^True. But those essays will sure be interesting to read!
** QOTD: ** Has your DC officially or unofficially dropped any school to which they have been accepted?
Accepted and dropped:
FSU - We are skeptical about the engineering program but love the school and gave it a try. Ended up getting no merit aid - dropped.
Miami U - Loves this school. Loves it. But currently not enough merit-aid to make it work. Any ideas?
Alabama - This is where the Big MAC dream started. Sadly, Ss ACT was not high enough to win the big prize. So not enough merit-aid to make it work.
Clemson - Same - not enough MAC
UCF - Great MAC package but he was deferred at Burnett Honors until April 15. Without Burnett its a no-go, so UCF is unlikely. Ideas here would be helpful, too.
Accepted and Dropped:
LSU - D didnāt bother with the Stamps scholarship competition. Now that was a bad essay prompt.
All other schools are in play until final merit awards are received. So far, D has only heard about big merit from 2 schools.
Thanks for the welcome 
QOTD from yesterday
at our schools the kids are supposed to update Naviance, needless to say most donāt. DC is doing it to stay in the good books of GC 
still have scholarship apps.
QOTD from today
Not too many decisions so far only 2 safety schools so not really applicable so far.
stencils - thats is strange prompt - could you do something like be in White House meetings ? depends on what your DCās major is I guess
QOTD: Has your DC officially or unofficially dropped any school to which they have been accepted?
Accepted officially, dropped unofficially
Clemson, not enough MAC, never visited. Hard for me to give up our dream of living in SC
Northeasternāshe would probably still love to go to school in Boston, and they offered decent Mac, but with their price it still makes it token MAC so itās off the list
Texas A&M-not paying full freight for a program that is trying to jam them in (yes, Iām bitter)
@stencils That invisibility prompt is the reason my son wouldnāt apply for the Buffalo presidential scholarship. He came to the same conclusion, that everything invisibility would be useful for would be unethical/creepy/illegal and that an essay telling them the prompt was stupid would not be a winner.
Which goes along with the QOTD, he has pretty much dropped Buffalo from his list. It is affordable even without the extra scholarship, but he would rather go to Alabama.
QOTD: Unofficially dropped:
Bama - Similar merit from MSU when you take travel costs into account. Distance.
UMinn - Not enough MAC
IU - One of the few not visited before applying (and the closest =)) ). D was not a fan of the visit. Not enough MAC so far.
College of Charleston - Donāt get me started.
Nothing to drop =)) DS has one half admission i.e. BS part of BS/MD program so far.
QOTD:
All schools still in play. Nothing dropped. Admits 3, all safeties, 2 of which heās not particularly interested in. 2 Deferrals, 1 which still really interests him, 4 others waiting on answers but they are more matches than reaches.
So, I guess in theory, he has mentally dropped 2 schoolsā¦the safeties he doesnāt really want to attend.
No idea what he is going to do. Was hoping to be done with all of this by now, but just have to be patient I guess.
@STEM2017, is that Miami U in Ohio? Maybe when all offers are in he could let them know itās his first choice and see if they can offer him more?
And UCF, maybe he can appeal for honors?
QOTD: Nope, none officially dropped yet. Weāre going to wait until she has all her answers in, sit down together, make a spreadsheet, and decide.
QOTD: Unofficially dropped?
4 of 9 heard from.
BC - Very close to dropping. Didnāt get one of the 20 moonshots. Assuming it will be way, way too expensive and no really helpful path to OT. May not even bother trying for Need Aid given our EFC.
Pitt - Still competing for Chancellorās Scholarship. Got some merit, but probably not enough without winning this moonshot. After more results to come in, will talk to Dā17 about filling out their merit matching form. Not expecting anything more, really.
SLU - In the running, might be the least expensive path to a M.O.T. Hoping to be in the running for Presidential Scholarship; should know if Dā17 advances by end of the month.
UK - In the running; Financial safety with Patterson, still hoping for Singletary. Should hear by the middle of March.
The other 5 are still pending.
Should hear about merit/admission at these schools by mid march. All are long shots for sufficient merit aid to influence the final decision, but I think one highly rated (by Dā17) choice is possible.
Invisibility: Thereās actually some fun work thatās come out of ethics on invisibility, looking at the question of whether it would be possible for human beings with the power of invisibility to consistently/ultimately use their power for good. The Buffalo essay seems like a good chance to wrestle with that issue, and itās the sort of thing my D17 would, I expect, get very excited about having a chance to answerāinteresting that itās such a turnoff prompt for some.
Acceptances and declines: Nothing even mentally accepted yet, nothing declined. The only reason for exclusing a school at this point would be financial, and every school for which a merit offer has come in so far gives a COA somewhere above $20k and below $30k except for a higher COA at George Mason, but thereās a larger competitive merit scholarship sheās waiting to hear if sheās a finalist for before writing them off. (And, of course, thereās one still to be applied toāprobably submitting it tomorrowāand five yet to be heard from, so no decisions on them pretty much by definition.)
QOTD (yesterday): DDs school doesnāt have Naviance.
QOTD (today): Havenāt eliminated any yet. So far accepted at Tulane ($32k merit) and Howard (full ride). Tulane will be eliminated unless she gets Paul Tulane scholarship or need based aid to bring the cost down to what we can afford. She chose not to apply to Barnard so we have eight more (assuming she gets her last two apps in - one is due today) to wait for.
QOTD yesterday :DS is into 3 schools EA and only one is a school he is interested in attending. He hasnāt dropped any officially I think he will wait to see what all of his options are. IS it March yet??
QOTD: similar to @TearsnJoy and @RightCoaster Admits: 3 so far, all safeties.
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Drexel - her top choice safety and I was thrilled she received significant merit $$ - she is planning to apply to the Honorās college as well. She said she would be very happy here. Thank goodness.
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Rutgers - dropped (in her mind /
) (Worst tour ever which is a shame) Curious to see what (if any) merit comes in - we should find out this month. -
U of Hartford - dropped - it was a last minute free app i threw in the ring - a good safety option with an unusual program she liked. She was accepted to Honors Program with ok merit $ but not nearly as much $ as Drexel.
Still waiting on the rest which I think are all high match/low reach type schools. So we wait.
QOTD - Schools Dropped: no schools dropped yet. All of the schools will be affordable except for one he still needs to apply to (by 1/7). He will need big MAC for that school.
Following up on the Vanderbilt extension. I told S to reply and say he would apply if they gave him a fee waiver. They actually responded and gave a pleasant, but generic answer about clicking the boxes in the Common App to request a waiver. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Invisibilty: Iām still influenced by the āThis American Lifeā episode where you could choose your superpower. Most of the uses of invisibility were creepy/illegal. I think it does make an interesting prompt on how to use this power for good. I assume most will go down the path of random acts of kindness, but it would fun to read the outliers.
One of Dā17ās best essays, in my opinion, was about a technology that should have never been invented.
You never know where the prompt may lead.
QOTD: I asked my DS17 to officially drop Villanova. His first choice (Notre Dame) was a deferral and his second choice, Santa Clara is an acceptance with a good amount of Merit and FA. Iām hoping he emails Villanova soon as I know there was a huge increase in applications this year and a lot of deferrals. I hadnāt thought of having him notify in-state safetyā¦ that admit seems so long ago. I suppose he should notify them too.