@Mom2aphysicsgeek, @MotherOfDragons & @Gator88NE - I know this is the parents of 2017 thread and I have participated with my older son. I was gathering intel for next year when S18 applies to GT for CS. He will apply EA for sure and get it in by the deadline. Thanks!
@ilikesporks In general, OOS rates will increase at a slightly higher rate than in-state rates. Often, public universities have to negotiate tuition rate hikes with the state legislatures. Politically, itās easier to raise OOS rates.
School: āHey, we want to increase our OOS rate 5%, but that will help us keep our in-state rate increase to just 2%!ā
Politician: āNo way, raise OOS rates 10%, but keep In-state rates flat, no increase for my voters!ā.
School after crunching the numbers to make sure it comes out ahead: āSure!ā
@NerdMom88, glad Iām not the only bad parent! And thanks for mentioning Bears vs. Babies ā going to get my credit card right now. I love that the NSFW pack is ages 35+.
@MotherOfDragons, hmmm, 36 minute turns plus spousal abandonmentā¦ I think Iāll stick with Bears vs. Babies!
And sorry your D had to deal with a ādumpster fire,ā but kudos on using the new Word of the Year that some linguistics guy may have mentioned somewhere.
@mtrosemom, thatās really cool that your S plays bridge ā is it some kind of retro trend? My parents were very big into bridge socially and I remember hiding out in the basement when the bridge club was at our house.
@michiganbuckeye, congrats to your D. Having to choose between India and Switzerland is a good āproblemā to have.
@snoozn ā āSome linguistics guyā!! He is something!
Iāve not commented on the game threads but will be going back to look at a couple more closely. I grew up in a huge gaming family. HUGE. My H however, not so much and unless we are on vacation or it is New Years Eveā¦heās absolutely rather not.
So my kids play with their cousins a ton and we do a few things on our own (without H) but itās pretty limited to Catan and Exploding Kittens these days.
I do plan to buy Beras vs Babies but havenāt yet.
@ilikesporks In CA, OOS tuition has gone up substantially while in-state tuition has been frozen for 6 years. Basically for the reasons @Gator88NE cites. I would expect OOS increases to be common in other states.
Thanks @Ynotgo, @Gator88NE, @itsgettingreal17. I always knew there was a difference between a flat merit $ amount and an in-state waiver over 4 years, but after finally doing the math, itās more substantial than I thought. I think I may have narrowed choices down to 2 now. Oh yeah, Iām not the one attending. 
@itsgettingreal17 UMinn also took away the in-state waiver they used to give to high stats OOS kids. No longer a BigMAC school unfortunately. Still a pants-required school, though.
@BigMACLovin Those are some serious pants for UMinn.
@BigMACLovin So the 2 no-pants schools with full-tuition/waiver has moved to the top?
@itsgettingreal17 One requires pants. But, yes, I think so. Which means Iāll totally be wrong!
QQTD Do your kidsā transcripts include high school credits earned prior to high school?
Noā¦ DS took 2 HS level math classes. (H. Algebra & H. Geometry They donāt appear on his transcript or are included in his GPA. 
He got good grades in those and they would have helped. A lot of his applications require him to enter the grades in unofficially thoughā¦
games We have a ton, love to play them. But almost never do. More often when we go visit friends. The problem is if they are logic style games DH creams anyone and wonāt play ādownā. It made it so the kids never really wanted to play with him much. We tend to play games more when we visit family or have friends over. Most recently I have been playing Splendor with a friend.
Seniorities We still have one more full week of the last semester. Plus 3 days of finals (with two days off that week). So not seniorities yet. DS still has another week to pull up his AP Physics grade.
I have senioritis!
OOS rates vs. In-state rates, increases, etc: Miami U Ohio has the āMiami Promiseā where tuition is frozen for your four years. I love this idea and weāre trying to make it work. S didnāt get a great deal of merit aid, but tuition will never rise, so theoretically, he gets more each year. We will appeal for more, but the tuition lock is substantial.
Anyone know of any other schools with a four year tuition lock?
@STEM2017 I believe George Washington has flat tuition for four years (at least they used to).
@STEM2017 ā GW - fixed for up to 5 yrs. https://undergraduate.admissions.gwu.edu/financial-aid
Thanks @WhereIsMyKindle and @CA1543. I started a thread on the subject. Hopefully we can compile a nice list for future applicants.
I see some folks on CC say things like: āā¦the merit was a bit light. Weāre hoping for moreā¦ā Do some schools up the merit if you donāt accept soon enough, or are they talking about named scholarship decisions or appeals? Iāve seen it several times, so is it a thing I donāt know about?
@ilikesporks I think that appealing for more is likely a losing battle, especially if its a public school. But if you assure them that you will accept on the spot, you might get lucky. Sās Miami offer was not from a āsetā algorithm. There are many factors that go into it, so I think he may have a chance at getting 2 or 3k more per year. Weāll see.
@ilikesporks There are some schools that announce auto merit awards or university-wide awards before they announce competitive or program/college-specific awards.
@mtrosemom - do you play bridge too? Is that where his interest came from? My D is also somewhat serious about bridge, presumably getting her initial interest in it from me. She started a bridge club at her schoolā¦
And yeah, in a lot of games I play in Iām pretty youngā¦