Interesting article in the WSJ on Saturday
So now I know how my alma mater Lafayette College a small LAC without a massive endowment can meet 100% of needâŠJust donât admit many who need it.
Thanks for all the input!
Yep, weâre only talking about the original UT in Knoxville, TN. Not the upstart Ut in TX founded 94 yrs later with the ugly orange 
And youâve all distilled one of the main âissuesâ for us. Since UT is the default choice for the parents (50% of baby photos have them in UT gear, weâre season ticket holders, we have a large network of family & friends in the Knoxville area, instate tuition is cheap with auto scholarshipsâŠ), there is a sense of âsettling for UTâ if he doesnât goto a HYPSM type school. Thatâs why we visited GTâs Marcus Nano Center, Harvardâs Center for Nanoscale Systems & MITâs new nano.mit building when S21 was a Fresh & Soph.
He/we got invaluable insights into his future & >30 incredible connections on S21âs Linkedin profile from these visits. Weâve taken to saying: If we lived in Mass, heâd goto MIT. If we lived in GA, GT. If we lived in IN, Purdue. Any would be great for undergrad but none really stood out when you remove the prestige factor from the equation. And so many people have told us that school prestige matters much, much more for terminal degree.
And yet, that nagging feeling remains. Go figure.
Weâre pretty sure the answer to this is no. Weâve met 1-on-1 with >10 professors @ UT. Most were wonderful. We also met with several others in Honors & in the Office of National Scholarships (dedicated to helping top students win Rhodes/Fulbright type awards). S21 felt wanted 
The lab we mentioned is Oak Ridge National Lab, 30 minutes away from campus. Itâs the largest DOE lab in the US with ~5,000 phdâs doing research there. As I said, many UT students do grad/undergrad work/research there. And S21 has an excellent personal connection with the Dir of ORNLâs Quantum Computing lab (not exactly what he wants to do but âreally coolâ and most of his goals involve quantum level work). We have a very high level of confidence that S21 will be doing meaningful undergrad research if he goes to UT.
Weâve been told by 3 in-the-know people that he would be âcompetitiveâ for UTâs premier scholarship which would come with incredible additional opportunities. He might be competitive for comparable scholarships such as Stamps for GT/Purdue. But if he doesnât get the big award, even the minimum guaranteed award at UT makes a 25-45k/yr difference vs OOS tuition with little to no merit $ at GT/MIT/Purdue.
Our income fluctuates so best guess is that his other 3 top choices would be $25-45k/yr after FinAid. If there was a compelling reason to spend an extra $100+k, it would not be easy but weâd figure it out. S21 knows that. We want him to have the best situation so weâve tried to remove our many biases as much as possible.
Thank you & you nailed it! Heâs leaning toward exactly this but he/we wonder does the benefit outweigh the time required to apply?
@havenoidea (I love your username) unfortunately, our big visit week was going to be in March so the only womenâs college my D has visited is Scripps (which she liked but wants to be on the east coast). Agreed that they can run together, especially because they do have many things in common, like their philosophies and their excellent faculties. And all of them seem to have great science departments. My D was drawn more to Bryn Mawr than Smith because of its pre-health support (although Smithâs is great, too) and being near a large city. Also, Bryn Mawr seems a little more like Wellesley in its academic intensity (both had grade deflation, Wellesley ended that, not sure about BM). And my D loves the sound of Bryn Mawrâs traditions (she loves community). They both have consortium access, which is great.
It does concern me (more than my D for some reason) that the intensity could become the negative competitive experience we have heard about at Wellesley. It is interesting in the virtual webinars when students are asked about it - they say it is collaborative and they seem sincere. I have been watching the recent student reviews on Niche and Unigo and it seems like some have that bad experience but maybe that isnât the majority of people and it seems to be getting more collaborative over time.
It has really helped my D to watch a lot of the schoolsâ webinars and reading those reviews (have to read enough to get a good sample size). This exchange is making me want her to do more research and look at Smith again because ED is such a big decision!!
T-minus 61 days (for me, thatâs about five minutes)
Wow @burghdad that article was brutal!! Hard truths, I guess.
Makes me think my friendâs kid with Northeastern as a safety is right. Theyâre full pay so sheâs got a big advantage right there!
@seoace âThank you & you nailed it! Heâs leaning toward exactly this but he/we wonder does the benefit outweigh the time required to apply?â
In my little 'ole opinion, I think the benefit would outweigh the time required to apply especially given the little nagging doubt you mentioned. My daughter got accepted to Rice that first year they announced the big Rice Investments tuition thing where they got so many applications and it was a 9% acceptance rate that year. It is great to be able to say she turned down Rice for a full ride to Texas A&M. Same thing for me way back in the dark ages of my college days, I got into UNC Chapel Hill but accepted a full ride to NC State instead. In all reality, probably no one will care or maybe even know if you donât tell them but yâall will know for peace of mind.
Also your whole comment about UT being the original cracked me up! I do appreciate school spirit and camaraderie! Being indoctrinated by living in Texas for so long now, I had almost forgotten about âyourâ UT! haha
Can anyone elaborate on the SAT: Writing-Language portion of scores? It is scaled out of 44 questions apparently and is not part of the essay writing portion (my son didnât take the essay portion). I didnât even realize this existed! I thought there was just the Math and EBRW scores added together for the 1600. I only discovered this because I clicked on a link to review test scores sent to a university my son has applied to. Do schools use this score do you think? I didnât think my sonâs score out of 44 questions was very good; I would rather it not be showing!
I have mixed feelings about this quote. A few things to consider:
I always look at âfitâ as an important consideration. âFitâ is three-prong: financially, academically, and socially.
The QUALITY of the 4 years of undergrad is important and itâs not about âname brandâ. You said he goes to a âTop 50â high school. Were those 4 years important to his development as a student? Some say âit doesnât matter where you go to high schoolâ but is this a true statement? Why would undergrad college be any different, no matter how much graduate school education he gets?
At UT-Knoxville he will be in the top 1% academically. Are his peers going to challenge him and bring out the best in him like a GT or MIT would?
Students change their mind all the time on what they want to do for a career (I know I changed at least 3x). If he ultimately doesnât go the PhD route, which college education will give him the greatest opportunities in the future?
I know a âfreeâ education is awesome but like many things in life itâs a complicated puzzle and might not be just about getting any old college diploma. Just some things to think aboutâŠ
@ChillyCow I never noticed that, I thought it was only two scores also. I will ask S21 to check his acct later.
(Writing scale of 40 + Reading scale of 40) times 10 = EBRW out of 800
There is no writing that is separate from EBRW. The W in EBRW is Writing
If you look at a scoring document for an official practice test, how it works might be more clear. The scale is 40, not the number of questions. See, e.g. page 7 https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/scoring-sat-practice-test-1.pdf
Perhaps the universityâs website referred to the old, pre-2016 version of the SAT that had math, reading, and writing 800 each for a total of 2400.
I hit submit on all my counselor components today (homeschooling mom). I am simultaneously relieved and terrified.
D21 still has to decide on her ED2 school, and she still has one application that requires an essay from scratch. Her schoolwork started today, so I hope the quality of her essay writing doesnât deteriorate from this point on due to feeling rushed.
She still has received only one portal via email though she has now applied to over ten colleges. I am hoping the others were waiting on the school report before sending the portal infoâŠ? If she doesnât get portal emails by the end of this week then I will have her contact the admissions officers.
@ChillyCow The SAT is basically composed of 3 parts. Reading, Writing/Language and Math. The Reading and Writing/Language scores are added together to give the EBRW score. Each score has a range of up to 40. Add them together, and then add a zero, and they make up your kidâs EBRW score (out of 800). With math, they just double the score and add a zero. HTH. So, no, you canât eliminate part of the score to be sent to colleges. I donât even think anyone can separate out the essay score if they took it and wanted to send the score from that sitting.
Signed up today for University of Alabama University Days with Capstone College of Nursing on November 10. Planning a trip to Saint Louis University and then Alabama. I donât know how I feel about getting airplanes in November but if I donât at least plan the trip it canât happen for sure.
CNN recently had an article about airplanes being less risky and relatively safe places in terms of NOT catching Covid. Airlines are really trying hard to get flyers back in the air.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/odds-catching-covid-19-flight-wellness-scn/index.html
I know how you feel. I was a little nervous to fly across the country earlier this month to move my daughter into her dorm. However, the airports and the airlines are very good about making sure everyone is masked, and things proceed in an orderly fashion such that no one is on top of each other at any time. Seats are typically marked off in the airports to help with distancing. Something else new for me is that they actually expect you to stay seated until the rows in front of you have cleared out before you stand up and prepare to get off the plane. And they mean it! If someone stands up before their time, the airline personnel are quick to admonish that person to sit back down. Itâs very different from the mad rush and jockeying for position that always happened pre-covid, thatâs for sure. And if there are empty seats, they will allow people to spread out throughout the plane to make sure everyone is distanced as much as possible. I had a much better experience flying than I had expected. And no one was a jerk about the rules, which was nice.
@evergreen5 and @amsunshine , Iâm still kinda baffled because it clearly shows 3 different scores. The math and evidence based reading writing scores are added together to get his SAT score out of 1600 that Iâm familiar with. So they added 730 + 700= 1430. Then there is a completely different line for the SAT writing-language score of 35. That makes me feel better if that 35 is out of 40 and not out of 44 but still. I donât even see this 35 score on his College Board account anywhere, even in view details where it shows his percentile ranking, etc. So if I understand yâall correctly, the writing-language score is a part of the evidence based reading writing score? I wonder why it shows separately in that kind of detail for a university to see but not the student? (Maybe Iâm missing something on the score report but I looked at it thoroughly twice.)
@ChillyCow can you link the university website you are referring to? Maybe we can help sort it out.
You can find the writing subscore out of 40 in the score details on the College Board site. First, click the Yellow button âScore Detailsâ to the right of the score.
Then notice menu bar tabs that include âScore Overview,â Score Details," âTest Questions,â and âSkills Insightâ (that step is not entirely obvious, since the menu bar is dark gray with white font).
Of those, hit Score Details (unhelpful name since it shares the name of the previous yellow button).
Then hit the Test Scores blue bar, which will give you the Writing and Language score out of 40, among other things.
It actually should be on the college board account for your son. When you click on his SAT score, it will take you to a page where it has some tabs at the top starting with âScore Overviewâ and then âScore Detailsâ. If you click on âScore Detailsâ, and then expand the top tab that says âtest scoresâ, you will see that there is a list of scores, starting with Reading, then Writing and Language, and finally Math.
But better yet, just click the button where it says to âDownload your score reportâ and then have a look at that. It will very clearly list your sonâs Reading, Writing and Language, and then Math Scores, in that order, in about the middle of the first page.
So, if 730 is your sonâs EBRW score, and his Writing score is 35, then his Reading Score was 38. Add those together = 73, add a zero and voila: 730. Make sense?
@evergreen5 and @amsunshine , good grief! Thank you for your thorough explanations and holding my hand. Those were a lot of clicks to get there but I do see it now! Thank you! I still think it is weird to list the writing and language breakdown and not the reading. But obviously, I donât know a lot. Ha! This is University of Texas at Austin btw. Maybe they are looking closer at the w/l and donât care so much about the reading. I donât think he has much of a chance of getting in anyway without a 1500 + SAT. That one little detail about the writing and language is lost in the wash.