I’ve been following this thread from the beginning, nodding constantly. SoCal fam here. DS liked ucsb, cal poly slo, and especially U Wash and U of Oregon. We’ve visited all of them as well as Lewis and Clark (like), U of Puget Sound( love!) Willamette (meh), Seattle U (no like), and Oregon State. I’ve been pushing the science program at Arizona state- Fulton school as well. Bc we’d be OOS he knows UW and probably UO are too expensive, though I think he’s still holding on to Duck Dreams. He’s a four-year varsity athlete and is spending his summer volunteering at a top-rated school’s chemistry lab so I’m hoping those ECs help. He also goes to a very rigorous school and will have 10 APs before he graduates. Oh, we’ll be doing another road trip to look at Davis- (it’s on the way)and all the Oregon/wash schools again. I’m making him visit U of Portland, too, which I think he’ll end up loving as well.
@cidmom welcome!!!
U of Portland is likely to be a better $$ deal than U of O or UW. UW is crazy competitive as well. U of O has some nice programs but it’s off our list for cost reasons. I think my S would love Lewis and Clark but I can’t see any way to make that affordable and it’s a big reach stat wise so I figure not visiting it is better. I would like my S to visit U of Portland and may force a drive by on our way to OSU in the fall.
Lewis & Clark was the school my S17 didn’t like. He didn’t like that the tour focused on the dorms & social activities on the tour and barely scratched the surface about the academic programs. He felt it wasn’t in the real world.
I just had another look at the cost of U of O, I had thought it was closer to the full cost of an instate UC cost. Umm… I guess I was wrong. I’m off by a bit more than $10K. Will still consider it for S17 but it’s a bit higher than I was hoping to spend. D12’s private LAC was less expensive.
That’s interesting. One of S17’s close friends is there as a studio art major and absolutely loves it. She did very very well on the merit side of things but had some pretty impressive stats and solid EC’s. But I do get the feel it has the artsy vibe (she’s a theater/music kid too) and less stem which I’d expect at many of the LAC’s.
U of O is brutal $$, there are definitely other OOS options that are less and I can’t say I see it as being worth the price difference academically. It’s a solid school, I just can’t justify that price hike over other options.
My BIL went to UofO and S17 really liked the campus better than OS. But I think OS is a better fit and we loved Corvallis. Both schools are really a better fit than even UCSC because he is interested in continuing in Marching Band. And OS has a Engineering dept my husband can respect.
As to touring UCSC, I just got an invite to a family celebration we won’t be able to miss in October in SF Area. May just moved the UCSC tour to that weekend rather than the end of this month. My dad’s having surgery today that wasn’t expected when we planing the tour and it won’t be as convent for my parents to take him anymore.
Although I’m involved in a start-up & will have very little time for any of this. It’s been struggling to go anywhere & I just go the news we signed a contract which will keep me very busy this fall. Now if only I was getting paid to do all this work.
Just realized my paragraph about about the startup is nonsense. I’m been involved in a startup since last fall. It’s been rocky and I was feeling discouraged. But I got the news just now that the CEO is going to sign a big contract that means I will be very busy for the next 4 months. CEO still has no $ to pay me yet, I’m vested and will earn money if we can get this to go big. 
But it’s going to keep me really busy during the next few months & I’m going to have little time to baby S17 though this college business.
If the business goes big I won’t have to worry about the costs… But I can’t count my chickens.
Not nonsense, although it would be nice to get paid for the college search stuff too!
I can’t even look at U of O. OSU as it is, is still OOS and the merit offered is not much, not enough. I need to stop looking as I keep getting very cranky at the lack of full program offerings at any one of the schools on our list. OSU does have a nice program BUT it would mean 2 years in corvallis and 2 in bend which is really not ideal. But they do have an alternative energy specialization within Environmental Sciences that would work nicely. But the WWU program may be similar enough and costs a lot less. UGH. I just want one school that has all the programs that is affordable and it flat out does not exist.
I don’t know if S will continue in marching band or not. He might. He absolutely wants to continue in jazz and ideally with theater tech.
If the program doesn’t exist, maybe there is a reason. Maybe your son is trying to get such a specialized program that it is not marketable to enough students to make it worth offering at some schools. You don’t want to be so specialized that you can’t get a job when you graduate.
Schools offer aerospace engineering, but many more schools offer mechanical engineering with aerospace classes, and their students do just fine getting jobs in the aerospace industry. I’d not think it a smart move for a student to pay a lot more for aerospace when a good mechanical program is available. If there are certain course you just can’t live without, there are programs where a student can do a semester or even a year at another school and usually pay the tuition to their home school. Many schools allow independent study, or an internship with credit at a lab or with a sponsor of very specific focus.
No school has everything. You have to decide what factors are the most important to you (and for us financial was way up there) and pick the school that ticks the most boxes.
The programs exist, however S is interested in more than one program and ideally one school would offer them all. That is what doesn’t exist. We will have to compromise and lose flexibility,
And, for the record (as my statement wasn’t clear) they do exist at Stanford, Berkeley and several others in that vein, as well as other lovely options. Just not anywhere that meets his stats and wallet or places he’s be willing to attend and I want him at. Especially the wallet part 
that’s the frustration.
Grades just came in. C in math.
@Queen’s Mom, C in English here. He’s an excellent writer, but sometimes does things his own way.
@“Queen’s Mom” and @mstomper I am so sorry. We have been there and frankly probably should have been in Spanish but she clearly had a soft spot and really worked with my S to get it where it ended.
@Queen’s Mom and @mstomper I feel for you. C in Spanish here. And all last year DS got A’s in even thing but US History and got C’s in that. Sigh…
C in math for two years here. And it could have been worse. D does well in English/social studies APs but math is what it is. Sometimes you have to rearrange your expectations. At this point I’m happy with a C on a math test.
She was just so upset. Her average (unweighted) still stands at just above a 3.3. I think she’ll be fine.
@bindlegrayhound S17 is just the opposite. Math is easy for him. Writing Essay’s is like pulling teeth and this pulls down his English & Social Studies grades.
@“Queen’s Mom” Sorry to hear she was so upset. S17 was like that after doing poorly freshman year. This would be disastrous to some of the parents/students on CC & why it can be hard to follow some of the other boards. It kind of depends on what schools she has set her heart on. A C or two won’t illuminate you from most schools. It’s D’s you really have to worry about.
Those of you who visited or know something about colorado schools. ( @eandesmom @snoozn ) Any idea how they calculate GPA. I’ve been reading the engineering admissions requirements and there is a 3.3 minimum GPA. (or top 30% of the class but DS’s school doesn’t rank.) Any clue if that UW or W. If it’s W does that count freshman honors classes. Is it for all classes, do classes like PE, heath count?
There are so many different ways to count GPA. , and I’m used to the UC GPA which restricts which classes are H. The freshman classes S17 got C+ in second semester freshman year are all H classes and our GPA calculation doesn’t count them, I wonder if that might help. I’m probably grasping at straws. I can’t find anything on their web-site. I tried looked at the Common App to see if it had a standard way of calculating GPA but couldn’t find anything.
If doesn’t even meet the minimum for Engineering at CSU than it’s probably not worth adding to his list.
@curiositycat333 I believe it is UW. I am not sure though if they look at the full transcript/ course load or only that which fits in their 18 recommended units. It does look like they default to however the HS defines rigor. Whatever that means! I do know mechanical is impacted at CSU so if it is of interest EA is the way to go for sure. The others were not, or at least it wasn’t mentioned on our tour.
@snoozn may know more on the GPA side as they are in state.
Are any of you planning on having kids apply for any schools this summer or wait till after fall test scores are in? Tempting to do a few that are non essay and non common app so they are done, but also hoping for better test scores in the fall.
And then of course I worry test scores won’t be available in time for EA schools anyway so wonder if we do common app/EA as is and then just send updated test scores if actually better.
What is everyone thinking strategy wise?
S did comment today he will be done with all apps by 12/1. I said 11/1 but it’s progress on the timeline. MIL is here for the holiday and grilling him about what his favorite is. Pretty proud that he’s holding his ground and being non committal and honest that he wants and needs to learn a lot more about the east coast and mid Atlantic options before he can have an opinion.
Target for 1st draft of the essay is 7/14, hopefully he will stick to it.
S17 is at camp till August so nothing will be started until at least August and propably not then either. S has AP summer homework, and a summer school health class to finish before school starts. He’s also supposed to start on his essays at that time but we will see if that happens.
UC/Cal State both have to be submitted by end of Nov. I’d like it if OSU was done before the Nov 1st EA deadline but we will see… I’m already thinking we won’t go away over Thanksgiving & my guess it’s that’s when most of the application work will get done. I’m sure I’d like it to get done earlier but with marching band season starting 2nd week of August. And school…
Plus I’m not doing any of it for him. And knowing S17 he won’t even want me watching over his shoulder. I’m going to be anxious. Heck I’m counting down the days till AP scores come back right now.