@burghdad VaTech? Yes, we did a self-tour there too.
I donāt know if it has already been said on here, but PITT has gone TO for all majors except Nursing. I think originally it was only the College of Arts and Science.
We were able to tour an LAC campus with a coach on Wednesday. We were only able to access the athletic building but it was still nice to actually walk the campus and neighborhood. FWIW the tour and meeting confirmed D21s interest in the college.
@jeneric ā I didnāt know that ā great news re: Pitt!
@flyawayx2 was it worth it to just walk around campus? Did you think it gave you a better sense of the school than the virtual tour? We are going to go a couple of hours out of our way so want to make sure it makes sense. Also my D21 stated reason for including it on her list of 10 Was because of the ranking of the campus foodā¦Lolā¦
@dadof4kids Iām even excited for your kid! I love all things Amherst. I mean, Iām a bit annoyed about their Fall plan not including Juniors on campus until possibly the Spring and the tears we had to mop up, but they have always done right by us. I can tell you Iām just slightly concerned that where ever D21 lands, I will be comparing it to Amherst. Anyone else deal with that? Comparing their kids colleges and how they handle your kid and their business? 
Yes. Totally. Bowdoin has been great for S19 academically but also the āotherā stuff - dorms are big and new and nice and food is so good. D21 has been twice and she is already spoiled seeing the living situation and all of the pretty places to study on campus. We also think they took good care of their students in the spring, calling things early and offering to pack kids up and sending home a giant box of anything you wanted in your room for free. They refunded room and board super fast. Plus, heās been really happy so Iām afraid that D21 has very high expectations for feeling so happy herself.
Amherst is one of S21s super reach schools, heāll be applying RD.
@NateandAllisMom
Professor Leonard on YouTube is very popular with the engineering students on Reddit. They say he explains math very well.
First application in the books - University of Alabama submitted this evening. Of course, she canāt send her ACT score yet because you canāt log into the website until Monday. Iām thinking she should just wait until Tuesday to send the scores - Monday will probably be a mess on that site!
LOL donāt get too excited for her yet. She decided she wants to ED there, itās not like she has an offer. But at least sheās comfortable with that part of the decision.
I compare her two brothersā schools sometimes but honestly theyāre such different schools with such different missions itās really hard to do a fair comparison. I suppose if I had one at Amherst and one at a different LAC I would be comparing them all the time.
I have found that S18s big impersonal state university is actually pretty willing to work with him and figure things out more along the lines of what I would expect from an LAC rather than a state score with 20,000 undergrads. I expected them suffer by that comparison but they really havenāt.
@burghdad It was definitely worth it for us. S21 had never toured a college before, and he has been really resistant to doing virtual tours and info sessions. Heās done a few, but hasnāt gotten much out of them. Being able to walk around a few different campuses was a game changer for him. Even without other students on campus, he was able to generally decide if a campus āfeltā right to him and could possibly be his home for four years. He thought Wake was gorgeous but would be too small/contained for him. Loved everything about VT and didnāt want to leave. Did not like UNC at all, but couldnāt really articulate why. Iām glad we had the chance to self-tour; it was fun and really helpful in our case.
Per twitter feed from ACT "2021 seniors whose registration for June or July was cancelled & who havenāt received a refund will still get emails today. " Has anyone received an email? We havenāt 
@TXStuMom we have not received anything from ACT, either. Hoping they fixed the registration issues but not overly confident.
@Solstice155 , this is reply that ACT gave to another parentās question on twitter earlier today āā¦will receive an email today by the end of the day CT. We will post on social media once itās been sent out. Thank you for your continued patience!ā. So we should get it in another 24 or 25 minutes. But I agree I am not holding my breath.
@TXStuMom We still havenāt received any communication from ACT! No refunds from June or July either. Just nothing.
@3dogs3kids My son started his Alabama app too! It was super easy. Iām a little confused though. Do we need to reach out to ACT to submit scores? How do they add the teacher recommendation? I assume there is no essay? This is my first one and I really donāt know what Iām doing!
Happy Common App Day!
So excited for D21 to apply and get this entire process over with! Looking forward to being on the other side of this, when she is ājustā doing her fall/winter schedule and her part of this process is out of her hands.
Hoping she gets a few applications in this week, more the next week, and hopefully the rest the week after that. She has a busy extracurricular schedule this month, but I think she can fit it all in with determination and good time management. Once August 31 rolls around, sheāll be too busy to put a proper amount of time into writing supplemental essays, so this is the month to āgit-er-done!ā She still has two interviews to do that canāt happen until fall, and if sheās fortunate, sheāll be invited to interview for the almost-no-one-gets-in schools after she applies.
The only exception to getting all the applications in this month will be her ED/ED2 strategy. She is still trying to decide - she has three strong favorites. I advised her to wait until late September and pay attention to how those schools are handling the COVID situation. What do they do if thereās an outbreak on campus? How are their online classes? She should talk to the current students this September, both new and returning, and get their take on things. Itās not so much if a class is in-person or online - itās how the college adapted/adapts to the situation week by week, and how they communicate with their students. The way a college (and its students) adapt to crises should tell a lot about the college and the campus culture, and so she should wait and watch before making that final ED decision.
I am baking her a cake today to celebrate this phase of her life. She has worked hard over the years and it doesnāt matter where she gets in; she will bloom where she is planted. To me, she has already āwonā beacuse sheās done so much good work and I am super proud of her.
Found out about the national award two days ago - she didnāt get it. She can still put that she was nominated for it on her application, though. The silver lining is that if she had won, she would have needed to spend tons of time representing the organization over the next year, and she is already too busy for 2020-2021. So I told her itās a good thing she didnāt get it. She still gets to put the honor of being nominated on her application, but she doesnāt have to do any of the time-consuming work that goes along with the award. 
Good luck to everyone with this process! What an exciting time.
Yes, when any school needs an official ACT/SAT score, itās sent by the student straight from ACT/CollegeBoard. Alabama doesnāt look at teacher recommendations for regular admission - they might for more selective programs, but we havenāt gotten that far. I would reach out to your guidance counselor about teacher about recommendations - colleges can get them in a variety of ways (ours uploads them to Naviance and the schools download them from there), but each high school will have a standardized way that they do things.
on Twitter this morning, ACT saying that they still havenāt sent the emails.
Common App Day! Let the application season begin!