<p>I personally like the “links to financial information” pin.</p>
<p>The links for scholarships could be put in a similarly labeled pin…“links to scholarships and lower cost colleges”.</p>
<p>And I still would advocate for getting rid of the extra “hot topics” at the top of each forum. If they are really “hot” they can be marked with the flames, and will come up at or near the top of the discussions.</p>
<p>Put all those Gates, etc threads that take up so much space together. Get rid of the outdated flaming threads. It’s really annoying to see stuff months old at the tops of the pages. And how do I get rid of that random smiley that somehow got in the middle of this post???</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids </p>
<p>Right click an image and select “Copy Image URL”. (img) link (/img) (replace “( )” with "[ ])</p>
<p>Thanks for the continued input on this. Those scholarship sub-forums do take up a lot of space and could probably be collapsed into a containing forum as @calmom mentioned…similar to how Specialty Admissions Topics is set up under College Admissions. You can still see the sub-forums within it, but they take up a lot less space. </p>
<p>@cap - Yes, I think collapsing those subforums into a container would do the most to unclutter the FA forum. The featured threads actually have recent activity, but in many forums they are in need of updating. Not sure what random smiley you are talking about.</p>
<p>Somehow of the emoticons (smiley in right top corner of this reply box) was showing up, but I guess it didn’t show when posted. Another weird CC thing.</p>
<p>That grey smiley at the top right corner of the reply box is simply a link to the full menu of emoticons available. Try clicking it and you’ll see what I mean. The smiley itself gets in the way while typing, though.</p>
<p>Okay, and taking a cue from @thumper1 I have created another sticky thread called “Links to Popular Threads on Scholarships and Lower-Cost Colleges” which contains the other three formerly-stickied threads on this topic. We are also looking into getting those scholarship sub-forums at the very top into an “Outside Scholarships” forum to cut down on the real estate needed. Thanks again for the input!</p>
<p>Looking good. I refer people to the automatic merit and competitive merit topics a lot. This one is in the NMS subforum but might be included in your pinned topic: <a href=“NMF Scholarships: An Updated Compilation - National Merit Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-an-updated-compilation.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“Public LACs Ranked by OOS Tuition - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1606422-public-lacs-ranked-by-oos-tuition.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“Automatic Out-of-State Tuition Waivers - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1505285-automatic-out-of-state-tuition-waivers.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“Research Universities with Lowest OOS Tuition - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1473219-research-universities-with-lowest-oos-tuition-p1.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“Tuition-Free Colleges - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1359504-tuition-free-colleges.html</a></p>
<p>I like Bob’s threads, but in my opinion only the thread with the 2014 information should be added to the list.</p>
<p>On the last thread suggested, for example…it was started in 2012, and the only more recent pits indicated a school that was no longer on the list.</p>
<p>In my opinion, if we are going to pin threads, they should have information that is current, and then it needs to be updated. </p>
<p>ETA…it is also my opinion that threads with needed info should be left unlocked so that they can be updated with current information.</p>
<p>By all means, keep any and all threads/links pertaining to colleges offering good merit and full tuition etc pinned and prominent and easy to use. They are my main reason for reading CC</p>
<p>Do you have to lock a thread to pin it? It would be nice if they could be updated. I rarely, if ever, look at the “featured” threads. I do like the “automatic merit” thread, but agree that the 5 or 6 outside scholarships (Gates, etc.) could be combined.</p>
<p>They need not be locked to be included in the list. In fact, the only thread contained in the two new stickies that is currently locked now was done so originally at the author’s request as there was a link included for updated information.</p>
<p>As for the scholarships, those were placed within an “Outside Scholarships” container forum to cut down on the space required to display them. The discussions themselves are still separated into their own sub-forums (as they have been). Thanks!</p>
<p>
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<p>3 of the 4 threads I linked were updated in 2014. I have since updated the other one to current information.</p>
<p>Thank you Bob. That info is very important, I think. I know it’s a PITA to keep up with it all, but it is appreciated by many. I know I often refer folks to your threads.</p>
<p>Sounds great. I’ll go ahead and add those to the proper sticky. Thanks!</p>
<p>It looks terrific!!</p>