<p>Not sure - I just know Ball State was on the MSEP list. We never considered the school seriously enough to dig further than that. A friend of mine has a kid going there in a few weeks though. If you have any really specific questions, I might be able to get an answer from him.</p>
<p>We are in a position, fortunately/unfortunately, where our income is way too high to warrant any sort of aid other than merit, but at the same time, our kids are B students. Bad combo for getting money from colleges. </p>
<p>Ball State is still an MSEP school, they just don’t allow you to use that AND a merit award, like many of the other MSEP schools do. MSEP was “supposed” to be a way to help afford an out of state school w/out worrying about merit or other things. It really is too bad…my D probably would have qualified her for at least one of their merit scholarships and if that had stacked with MSEP, they would have certainly been seriously affordable for us. Now I’m not so sure… </p>
<p>@Hoosier96, I just called the BGSU admissions office, and they said their “changes” to the scholarship levels are up to date on the website. The change they made already happened several months or maybe even a year ago. Also, they said that once the student hits a higher award threshold and submits the transcript and/or ACT score to the school (after junior year is complete), the award will never decrease. It can only go up. Which is pretty awesome. She said the only things that could jeopardize the admission status are 1) not graduating, or 2) fraud. So the kid could really get senioritis and skate by if they wanted to, once they’ve been accepted and hit what you think is their max award level. </p>
<p>kmanshouse…my oldest goes to Ball State. We are in the same position as you…income to high for anything but merit, and both our kids are 3.0 student. Full tuition for us. If anyone has any questions about BSU, maybe I can answer. Won’t have any answers about scholarships/merit questions, though. Sorry. </p>
<p>What would you do about applying for a reach school? My son would really like to go to IU-Bloomington, but I highly doubt that will happen (it’s one of the flagships). He received 2 D’s spring semester Junior year…one in Chemistry and one in Algebra. He doesn’t have to take any more of science and math to graduate, buth he’s elected to take pre-calc. He’s determined to not get behind, and of course I have high hopes for him. His SAT’s are dismal, but they are what they are. Do you think it’s even worthwhile for him to wait until after his grades are out first semester to apply to IU…or do you think it’s really pretty hopeless even if he gets a decent grade in Pre-calc? </p>
<p>One part of the essay is to discuss challenges in your academics and how you’ve overcome them. He plans on addressing the bad grades last semester, but would it have more impact if he could at least SHOW them how he overcame that with a decent grade in Pre-Calc? OR…is it too risky because he might not do any better? What would you do? He’ll go ahead and apply to the other schools.</p>
<p>@conmama do you have access to parchment or naivance? This would let you know if this is just a reach (high,low)?</p>
<p>IU is a personal statement so If he can write about who is and why IU and what he wants to pursue this may help him.</p>
<p>The average ACT is 27 equals 1210 cr/m.
Also his counselor should write comments on how he has really shown growth and how he challenges himself.</p>
<p>We have been counseled that the sooner the better at IU so I would try for earlier than later the worst that can happen is that he is deferred pending first semester grades?</p>
<p>Thanks Hoosier96. We’ll go ahead and apply earlier. Actually my older son was waitlisted from IU, but didn’t get in. I don’t hink many that are waitlisted do. IU is really a crapshoot at this point, but I’m not telling him that in exactly those words because I want him to write a well thought out essay (always telling him you never know, but be prepared for denial). I do have access to parchment and Naviance. We’re going to start doing the online apps this weekend to BSU, IUPUI and Indiana State that don’t require an essay. Another quick question on applying…do we go on to collegeboard and request (and pay I presume) they sent their SAT scores to the Universities AFTER we apply online to them?</p>
<p>You can send scores before or after doing the application. We have sent D act scores to her schools. She is finished with all on line apps. Currently finishing up on her common app. But we can’t send transcripts until after 25 of August this is Common app workshop.</p>
<p>We heard from several of the schools we visited (all publics) that they will accept ACT/SAT scores that are on a student’s transcript. So we are going to send in apps and transcripts and wait a bit to see if the scores listed are registered during the process or if the school still requires them to be sent. Most of these schools are rolling admissions…don’t know if that makes a difference or not. </p>
<p>D senior year is in full swing. She has 3 yeses so far. Her “special” which is a reach we have not heard from. But we do know that she has some options!!!</p>
<p>@Hoosier96 …congrats! That must take some pressure off of her. I have the 3 mentioned above done online, waiting to turn into the high school tomorrow for processing. DS is now saying he would seriously consider IUPUI if he was accepted so he could transfer into IU. I’ve been telling him that for awhile, but I think that may be his girlfriends plan so now he’s considering it (sigh, rolling eyes). I honestly can’t wait until this is all over with.</p>
<p>Congrats @hoosier96! With one son’s college choice accepted, we now focus on the other. He’s working on his UWSP essays - application can be submitted Sept 1. He gets in there, we are done. If he doesn’t, we move on to a complicated Plan B/C/D/E for him. I’d rather wait on applying to those until we hear back from UWSP.</p>
<p>My son just started at IUPUI and LOVES the new tower residence hall. He is in the Kelley Honors college and so far is very impressed. I must admit as an IU Bloomington, I am impressed too. Food for thought.</p>
<p>IUPUI is really make a push to become its own brand. The downtown in Indy is booming with young adults and so are the businesses. How can you not beat, a great place to hang for 4 years?
The Dipolma says it all: graduate of the School of Kelly!!!</p>
<p>DS got his first acceptance from his safety school…I had to almost laugh at his underwhelming response. His GPA is more than the 75th percentile, his SAT Math and reaading at 50% and his writing above 75%. Sigh. He hasn’t even asked to do a campus visit there. Just turned in all the stuff to his guidance counselor this week, so will be interested to see what BSU and IUPUI have to say in the next few weeks. </p>
<p>@conmama he will appreciate all the planning you did when he has OPTIONS this April.
D came down last night from her room and said “maybe I should stay in state, so if I need help, my parents will be close.” Oy…they will go through all the emotions and it will be a ride to be enjoy watching them make their first "grown-up " decision.
I did say to her that she could always live at “home” and commute </p>
<p>@Hoosier96, like I said before IU is his dream school, but not a reality. He is still going to apply, and will writing his essay over the next month or so. I think he will feel some relief if he gets accepted to BSU or IUPUI and then the pressure will be off. I"m crossing my fingers, but you just never know. Those SAT scores are going to be hard to ignore and we had a talk about that last weekend.</p>
<p>conmama. It was against my normal nature to do this. But last year when my son was going through the same thing he didn’t indicate any interest in college visits. He was not going to admit that he had no clue what to do and was very overwhelmed. His high school friends were all going to different schools.</p>
<p>I picked up my computer and began registering for visits and dragged his butt with me. We went to Butler, IU, IUPUI, IPFW (local) and Ball State. He applied and got in all of them and got pretty good scholarships across the board. I then put together a spreadsheet and made him rank a set of criteria from 1-5. With all that IUPUI had to offer, scholarships,direct admit to Kelley Honors, and the beautiful freshman dorms, it rose to the top. IUB was aloof, impersonal and cold, I was surprised as I went to school there. His favorite “pure” campus was Ball State…another surprise.</p>
<p>So, he is in his first 2 weeks of school at IUPUI and he already has a core set of about 8-10 kids ( Kelley Direct admits) . None of them are kegger type guys. He has already had to wear his suit to 2 Kelley functions, and been invited to the Kelley fraternity mixers. Last night they all went to a soccer game and have tried some of the ethnic food restaurants in Indy.</p>
<p>Bottom line. You cant wait for your kid to make the first move. They will find their place, but maybe the parent needs to to help them look.</p>
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