@KevinFromOC: You may hear from Stevens around mid-March or so with an early write admission letter awarding her its top scholarship (full tuition plus a bunch of other perks). Your daughter would be an excellent candidate for this scholarship. Stevens was a hard school to turn down for my daughter–they really showed her the love and she really liked the school and its location was a definite plus.
out of curiosity, if my family makes 170k but lives in an extremely high cost of living area do I have a shot of having to pay 25k or less?
You should probably start your own thread with more specifics about your situation if you want good answers to your question. Also, you should run some net price calculators to get an initial idea of what your family would be expected to pay at specific schools.
Sorry for the delayed response—been a busy week at work. Like yours, often my daughter did not forward all emails or it was delayed. She managed 100% percent of the process and I did not have any of her pass words. I am trying to pull from my old foggy brain the more specific timeline and details. I recall that the Mosaic invites came out around Valentines, she had to make a fairly quick decision on whether to attend, and at that time we knew of some Chancellor’s and maybe some Ingram’s, but no CVs, so we were hopeful there were still some to be awarded. Mosaic was scheduled for the same weekend of the month of March as it is this time—mid March. I know she received notification (pretty sure it was an email) just shortly before Mosaic that she did not get CV—so March 8-ish sounds in line. At that point she had accepted and her flight arrangements made, so she felt obligated to go. When she got home from Mosaic I remember we discussed that she thought it was clear that all of the Top 3 scholarship program recipients had already been notified. I don’t know the source of her certainty. I think you are right that there is still a glimmer of hope for CV for your daughter.
Any updates about the recent trips?
Yes, I’ve been wondering too! Hope there is lots of good news to share. 
Just got back into LAX at midnight last night after a 10 day trip to South Carolina and Massachusetts. This makes 4 straight weekends of travelling (soon to be 5) and it’s really starting to wear on me!
Anyway, since my last update of 2/19 :
Two weeks ago I flew back with my daughter from Massachusetts and we went to the Explore USC event, which was fantastic. I can tell USC is her current #1 choice. But at best she would only get full tuition (wow, using the word “only” there!). Room & Board is around $17K.
Last weekend we went to the Top Scholars event at South Carolina - again another fantastic event. The honors college at UofSC really is a college within a college, and being a honors student, let alone a top scholar student, has many many perks! The odds for that event are heavily in her favor - 36 students attended, 5 get full ride Stamps scholarships, 20 get McNair which are essentially full ride scholarships, and the rest get Horseshoe full tuition awards. So 25 out of the 36 students will get full rides, and they will name alternates in case students decline the Stamps or McNair. Also, they allow scholarships to stack, so her $6K Provost NHRP award would be added on top of any of those others. In fact we spoke with one Top Scholar student who said she receives a small refund check from the college each semester - she’s essentially getting paid to go to college! My daughter enjoyed her visit, and could easily see herself going there.
We have our visit to Rose Hulman this Friday & Saturday for their Chauncey Rose Scholars’ Program, which could give her full room & board on top of her existing full tuition award.
My daughter is home for 2 weeks for spring break, and we will try to visit ASU during that time. We are still waiting to hear about some of the additional ASU scholarships that she applied for…
In the meantime, she was accepted to RPI, with a $40K merit scholarship and $5K financial aid award (not counting loan offers - I will never consider a loan offer part of financial aid), but that still leaves almost $30K in expenses, which makes them cost prohibitive.
It sounds like the Vanderbilt scholarship recipients were notified today, and she didn’t get any e-mails, so I’m assuming she didn’t get that scholarship - that probably rules out Vanderbilt for us…
She was accepted to the Honors program at Clarkson, but she was not an Ignite scholarship finalist, so even with the $38K in merit aid there, we will have to cross them off the list.
So it currently looks like there are 5 front runners - Miami, USC, UofSC, Rose Hulman, and ASU. If any of the schools we’re still waiting to hear from come through with a big merit aid award, that number could increase.
One interesting story - At the South Carolina Top Scholars event we ran into another student who was at the Miami Presidential Fellows event. Turns out he also went to Explore USC on a different date from my daughter. We got to talking, and he beat my daughter’s tally of applying to 23 schools - he applied to 27!
I’m cheering for Miami really. It’s just such a nice place.
But I will say…I think University of South Carolina is a hidden gem. In 2006, my daughter was also accepted there (actually she was accepted before Thanksgiving 2005). That school really rolled out the red carpet, and my DD wasn’t really a tippy top SAT scorer…actually her SAT scores were good but not excellent. She got calls from current students, a nice note in the mail from a current student, and a really nice note on her admission letter. They sent her holiday and birthday cards.
Surprisingly, she was awarded one of the OOS scholarships which brought the cost of attendance to about $10,000 a year for her.
She was unable to attend the scholarship weekend because it conflicted with our all state music festival. South Carolina was amazing. They put all of her swag and scholarship weekend materials aside for her, and she went the following weekend when they essentially created a little scholarship weekend just for her.
She chose to matriculate elsewhere, but she wrote them a very nice letter thanking them, and explained that it was a very hard decision.
Their response was that they would hold her admission for a full year, including their generous scholarship…and if she changed her mind, they would welcome her there.
We thought they were a class act!!
It’s funny, I was thinking about you when I read the Mosaic weekend had been cancelled.
I think Miami of Ohio and U South Carolina are excellent choices!
If she gets enough merit at Rose Hulman, USC and ASU, those would be great as well.
It’s going to be a difficult decision.
Since merit is her best chance of affordability for all four years, independent of her sister’s college plans, these schools will be top contenders.
Is it Miami of Ohio or University of Miami (thought it was the latter but who can keep up haha).
It’s Miami of Ohio.
@KevinFromOC – I do not know how widespread this is, but USC offered my son another $3000/year toward housing plus another $2500/year toward research, in addition to the full tuition. This offer was extended after the full tuition award, but since this was three years ago, I have forgotten the timing. Best of luck.
@thumper1 thank you for clarifying.
Given that the OP mentioned two different USCs in the final list, it may be helpful to specify which one.
The only negative with Rose Hulman is what a patients mother just said to me this morning. She has a daughter at MIT and one at Rose Hulman. She thinks the kids at RH get more homework etc since theirs just not alot to do there. Also her daughter feels like there’s always like 10 pair of eyes on her (she’s attractive and nerdy ?).
The kids seems to be always studying. I have heard this before also.
Other then that she likes her experience. She doesn’t seem like theirs much of a drop off in learning between the two schools. Thought that was interesting comment.
Yes, they did mention something to the effect that some full tuition awards might include a housing stipend “bonus”, I believe as much as $5K. I’m not sure if that was for all 4 years or not. That extra account amount might make the difference if she is awarded one of the full tuition scholarships.
I believe her odds at getting a full tuition award from USC were around 20-25%, so I’m not holding my breath on that one, although I think my daughter might be…
Yes, there’s the whole RHIT thread here on CC titled “Intellectually Brutalized?”
And the fact that the school is 75% male - I guess that can be a double edged sword for the girls that go there!
We hope to learn a lot more about RHIT this Friday-Saturday!
@KevinFromOC. Just letting you know since the parent came in today5
But her daughter has a job offer and she’s a junior now
They get jobs there. Enjoy your visit.
“They get jobs there.” As do good students from most engineering programs. We drove through Rose Hulman on a family trip - nice looking campus, small, outside the town. It has great outcomes and would be a great choice for the right student but I think it seemed like fit would be very important there.
@sevmom. Of course. Just giving them something to get excited about. Totally agree. Fit is key there. Many people I know really like that school /campus. We visited it also. We decided on Michigan but know kids that got accepted to Michigan but decided on Rose Hulman.