<p>I found Mercer because Macon is right on I-75. My family was driving to Florida from Michigan, and my dad thought he was having a heart attack when we stopped to eat in Macon. We went to the hospital, which has strong ties with Mercer, and the nurse told me about it. I never would have found it otherwise.</p>
<p>That's sure an unusual way to find a college! Hope your dad is fine. (Doesn't say much for the food in Macon, does it? :eek:)</p>
<p>i heard of vassar when one of the seniors went there</p>
<p>I had never heard of Rice until I got some snail mail propaganda. Even then, I totally wrote it off because I couldn't stand the thought of going to school in Texas. They kept sending info booklets, i kept skimming them and throwing them in the college box with everything else. Finally my mom read one of the booklets and researched Rice independently. She thought it sounded like a great fit for me, with great merit scholarships, but I still ignored it. I finally decided to apply in late December, since I was having a bit of a crisis of guilt with the unexpected realization that even if I did get into HYPSC, I would be getting no financial aid, so I wanted a school that could give me merit money. Well, I did get significant merit money, and just as predicted, no financial aid at the Ivies (or any of my other schools, for that matter), so I finally really read up on Rice and subsequently thought it sounded totally awesome. I visited, and loved it.</p>
<p>I started out at Case Western my freshman year of college. In terms of my first exposure to it, I'm unsure, as at some point I'd heard the name a couple of times in middle school back in Boston. But I knew nothing about it, and would not normally have considered applying. But during my senior year, I started getting frequent mailings from them, highlighting various features of the university. Having not had the chance to visit it, I didn't know anything beyond what they said and the USNWR ranking, and applied. I did so mostly because I expected to get in, and because I wanted a safe bet other than the Canadian universities my parents pressured me to apply to, and the local Drunken Haze U. In retrospect, I cannot decide whether this was a good idea or not. On the one hand, I disliked my experience there, and am thus starting a new school in the fall. On the other hand, my 4.0 wouldn't have been as impressive coming from Drunken Haze U, so my transfer options probably would've been much worse. </p>
<p>In the fall, I begin at WUSTL. The first I heard of it was after the Stanford SCEA decisions came out, as my class' sal mentioned that having been rejected, her hope was to get into WashU. But I never knew too much about it until I started doing research regarding where to transfer for Fall 2008. While I am not a prestige whore, I had no intention of transferring down, and thus limited myself to stronger institutions that met my two primary criteria. Those were strength in the social sciences (especially Poli Sci), and a campus that had a sizable and well tolerated Jewish community. Unsurprisingly, that describes many of the top univerisites in this country. So I started cutting down my list based on dealbreaker details, such as the language requirement at Tufts or the location of a school like NYU (too urban for a campus). At the end of that process, I had a maybe 7 or 8 schools, of which I only completed the application to 3 of them. Having heard back early enough from WashU, which was my third choice, I didn't bother to look at my less compelling options, such as Emory or Rochester (based on personal interests, not an overall statement about those fine schools).</p>
<p>I'm a parent, but the way my daughter found out about her school was a gradual process. ( and this was long before I had even heard of CC!)
Our neighbor had attended Reed & it came up one day- I also made a comment later, that as a private college, it must have been very expensive, but he told me that he had gotten a great deal of aid.
So that put it into the back of my mind.
When she applied to ( and was accepted at) 4 or 5 colleges, senior year, and decided to take a year off partially because she wasn't charged up about them as much as we hoped, I took the liberty for getting some material from Reed. The beautiful campus & the cat dorm among other things intrigued her, and we went for a visit.</p>
<p>I'm going to Princeton next year, and, though I had heard of it and knew some things about it, I refused to consider it during my college process. I did not want to stay in New Jersey and felt the school was too preppy and too pretentious for me. I applied early to my first choice, was deferred, and then applied to far too many schools. Princeton was still not on my list. My mother then decided that I should apply there, "just to see what happens". I still refused to visit, and begrudgingly did the application simply to get her off my back. I only visited right before my alumni interview, which I did not want to go to. After visiting, I fell in love, realizing I was wrong about the school and its students. My mom never insisted on anything else throughout my high school career, but I am thankful that she chose this one time to be a demanding parent. Otherwise, I never would have looked at Princeton. The one downside to this is that, for the rest of her life, my mom will gloat.</p>
<p>Sally
heres an interesting tidbit about CC
Theres a student poster on CC now attending the same school as S (U S. Carolina)
She came on CC asking about merit scholarships for out of staters and,after reading her stats/EC's etc I gave her info encouraging her to look into USC (as they say in SC..the real USC) and not to be daunted by their application for the highest level of OOS merit $. SHe,like S, won the biggest OOS scholarship a/v there..full tuition and room and board, and has just finished her freshman year.
It was very satisfying helping someone with excellent qualifications find a good match in $ and school.</p>
<p>That's a great story, cathymee. It exemplifies what CC is supposed to be all about. And, believe me, ever since yesterday, when you shared your own son's story about how he found "the real USC," I've filed away that information on my own mental hard drive to pass along to others. So you may end up helping a lot more people than you might imagine. Thanks!</p>
<p>I'm attending the University of Pittsburgh and had never really heard of it before I started my search. I found out about it thanks to snail mail sent to my house about their Honors College.</p>
<p>Around that time, my parents were pressuring me about finding schools that gave generous merit scholarships since we would be getting pretty much nada in financial aid -- and like the naive 'I want to go to college wherever I want without regard to cost' girl I was I had just been looking at pricey LACs that were out-of-state to boot.</p>
<p>So I gave Pitt a second glance when they said they'd waive my application fee if I applied and saw that they gave merit scholarships and anyways...on somewhat of a whim, I applied when I saw that they had a good Honors College and a good reputation and after admittance they were really persistent in sending me a bunch of stuff about the college...ended up learning more and more about Pitt, visited it in February, LOVED it and there you go.</p>
<p>So...I definitely advocate being open-minded about your college options going into your search. There are so many more colleges out there than just the big-names, that's for sure.</p>
<p>I didn't know Rasmussen College until I moved to Ocala, Florida when I drove by because I made a wrong turn. Even though I didn't start. I didn't start till three years later, but that is how I found my school.</p>
<p>morning.carbien.please what are your idea about poltech univ of new york?</p>
<p>morning hostascie.carbien.please did you heard about polytech univ of new york?</p>
<p>hi, us girl....carbien.please give me your impression about polytech univ of new yok .thanks.</p>
<p>Sally
I've helped other kids who come to the USCarolina Alpha listing asking for info and advocated for someone else to apply (he's attending elsewhere in the same major of sports Management). If anyone wants info on the school,honors program or OOS merit $ there, let me know. We're pretty good advocates here in my house on merit $ for OOS at Honors Colleges at large public U's..S's is the 2nd to attend in this fashion,older D also went to undergrad in this way at Arizona State (Honors College,NMF Scholarship for OOS plus MUsic major).In both instances we worked from the projected major as the first consideration, through a list of recommended schools, then to merit $ plus Honors College or Honors program set up. Neither kid was interested in a small LAC though they had the credentials and at first D considered Conservatories until she decided they weren't for her (she wanted a broader array of academic coursework and a larger diversification of classmates).
By the way, for that mental folder of yours, the name of the OOS Scholarship thats such a great deal at USC is the McNair and they take up to 40 a year.As you can imagine, the # of applicants is growing.
USC also lets you stack scholarships up to the cost of education (S also has a NMF Scholarship and a departmental award from them) which makes it even a better deal.</p>
<p>For me, it was a case of adamancy. Living in the Chicagoland area, I had obviously heard of Northwestern, but I did NOT want to stay in Illinois. I was sick of being in the same state my whole life and I wanted a new experience, whether in the South or in New England or in California. ANYTHING but Illinois. I didn't even research anything about Northwestern because I was so apathetic and opposed to the idea. I only applied to U of I Urbana-Champaign because it was a safety school, and that would have been the end of my applying to in-state schools, when my mom pressed me to please, please, just give Northwestern a chance. Because the Common App supplement was simple, I filled it out on the last moment on December 31st, and sent it in. </p>
<p>When I haunted the NU board at the end of March, I began to get a little excited and nervous, because at this point I wasn't even sure that I was going to get in. And when I checked my status online-ACCEPTED-, I finally gave into the idea that it might not be so bad to go to school in state. </p>
<p>I will admit that I did not fall in love with it right away. Because I got accepted to Vandy and William and Mary as well, I still toyed with the idea of leaving to go to school far, far away. But the more I thought about it and finally looked into the school, the more I realized that Northwestern...was really great...really convenient...and right by a big city with tons of cultural opportunities. </p>
<p>And so I paid the deposit and signed up to go to a school that even a few months before, I would never have ever, ever considered. :)</p>
<p>I'm going to GWU. I found it through the thing on collegeboard.com that lists schools similar to the one you're looking at and I noticed it came up a few times.</p>
<p>my original college list consisted of both art schools (i wanted to go for photography at first) and large state universities at the beginning of my senior year. tops were u del, umass amherst, FIT, RISD, Brook's Institute of Photography, Parsons and SUNY New Paltz. Throughout the year I realized that I wanted to be in a really big school with many activities, not just art. After deciding I wanted to be far from where I life now, I'm attending what started as just a safety school. But it ended up being better for me than my top choice. It has just about everything I'm looking for in college. Collegeboard.com's match maker search helped a lot. I reccomend playing around with that search tool A LOT until you find what you love.</p>
<p>D found McDaniel College through a snail mail postcard. Then we researched good schools with LD programs & small classes, McDaniel came up again. Then through CC we heard about POPE's Colleges That Change Lives and McDaniel Came up again. </p>
<p>She's attended McDaniel for two years and flourished making Dean's List & we applaud both the excellent FA and the LD program. Unfortunately she's transferring for 2 reasons, she changed career goals and they don't have much in her major, and Westminster doesn't have public transporation so you can't get around without a car - that drove her CRAZY. </p>
<p>But it was a good school that had everything she originally went there for.</p>
<p>Yes, my college counselor (private high school) suggested it to me at the end of jr year. Liberal arts college... Mills College.</p>