I don’t know what D’s unweighted GPA is but there is no way it’s 3.7. Her weighted GPA is 3.8. She has an 1160 SAT, which is on the low end for BU. She submitted in mid-September and found out on 10/25. @Jahm1820 it seems like a great school and she will definitely consider it!
@Marcie123 I don’t think my S got the packet yet either.
SiGH
Don’t remind me. The devil side of me keeps saying “we have over two weeks for that.” The angel side of me keeps saying, “What are you waiting for? You only have two weeks!”
@murray93 Congrats to your daughter! My two got their Butler apps submitted this week. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. One is more like the stats of your daughter. So naturally I’m curious. My oldest had a 3.6 29act and only got like 14k from BU several years back. I’ve heard they have tightened up more since then. We will see…
Totally unexpected, but today one of S20’s Low Matches changed his status to Accepted. We expected a Yes out of this one, but not so early. It’s barely been 2 weeks since he applied. It’s the first school to deliver a response, so getting a yes first feels pretty good.
It’s an in-state school so it will be affordable if he ends up with no better financial options. Even if every other school says no, he’ll be happy at this one. But he’s hoping some high matches and low reaches come through later on.
Congrats, everyone, for making it to 11/1! May I suggest that we all take a deep breath and NOT mention anything about college to our kids for the next week, after which we can officially start pestering them for scholarship writings! A week off is enough, right?
ED music audition is next week. My poor D is getting sores on her mouth from practicing her instrument so much. She has shown so little motivation and passion throughout the process until now, I’m so happy to see she’s excited about the program she’s picked and working toward a goal. But of course I’m sorry she’s in pain. Heh-heh.
@Momofmanytoo We are leaving her alone for the first time overnight this weekend, so she is getting a forced break on college talk. LOL!
My DD has had a pretty good week she was accepted to U Indy, Mizzou, Bradley, Butler, and University of Alabama. She is going to visit U Indy tomorrow and is doing an overnight at Bradley on November 21st, her cousin is a sophomore at Bradley so they’re both excited about her acceptance, plus Bradley offered her a really nice scholarship. Now she just has to work on her scholarship applications.
Congrats @EconPop and @Indymom20 !
@MinnieFan @shooflypie @Lemonlee @tutumom2001 @cakeisgreat @scoutmom2002 @redfraggle
Hi all, I haven’t posted since the summer because I was getting stressed! But I’ve loved following this thread since last spring and still appreciate all the great advice and commiseration!
I’d love to update you and rejoin this supportive thread, so here goes…
When I first posted, DS20 had a 3.12 cumulative GPA and a 1290 SAT. He hit his goal of getting a 3.9 junior year and his cumulative GPA rose to a 3.4.
This first quarter senior year was his most rigorous, with his first two AP classes (Psych and Stats), two honors classes and two other classes with no honors component. He worked hard and surprised me with a 4.4 for first quarter! His reported GPA for college though is his 3.4. He did mention his 4.4 in the five EA applications he submitted. Three apps went to colleges that should be solid safeties with his improved Senior year SAT of 1360. One went to his dream reach school (he is in the 25th percentile there) and one went to another reach where he is more mid-range.
He has planned one more EA with a later deadline at a target school and then depending on results from EA, which we’ll have by end December, he’ll apply RD or ED to another three reachy schools. ED obviously only at one!
I’m hopeful we came up with the right strategy. If he hadn’t kicked into gear junior year, he would have been much more limited with the 3.1 GPA. His current 3.4 is still below target at nearly all of his schools, but we’ve been told he’ll “go to Committee” at those schools with holistic reviews. And of course 1st term is easier than second, so he will need to be diligent about his grades.
Anyway, that is our story and I’m sticking to it!
Does anyone have stories about other “late bloomers” who had reachy colleges take a risk on a student based on Junior and Senior year stats?
Thanks and good luck to all!
Regarding fee waivers:
Somewhat unfortunate to realize this after November 1… but did you know that there are some application fee waivers available through a simple google search? My husband would not approve. But we sort of got bit by the application fee waiver game. One twin applied super early to one school and ended up getting a fee waiver by mail after she was admitted. Felt like punishment for being on top of things! At least the other kid got to apply for free. I have since stumbled upon a fee waiver for a different school, which worked. After submitting our last few apps over the weekend, I’m only slightly embarrassed to admit that we saved some money on our last few apps.
But I swear, I never let my kids pretend to be under age 12 to order off of the children’s menu. Does that redeem me?
DS hasn’t gotten any letters yet but did get two invitations by email to apply for Honors College at two schools so I take that as a good sign. Not from his one reach school but one is for hist first choice.
@ITBgirl fantastic news!
I’m not sure if this works all the time, but I ended up getting fee waivers from most of the schools my son applied to.
Earlier in the year, I “requested info” from every possible school he might want to attend. Mostly it was to have a physical document for him to look at to kickstart his college preparation. It worked from that standpoint, at least in the beginning. By the end of the summer when he was receiving his 4th or 6th piece of mail from some schools, the plan lost some of its appeal.
An unsuspected benefit is that nearly every university I requested information from eventually offered us a fee waiver, either through the mailbox or email. I don’t know if the two (requesting info and receiving a fee waiver) are connected, but it seems that way to me.
@EconPop I wish I had had the forethought that you did. We approached things fairly haphazardly. Getting these free application waivers was NOT even on my radar. I was only concerned about getting things done ASAP, since there are two. I mean, the amount of paperwork that is still coming in the mail is obscene. I’m talking… several rain-forests worth. Hindsight is 20/20. These are my last two. I’m sure I left a couple hundred on the table by not properly forecasting the free application weeks, as well. Sigh…
I am still sort of scattered now that we are approaching scholarship applications. Does anyone have any helpful hints for that before I get started, so I am not as equally unprepared? 
D just got accepted to Susquehanna with a very nice merit scholarship. Totally shocked as she only sent in her app a week ago. It’s one of her safeties but she really liked it when we visited so she’s really excited. And we’re excited to have a school she likes that is very affordable.
@MAmom111 we have a friend who graduated there. May have gotten her Masters there too. LOVED it. Had an amazing experience and is currently living her best life, gainfully employed in her field. That was the school that actually opened my eyes to all the schools no one has heard of that could be amazing.
OK - I’ve been dealing with my mom’s house fire claim…it’s 11/11. Is there a deadline for FAFSA? It it school specific? I’ve been out of touch since her house fire…and dropping balls left and right…I feel like I’m drowning in a ball pit right now.
@scoutmom2002 - You can file FAFSA even after they start school next year and get retroactive Federal aid, but a lot of colleges have priority deadlines to get institutional aid or for scholarships if the school requires FAFSA to be on file for that. One school DS applied to is Dec 15th for priority consideration, another one is March 1st…so quite a range.
I went to Arkansas and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. My D17 got accepted into the honor’s program and received 90% off her out of state tuition. She’s still awaiting additional financial aid (and she doesn’t want to go there), but Arkansas is a pretty good school - if you put in the effort.