<p>We have good friends who are Ole Miss alums. They think the world of higher education begins and ends on Oxford. They refer to Ole Miss as the Ivy of the SEC. It is truly a beautiful campus. Oxford is a neat college town. The HC has a good reputation. Football is on the rise. It has many advantages of a large public mixed with advantages of a small private. Having said all that, it does not have a great reputation outside of the south. Which is not a problem, just an observation.</p>
<p>riprorin: The fact that Mississippi State is in the middle of nowhere did not seem to bother my son. Maybe it’s because we lived in the middle of nowhere at the time – as in, no traffic lights in our county, no grocery stores, no fast food places. He did find the campus to be very friendly. The dorms were nice. The food was excellent – he is a fan of banana pudding and the MSU ice cream. Loved the bakery, too. The Strategic Finance Lab was very cool – got a tour of it and all the things students could do in there. </p>
<p>As for that planned trip to Ole Miss, my husband and son are looking forward to eating lots of BBQ.</p>
<p>Momreads, the location didn’t really bother us either.</p>
<p>In the end, where you choose to go to schools is a highly personal decision. Ole Miss is a fine university, but I really liked State and it’s better in my son’s area of study.</p>
<p>As I mentioned, when we were visiting schools I made a point of having lunch in the cafeteria and studying the interaction among the students. That tells you a lot.</p>
<p>Thank you for all your thoughtful answers! We are driving to Oxford Sunday and touring Monday.</p>
<p>All the best on your trip. Let us know how it works out.</p>
<p>
I thought that honor went to Vanderbilt. </p>
<p>The only other SEC school I visited was Mississippi State and I felt that it was too rural for my tastes and was quite far from an airport with a large amount of flights. It’s also worth noting that the local TJ Maxx had more Alabama and Auburn merchandise than it did Ole Miss and Mississippi State merchandise. It does appear that Mississippi State finally got a Starbucks. Previously, the nearest Starbucks was in Tuscaloosa.</p>
<p>Have a great visit to Mississippi.</p>
<p>SEA_tide: The younger son did not notice the Starbucks, but that’s no surprise. He does not drink coffee or tea. Now, if they did not have a Chick-Fil-A, we’d have issues.</p>
<p>There’s a regional airport in Columbus, which is close to State. I don’t know how many flights they have, but when I checked schedules my son could have gotten home okay.</p>
<p>I don’t know how many students venture of campus, but a rural setting wouldn’t be a problem for me. When I was a student I rarely left campus.</p>
<p>MikeWozowski
Senior Member:</p>
<p>“she does not make 3.5 with weighted grades? bummer!”</p>
<p>Is it weighted grades for scholarships? My S does not have a 3.5, but has a ton of AP classes, and WEIGHTED grades are no problem…</p>
<p>Do you know how I could check to confirm that AU looks at weighted grades for scholarships?</p>
<p>(He is also NMSF but since no one seems to know the magic gpa for finalist standing, I didn’t want to focus on UA too much until we knew how that would turn out.)</p>
<p>Thank you for any replies!</p>
<p>The University of Alabama’s scholarship people use the GPA that is on the student’s transcript for grades 9-11. </p>
<p>Does your S have a 3.5 GPA either weighted or unweighted? </p>
<p>If the unweighted GPA isn’t high enough you could ask the high school guidance counselor to put a weighted GPA on the transcript to send to Bama. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Do you know how I could check to confirm that UA looks at weighted grades for scholarships?</p>
<p>Alabama takes the weighted GPA that is written on the transcript. If your child’s transcript doesn’t have the weighted GPA written on it, then you can ask your GC to write it on it and Bama will accept that.</p>
<p>He is also NMSF but since no one seems to know the magic gpa for finalist standing, I didn’t want to focus on UA too much until we knew how that would turn out.)</p>
<p>While there isn’t a magic GPA, does your son have C’s on his transcript for SEMESTER or YEAR END grades???</p>
<p>Thank you Cuttlefish123! His gpa is considerably higher, weighted. He will have taken 18 AP courses by the time he graduates.</p>
<p>Thank you, as well, mom2collegekids! I will ask his counselor to add a weighted gpa. I had never heard of doing that, but I believe they do put in the UC weighted GPA when they send to UC schools (we are in California.)</p>
<p>Yes, he does have some Cs which is why I am not counting on finalist, even though his SAT was nearly 2300. On the other hand, maybe they take APs into account as well… </p>
<p>I saw on another board someone said they made NMF with a 3.1, which I know is lower than what you have discussed here (I have read those threads.) However, I don’t know what circumstances were involved in that case, obviously.</p>
<p>But if his counselor adding a weighted gpa will do the trick, he should at least make the semi finalist scholarship.</p>
<p>Wow! 18 AP courses!! That’s more AP’s than many HS offer. It’s also the most I’ve heard of since joining CC.</p>
<p>There are people on CC who have won their state prizes for taking the most APs. Some have taken 23-25 to win it.</p>
<p>Can a student at Alabama apply for scholarships / honors colleges after enrolling. So could the student from earlier in the thread attend on their own dime … then after a strong senior year in HS and frosh year at Alabama apply for scholarships / honor college starting their sophomore year? Or is they only available to incoming frosh?</p>
<p>My guy who started at UVM was allowed to apply for the honor’s college for his sophomore year … I do not know if they would have adjusted his merit scholarship upward along with his acceptance into the honor’s college (he transferred before we got that far).</p>
<p>The automatic scholarship are only available to first-time freshman.</p>
<p>BigDaddy88</p>
<p>His magnet has an unusual number of APs, but after I wrote 18, it didn’t look right, I’ll have to check that. He said that this summer while we were calculating gpa etc, but maybe he meant 18 semesters (9 courses?). But that doesn’t sound right either (low). Now I’m curious and I will have to check his transcript. I do remember clearly that the UC system, which caps at 8 semester grades (four year long courses) the extra points you get in weighting for APs or certified honors made me regret the number of APs he took.</p>
<p>He’s taking five this year alone, though, so 9 can’t be right, either.</p>
<p>(Re APs) I looked at his transcript. He had 9 at the end of the year last year so he might have meant 18 semester grades then, but is taking five more this year (total 14 in high school) (probably no one cares about the precise number but me, but I couldn’t make it add up, so I checked.)</p>
<p>In any event, if he can count weighted grades 3.5 shouldn’t be an issue.</p>
<p>Still impressive. I haven’t checked, but my kids go to a pretty competitive Catholic HS and my guess would be that they offer around a dozen AP’s. Their school also has pretty strict requirements to be eligible to take the an AP class. Generally, a student has to have an A (93+) in the honors class that feeds the AP. IOW, a student has to have an A in honors precalc to take AP Calc. Since only about 1/8th of the junior class takes honors precalc and less than half have a grade above a 93, very few qualify to take AP Calc.</p>