@Cheeringsection Thanks for the tip! I just read about that today (asking for a special rate). Where did you book your flights from? This is all new to me. We’re thinking of visiting UTD soon and I don’t know the best way to book flights. We live about 45 minutes from Cleveland. 
I am reading all of your adventures with your kids and I’m so impressed. S20 is not totally engaged in the college process. We went on one visit, he liked it a lot, and he has been to 3 other in-state schools for swim meets that he thinks he’d apply to, and so far that’s it. I should be happy, the one he likes looks like he would definitely get in, and definitely at least one of the other in-state (thinking one of the 3 he actually wouldn’t be thrilled to attend). His true safety would be community college, and tbh, he seems like it’s not his first choice, but he’d deal with it. It’s been one full year since he struggled with mental illness and finally got back to school full-time. He’s in a REALLY good place right now and his GPA is coming up-he even got accepted to the National English Honors Society-he didn’t apply for NHS even though he was invited because he was afraid he’d be rejected. He said he’ll definitely do it next year.
All that to say, I don’t know where his head is. He is taking the March SAT and said he’d take the June one if necessary. He’s doing a lot of driving practice, which is great, and he’s working 10 hours a week. I really am so proud of him, but I just can’t get him to think college, or if he is thinking to TELL me what he’s thinking. So, for now I’m reading and hoping he’ll come up with at least a couple of colleges to visit come spring break-even if they were the ones we have been to for swimming. All we really saw was the pool!
I like to start with either google flights or kayak.com to see what is out there. Then I check Southwest’s website. Check the “and surrounding airports” box on all three to see which airports give you options. Sometimes driving an extra 30 minutes can save you substantial $s.
@Cheeringsection when is your spring break? We are doing 2 of those 3 schools during our spring break. S18 goes to the third one so my D20 has already seen plenty of it. We are mid-April. Might see you on the tour?!
@chb088 our trip is in March so we will be long gone before you arrive.
@redfraggle sounds like your S is doing great. What a relief for you. Everything will fall into place - the most important thing is that he’s healthy.
Schools near Raleigh…hmmmm…Guilford? Elon? Davidson? NC State? Those are good ones! Good luck. We did that tour a couple years ago.
@bigmacbeth I assumed Duke, UNC, NCSU. I may have assumed incorrectly, but those 3 are within 30 minutes drive of each other.
Has anyone dug into the General Education/Core requirements at some of the schools on your kid’s list? I was surprised to see the differences at different schools. They can really get in the way of double-majoring and/or finishing in 4 years, while allowing your kid to explore different majors. This was a really big turnoff of elite schools, but I am seeing it possibly affecting some of the direct admit Nursing programs as well…where I would like to see more Electives and less Gen Ed requirements.
My D17 will graduate with 2 majors and a minor in 4 years, which is due to not only bringing in AP credits, but also because the Gen Eds were not so strict, and many were satisfied with AP credits. Many of her friends are graduating in 3 years. Saves a lot of $, and is not merit-dependent.
@chb088 Yeah, I was kidding about that school list.
We definitely look at the GE classes. I am surprised D20 is still interested in UTD because they require a lot of classes she hates and won’t be bringing in DE credit for. I noticed a lot of LACs have very few requirements.
I agree the differences are huge @bigmacbeth It’s helped my daughter narrow things down a bit. She wants more flexibility than some of the heavy core colleges allow.
Our spring break trip will be in April. Going to see schools on her list in state then flying out to NYC to visit her cousin who is at NYU. She isn’t interested in going that far but for the sake of comparison, I may encourage her to visit some schools.
Our in-state publics are all very generous in giving Gen Ed credit for APs and DE classes. DS18 rolled in to Louisville needing one class to be completely done with Gen Ed. DD20 will likely only need two or three. It does feel great when everything counts/transfers, but I find myself thinking a lot about challenges associated with this.
For example, graduating in three years, while possible, can lead to some pretty strange outcomes you may find undesirable. At Louisville, I believe a BS in Biology requires something like 48 hours of classes in the Biology department. AP Bio did not count toward freshman biology for majors, so he still started as a freshman at square one with respect to courses in the major. However, due to the required sequence of biology courses for your freshmen and sophomore years and required prerequisites, most of the biology courses you can’t get to until your third year. If DS wanted to graduate in three years, it is clearly possible but it would mean year three is essentially 100% biology and nothing else. I know you expect that your junior and senior years are going to be heavy in courses in the major, but 100% biology seems pretty dense. He doesn’t plan to do this, and I don’t blame him. He plans to spread it out over four years and work on another major and minor.
I’ve find myself questioning whether they would have enjoyed the experience of taking gen ed courses in a college rather HS setting. Professors versus HS teachers, college peers versus HS peers, another couple of years of life experience, etc.
With respect to courses in the major, especially STEM classes, another consideration is whether you are sure the AP course has properly prepared them for the next level. For example, do you really feel ready to start as a freshmen in organic chemistry based on your 4 or 5 on the AP Chem exam? In DS’s case, he chose not to use the AP credit in chemistry. Partially because of this concern and also because it allowed him to be a part of a honor science living learning community. It will be good MCAT review also I suppose.
Don’t get me wrong, I consider all of the above great problems to have. Still a great boost and leg up, just maybe not as much as it might appear at first glance.
DS13 went into college with over 60 DE credits and had fulfilled all but one GE requirement, all his science, and all but one math requirement. He majored in computer science and engineering, and the courses were sequenced so it would be difficult to graduate in fewer than four years. It was good for him, though. He added a minor and took a lighter courseload (12-14 credits/semester instead of 15-17). He did have semesters where all of his classes were computer science/engineering but with the lighter load he was able to focus on those classes easier. He did DE at the community college (like DD20 is doing) and had great professors there - much better in most cases than the big state flagship public university he graduated from.
UC Davis doesn’t allow you to use AP credits to satisfy GE requirements. Fortunately my child’s major (Cognitive Science) is interdisciplinary so most of the GEs were fulfilled by the major’s lower division courses.
@ebh87 Did someone answer your quote question? (I just got back on and have 122 posts to read.) If not, you put the word quote in brackets at the beginning of what you want to quote and then do the same at the end but put a / between the bracket and the q.
@tutumom2001 Sorry I am not sure that I understood how to do the quote still. Tried different brackets [ ] and { }, didn’t work.
@makemesmart You need an open quote and close quote. So you put the word ‘quote’ in square brackets before the words you want to quote, and the ‘/quote’ in square brackets after. HTH
[ quote ] Remove the extra spaces and this is a quote. [ /quote ]
Did I get it? Lol
Edit
@momzilla2D thank you. Finally I learned it. 
This is another easy way to see how to do it without it converting your attempt to an actual quote (which happened to me when I tried to explain it earlier). Just swap out the “w” for “q” and you’ll have it:
[wuote] What you’re wanting to quote [/wuote]