Am I the only one falling in love with 1 or more schools while researching schools for my D? Y’all may have to console me if she ends up choosing somewhere other than one of my favorites. :))
@itsgettingreal17 I’m right there with you. I’m really liking a couple of schools on the list. And, with how easily some schools are tossed aside, I know I’m going to have a hard time come this time next year.
My D and I have both fallen in love with her top choice. It’s a different kind of school, so I just don’t know her acceptance/finaid chances. There are a couple of schools I’d put higher on the list and a couple lower. Mostly I’m trying to get her to remove one I think doesn’t fit, but she said today “It’s staying on the list!”
I hope it’s not bad form to copy n paste our latest visit from another thread, so you may have already seen this!
School visit: Colorado State University
This visit went great! D had Monday off and CSU happened to be having a special program about competitive majors (which includes her choice of engineering), undergraduate research (big interest for her) and honors program (would be great but who knows…) Our tour guide was amazing – best one out of the 8 schools we’ve visited and most were pretty good. The campus is not as pretty as CU-Boulder, but still very nice and of course a beautiful mountain backdrop. It’s pretty compact at one square mile delineated by streets on each side. Most of the buildings on campus are new and modern. The surrounding area looks college-towny and downtown is pretty close as well. The guide said relations between the school and Fort Collins are excellent and very supportive on both sides. The dorm room we saw was the nicest one we’ve seen yet. Quite big for a double and a private bathroom. Regular doubles (with communal bathrooms) and suites are available too. There is themed housing and D likes the idea of living in an engineering dorm. The rec center is great and includes a large climbing wall and students can get training. Outdoor equipment for camping and other activities is available to rent for a modest fee and lots of students take advantage of the beautiful surrounding environs. And very importantly - D and I agreed the dining hall food was the best we’d eaten yet.
The dean of engineering seemed like a pretty cool guy. He told a story about being a first gen student who’d never thought of engineering until his hs counselor suggested it. His father was thrilled. However his grades were not good enough for engineering so he went in undeclared. But his father was so proud he couldn’t tell him the truth! Luckily he did well enough to get into engineering the second year and his father never found out. There is lots of research being done and most profs have undergrads on their teams. It sounds like it’s pretty easy to get involved. Word of advice: kids going into mechanical or biomedical engineering must apply early action because there is a cap and there are never any openings for regular decision. Also, all engineering applicants must include a second choice major (can be another engineering major or not). There are two engineering buildings, though I can’t remember how they are divided up.
The honors program sounds amazing. Minimum stats are online, but do not guarantee honors admission. I think the guy said about 1/3 of those eligible are invited, but I’m not sure. Honors classes have 15-20 students. Some are more in depth versions of regular classes and some are specific to honors. (I wanted to take the one called Mythbusting: Science, Pseudo-science and Just Plain Nonsense!) All honors classes satisfy gen ed reqs. Honors students get priority class registration ahead of seniors – wow, is this normal?! Honors students have specific research programs. There is also an honors dorm which apparently is quite nice though we didn’t see it. Oh, also a $1000/year scholarship as if all those other perks weren’t enough.
D liked everything about it except the size, which is pretty big at 32,000. It did seem quite crowded at class changing time. She really wants to go to a small school. But it’s a definite pick over CU-Boulder. I think if she got into the honors program (keeping fingers crossed on those darn ACT/SAT’s!) it would be a better fit than she thinks. She will definitely apply here as it is our most affordable option (in-state for us).
If anyone has any questions ask away.
I’m not saying not to trust the EFC and NPC but there does seem to be some difference in the way these 100% need met highly competitive schools calculate their FA packages. It’s really a family decision if your child wants to spend time on the apps and you want to pay for the apps and see if they get admitted to a few and if the money is better than expected if it’s in the realm of possibility. We were OK with going $5K above our EFC but no more. Among the 16 group even among schools that say it’s calculated the same way the difference between best and worst packages seemed to be close to $10K. Some don’t do merit at all but clearly they are giving some kids more money than others even if they call it grant aid. Getting into 2 of these schools gives you help to negotiate if the preferred school gives less money. We thought my son would get into 1 of his reach schools but had no idea which one and were very lucky it did work out and luckily for EA otherwise he had 6 more apps he would have submitted. It’s very unpredictable for admissions and aid so definitely need safeties they really would be happy to go to. My son’s academic safety school gave him the least money of any of his schools which was really unexpected and since it was OOS it was barely under our EFC we had thought it would have been one of his cheapest options but it turned out to be one of his most expensive.
Thanks for sharing the visit report @snoozn
@payn4ward still waiting for my D ACT score. Hopefully Wednesday, but it may be a long month.
And happy Passover for those celebrating. Yummy Seder tonight!
@snoozn …great review of CSU! I grew up going to camp there every summer and always loved the campus and the surrounding area. We had family who lived there briefly and my niece graduated from CSU.
My niece is an awesome kid but it did seem like she had zero career guidance there…no internships, co-ops or anything. I remember really emphasizing that she needed to do this but for whatever reason it never happened. She had big plans to major in kinesiology/community health in prep for PA school. I attended Texas A&M (and was a kinesiology major as well) and the whole last semester of senior year was a required full-time internship at a hospital. These inevitably lead to job offers …everyone in my group seemed to have full-time jobs before graduation.
Did there seem to be a big push for internships and such? Or was my niece just too flippant about the importance of such experience?
Working on another google doc… named Application Checklist with columns like deadlines, testing requirements, superscore Y/N, number of reference letters, supplemental essay, etc.
Had three different versions of College List google doc with columns like 50% test scores, average GPA from Naviance, size, m/f ratio, diversity, Fiske ratings, PR ratings, …
Have you noticed that many colleges that used to require Writing portion of ACT are no longer requiring Optional Writing from SAT/ACT starting 2017?
It may have something to do with essay being optional for the redesigned SAT and ACT having so much trouble grading their new essays.
Since DS already has one ACT score with writing and many colleges superscore ACT, I’m thinking of signing up ACT without writing in June.
@payn4ward, your google doc is inspirational. I suppose I should start working on one.
Which colleges no longer require ACT writing starting 2017?
for all of you spreadsheeters–
do you think that the new SAT is going to jive with the data (close enough) or are you trying to use concordance tables with the old SAT to figure it out? since the scoring is different i’m wondering just how useful the CDS are going to be this year.
I’ve got to get off CC. The Saturday morning pics on my FB feed so far show two classmates of Ds doing college visits to Baylor (COA roughly 60K/y, possible high stats kid but not likely in NMF so would max out their merit scholarships with only 20K) and OU (would be OOS, solid kid but not crazy stats and doubtful is a merit finalist so still with COA around 30K/y). I’m replying with “have fun!” and I really want to type “have you run your EFC on their NPC???”
Ive known these parents for years so I have a good idea of income. Of course I’m not nosey enough to know savings but doubtful they have saved enough for those numbers. The grandparent factor (i.e. grandparents give $$ for college) could be in play also.
::::off to play nice on FB::::
@4beardolls Here are some of the changing colleges:
RPI, CWRU, Oberlin, Tufts, Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore
http://admissions.rpi.edu/undergraduate/admission/freshman/standardtests.html
http://new.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/admissions/first-year-applicant/application.dot
http://admissions.tufts.edu/apply/first-year-students/sat-and-act-tests/
https://apply.jhu.edu/apply/exams/
http://www.swarthmore.edu/admissions-aid/standardized-testing-policy
CWRU AO also said they will not look at Writing beginning 2017 at the college fair. Their website has not yet been updated.
On a similar note… D dos not take the writing portion this time. She said she felt less overwhelmed and mentally exhausted since she did not have to do that part. She raised her C score by 2 points and her E by 4 and math by 3. She prepped diligently but I also wonder how much improvement is to be had by starting the am fresh with no huge essay to mentally organize?
@kac425 College Board is supposed to release SAT concordance table in May. I wouldn’t hold breath for it though.
CB manufactured fake percentiles for redesigned PSAT. As a result, students holding 99% in their reports did not get Commended for NMSC given to top 97% scorers.
Who knows what CB will cook up for the redesigned SAT percentiles and concordance.
That is why private schools and counselors are recommending ACT for next few years, and colleges are putting less emphasis on test scores.
@carachel2 In ACT, the writing portion comes the last. I agree, though, it would certainly feel less exhausting since it is almost whole hour shorter, finishing 12:15 PM vs 1:15 PM.
sigh.
thx. we are east coasters so the SAT is standard here…
i am beyond irritated at just how hard the 2017’rs got slammed with changes.
sigh^2
With millenium (mini) baby boomers next year, it is going to be the most competitive ever for my DS17 and DS19. XX XX
I’ll be so glad to be over with common core crap and just want to go to bed and wake up in 2019. :((
My son is anxiously waiting to get the scores back from the new SAT. He was in the group that took the new test for the first time. He’s hoping he did well enough he can skip out on taking it again. He just wants the process to be over with and to get started on his college applications.
Are the new SAT scores coming out early May?
Hi @RightCoaster
The College Board website claims it will be May 10. https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/scores/getting-scores