very few Freshman will be offered any departmental scholarships based on merit. Both of my girls received the Presidential and one of them received a $1,000 dollar additional Freshman year.
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Looks like from prior year’s dates, we should hear something next Wed. Anyone else see that?
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That’s what I am hoping!! 
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