@HarrietMWelsch
Same here. Cold and snow is so far the preference.
Yep, my D20 wants cool weather. Sheād like it a little warmer than what we get during Midwestern winters, but still prefers it over hot and/or humid.
Who else is waiting on SAT scores this week? My D20 took it at her HS on 4/9. 10 more points, thatās all I askā¦10. More. Points. 
Iām over here begging the Flying Spaghetti Monster that my kid just gets in the neighborhood of the national average. So different from my first go round with the tests. Sheāll have her first go at the SAT on Saturday.
Itās funny how even though we say āIām fine with his/her scoreā from an earlier test, we always tend to want to squeeze just a little more out of them. Poor kids! I really am fine with her earlier score. :stuckouttonguewinkingeye:
@bigmacbeth Good luck guys! I so hate the new way the College Board releases scores. It used to be first thing in the morning. You woke up and bam the scores were there waiting for you. Now it can be any time during the day. In March my Dās scores came at about 6:00pm. She kept refreshing and refreshingā¦
Thanks @momzilla2D.
For those who are bothered by extreme heat/humidity be sure to check if dorms have a/c. Seemed we toured some that didnāt have it and even in northern areas it can be very warm and still humid in August/September. DS was in a dorm one summer w/o a/c and there were some miserable nights where fans just werenāt much help.
Trueā¦DS was in a summer program at Cornell. Dorms without ACs in July/August spoiled his otherwise great experience there (not that he is going to get in Cornell :)ā¦) Now the first thing he checks in college tours is ACā¦some kids (my younger one) are fine with heat but DS is not one of them.
Speaking of the SAT, has anyone received the paper results yet from the March sitting? D took it with essay and curious how the essay part went. Thatās only comes in the paper results, right?
My D20 is also taking the SAT this weekend. She took ACT earlier this month and is pretty happy with her result for her first test, but a little higher would be even better. Weāll see how the SAT goes and then whichever is higher she will retake over the summer. Canāt wait to be done with testing, itās a real downer.
@hs2020dad PSA: Save money by checking the school website for A/C in dorms info before you visit. This is one of those items that I always wondered about, and whether kids didnāt go to certain colleges simply b/c of the lack of A/C. But, Iām sure it is, based on that thread about reasons kids crossed a school off their list.
Seems like every school we visited had some dorms with no ac. I suspect mostly freshmen get those dorms, as upper classmen get priority in dorm selection. Hoping D19 gets a dorm with ac at OSU, but if not, itās only for a couple of months at the beginning and end of freshman year. Of course, thereās a big difference between Ohio and, say Alabama.
Took me forever to catch up with this thread as I became hopelessly behind. Congratulations to those done with testing and those that successfully found summer programs!
S20 is killing me! After telling me for a year he wants to go in-State so he knows some kids at his school, he has switched gears and now says the opposite. CSU remains on the list and their COA with merit is the price to beat.
He is now willing to consider Alabama (visited with S19) and seemed interested when we discussed Miami University of Ohio.
He is still undecided on major but chemistry, biochemistry, neuroscience and psychology have all been discussed.
So he is looking somewhere he can get undergraduate research regardless of field, generous policy regarding AP/DE credits (he will have over 50 credits) and costs as far below $20,000/yr as he can get. He seems to like bigger schools with school spirit but would not rule out smaller schools as long as the campus has a traditional feel. (For example- likes Alabama campus but hated Alabama-Huntsville campus.)
ACT: 35/GPA:4.0/4.3 with good ECās and leadership but not anything remarkable and I am not sure he could say he had true community impact, etc. I feel like the focus will need to be on stat based merit.
Other safeties I would like him to consider would be Arizona and Ole Miss. Had considered New Mexico and Utah but I am worried that they may end up feeling like commuter schools. Anyone have ideas for me? He would love California or the Pacific Northwest but I donāt think he will find his price point there.
Open to any and all suggestions!
@mountainmomof3 Canāt help much with other suggestions. Getting under $20K is like the Holy Grail in our house. D20ās older sister was able to do it with similar stats as your S, but this was a couple of years ago. She also wanted big time sports and research. She ended up at a B1G school with a paid research position day one. When we priced Alabama at the time, the costs were about the same when taking into account travel. The dorms there seemed much more expensive, so if you donāt get a full ride, it can still get expensive. Maybe itās b/c they have to pay for A/C in the dorms.
@mountainmomof3 How about Florida schools? They reward OOS National Merit. How did he do on the PSAT?
@mountainmomof3 I believe Oregon State and Washington State are WUE schools which would put them in the right price point. The problem is that Washington State is in the middle of nowhere and is a pain to fly in and then drive a long distance to campus. Has he considered Utah?
@onthewestfence - Unfortunately not. S19 is a NMF and applied to UF and UCF.
@bigmacbeth - Alabama still is much cheaper than CSU. I really like the undergrad research opportunities and the likelihood he could do undergrad and a masters in 4 years. But most of all, I was so impressed when we visited for S19. But I would love closer options.
@lkg4answers - Utah is a definite possibility but am little concerned about how it feels on the weekend. Need to visit in the fall.
Well I donāt know much about aid and cost @mountainmomof3 but we just toured a lot of schools and it seems like āUndergrads do research from day 1 in every field!ā is a big buzzword this year. I feel like everyone said it, but we did do 5 tours in 5 days so they may just be blurring together. We were at Michigan, OSU, UIUC, Notre Dame and IU.
It is clearly not true. Schools with a 15 to one faculty ratio dont have all faculty working with 15 undergrads on reaearch.
In addition there are fields where a freshman does not have the ability or core knowledge needed to do meaningful research.