@Sweetgum Anything you can share about the vibe at App state? Is it a party school? Is there Greek life? Any thoughts on an OOS student there? Do a lot of kids go home on weekends? Is it a good college town? Son wants a good social life but also good academics. Is there any skiing nearby?
We will get to App tomorrow night, but D21 zoomed into a class last week. She loved it! The class ended a bit early but the prof and a bunch of the kids stayed just to chat with her. The one girl is meeting us Tuesday to show us around! They told her no Greek houses, lots of outdoor activities and the campus is very environmentally conscious. I don’t get the impression it’s a party school; I also don’t get a suitcase college vibe. We’ll see.
Tomorrow morning is the WVU tour…gotta say, Morgantown hasn’t made a great first impression, but we’ll see how it goes!
S21 has two acceptances in:
UNT & UTD! UNT was his true safety and UTD was a safe match as well, but still feels good to see it official!
Waiting on:
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Oklahoma State Univeristy
Contemplating throwing in University of Arkansas because they don’t require an essay lol. He said he has ZERO bandwidth for writing another one right now and needs to conserve energy for scholarship applications (roll eyes).
@MAmom111. Last question first, yes there is skiing very close by. It’s probably not as great as Mass skiing, but it’s good for the Southeast. One of the up and coming snowboarders on the US national team, Luke Winkelmann, is from Blowing Rock and grew up going to App Ski Mountain in Blowing Rock (15 min from ASU).
They do really love them some App State Football. They were National Champs at the DI FBS level several years in a row.
I think Boone is a very nice little college town. It is pretty little though. There are quite a few funky shops and eateries down on King Street. My kids love to go to the vintage clothing store and to get bubble tea.
ASU doesn’t really have a party school rep in NC, but I’m sure there are plenty of parties that go on. It doesn’t have a nerd rep, either. I don’t think a lot of kids go home on weekends. It’s not a commuter school. There is Greek life if he’s looking for that, but I don’t think it is a huge thing.
I think App is a good school, pretty well regarded in NC. Of the state universities I would put it 3rd behind UNC and NC State in academic reputation. That’s just my gut feeling.
Speaking of music, country star Luke Combs went to App State as did alternative rockers Rainbow Kitten Surprise. Add in some snowboarding and hiking and eco-consciousness and I think that sums up the vibe pretty well.
Back home after a whirlwind trip! JMU won the week, with App State 2nd (might be first if closer to home), and WVU last.
It’s late and I’m tired, so let me know if you have questions.
WVU - cold, rainy drive in thru a pretty dumpy area of town. Not a great impression. Campus was at first disappointing- I don’t want to call it urban, but it was definitely a busier area than we expected. Seeing it on the tour - Downtown was definitely more compact than expected and very walkable. Evansdale a short bus ride away, where the football stadium is. Not a ton of huge lecture classes. A low point - 90% move off campus after freshman year.
App State - campus so much bigger than expected! But really pretty! So close to nature; if you like outdoor activities you will love it. Lots of construction- new dorms going up. Another place where lots move off campus after freshman year. Football stadium right on campus and an easy walk. Downtown Boone is a great little town, I was very pleasantly surprised! A short drive is every type of shopping you need. The AppalCart drives students anywhere. There is a PE requirement - with a ski class as an option. D21 met a girl in an online info session and she was nice enough to show us around,
JMU the winner probably mainly because it has the traditional, pretty campus she loves, along with major options she likes. It was a beautiful day so we got to see a decent number of kids around.
I’m fading fast…let me know if you,have any particular questions!
From what we’ve seen both in my daughter’s search and now my son’s is that at most of the public schools we’ve looked out, most kids move off campus after freshman or sophomore year. That’s one of the reasons I like that freshman have to live on campus at App State.
Is that just a coincidence given the schools we looked at, or pretty much norm that other people have seen?
I think that is pretty much the norm with the colleges I have seen, but there are some that have nicer on-campus apartments now that upperclass students may opt for too.
It does seem the norm at most state schools. Only exception seems to be Rowan in NJ. You have to stay on campus there freshman and sophomore year, and on campus are so nice now that a lot opt to stay on for junior and senior year. My son moved off to save money, but a lot stay on campus.
The Rowan dorms/apts were quite nice, and the Honors program was pretty good, but my D just didn’t feel it there for whatever reason.
Back to the thread topic a bit, my son finally got an ACT in (after being cancelled 3 times… we did have to drive 1.5 hours to get there but better than nothing) so now just waiting for the scores. Pretty sure he’ll get into most of his schools as test-optional, but at a few the score may get a little money so waiting for them to come in before submitting all the apps.
Rowan is still on my D21’s list (assuming she gets honors college - if not than it will be cut). My son is there, my husband and I went there, and my father in law went there! She wants to venture a bit further away, which I totally get. But cost will come into play so we’ll see!
D has been accepted by Towson so she is 5/5 for now. It will get much harder now with several deferrals/rejections in the future I suspect but good to have acceptances in hand. Good luck to everyone.
I see a lot of activity on the Temple discussion page with acceptances showing up on the portal. My son applied for the Rome campus (I’m not sure he knew what he was doing!) and no answer yet. Just an FYI
How are your kids doing? Son is not finding much satisfaction in this process, and sometimes it looks like he’s being tortured, but even getting all that behind him doesn’t seem to motivate.
He got a great offer from Ohio Wesleyan last week. I’m worried the school is in decline but the merit would bring the net price about $10K below our EFC so parents were very happy, but he more or less shrugged.
Applications are now submitted also to
Temple (Rome 
)
University of Puget Sound (not on campus for Covid so lower importance now)
St. Olaf
Hofstra
Juniata
DePaul
Allegheny will be submitted today for sure.
And possibly Miami University
He may have run out of steam so unless he finds some inner motivation the rest of the intended list will fade away. He will say Pitt is his first choice, but hasn’t even applied yet and since it was a reach anyway and they clearly say they favor the early (september) applicant, I am pretty sure he missed the boat on Pitt. This was a tough experience for him and the family. Emotionally more difficult than I imagined, and I can imagine tough!
Looking forward to the next phase and hoping relief will feel better than he thinks it will.
My daughter actually loved the process up until now! She has spreadsheet after spreadsheet tracking everything on her own! She has all her apps in, except TCNj which she has 0 interest in but her grandfather paid the app fee to get her Tovar’s apply! She’s spending most of this weekend on extra essays for scholarships and honors colleges.
But Rowan kind of took the wind out of her sails! Her in-state safety, where her brother is. She was accepted this week, but no merit. Then she checked their honors college page and they changed the requirements so she no longer qualifies. That takes it off the list, but now she’s really worried that merit will dry up everywhere (and I am too!!!). Sigh…
So now the stressful part begins…waiting to see where she gets in among her top picks and with what kind of money. Her list:
Syracuse
UConn
JMU
Rowan (accepted)
Susquehanna (accepted with big merit)
ECU (accepted)
WVU (accepted with Honors College invite)
Appalachian State
TCNJ
Miami Ohio
We asked S to at least submit the EA apps that have deadlines today. He could have done this weeks ago since they’re in the common app but he’s pretty much checked out in the college process. I just got home from errands and went to see how it’s going… he’s sleeping.
Sorry for those who are struggling with motivation/energy for this process - 2020 is definitely making this journey different than originally imagined.
I don’t think S21 is really giving college all that much brain space right now. I pushed him to get his applications largely done over the summer, and since he didn’t have much else going on this summer, he had the time and did it. There was still a push of things to get done in Sept/Oct with some tidying up of essays and the actual filling out of applications plus yet more demonstrated interest/info sessions, but the pressure was off in comparison to the summer when he was still studying for his 2nd attempt at the SAT (which never happened) and working on many essays, activity and honors list, doing interviews at 9 schools, researching schools and majors, etc. And once he submitted his final applications a few weeks ago, it doesn’t even feel as if he’s focused on waiting to hear (which I guess is good). He is not a kid who voluntarily makes lists and spreadsheets (I mean, unless we travel back to his younger days when he made extensive lists of Pokemon characters…that kind of thing). ? So I don’t think he even has a clue when decisions are to be expected from any of his schools. I, on the other hand, have my eye on the calendar and am looking forward to getting responses.
He was really happy a few weeks ago to hear from Knox where he was admitted with a good merit scholarship. We knew that would be the first he’d hear from. Before the acceptance he was sort of lukewarm on Knox - said he liked the academics but not the location (interesting since nowheres-ville locations don’t seem to phase him for other schools). But he was happier than I expected when he got in, and since it’s the only school that had become a true option at that point, we all spent more time delving into what we like about it, watching another info session, etc., and he, my husband, and I can all genuinely see S21 there. It was on the list for good reasons.
His final list ended up being 10 schools:
Knox (admitted with merit)
Should hear from these 5 in Dec:
Beloit
Hendrix (added as a financial safety)
Willamette (probably too expensive)
College of Wooster
Kalamazoo
Should hear from these 2 in Jan:
Wheaton MA
Clark
And waiting until March for:
Denison (a reach, and still unsure if it’s the best fit)
Dickinson (a reach, and quite possibly not affordable)
I foresee it coming down to Knox plus whichever of these he gets into - Wheaton (my current favorite for him), Wooster (loved it when we visited), Beloit (but might be smaller than he wants), and Clark.
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@nichols51 - we know 2 different couples that met at Knox and then were married ! When we went to a college fair last year, I mentioned that to the Knox rep and she said that she thinks Knox has the highest ratios of marriages between alumni 
@nichols51 Wheaton was one of the schools on the list for today. He finally got around to it just before dinner but was having trouble submitting because his SAT scores weren’t loading to the application - even though they were in the common app. I told him to just push the submit button regardless.
@eb2382 If I recall correctly Wheaton requires official SAT/ACT scores. Maybe they would accept official scores from your school (not just College Board/ACT), but our D’s school doesn’t include scores on the transcript. I’m sure you can send along separately if they didn’t upload on the Common App.
Hi all. DD21 got her first acceptance to Goucher with $25,000 merit. @nichols51, we have some overlaps! Knox, Wooster, Clark, Kalamazoo. (My stepdaughter is a junior at Beloit. 
) We definitely follow the money.
DD should have heard back from Knox - applying as a “priority” applicant. I thought it was 2 weeks when they receive a decision? It’s been almost 3.
Also on dd’s list: Drew, St John’s in MD, Lawrence. She finished all of her apps a few weeks ago. What a relief!