@TwinMom2023 Twins - oh lord - I admire all of you who manage to get to adult phase with twins. LOL. We live in Texas (Houston area to be exact) so we have a good plethora of schools. Not the greatest merit aid but not too bad in costs (like northeast lol). S19 wants to stay in state and has 4 schools he’s got on list. 2 are top schools - Texas A&M and University of Houston because they both have Public Health programs that he is very interested in.
Just received a text from our HS. Our graduation date has been announced. Sat June 1 at 5:30. I’m so happy that it’s on a Saturday because DS16 should be able to attend if he does and internship fairly close by.
I have a dumb question. Can you tell if a college needs supplemental information (beyond the standard Common App0 on their website? I’m a little worried about Twin A getting caught off guard with extra work. Do you have to be in the CA to see if a particular school has additional questions?
@TwinMom2023 I think the Common App is the only place to find out; there were supplemental questions for schools on there that I had not seen in all my extensive research of those schools.
I think - check me if I’m wrong, CCers! – that it’s totally possible to add a college to the CA and delve into the requirements, then delete them, without them ever knowing you were there.
@JaceyK - you’re far from the only one with nothing saved, don’t worry. And we also have a high EFC. For us, that meant there are no reach schools, because we must have mondo merit. So we are only applying to schools where D19 is above the middle 50% in terms of stats.
@TwinMom2023 Have you considered creating your own Common App parent account? It is like a test account, but you can add schools to your dashboard and see the requirements for both of you girls.
@TwinMom2023 , don’t lose hope! My DS last year was deferred from his #1. He was eventually accepted and his a happy freshman now.
Welcome @JaceyK ! This is a great group for ideas and help with creative funding ideas. We too are a "donut hole’ family.
Congrats @cinn124!
As for senior pictures…NO info has been sent home yet but I’ve been through the rodeo before. We need headshots by 10/19. S17 did a photo shoot for S19 and I’ve photo shopped them to the point of livability for an annual photo. We still need to do a “real” shoot.
@TwinMom2023 yeah…you need to add them in the common app to see any school specific writing prompts. Colleges may or may not list them on their website and it may or may not fall under “writing” or under “questions” on the common app. Unfortunately colleges do “see” the minute you add but honestly who cares. Coalition is handled a bit differently (and even more annoying).
Senior photos? What are those (sarcastic)? D19’s school hasn’t sent home any information about anything senior related. I don’t know when the graduation is, when pictures are or how much senior dues are (D19 said somewhere in the area of $700 but I refuse to believe that). I’m envious of all of you that have this info.
Been tracking along the Pitt thread and it appears D19 was accepted today. Still waiting for official e-mail/letter. Very excited for her as this is one of her top choices and she thought her chances were 50/50 at best. Nice to have an acceptance this early.
What about Ohio Wesleyan as a Midwest LAC option?
Was on campus with D for a high school History Day competition. Nice vibe, about 1600 students, CTCL school. Small town, downtown a few blocks from campus with a some restaurants/cafes.
About 45 mins drive from Columbus airport or downtown Columbus.
According to college CDS acceptance is 71%, retention 81%,
4 year graduation 62% (not sure how that compares to other similar schools)
about 50% in-state students
Has had the declining enrollment issue as some of its peers and has been working on making changes. Details in this article in Washington Post last year.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/06/29/many-small-colleges-face-big-enrollment-drops-heres-one-survival-strategy-in-ohio/?utm_term=.cff4d062dfa4
Sounds like some good merit.
Branch Rickey Scholarship
In honor of OWU alumnus Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers who led the integration of Major League Baseball when he signed Jackie Robinson in 1945, this scholarship is given to outstanding first-year students.
Requirements: 3.4 GPA and an accompanying 23 ACT or 1150 SAT score
Renewable: Good academic standing and up to four years
It also says “we’re making it available to every new student with both of these two qualifications”
Congrats to your daughter @DCNatFan
Yay @DCNatFan Very exciting!!!
Congratulations @DCNatFan . So nice to have top school acceptance so early!
Congratulations to those of you whose kids already have acceptances! I’m envious!
S19 hasn’t even started a single college application. Grr. At least he has a beginning list. Last week, he finally filled out recruiting forms for all of them for his sport, which typically recruits later than other sports, but here is an example of his stupidity. Saturday morning S19 tells us that a coach texted him saying that his team had a game in No. VA (we live in MD) and did he want to go to their game and meet the coaches. The game was THAT night at 7pm. Turns out, the coach had texted him on Wednesday, the day after getting my son’s recruiting form, and my son thought it was a generic “thanks for sending us your form” type text. He DID NOT read the entire text until SATURDAY! I was ready to throttle my son. Turns out the coach’s idea of No. VA was not exactly the same of what those of us in the DC area think of No VA. It was over a 2 hr drive from our house, about 1.5 hrs outside of DC. Meanwhile, we were actually 2 hours from home at the beach when S19 tells us this. If he and dh were going to go, it meant a 2 hr drive home, home for an hour, then 2+ hr drive to the game. S19 was not enthused about spending his entire Saturday in the car and at a game then getting home at midnight. After a pep talk (seriously, you have an opportunity and you are going to squander it?!), S19 and dh left and went to the game. Afterward, he said he was glad he went. He met the coaching staff after the game and was invited up for a home game and visit the school. Unfortunately,there is only one game that works, and it means S19 will have to get up at 6am on a Saturday morning, after playing his last game as a senior the night before against his archrival. It’s a D3 school so no athletic scholarship, and I think it will be too small for him, but it doesn’t hurt to look. It’s also a test-optional school which is a plus since his test scores are not very good. His GPA is fine for their stats.
On a different note, last night his school had a “senior parents night” - it was unclear exactly the purpose of the meeting as his college counselor is not stellar. All we knew was that six college reps would be there to “answer questions.” It was supposed to be UMD, Towson, McDaniel, Xavier, Elon and Loyola of MD. I was looking forward to meeting and hearing from the Xavier rep, but also Elon and Loyola. Unfortunately, NONE of those three showed up, even though the college counselor was expecting them (she started late as she announced she was still waiting on them). Not sure what happened but I wouldn’t be surprised if she mucked it up. Anyway, most of the questions asked were information I already knew, having been through the process with D17 already. However, I was pleasantly surprised to learn more about McDaniel. I had always thought of it as part of the MD public college system - I had no idea it was a private college. I knew the location but it was never on my radar as a result. I paid particular attention b/c it sounded like it might be a good option for S21 (even though he regularly says there is no way he’s staying in MD for college). Some key points, for anyone who might be interested - they are TEST-OPTIONAL and THIS DOES NOT AFFECT MERIT AID! So, unlike many other schools that are test-optional, you can still receive merit aid without submitting test scores. They are a fairly small school (1600), D3 for sports with 1/3 of the students being athletes, they are a CTCL school, which I didn’t know but I haven’t looked at that list in a while, and have a good support system/program for kids with LDs. The admissions rep seemed to have a fairly personal relationship with her applicants compared to the reps from Towson and UMD (obviously, when UMD gets 33K applicants, it’s going to be pretty impersonal). I don’t think S19 would have any interest in them given their size and location, but I was glad to be informed as my preconceived notions about this college were clearly incorrect! Anyway, just wanted to share my thoughts for anyone who might in the future be considering McDaniel. I think I will take a visit up there with S21 in the future.
I have two friends with kids at McDaniel and they’re loving it. It’s a little rural, but they have a close-knit campus and seem to have formed some really solid friendships. Pity it’s too close to home for my kid.
Congratulations to everyone who has acceptances!
McDaniel has been on the “should S19 consider it list?” for ages. We scheduled tours and canceled them. It has everything he is looking for and it is hard to find LACs within S19’s desired radius that offer ROTC.
@4kids4us I still think of it as Western Maryland College. Maybe this is why you have always thought of it as an MD state school? 
Driving my D21 nuts asking her every day what her AIS status is (she is transferring from 2 year to 4 year for Spring). She replied to me this morning “No mom 8-| ,every time you ask, i’ve already checked and trust me you’ll be the first to know”. LOL!
D19, otoh, is driving ME nuts with not getting stuff done. He got forms for application fee waivers and said “what do I do with them?” so I said leave on my desk, I will look at tonight. I looked at the forms - all he needed to do was put his name, address, email, phone# and sign them. Him. Not me. Sigh. He cut off one school off his list (UTexas) - not sure why but I do know it really didn’t click with him when we visited. He added a sister UT school though (Arlington) - they have a good nursing/public health program (he’s mostly into public health or pre-med).
Congratulations @DCNatFan !
Pitt was high on my DS 2018 for a while and dropped off. It was difficult for DH and I to let it go.
@4kids4us , this is kid 3 for me and I learned. DD has 5 acceptance because I offered to handle the applications for all schools that don’t require essays. Basically, I learned instead of getting frustrated with procrastinating kids, I’d be proactive in taking any data entry off DDs plate. Wish I did this with the first two more! DD still has 3 more schools and 2 scholarship apps to do.
@InfiniteWaves yes, that’s partly why! And that was one of the reasons why they renamed the school according to the admissions rep last night. She said 1) too many people thought it was actually in western MD when it’s not. It was named after a local railway line back in the 1800s that shut down 6 years after the school opened and 2) like me, who grew up in MD years ago, many people assumed it was a public college. She said these were reasons why they decided to change their name.