Thanks! I’m definitely adding Elon to the list of southern schools to tour. It reminds me in some ways of Northeastern ten or 15 yrs ago, before NEU became insanely competitive.
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Except Elon is in the middle of nowhere. The direct strip is just a block long - why my daughter took off the list after we visited. There is a town 10 mins away and Durham and Greensboro are both within an hour.
Gorgeous campus. Just make sure the student is ok being isolated vs an NEU.
I get your comparison on admissions/rank, etc but they are largely different environments.
I have children at Northeastern and Elon, both very happy. Both schools emphasize “experiential learning”, with co-ops (NU), internships (Elon), and many options for study abroad programs, etc. The most recent US News rankings had NU at #1 for co-ops/ internships and Elon at #9. Many clubs at both. NU is much bigger and right in the middle of a major city with expensive housing. Elon tuition and housing is less expensive. My sense is that much of the fun for NU students is in the city of Boston, whereas much of the fun for Elon takes place on campus with a whole host of constant activities. Both are good choices for active, hands-on students.
My Elon student likes the peacefulness of the campus, hammocking by the lake, outdoor adventure trips, and not hearing sirens. My NU student enjoys baseball games at Fenway, trying different restaurants and the Beanpot hockey tournament.
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Bumping this thread and requesting mods @Mwfan1921 @skieurope to change the thread name by adding class of 2025!
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I was thinking about this thread the other day. Lots of great success stories posted previously and looking forward to updates from the Class of 23 before we jump two years 
This is a group of kids that can really flourish in college and find their passions. D19 was firmly in this range in HS and is now getting ready to graduate this semester.
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I forgot this thread existed. I spent a lot of time reading on the 3.0-3.4 thread to give me hope about S23’s chances for acceptance and merit. They are a really supportive group.
S23 has a 3.8 UW 4.3 W but only a 1260 SAT causing some issues as it seems many with that GPA have higher SAT’s.
I will post when all of his decisions are in but he has received decent merit at most of his schools. Still waiting on a few.
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Lol! My mistake and thanks for catching that.
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Not sure how helpful since our process (luckily) ended earlier than we braced ourselves for…but in the spirit of sharing. DS has around a 3.7 U/W at a rigorous school in CA. I’m not sure how it translates to weighted since his school uses a different weighting system. He has 5 or 6 APs and a few honors classes as well. SAT at 1430. Well-rounded and strong (at least this parent thinks so :)) ECs in sports, leadership, volunteer work. strong essays. Also toured and showed genuine knowledge/interest in the schools he was most excited about. Initial rolling ED to Wake Forest did not work out. Applied to a bunch of schools EA and was fortunate to get his ED decision to Colgate a couple of weeks ago (so we immediately pulled all our EA applications). At that point he had only heard from IU (acceptance). He’s pretty excited.
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The next 7 days are going to be quite eventful for us. DS 23 is 3/3 right now, albeit all safeties, academic as well as financial. The two big ones for us are state flagships NCSU and UNC. Both are reaches for him. His GPA/test scores are alright but pretty lite on ECs and essays/supplementals are pretty meh. Son is not a strong writer and barely put in any effort on essays.
After the EA rounds, we have three more privates that might not be financial safeties for us. But, one step at a time. All the best to the kids and parents on this thread. Our kids are awesome too!
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You have 3 financial safeties. That does not = bad schools.
The rest is icing on the cake.
Congrats.
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I figured I’d update with my S23’s results since we’re done. He’s a 3.7 UW GPA, 1430 SAT, modest EC’s (travel soccer, church volunteering, TSA competitions - but no major awards). No hooks other than UVA legacy, full pay. His essays were pretty good (I’m obviously biased, but I liked them). Not sure how good his recommendation letters were… we met with his guidance counselor for the first time to go over things for my S25. She basically said everyone knew and loved my S23, but that if she ever needed to get him to complete something she had to get my S25 to contact him (lol).
He applied to 8 schools early - Virginia Tech (ED), ASU, Michigan State, Colorado School of Mines, Worcester Polytechnic, Purdue, VCU, UVA.
ASU - accepted with $10k/year merit
MSU - accepted with $16,500/year merit
Colorado School of Mines - accepted with $6k/year merit
VCU - accepted with $6k per year merit
Virginia Tech - accepted - ED, so he’s done
Unknown (withdrew) - WPI, Purdue and UVA
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Good luck to your DS!
Thank you. If you have some insider intel from UNC then please feel free to DM me. Lol. Ok, that’s a joke. We can wait until EA comes out.
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thanks for posting outcomes. What was his intended area of study/major?
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He applied to engineering programs (mostly general or mechanical, but to VCU as biomedical and ASU as aerospace). However, he made a mistake on his ED school, VT, and applied to undeclared science instead of general engineering. It’s unfortunate, but he isn’t too shook up about it… he’s still trying to figure out what he wants to do anyway.
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Interesting combo of engineering. How did that happen - aero and biomedical ?
he’s all over the place on what he wants to study… i told him that if he wasn’t sure he should go with mechanical to start, but he just liked the idea of applying to a bunch of different programs. He even thought it would be cool to do the asteroid mining minor at Colorado School of Mines. Basically he’s at the point where he knows he wants to do something science oriented, and preferably on the making things end vs. theoretical. He loves nanotechnology (and Virginia Tech has a nanotechnology degree), but he also likes materials applications… basically he likes making things to solve a particular problem
Honestly, he’s a good example of a kid who would probably benefit from a gap year and maybe even doing community college for a couple of years to figure out what he wants to do, instead of figuring it out as we’re paying full tuition.
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Nah - he’ll be ok.
He’ll find his way.
All these kids that know what they want to do at 18 - but do they really?
And after they’ve cured cancer, which half the applicants have seem to have done in HS, what else is next? 
Your kid will love Tech - I mean, how could you not, it’s gorgeous and if the reviews are right, the food will be yummy unlike most who complain!!!
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My kid was completely in love with biology and ecology… until he took physics! I think it’s ok for them to have a general area of interest and figure it out along the way. He’s applied to college as a physics major, with the understanding that he may want to double major and pursue PhD studies in biophysics or some such thing.
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Thanks, I largely agree. He’s actually quite self aware that he’s only 17 and is likely to change his mind a half dozen times over the next 4 years. He was also pretty honest essays that asked for his specific goals and such, and basically said he was still discovering who he was and planned to use college to help him figure it out… didn’t seem to hurt his admissions, so I think some AO’s liked the honesty.
He visited Tech over the summer and the food was the first thing he told me about when he got home… lol.
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