We have only received two formal FA offers, both in writing and both from private schools. One public school has offered him a merit scholarship in the acceptance letter and there has been nothing from the other two public schools.
S was accepted at Colorado State into mechanical engineering 
Still waiting to hear from lots of schools.
@Hankster1361 that’s outstanding, I know it’s an impacted major there, what a wonderful accomplishment! We were impressed with the mechanical program on our engineering tour there.
@Hankster1361 That’s wonderful. ME programs can be very hard to get into. Is it a top choice?
Pick a school with a better band. CU’s band plays before the game and at half time (Ralphie also runs around the band, so there is some danger). Also plays all through the game. The best part of the game at Wisconsin is when the band plays after the game - and everyone stays to sing along. Stanford’s band has become part of the game on at least one occasion.
@curiositycat333 and @eandesmom --S hasn’t seen CSU yet so I don’t know if it will be a top choice for him. Based on what I’ve heard from you all, it seems like it is a great school and that he’d like it, but things sometimes hit him differently than they do me, so time will tell.
Hey everyone - add us to the “waiting list” (probably not that ha ha funny, but bad pun is intended). Ugh - seven more weeks to go before March 31 decisions come out - although at least CoyoteSon has that known end-date - it must be worse for those waiting on FA with no idea how much longer you have to wait.
@tacocat333 - Virginia does seem to be pretty far behind on 1st semester grades, but CoyoteSon got his too - he managed a B+ in Calculus (wohoo!) (and a B+ in English, Physics, computer principles, with the bright spot being an A+ in government - yay!).
So I’m relieved that the semester is over, though I am frustrated that the teachers in his tiny school couldn’t find a better way to help him achieve his potential for A-level work. In otherwords, his GPA has actually dropped every year - I know a 3.5 is a decent GPA, but it is a lot lower than the 3.8 GPA he had for 9-11th. So I’m really really frustrated that the school counselor is telling me I have nothing to worry about because he doesn’t think the senior GPA will make or break the decision. He was arguing with me that the senior grades wouldn’t affect CoyoteSon’s cumulative GPA that much. It was more like he was saying that the schools that care about a 3.5 wouldn’t have accepted CoyoteSon anyway with a 3.8.
Whew - sorry that turned into a rant – hope my peeps here don’t mind - I have been very careful to tell CoyoteSon how proud I am of his efforts, especially in Calculus and Comp. Sci – and I am proud of him! And in general, I care far more that he is now mastering the material in these classes than I care about the grades, although clearly I’ve become a raging helicopter parent grubbing for just one more A somewhere. Ugh – I want off the “waiting list” so that I can go back to my regularly scheduled glider parent mode and get off this helicopter! Have I mixed enough metaphors yet?
Congrats for more good news @Hankster1361 and @imgriffinsmom, and fingers crossed for all of us still waiting!
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@CoytoeMom–I hear you on the rant. While my S’s GPA has gone up each year, the early years were so far below his potential, that he couldn’t bring the GPA up once he finally woke up. I could go on and on about the school not supporting kids with high potential but who don’t start as bright shiny stars (but won’t–the story is too long).
@CoyoteMom I agree it’d be nice to just being glider mom and not on this ridiculous helicopter. It seems I’m daily reminding of some e-mail to send or a new piece of mail arrives with another piece of the puzzle. Hopefully we can land soon but I know it won’t be until at least mid-March.
@snoozn Son has several affordable well liked choices. I just know this school had been at the top for a while. We were pretty certain the aid wasn’t going to be there but getting the letter just puts the nail in the coffin. I think we’re down to 2 still in the competition. Not sure who I’m rooting for though - they both have their merits.
@smakl70 -
They may have their merits, but I guess what we are all waiting for is if they have their merit monies.
@techmom99 – love the merits vs. merit monies! At this point TacoSon has perhaps 5 realistically affordable options out of 9 acceptances, two of which I think will be great fits. He’s awaiting decisions from 3 more schools, two in-state publics and one private. I am guilty of not giving the private, Franklin & Marshall, a full vetting because I am just now realizing that they don’t give merit; all aid is need-based. Essentially, they are adopting the Ivy League mentality, which is kind of a gutsy move for a non-Ivy. Luckily for TacoSon and for us, it’s a school he isn’t at all invested in, which only makes sense since it’s a school that isn’t invested in anyone! Ha ha! See what I did there?
It sure would be nice to be able to look at his list and choose the biggest “name” and start the bragging. I should buy him a t-shirt with the COA on it instead of the mascot.
@CoyoteMom , glad to hear about the good semester report! One thing I wish I knew when starting this process was how widely GPA calculations differ. I heard about freshmen from other schools with 5.0 GPAs, and a friend’s son at a Texas private gets C and D grades in everything but somehow has a 3.2 GPA. I would look at TacoSon’s transcript of A and B grades and just scratch my head because TacoSon’s school doesn’t weight anything until junior year, so no grade bumps for Honors courses prior to that. He even took a college credit class the summer before 11th grade and received an A – and his school wouldn’t weight it because he was a month away from being a junior.
We are also down to two favorites among acceptances, but only have a full package from one of them. We are also still waiting for admission decisions from several schools, so everything can change in a minute depending on finances and new acceptances.
D and I are in a similar position to @“Queen’s Mom” although we have four packages back. But things can still change a lot depending on what comes in. Two of her most likely “game-changer” schools have decisions out hopefully by the end of February, but I’m not sure when the merit packages come in for those. At least we’ll have something going on between now and late March!
@Hankster1361, congrats on ME at CSU – their hardest major to get into! D and I really liked the admitted students day last weekend. If you visit try to go on a day when you can tour the engineering department. They’re doing some pretty impressive things.
@CoyoteMom, glad the grades turned out well, but I agree that your GC seems to be talking out of an area of his body that is not his mouth. Every AO will tell students that they want to see an upward trend! How can a GC not be aware of this? My oldest D had similar problems with her GC and a school that was not the best at college prep.
@smakl70, luckily I think D has already put some early favorites out of mind because they are not likely to come through with enough merit. But yes it is very nice to have well-liked affordable choices.
@tacocat333, glad to hear I’m not the only one who made the mistake of having her kid apply to a “need-based aid only” school by accident. Sarah Lawrence was oldest D’s second choice and we were thrilled when she got in. And then I felt really dumb.
=D>
Maybe you and @tacocat333 can start a t-shirt business with obscure CC references.
@snoozn -
A t-shirt with the CC logo on it and the tag line “Show me the (merit) money?”
Techson17 has 5 acceptances. I am hoping that we can make 1 of them work financially. Another is affordable but he still has to be accepted into his program although he is academically accepted. However, it’s a 8+ hour drive away and H is against it.
Hi all - I’m fairly new to CC and boy does my daughter fit firmly in the middle of this GPA range with a 3.2 UW. She is the youngest of our 3 children, with our oldest graduated an now teaching in NJ and our mid-kid a senior at a small Christian college in MS. Our college search process has been a bit different with DD being a recruited track athlete. It’s kind of embarrassing to see what being an athlete can do for a student when it comes to college. We have had coaches (even one Ivy coach) tell us that she would be admitted, despite the fact that she falls significantly below their standards.
DD wanted to make her decision by the early athletic signing period (Nov. 15) so she could be free of the stress to finish off her senior year. In a 2 month period she took 5 official visits - all which required her to fly to the schools (paid for by the school) and 2 unofficial visits which we drove her to. She received scholarship offers from all of varying amounts. It was important to not only find a good fit academically, but also a coach and team environment that she felt would be best for her. She had her mind made up, but we had one more visit which I felt was important to still take. She fell in love with the last school, the coaching staff and future teammates and when it was followed by a generous scholarship offer, she signed her National Letter of Intent with Murray State University in KY. It is just an added bonus that this was the closest school she looked at…only 5 hours from our house.
I feel for everyone going through the process still. How stressful! And, I am so thankful for the doors that were opened for our DD because she can jump really far. HA!!
Congrats to hear all the grades pulled up at the last minute stories. Sorry to hear everyone isn’t finding the perfect merit package. We are basically expecting to be full pay… so I’m just hoping that one of the CA schools which will be less expensive for us will say yes.
Just checked my son’t grade portal for this semester. (Only two weeks in) Everything looks great, his online health is now registered as a pass. EXCEPT the kid didn’t turn in two assignments to his Politics class and currently has a D. ARGGG… In order to graduate he only needs to things at this point… Pass English & Politics. And the conditions for all the schools he’s accepted in pass all his classes by at least a C. Shouldn’t be that hard…Just do the work, kid.
As for schools. (Assume above will be fixed.) We still have 4 to hear from.
Out of the 3 schools so far UofO seems like it’s winning. I took a good hard look at the OSU vs. UofO CS program last weekend and I’m now convinced UofO is the better fit. Unfortunately it’s the most expensive option.
My prediction is he will be rejected from UCD & Cal Poly. Will probably get into Boulder. And the school I’m most anxious about is UCSC (Santa Cruz). I’s a low-match school for him. If he gets into UCSC & but not Cal Poly. The decision will probably come down to UCSC or UofO. The UCSC is a lot cheaper than Oregon, but doesn’t have a marching band…
(OK edit because that was convoluted…)
End of the day… top choices are UofO (accepted) and UCSC (won’t hear till mid-March.)
Funny to hear the MB talk around here. I was in MB in high school, but never considered it for college. My guys dropped band early in high school to concentrate on other EC’s, and their school doesn’t have MB anyway except for marching in 2 parades each year (which S15 hated, and S17 didn’t hang with band long enough to do).
Congrats on the semester grades! S managed a 92-ish average unweighted (even with calculus) so all is well here.
Welcome @jumpermom ! Congrats to your D on Murray State!
@snoozn My H graduated from Clarkson. I’ve been to a couple of alumni weekends with him, and yeah, Potsdam is an acquired taste.
@CoyoteMom S grades have slowly dropped the past couple of years, too, at least kind of. His school only weights IB, AP, and dual enrollment classes, and he only had a couple of dual enrollment classes before last year. So, his unweighted 95 averages were really 95s. Then last year and this year, the grades are slipping to 92-93s, but with a 4-ish % boost because they’re all IB/AP, the weighted GPA is 96-97, very confusing… And I have no idea how colleges keep it all straight.
So, S got a big packet from the admissions office at Buffalo today (finally!). When I told him he had mail from Buffalo and put it on his computer, he literally asked about dinner and rolled back over to finish his after school nap. He hasn’t been excited about Buffalo since he got his MSU and Albany acceptances, but I at least thought he’d open the packet? 
And he finally opened the Buffalo packet–he’s accepted, but no word about merit, yet. He doesn’t really care except that he’s happy to be 3 for 3 on acceptances at the schools he applied to. He was actually a bit offended that a couple of classmates got their acceptances to UB before he did–I think I’ve mentioned that he has an ego. 
He was more excited this week when he got mail from Albany–they’re pushing the Honors program and encouraging him to apply. I guess it means more when the school encourages him to apply than when Mom does… 
@MSU88CHEng That’s terrific news, congrats to your son! <:-P
Congrats on Buffalo, @MSU88CHEng , and continued wooing from Albany!
In today’s edition of “Swag Decisions That Make You Go Hmmmm,” TacoSon just received TWO intriguing packages in the mail.
CWRU sent a tantalizingly thick padded envelope that contained a set of flashcard-type scenes of university life. I can’t see even the most enthusiastic prospect reading through a few dozen big cards.
Pitt sent a compact box that contained a lot of filler and … one luggage tag.
I’ll note that neither of these schools offered my kid sufficient merit to make them affordable choices, but appear to have unlimited budgets for mailing and packaging. #showmethemeritmoney