Congratulations on ALL of these AMAZING acceptances! What an accomplished bunch of kids and PARENTS :D/
Love hearing all the happy news.
I know the lottery attempt here was made after weighing the pros and cons of passing up an ED opportunity elsewhere, but it’s very scary (and getting more so by the day). So glad to hear it has worked out for many of your kids, and also glad you finished-folks aren’t leaving just yet. I fear we may be the first in need of Helpful Hugs later this week :-SS
EDIT - Posted in wrong thread…Head over to 2017 gpa 3.0-3.5 to read 
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Congrats on the great news! Good luck to your D with the scholarship competition!
Congrats!!! @stlarenas
Rose Hulman admissions posted on Facebook yesterday:
“Keep your eye on the mailbox, our elves have been busy…”
I guess that means the letters have gone out? (I think they only notify old school, via the regular mail.) I think they say somewhere that “EA applicants will know by 12/15”, so mailing them yesterday makes sense.
This could be the thing that really makes DD excited / sad, because as of now RHIT is her clear #1 choice.
Assuming, you know, that she opens the letter… 
My DD is second guessing her SCEA application. Really questioning if she should have gone for the ED where she had double legacy and a much greater chance of getting in. Last night she was saying that she liked them equally why did she not ED. I had to remind her that in October she thought she wouldn’t want to finalize her decision until April. It is hard to see others getting decisions and for her to have zero results in yet. I feel like I learned so much from CC, and I begged her to apply to a couple of safeties (even offered to do the applications for her.) Very frustrating when your kids will not listen to you. My best friend’s DD wanted my opinion on everything and got 2 acceptances with very nice scholarships last week. I’m so glad someone benefited from all the time and spent on CC. Hopefully, my DD will hear something next week so that application paralysis can cease. I am committing to not even mentioning the word application this weekend.
@Testingearly Your D didn’t apply to any safeties???
A little rant here. Waiting on Caltech which should be released today. I made the stupid mistake of reading some threads about the school. It seems that the consensus is that one must write every essay and fill in every blank with how much their lives revolve around science and technology. Apparently some of these kids who are applying have been published or done important research. WHEN? DD plays three varsity sports, volunteers during the school year and during the summer and has 6-8 summer reading books plus work for the next year. I don’t know when she could have squeezed in curing cancer or developing a new fuel source. Why isn’t it okay to be a kid, do exceptionally well and save the deciding of what you want to do with the rest of your life until you’re old enough to drink? Ay-yi-yi.
She’s at a fencing meet so I have some time to calm down! 
Perhaps she’s not Caltech material after all, and that’s okay.
@Testingearly My DD blew off Penn where she had a legacy and application support from the fencing coach. She just wasn’t ready to commit. Your D can apply regular admission to some safeties. Welcome to the second guessing club!
@theshadow Thanks a lot re: Rose Hulman. Now I’ll be obsessing out at the mailbox! 
We’re in a similar boat, @cleoforshort and @Testingearly. Will finalize list of remaining applications (including safeties and possible ED2) to submit by next weekend. Many of those supplemental essays are already in progress, but still … will probably be a busy winter break. It’ll be OK though – did this with older kid a few years ago, and it worked out just fine.
@stlarenas that is great news!! Congrats!
@Testingearly she still has time to apply to a couple safeties if needed… I doubt the EA vs ED will matter much in this case. I was also committed to not talking about applications this weekend. Ooops.
In the boggles my mind department… S has a strong gpa and is ranked like 10 out of 160 in his class with all IB’s/AP’s on his schedule, but his scores are kind of meh… (1340 SAT and 28 ACT). He didn’t apply to any reaches because he was happy with what MSU and a couple of the SUNY’S could do for him to get him ready for law school. One of his potential 2nd majors/minors is Economics. So because UChicago is still mailing him stuff, he gets the brilliant idea that he now wants to apply THERE. I told him that they are known to try to get kids to apply to keep themselves very selective, and he admits that he probably won’t get in, but thinks he’ll work on an application over Christmas break. Ummmm, ok, whatever…
@Testingearly Depends what you define a safety as. Her College Counselor says that Georgetown is a safety and she has been told that Midd is a sure thing. Neither of these help me sleep at night. I forget who asked a couple of days ago if I would pay to get decisions early. Heck yes!!!
" Apparently some of these kids who are applying have been published or done important research. WHEN? DD plays three varsity sports, volunteers during the school year and during the summer and has 6-8 summer reading books plus work for the next year. I don’t know when she could have squeezed in curing cancer or developing a new fuel source. Why isn’t it okay to be a kid, do exceptionally well and save the deciding of what you want to do with the rest of your life until you’re old enough to drink? Ay-yi-yi."
Yep. You just hit on the reason why lots of us here on the 17 board do not have an iron in the Ivy fire. Well, and also my budget does not stretch to the 40-45K a year those schools would expect us to pay.
@cleoforshort Good Luck on Cal Tech. Just wait and see, good luck. But honestly Cal Tech isn’t even a normal top schools, it’s more a vocational school for scientists. It’s all about the research and if your kid doesn’t want to immerse themselves in research 24/7 it’s not a good fit. I do know a kid who just graduated & he loved it… but he was the kid to took every AP Science class available and did science research in the summer. He didn’t do sports. Still time to apply RD elsewhere.
@Testingearly Still lots of time to apply to some safety schools. CC makes everyone think they are late to the party if apps aren’t in already. Yet a large fraction of schools have Jan/Feb regular decision deadlines. Still time to try somewhere else. My S17 still has two applications to get in before their RD Jan 15th deadline.
@cleoforshort I didn’t realize there was another fencing parent in the mix here, what’s your D’s weapon? If you’ve been to NACs, we’ve probably walked past each other! My D is a foilist.
Congratulations @Mom2aphysicsgeek for the scholarship invitation @stlarenas for the acceptance with merit! <:-P <:-P
SGCs (Second guessing club),
Feel free to vent here X_X and keep encouraging DCs. Hugs >:D< >:D<
Thanks for the congrats all! That’s it for the safeties. From here on out got only reach and super reach schools. Hopefully there are a couple more acceptances to come. Gonna be long time waiting. And we are probably gonna need some hugs.
Does anyone have any suggestions on small gifts my son could give to the teachers who wrote recommendations letters for him? I was thinking of getting gift cards to someplace like Panera or Starbucks, but both teachers live out of state and I am not even sure if there is a Panera by them or if they drink coffee.