I am going to look into it more. The main thing that I felt like would be a barrier was asking a recommender to send a letter somewhere in addition to the common app. S24 hates asking the recommender he has for anything so I felt like that was going to be a barrier.
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My kids applied to several PASSHE schools (5 schools total). None of them required (or even asked for) teacher recommendations.
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Thank you for the info!
Lots of legit schools do not use the The Common Application.
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To @ucbalumnus point, here are some well know schools not on the Common App
- Berea College
- Brigham Young University—Provo
- Colorado School of Mines
- Georgetown University
- James Madison University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Rutgers University
- Texas A&M University–College Station
- United States Air Force Academy
- United States Military Academy
- United States Naval Academy
- University of California (all 9 campuses)
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- University of New Mexico
- University of Texas–Austin
- University of Washington
- Virginia Military Institute
- Washington and Jefferson College
- Yeshiva University
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I believe UT and A&M now are on common for Fall - which means they’ll have a lot more applicants and thus likely lower acceptance rates.
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University of Washington now allows the Common App, too - recent change
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Rutgers as well.
Is that list above from prepscholar? I’ve found them to be one of the least reliable sources on the web (for a lot of things). Their information is often out of date, and sometimes outright inaccurate.
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Add CO Mines as another that’s now on Common App
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And UIUC is on the common app, this is the 2nd year.
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UIUC is on the common app now (whoops sorry already posted)
I don’t think I’ve seen Clarkson University mentioned? Smaller college, strong STEM emphasis but not only engineering/tech. They have some large merit awards.
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I wanted to update now that applications are getting finalized (and some results have come in). A few changes—S24 has become even more certain he is interested in engineering (specifically Industrial) and less interested in other fields (although he does still like them). My husband got a significant promotion & raise starting in the new year, which means we have more money for tuition but also that schools that recalculate financial need every year might jump in price junior year.
Applications (turned in unless noted)
Likely
Kansas State University (accepted to IE)
Mississippi State (accepted to IE, no Merit letter but in portal looks like Merit aid ~$28,000, making total cost ~$8000/year)
Slippery Rock
SUNY Oswego (doesn’t have industrial engineering but has other features he likes)
Match-ish
SUNY Binghamton University
UMass Amherst (finishing today)
SUNY University at Buffalo
Rochester Institute of Technology
University of Rhode Island
Reach
Case Western Reserve University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Northeastern University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (App not finished)
Lehigh University (App not finished)
Tufts University (App not finished)
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Thanks so much for the update! I was wondering how things were going, and poof, your message!
Congrats on the admissions in-hand (including $8k cost at Mississippi State!).
Keeping my fingers crossed for your family!
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That’s AWESOME but don’t spend it all at once. You have a future too - and you have some great schools - meaning the first two - on your likely list already. PS - need a new category - safety - they’re no longer likely 
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Seems like KSU and MSU should be moved to “safety” if they are affordable.
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That makes sense. I was using his original classifications. 
Safety
Kansas State University (accepted to IE)
Mississippi State (accepted to IE, no Merit letter but in portal looks like Merit aid ~$28,000, making total cost ~$8000/year)
Slippery Rock (just accepted to IE this afternoon!)
Likely
SUNY Oswego (doesn’t have industrial engineering but has other features he likes)
Match-ish
SUNY Binghamton
UMass Amherst
SUNY University at Buffalo
Rochester Institute of Technology
University of Rhode Island
Reach
Case Western Reserve University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Northeastern University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (App not finished, aiming for EA 12/1)
Lehigh (App not finished, due Jan for RD)
Tufts University (App not finished, due Jan for RD)
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Congratulations on 3 solid acceptances! Now, he (and you) can sit back and relax - everything else will be even better but he will have choices for sure. 
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Case and Tufts don’t have IE majors. Is he planning to major in Mechanical Engineering if he chooses one of those two?
Systems engineering at CWRU and human factors engineering at Tufts. He is actually very excited about both of those majors, also!
(He’s more interested in the business-y and human factors-focused industrial engineering programs than the ones that are more like mechanical engineering. But, believe it or not, this is a huge narrowing of his focus from where he was a year ago.)
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