@STEM2017 —wooooohooooo!! Did that put a smile on his face??
@carachel2 Yes. Big smile on his face. Bigger smile on my face! 
The tragedy st tOSU is heart breaking. I was getting ready to shut off my computer and not read any more posts today when I came across @showmetheMAC’s post of the thread of the student who came to cc years ago and received such wonderful advice and support. That helped lift my spirits.
@klinska @STEM2017 Congratulations on the acceptances/ merit awards! That’s such wonderful news!!
@STEM2017 Congrats!!! Your S has wonderful options!
@klinska Congrats on the acceptance! @STEM2017 It’s great to get a scholarship out of left field…nice to know your DS is loved!
@Ynotgo – I shamefully urged my DD to apply to UNC-CH (OOS) b/c I knew my mom would be proud if she was admitted. My mom graduated from East Carolina and had dreams of transferring to UNC-CH until she met my father. Anyway, she put an app in EA without any real interest in applying. ITMT, she was admitted to her financial safety and is loving it so I’m leaving all of the remaining apps to her discretion. So, she decided to drop her BU app with the 12/1 scholarship deadline to enjoy Thanksgiving. I may be giving my 17y/o, essay-fatigued, senioritis-plagued DD entirely too much power in this process but I’m tired…
Re USC – @Ynotgo – If he’s not into USC then I can’t see a strong reason to push it. We did explore quite a few of the programs & options and while my DS is not nearly as advanced as yours is in coursework (just taking BC Calc & Physics C now bc that’s our school’s sequence - mandatory NY Regents courses fill up early years), but I can see him wanting to taking some higher level courses along the way, USC has a Progressive Degree Program – allows students to take graduate courses while undergrads – here is an explanation for Viterbi: https://www.cs.usc.edu/academics/undergrad/progressive-degree-program.
The app is due Thursday if we want to be considered for merit aid and it has been a LOT of work. He will submit it though - hopefully by tomorrow! We visited the campus and know a couple of students there who like it and the many different opportunities do seem interesting to him. far away as we are in NY but some family in the area at least.
@Testingearly – my son has at least 4-5 major apps to finish - has draft supps for most but 2 heavy ones not really started. And our goal is mid-December. So this weekend & next there will be much to do. He’s been also busy with robotics and various submissions for science/engineering competitions etc. Essay fatigue has set in - we are suggesting he rework existing essays but as others stated above - the “why us” essays lack any “wow” factor sadly.
Congrats to your DS @STEM2017 !!
I did make my D apply to one school that she had no interest in attending to make a scholarship deadline. Due to her apathy, she did a sloppy job on the essay (good content but not proofed), so she probably won’t get any merit from there anyway.
She did apply to USC. She is interested but it is not high on the list and it’s a financial reach (still $45K with half tuition).
I just want to copy @payn4ward’s post b/c of the horn-blowing smiling faces, but I tried copying, and the little interactive icon-things do not copy…so CONGRATS @STEM2017 & @klinska!!!
@STEM2017 Congratulations on the acceptance and the SCHOLARSHIP!!!
@STEM2017 we were in Cocoa Beach on the 20th watching the rocket blast off from Port Canaveral. It was quite a thing, and there were TONS of NASA and Embry-Riddle people all over the area. I have to say, it was pretty cool. Neither kid is interested in rocket science (but both girls sat on the beach in the cold and dark for an hour to watch the rocket take off), but I kind of wish they were, because it was a cool event and obviously a very interested and involved community there.
My D got her USCal app in last week. Haven’t visited but the Neuroscience program looks good and it’s a possible financial safety due to NMF and Tuition Exchange which sounds strange - I was told they stack. Hoping she at least makes semifinalist and is flown in for scholly interview weekend so she can see it.
She is struggling with the BU Honors and Trustee essays. Looks like they’ll get submitted 12/1 however good they are. Then it’s a few RD apps that she wrote this summer but a recheck will be in order.
@STEM2017 That is awesome! Congrats to your son and to you!
On admissions and scholarships:
DD received some full-ride+ scholarships (none ranked in 30-50 or even 30-80) where the Honors programs are very well regarded. She is feeling conflicted about colleges that don’t offer merit aid as she feels she is squandering funds when she could take the full-rides.
We’ve some funds earmarked for her college and are ready to fund up to that amount for her. We feel that the environment in the college matters, and a full-ride or Honors college does not change that. We want her to make her top choices regardless of full/partial/no aid, visit the ones in that list she gets admitted to and then decide. Would folks share thoughts on going with full-ride from a good honors college, though not top 100, (say University of Alabama, ranked 100) vs a 30-50 college with no aid (say Penn State, ranked #50)?
DD is still waiting on pending admissions, and this seems like a good time to get some advice on this before it is decision time.
@Mom22DDs what does she intend to do after undergrad?
@VickiSoCal - She’d like to go into medicine. she’s applied to BSMD programs and would go there if she gets into it, regardless of aid. the full rides she’s gotten are from the BS step of those bsmd applications.
The conventional wisdom is that the most important thing for medical school is GPA so it’s actually better to go to a school where she is confident of getting a really good GPA vs a tougher school.
Also I’d be tempted to save the money since medical school is of course expensive.