@2muchquan Yes we figured out that none of the Ivys give merit aid, so ruling them out because of financial situation and also wanting to save it for med school. We are from NJ and Rutgers Honors College is one of her choices, but wants to try for a higher ranked (and more importantly better pre med course). Yes she is in running for National Merit. Her selection index is 225 and should be good even in NJ
@Hades321 â ah ha! I had read, a while back, that VT had the distinction of being the only college that would not accept the old SAT. Ridiculous, IMHO, but better that you know up front.
Itâs a lot of testing along with APs, and Jr Prom, and spring sportsâŠterrible time crunch for this group.
@greeny8 Would definitely love to read your feedback
Have been lurking for a while and thought I should jump in. D17 just got back from a school sponsored college tour with most of her junior class. They flew over 50 kids from Vegas to Boston and spent 5 days touring a variety of schools. They hit BU, BC, UMass-Amherst, Hampshire College, Emerson, MIT, Northeastern, Tufts, and Harvard in 5 days. Was a great experience for all of them. D17 was intrigued by the co-op opportunities at NE, as her current lean is business. She has a 34 ACT, and should be NMSF with SI 220, so the merit possibilities at NE are also attractive to me. She also said that Hampshire was a bit too âhippyishâ for her. She just got home Saturday night, but is flying out with her grandpa on Tuesday to Philadelphia to hit a few more schools during Spring Break. They are going to tour UPenn, Drexel, Lehigh and Princeton. I think sheâll be on visit overload at that point, but the opportunity to see so many schools in such a short period of time will help her clarify the types of schools she is looking for.
@TimEnchanter Would you mind elaborating on the merit possibilities at NorthEastern? We plan to visit Boston sometime in May to see BU, BC, NorthEastern and Tufts
@2muchquan Congrats to your DD. I also have a D19 that qualified to regionals over the weekend. Our gym is hosting regionals, so we donât have to worry about traveling. Now the only concern is trying to qualify for Westerns.
@greeny8 - my S loves watching House M.D. he has been watching it since 5th or 6 th grade along with his mom (doc). he watches reruns durimg dinner 
It helped him a lot with medical knowledge. We donât let him watch Greyâs Anotomy becuase of R rated stuff. He is watching newer medicsl shows also.
NE gives up to $30k/yr for NMF, plus they also have a University Scholars Program that awards 75 students a full tuition scholarship (no additional application required).
@TimEnchanter welcome! Happy to have you join us. Your D has sure been busy!!! Hopefully it will help her sort out what she is looking for.
@srk2017 I used to watch house too! My D would sometimes sit with me a while back to watch greys and at times it would be uncomfortable but now I let her watch pretty much anything she wants. She says what goes on in her high school hallways is sometimes worse! Ugh
@Mom2aphysicsgeek , congratulations for your DDâs accomplishments! You must be so proud of her!
@2muchquan @TimEnchanter , congratulations on your DD accomplishments too. We have a talented group of kids here.
For all the kids interested in medical field, our best friendâs son went to Penn State 7 year medical school program⊠He of course, has 2400, and was getting almost free tuition from Vandy, etc, but picked penn state as he will have a MD degree in 7 years.
^^Is his name Doogie Howser? 
Congrats to @Mom2aphysicsgeek on your daughterâs language accomplishments, that is very impressive. I can see why it so hard to find an affordable college at the right language level for her. And congrats to @2muchquan and @TimEnchanter on the gymnastics accomplishments and good luck at regionals.
My son had a good weekend too, he entered the regional science fair and won a scholarship for a college summer program for highschoolers, which includes tuition, room and board. He was going to attend the Ole Miss summer program, but this college is closer so now all our summer plans are changing. Unless he gets the highly competitive internship he applied for he will be attending the new program instead. He is very excited, the only better award at the fair would have been getting sent to the Intel fair, and he knew his project wasnât good enough for that.
@caroldanvers fantastic news for your Sâs summer scholarship. So nice for you that the cost is fully covered. My D still has no plansâŠ
Whatâs everyone thinking in terms of number of applications? I think we are done with the college list. Itâs long, but I think it has the right mix of schools to give D the best options next year.
@itsgettingreal17 my D16 applied to 10, but my D17 has more focus and her list is about 4.
Iâm guessing our final list will be 12-15 due to merit search.
We still have a ton of narrowing down to do on our list, and I doubt we will finalize it until after we know for sure about National Merit. It will probably be 10-12 schools in the end.
D11 applied to 1. D15 applied to 4 total, including 1 ED so was done by December which was nice (but does add to the senioritis if you ask me lol). D17 will likely apply to 5-6, he has a pretty narrow focus. D19 on the other hand I fully expect to be in the 8-12 range.
I can also see a dozen to fifteen, but that is due to the crap shoot nature of the schools to which he is applying.
Older son applied ED and a couple of EA. It was really nice to have the process finished by mid-December.