@RightCoaster - It was kind of a fluke. About 4 years ago I mentioned to a new friend of ours (they introduced us to the ski house we had just joined) that S17 was thinking about Civil Engineering for college. He suggested that Colorado School of Mines was a great school for engineering. I’ve had it in the back of my mind since. Then last fall S17 received an invitation for CSM to apply with no application fee, so he did. It wasn’t one he had thought in depth about - but he knew it had a good reputation and the application was free with no required essay. About a month later he received their acceptance and decided we should visit it and look more seriously at it. Before our visit he received a merit award and grant that brought the COA to within a reasonable amount of UMass Amherst so it was a definite possibility. The visit sealed the deal. Being an Eagle Scout Candidate, the surroundings of the school really caught that side of him and the depth of engineering focus spoke to his engineering nerd soul. In addition their success rate with employment and average starting salary and the focus on internship/co-ops were very impressive. We look forward to visiting him there and taking advantage of the skiing too. :))
@RightCoaster If considering CO School of Mines, start early. Their application is not on Common App. Their simple online application opens early September, and CO residents treat it as first-come first-serve (at least for the review and decision.) DS applied October 6th (procrastinator, he had everything necessary to apply on September 1st) and was accepted on Nov. 8th. I think it is very stat-based. We just submitted test scores and transcripts (till Junior year.) DS did not do optional essay. Once we got status webpage, I uploaded his two-page resume, which probably was not even necessary.
Oh, yes, No fee to apply 
Skiing and Coors brewery tour (and Fat Tires in Fort Collins.) :)) Never been to either though. :-/
@payn4ward thanks for the suggestions/advice. I had not actually considered that school for my younger son, but he might really like it there. He’s a better student than son17, and I’m hoping he can do well on his ACT next year. It seems like ME has gotten very competitive. His heart is not set on staying in Boston area, in fact I know he wants to explore. He loves snowboarding. He’d probably love the laid back CO scene. I’ll have to look into it more for him.
Thanks for the info @Motiv8tedmom23 !!! I like the sound of that!
Frustration of the day. Final school is saying “sometime before april 1st” Cant even give a day this week. At leaste not using US mail.
My linguistic regions: Dissertation work in Southern Maryland, and more recently along the Wasatch Front of Utah (where my first job out of grad school was) and Southcentral Alaska (where I am now), all on the Englishes spoken there. (I did a tiny bit on Pennsylvania German early on, but it never went anywhere.)
I’ve been trying to shift completely from Utah work to Alaska, but it’s like Michael Corleone in the Godfather—every time I think I’m out, I get an invitation to work on some interesting facet of it or another, and they pull me back in!
@RightCoaster Golden, Co is a great town to visit and I am sure your son will love the great outdoors in CO!
My oldest son moved to Colorado a few years ago and loves it. We spent some time in Golden and I enjoyed walking around the CSM campus. It’s beautiful! Congratulations on a great choice for your son. <:-P
@HSCounselor2 we’re just started looking for my younger son, a sophomore. Plenty of time to decide
I think he’s probably like it there in terms of environment. We’ll have to see where ends up regarding stats and all that.
I’m still trying to get son17 to graduate, lol.
Hello all…I hope I am not too late to join this thread at this point!!! I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to post here, as I stop in occasionally and I recognize many of you from other threads. As we get closer to decision time, I guess I am feeling the need more and more to reach out to others in similar shoes.
Congratulations on all the good news - so many scholarships and opportunities. It is fun to hear the decisions rolling in from each. Your children are ridiculous! In a good way 
Seriously impressive. And I have learned a lot about the whole process from many of you throughout CC.
My daughter is going for engineering (Bio or Biomedical, depending on the school) and hasn’t made up her mind about where to attend yet. It is down to three schools at this point, all three of which she can happily picture herself at. We are lucky enough to be eligible for tuition exchange scholarships. We have told her that we would pay our state school COA (NYS, around $21,000), and she has to cover the rest. Our Fed EFC is actually in the low $30,000s, but we can’t really afford that if we want to retire someday :).
The three schools she’s deciding on are:
WPI: COA $30,000 (if she receives TE it will be 28,000 - find out next week)
Pitt: COA <$15,000 (full tuition TE scholarship, so R & B only)
U of Delaware: COA <$15,000 (full tuition TE scholarship, so R & B only)
She also has U of Alabama on the back of her mind, as she would get the National Merit Finalist package plus an engineering scholarship (she would actually make money her first year!) - but it’s hard for her to picture herself there. She’s calm, cool, and fun, but very shy and has some anxiety, so being so far from home may be difficult. Her other choices were Northeastern (too expensive), RIT (too close to home), and Case Western (too expensive). She’s also waiting on a couple of long-shot ivies, but we aren’t really factoring those in.
WPI has a special place in her heart, as she really loved her visit there and loves so many other things about their set-up (7-week terms, project-based curriculum, etc). But, she is really hesitant about having to take out loans when she knows she has good choices that wouldn’t include loans. We of course would love it if she picked one of the cheapest options but I’m trying not to influence her decision at all, as they all are pretty great choices.
She has only done the accepted student day at Pitt so far, which went fantastic, and will be visiting UDel and WPI in the next few weeks.
OK - I have carried on too much! I just meant to introduce myself so I can participate a bit and you would know who I was if you see me commenting on your post. If anyone has any words of wisdom or advice, I am always open to it!
@mageecrew Welcome and I think the post was great to give us an overview of the current situation! Sounds like your daughter has some excellent choices and I think it’s good she’s attending the admitted students day at her top 3 at the moment - hopefully it will give her a clearer picture! So I know you’re not counting on an IVY, but if she were accepted, would those move to the top of her list or might she think the pressure is too great?
@mageecrew Welcome, your daughter has some excellent choices. My S17 and D16 both loved WPI (it’s practically in our backyard) for the very reasons you’ve stated. D16 had been waitlisted last year and chose UMass Amherst before WPI’s final decision came through. S17 was accepted and if he opted to commute - the COA would have been equal to CSM where he ultimately chose to commit. I hope the accepted student days help the clarify her options and preferences and allow her to make the best choice.
@mcgeecrew welcome to the thread; it sounds like you have a good endgame in place.
My only thoughts are to perhaps not be so quick to dismiss the Alabama opportunity. Our S14 was a “shyish” high school student who was foisted into the Tulane and Nola social scene because of a great merit opportunity (full tuition and fees), also in BME. Now a jr, at least for him and our family, it has served well. Because of the savings, we were very open to supporting his flight travels home (or for us traveling his direction) as much as he desired. Also, his merit award will translate to our helping out with med school (which he’s going to benefit from, as opposed perhaps to any grad school expenses for our S17 after full-pay at UChicago beginning this fall)
It seems like you’ve got nice family choices at the endgame…which is really what you hope this crazy college application process delivers…choices for fit, finance, and prestige (real or otherwise).
My spirit totem is Elizabeth Doolittle. My accent when I first left southeastern ma was horrendous to listen to. My musical theater roommate literally got the Willies when I talked.
Now I have perfected the neutral Atlanta accent, except, like with @STEM2017 , if I have wine. Then I embarrassingly drop all my r’s and my friends say "bless your heart, where the hell did you grow up? "
@LoveTheBard I think your d is going to have a really tough time deciding.
Having a minorly tough day today, I completely flubbed my practice presentation. It’s the fourth run through and I swear I’m getting worse, not better. I can’t wait to be done…
Welcome @mageecrew :-h Your D has some excellent choices! <:-P :-bd
Welcome @mageecrew. I agree that your D has some excellent choices. Hopefully the visits will put things into perspective. Maybe she will see herself at any of her choices and then use finances to help guide her decision. You will have to let us know what her decision is when the time comes.
@mageecrew Welcome! Excellent choices. The accepted student days should clarify things. Good luck!
Thanks @Fishnlines29 ! You are exactly right - she would be over the moon if she was accepted, but is already thinking the pressure might be more than she can handle. She’s a very realistic, practical person and often times the most mature in our family, lol.
Thanks everyone for the welcome!
@vandyeyes I have been hemming and hawing about taking her down to see Alabama for a quick visit. We did tell her we would go if she wanted and she was non-committal, so we haven’t done anything. It’s an expensive and long trip from our city so that’s the reason for my hesitation. But, it might really pay off if she likes it… maybe we need to revisit that idea.
@mageecrew Welcome! I have a Pitt committed D for engineering. Alabama would’ve been a close second. She is feeling the nudge more towards Mech E for career purposes but wants the option to to at least explore BME so Pitt just fits better.
You should definitely visit Alabama though.
Welcome @mageecrew! It sounds like your D has great options, but I second (or third or whatever it is by the time this goes up) the suggestion to visit Alabama. She would be in the honors college, which means at least some smaller classes. My S is coming from a small town and a HS class of about 130, and while he’s never been exactly shy, he is very quiet except in small groups. He immediately felt at home on the Bama campus. I think his decision was made within a couple of hours, although he didn’t let on until it had a chance to sink in a few days. It’s expensive for us to travel there as well, but I’d contact the admissions office and the Honors College and just ask about options for visits. You never know.
@MotherOfDragons How frustrating. I was always told a bad dress rehearsal means a great performance – hope that’s the case with your presentation!
@magecrew good luck with your choices! All of the kids I’ve known that have attended WPI have really liked it. Several of my son’s friends are going there next year. I think it’s a very good school, but neither of my kids love Worcester. It’s not really a pretty city. it’s not too far from Boston, but not close either, Probably an hour drive.
I’ve heard Pitt has gotten much nicer and I’d like to check that area out. I’m sure she’d like Bama. It’s warm, new, clean, all kinds of kids. I went to a large school in the south and I really enjoyed my time there.