My kids (both c/o 2014) only applied to one school each. For one, it was an OOS flagship.
Both schools had rolling admissions, so both kids knew in October that they were in.
My Dās plan is to apply to her top two EA and hopefully have choices early- and only apply further if needed. One of those requires no test scores and one no essay, so both should be fairly simple. Dance auditions make it trickier, so her earliest apps will be schools that donāt require an audition. There are only two of those, so that makes that easy! The rest have audition deadlines and app deadlinesā¦ and I would love to not have to worry about any of that.
āSeems like he could apply early, and if nothing works out, he could apply to some more with later deadlines.ā
Thatās what weāre thinking. They all do rolling admissions, and U of A said they have a 2-4 week notification, so I figure he should know by the end of September, if not earlier, if he will need to apply to other schools.
@scoutmom2002 sounds like a great trip! Good luck!
@scoutmom2002 would love to hear more about Roanoke as we are planning a visit there with D20 but it will be over the summer so expecting it to be hard to get a vibe. Can you comment at all one what the student body is like? We are not from VA and wondering how diverse the student body seemed. How was the town of Salem and the city of Salem? Was the campus pretty? It looks gorgeous online. Thanks!
@Johnny523 my d20 has WSU as her top school choice and there is a good chance she will only apply there. It does seem a bit crazy to me that she wonāt be applying anywhere else (especially when you read some of these threads) but when you look at her parameters of what she wants and how WSU fits along with it not being difficult for her to get accepted I just donāt see much of a reason. I do think she will apply to Colorado State University just in case she has some sort of crazy change of heart but definitely not more than that at this time.
@MAmom111 - My D20 loved the small and beautiful campus and the side of the gym/rec facility is all glass and looks out onto the soccer field and lovely views of the mountains. We canāt unfortunately speak much to the campus student vibe or diversityā¦we arrived at 9am on a Monday morning and the campus was a little silentā¦students were either all in class or sleeping in. For a small school the dining options seemed to have a nice variety of choices, albeit only two locations ā dining hall (cafeteria style with plenty of choices) and a second grab and go eatery.
D20 loved that all dorms were suite style so bathroom would only be shared with max of 4-6 students. Also - good to note that on campus housing is guaranteed for all 4 years.
Salem, VA is your typical small town with itās mom and pop shops along main street just across from Roanoke College (so walking distance) ā thereās Charlotteās Web Antique Mall, Salem Ice Cream Parlor, Willow Pond Bakery, Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea. It is a very quaint little town. There are also plenty of your typical pizza chains and sandwhich shops. There is also a movie theater and bowling about 7 minutes drive from campus.
It is a hop, skip and a jump to next door Roanoke which has everything plus the Valley View Mall.
My D20 loved it ā but (a) understands that the sticker price will be hard for us to swallow as S20 will be in school at same time all 4 years; and (b) while she wants the small school I think she didnāt like that there was no true shuttle bus or other transportation to get around Salem/Roanoke - we were told that students would get taxi vouchers if they wanted to go anywhere off campus. That was the only campus negative though. Also, there are other schools in VA that offer the 4+1 so that D20 could get her Masters in Education in 1 year ā which Roanoke does not offer. Hope this helps.
@lkim10 Itās good to hear my son isnāt the only one applying to just a few schools. The whole thing has become nuts. When I was in HS, even the people applying to Ivies and other HSS only applied to 4 or 5 colleges. It was unheard of to apply to 10 or 15 or more like a lot of kids do now.
@MAmom111 ā while in Roanoke you might want to check out Hollins University ā we did not because D20 refuses to go to an all girls school ;-). Also, nearby Lynchburg has Lynchburg University (similar to Roanoke College but D20 did not like traditional style dorms), Liberty University (we did not visit) and also Randolph College (no time to visit but I think too small for us). Sweet Briar College is just north of Lynchburg but also an all girls school.
It is crazy how many people apply to now but I assume that S20 will also āover applyā. We are only looking at State Schools, and right now he has two favorites but with medium test scores and being from a large county, and being a white male - I worry that it wonāt be as easy as it looks on paper. Thank goodness for the common app!
I think that if you are from as densely populated and overly competitive area as NoVa then I think applying to more than a few in-state schools (and even a few OOS) is wise nowadays. I know of many friends whose perfect stat kids (4+ GPA, excellent ECs, etc.) are not getting into top VA schools simply because there are not enough spots - remember, schools only take a certain % from each high school/regionā¦many of these kids I know ended up going to OOS schools. The same applies to the 3.0-3.4 GPA students from NoVa ā simply not enough spots. That does not mean you wonāt get into a good VA school. But being from NoVa it would be wise to ācast a wider netā ā 1-2 reach schools, 2-3 match schools and 1-2 safety schools. That being saidā¦I think applying to more than 10-12 schools is crazy.
So S20 scored a 21 on his first ACT (havenāt gotten the essay score back yet). Really wish he had gotten closer to 25, but he did zero of the online prep I signed him up for. He is taking the SAT on 5/4 for the first time, and I have implored him to do some of the online prep in the next 11 days. If he doesnāt get a great score on the SAT, then I have told him I will sign him up for some prep classes through his school so he can retake it in summer/fall.
Itās a little frustrating because he is bright and I know he can do better. His overall GPA is 3.7 but this semester is sitting at like a 3.2 right now.
He is targeting Cal state schools in our home state of CA and it looks like their average ACTs for admittance are in the 18-24 range, so heās not horribly off, but I would like his SAT to be better and his GPA to stay higher, otherwise these āsafetyā schools are going to fast become āmatchā schools.
@scoutmom2002 - My D19 was accepted to Roanoke with $28k in merit - making it much more affordable. Her stats were 3.4 and 1350.
@eb23282 - thanksā¦unfortunately those are not by D20ās statsā¦we will likely be at 3.0 (unweighted) and her first SAT score was 1190. With her stats Iām pretty sure weāll get next to nothing in merit aid. But we plan to apply and see what happensā¦if she gets in with those stats.
@scoutmom2002 I think you may be entitled to more than you think. A 2.8 and 1130 earns $15k. In any event - good luck - itās a beautiful school filled with wonderfully caring people.
@scoutmom2002 Thank you so much for all the information on Roanoke and the additional suggestions for other schools. Definitely makes me want to add ito our visit list. Unfortunately, she is not interested at all in womenās school. I think our plan is to visit Elon and Highpoint while we are down there.
@eb23282 Is your D going to go to Roanoke next year? Do either of you have any insight as to how liberal or conservative the school is? My D is fairly liberal and is concerned about southern schools being too conservative for her.
@eb23282 Roanoke is not at all overly conservative. Our tour guide was a wonderful (and clearly liberal) young lady from Connecticut finishing her senior year at Roanoke. Roanoke College has an abundance of outdoor activities and everyone is welcoming which is why she decided to go there. Iād say southern hospitality was clearly evident at Roanoke.
There are some southern VA schools that I would say are more conservative ā probably Liberty for sure (it was founded by Jerry Falwell after all)ā¦and from there it all depends on what you mean by conservative ā if going to a private Christian college then you should indeed expect them to be somewhat on the conservative side ā but thatās not necessarily a bad thing. For example my daughterās boyfriend is going to attend Bridgewater College and the only conservative thing is that it is a dry campus ā they are very strict about no drinking on campus even if 21+. Also, many private Christian colleges are strict about having opposite sex guests in dorms - again, not necessarily a bad thing in my book.
@MAmom111 ā I meant to tag you in above post.
Hi! Iām going to ask a weird question. We are in the DMV-mid-Atlantic area. S20 has horrible allergies. We had him tested and he reacted to basically everything outdoors and cockroaches. Iām worried about dorm life. He canāt open his windows in this area during spring, AT ALL, and I know many dorms donāt have air. So, Iāve started wondering if heād do better in a drier, less variable climate (I love that we have 4 seasons, but man, Spring and Fall kill him). Anyone have any thoughts/experiences? Money is a concern as heās the first of 4. He will have good test scores, but meh GPA due to depression/home and hospital his soph year (counselor will explain), otherwise heās above grade level and has APās. Any ideas of places that might give a little merit and help a kid who is allergic to pollen/outside so much that he gets migraines and his eyes swell shut (also allergic to mold-thatās why we are leaning towards a drier climate)?
@redfraggle Arizona and Arizona State have good merit aid, and are a dry climate. And their dorms all have AC, at least thatās what they told us on the tours.