I’d be thrilled if my D were interested in any of the nmf or auto full ride schools, but she’s not. She likes our State U, so that is our price point. I’m still hoping we find another school she likes that is a better value and a huge difference in rank would mean a better value to me. She is still figuring out what’s important to her.
Ole Miss Croft + CISS minor + Arabic program is dd’s top pick on paper right now. I’m really hoping she likes it when we visit. Even if she doesn’t make NMSF (right on the bubble, especially in light of the news that 209 is the commended cutoff), her stats make her eligible for great automatic scholarships with the possibility of other merit scholarships.
DD and I went to U of Alabama special reception in our city. Heard the sales pitches from multiple presenters, professor, student and parent. Great offer for NMF, 5 years college tuition plus one year suite on-campus housing, $3500 each year, etc. But DD is not feeling it and doesn’t see the fit. Maybe because the first question from the perspective students was about the parties
Food is decent, not great. 
@nw2this, I have friends kids who got 30k off CWR tuition. NFM level students.
DD got a recruitment letter from Dickinson on swimming. Can anyone share information on merit and other information on that school?
I have a freshman at Bama now on the Presidential Scholarship (OOS full tuition automatic). I wasn’t sure what she was going to think before we visited, but I knew in under five minutes that was where she would end up. Don’t let the party talk fool you. It is a great school (I’m saying that and I went to Auburn) and has a great number of opportunities for the high flyers. Yes there are parties, but there are wild parties at GA Tech (where DH went) and no one brings those up. I would suggest visiting with an open minds discuss be sure to get appointments with the Honora College and in the department of interest.
@sincerelove I agree with @disshar. My ds is a sophomore (in yrs, sr in standing) at UA. He is 100% a not into partying type of kid. He and is friends play board games, ultimate frisbee, watch movies, and even have big dinner parties where everyone cooks something to contribute. (They did it last yr even when they lived in dorms.) He is a super friendly, nice kid, but frat parties are not his idea of a good time.
Between CBH (research honors, only 40 kids accepted per yr) and University Scholars (can earn their masters as an UG), there are tons of opportunities for high performing students. UA has the most Goldwater Scholars for the past 9-10 yrs, even more than Harvard. The chemE dept is particularly strong for UG research opportunities and Goldwater awards. (If you look over the winners for the past several yrs, there is a chemE student every single yr. )
http://uanews.ua.edu/2016/04/2-ua-students-named-goldwater-scholars/
@WhereIsMyKindle – 209 is the cutoff for Commended? Wow! That is higher than expected. I assume this is still just speculation until September?
@CT1417 I heard 209 is confirmed.
I think Dickinson tops out at $20K for published merit.
@2muchquan – repeating myself, wow. Thanks!
Ditto, wow.
Yeah, wow. I think D is gonna just miss. Oh well!! The search continues regardless!!
Hey, some of you have seen and/or commented on this. It’s a very important consideration for those of us chasing merit: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1879403-why-upperclassmen-lose-financial-aid.html
It’s easy for me to say “D can get a 3.5 to keep her scholarship…no problem!” But that’s a lot of pressure.
For those with kids already in college, how do their GPAs compare to HS?
Testmasters predicted the Commended to be between 200 and 210 here: http://collegeadmissions.testmasters.com/update-psat-scores-cut-national-merit-2016/
But, on the same page they predict Wyoming and West Virginia to be 210, and those states typically have a NMSF cutoff that is equal to the Commended cutoff. So, if anything, the cutoff at 209 indicates the cutoffs for low-scoring states may be 1 less that the Testmasters predictions. Probably their existing predictions for mid- and high-scoring states are still the best predictions out there.
@2muchquan My kids have all been honors kids in college with GPAs between 3.65-4.0. I am a tough teacher and they have had zero transition issues. I think if your student knows how to self-study, manage time, seek help if they need it, college success is likely to mirror high school success.
But it’s still a risk, and not a small one. Lots of things can happen, even to very strong students. My daughter will not be applying to any school with a merit scholarship requiring higher than a 3.2 for renewal, and only a couple at 3.2. For some majors, the chance of maintaining a 3.5 are very small.
It will be interesting to see when the first round of March SAT scores are released in May. My son took the old exam to get it out of the way. Colleges may have a difficult time discerning among ACT, old SAT and new SAT. New concordance table needed!
I’ve heard that when a test gets revamped, the first group of kids generally get the benefit of doubt by admissions. Ymmv.
@Ynotgo we were in San Francisco the same time you were at Stanford and Berkeley. 
We just got back from a week-long vacation there (first trip to California for the girls).
D17 decided that while she loved San Francisco, she didn’t love it enough to want to go to college for undergrad on the west coast, so we didn’t go on any tours while we were there.
The funniest part was she had been saying she wanted to “get out of the south”, because she hates the heat, and weirdly it was hot and sunny in San Francisco the last two days we were there. We’d been telling her that places that don’t get hot often have trouble dealing with the heat, and we were out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. Yep, no air conditioning! They had the front and rear doors open because there is always a nice breeze there, but it just meant that she was only slightly sweaty and there were bugs dying in my wine glass all night :).
@2muchquan thanks for the google scholar tip!
@eandesmom I agree with you about the right mix of peers. D17 is concerned about a program that is “filled with brogrammers”. She has a core group of female friends that are also CS (and very accomplished), but they get a lot of flack from male engineers. Not all of them, but enough that she voiced concerns to us over the vacation about attending a school that had a lot of guys with that particular mindset and often the accompanying lack of social sensitivity to recognize when they’re being a total ass.
My husband (chem E then a computer scientist) affirmed that her concerns were legitimate, but that in the working world she’d get a ton of support from HR who has no tolerance for brogrammer mentality anymore. She keeps going back and forth between CS with an engineering focus and CS in the liberal arts and sciences programs. She does know now that she wants to attend a school where the CS/engineering people aren’t a majority.
Happy 18th to your D, @snoozn !
@jmek15 the buckeye candy would be enough for D17 to put it on her “never ever” list!
Ok, I have a ton of homework that has piled up (my spring break was weeks ago, so I had to take two days off from school for the girls’ spring break) and I can’t procrastinate anymore.
Well, I CAN, but I shouldn’t…
I also agree that 3.5 in college is a high standard and a great deal of pressure. To maintain straight A’s in high school is, unfortunately, much easier these days. All you have to do is look at the stats - I’m referring to the state reports on college board site. In the year 2014-2015 (the latest year available) right at 48% of all college bound juniors reported that their grade point averages are either an a-, a or a+. We all know that almost 50% of college kids will not maintain that in college. The question we have to ask ourselves is - what about our kid?
this is the data I’m looking at: http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2015/VA_15_05_02_01.pdf
For me, I would never place that pressure on my dd but I think it wouldn’t affect my ds. So college choices take/took that into account…
Thanks so much for the birthday wishes everyone – it was an excellent day even though most of the “stuff” is happening this weekend. I figured D would be the first kid to turn 18 on this thread as she was held back in grade 4/5 (mixed grade class). She hated it, but absolutely the right decision and even she grudgingly admits that now. She is pretty stoked about voting.
@2muchquan, luckily my D11 had already warned us about the black henna so we made sure the place we’re going doesn’t use it. @BusyNapping, maybe she should tell everyone she has a mehndi tattoo so it sounds more exotic!
@jmek15 , thanks for the CWR review. Sounds like your D is a combo of my two – D11 is a dance major and D17 plans on engineering. Geeky and not too party oriented will both be appealing to my D. Icky freshman dorms not so much! Cold is no problem as she is looking at several schools in upstate NY. We shall see what her upcoming test scores are (waiting on March SAT and taking ACT this month) to decide if it’s worth applying.
@2muchquan (regarding a different post!), my D11 is probably not a good basis for most people here, but her GPA did go down and she wasn’t able to stay in the honors program. She stayed above a 3.0 for the most part, but not by a lot. She felt very unprepared. However, she went to a small non-traditional school with no advanced or AP classes, no text books, no ranking and few tests. Not college prep oriented to say the least. Believe it or not, I still think it was the right HS for her. I feel like D17 and S18 will be much better prepared as they are going to mainstream HS’s. D17 is taking a few classes at our state flagship senior year, so it will be interesting to see how she does.
I need to check out the dorms at CWR. We toured in Feb, and D really liked it…despite the frigid temps. But our tour did not included the dorms. I guess it is what it is, and my dorms sucked, but I loved college. Would still like to know…I’m intrigued. I think this would warrant a summer tour, to check it out again…