Dear U Tampa,
I anticipated my fall tuition would be paid in full by the deadline, but, because I have so many bills I regret to inform you that I deferred your tuition payment to the spring….
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I appreciate all the encouragement. My husband does not have an ounce of worry and thinks I am crazy. LOL. I just needed to get some opinions and get some reassurance. Thank you all.
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Hi all - my DD has applied EA to many, probably too many, schools. Beginning to regret our approach. But, we are too far in to go back and do it over. That being said, she did get into Ole Miss but my guess is there will be no merit as she will not be sending in any test scores. She’s taken the ACT and the SAT 3x times and is not anywhere high enough scores to generate enough merit. So frustrating, she has a 3.3 and will likely finish out her senior year with a 3.4 due to AP courses. She’s a great, well-rounded kid across the board. Just terrible at the standardized tests (which is totally fine!) I can’t make her sit for it again, I don’t think.
She has been accepted to Susquehanna (not enough merit), U Maine (not enough merit), Ole Miss (so far nothing), Penn State, (not main campus and heard no merit here), Deferred at U of Tampa (not surprised, she wouldn’t listen!), and U of Arkansas - which is the only one thus far to give enough merit to possibly work within our budget. Oh and WVU was accepted but no greek life so that’s out. She is waiting on UT Knoxville and LSU but have no hope for enough merit (if any at all) due to no test scores. She did apply to the University of New Hampshire - that was last week so just don’t know if she will get in or not.
We need tuition around 30 K or less. Her older brother is still in college so that is what it is. She wants the rah-rah school experience with a sorority. We live in Mass but are really from the south and thus, she wants a southern school experience.
Okay, not sure the point of my post, just venting I suppose. Thanks!
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I love the vent. My DD applied to UT Knoxville also. Mediocre SAT score so we only sent them to USF and FGCU (Florida Gulf Coast) because they were required but my daughter didn’t want to do the extra UTK essay and sent her score instead 
. Why do you regret the EA applications? DD’s guidance counselor said that since we were shooting for U Tampa as EA then we should just do the other 3 because we had all the paperwork done and ready so why not? We did 4 EA and 6 RD. UNC Charlotte we did EA and was listed as safety for us but won’t likely hear until the end of January. 
I also started to stress because my daughter only took one AP (chem last year) and started thinking everyone else has so many AP. She did get a 4 on the AP exam so maybe that will be a plus for her? I just don’t know…
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Just wanted to update on my S. Now that it’s December, he has finally decided to pay attention and weigh in on colleges. It is obvious that he is confused and lacking direction and perhaps a little scared. He is backIng off on a music major. He says he wants the BIG state directional (probably because that’s where the other B/C students he knows are going). They all “know” what they want to major in and exactly what they want to do. We have pointed out that a large state school is not the best place for a kid that will probably need some academic support and doesn’t know what they want to study. We got him to agree to focus on small, supportive LACs and he has now added an in-state stipulation, ugh. Given our state is Texas, this is not an easy ask. I’m frustrated but I suppose I should be happy he is finally asserting some opinions and doing great academically. Here is the new list, with some non-Texas schools because who knows if he’ll change his mind again. (Are any other kids still working on a college list and applications?)
Centre
Ithaca
Lawrence
Knox
Roanoke
Southwestern
St. Edward’s
Texas Lutheran
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He has applied to UNC-A but my concern is there are few classical music options there, and it is important to him to play his cello, even though he is not majoring in music. (He wants to major in either cybersecurity or national security.) I love Asheville, but I think it may not be a match for him. (He’s less crunchy granola than his sister.)
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@murray93 I don’t know about Texas schools, but some big universities have better support and/or exploratory programs. Even at smaller LACs, the student has to be motivated to set things up and follow through. I’d check the in state options and see what services are offered before crossing them off the list.
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Valid point. I will look into that. Still very concerned about class sizes.
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@ga19tex if you want more big southern schools with sororities, consider East Carolina, maybe UofSC, 'Bama, Coastal Carolina (not that huge, but good sports). You could also look at Western Carolina, but it doesn’t have the big sports scene that ECU does. It has sports, but ECU is pretty big time football, but you may not be able to bring the $$ down and WCU has a special lower tuition rate, NC Promise, across the board for everyone regardless of grades. Beautiful location, too.
@murray93, you may have already mentioned and ruled out Hendrix, but I can’t keep everybody’s posts straight. It might be somewhat closer to you in Texas?
I’m still biting my tongue about getting my D22 to check portals. She has one acceptance, but hasn’t gotten an email from any other schools and only checks the portals once in awhile. I’d be in there checking everyday, but I don’t have access to them, or the email.
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I love Hendrix. I had crossed that off due to not having strong music, but now that’s not as important. We are pretty far south in Texas. however, so that may still be a plane ride away.
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OMG that must be driving you crazy about the portals. Why does she not want to look at them?
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She says it stresses her out if I bring it up. I don’t know! I figure I will wait until Dec 15. That’s when she says she will check.
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Seconding Hendrix, though you are right that it may be a plane ride realistically. It’s 5 hr drive from us in DFW. Another one to look at is Austin college in Sherman, TX north of DFW. In state public, check out Stephen f Austin State, it’s much smaller than most of the Texas publics. Another private option might be Univ of Tulsa, it’s also probably a flight for you (4 hr drive from DFW) but is another small supportive school but with many of the features of bigger schools. Actually @ga19tex it might be a dark horse for your D as well. D1 football, Greek life (houses right on campus!) But still a smaller close knit community.
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DS has one app in at U of Washington, and the rest are all due regular decision in Jan. We’ll see what we see. His early app friends are starting to get acceptances so maybe that will push him to go a little faster.
Best of luck to everyone.
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Most of S’ acceptances had the portal update first, then the email arrived (in gmail). One school updated by text message.
Would your D accept a bribe so you could get the logins to the portals? 
I think she has decided to wait until the 15th to check so I think I can wait for then too. Only two more days. I think the checking and re-checking amps up her anxiety so she is waiting to just do it hopefully just one time for her 4 remaining schools, but really just for Warren Wilson, her number one.
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D received her final acceptance, to Agnes Scott, in regular mail today. No email and idk about portal because I don’t think she checked but they’ve been saying on social media decisions were coming Dec 15th so maybe the mail was just miraculously early! No word on merit but they do have auto merit and I don’t expect more for her. The little package she received is completely adorable, but didn’t move the needle for her at all. She still favors others. But admissions is officially complete in our house! 
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We asked the AO at Hendrix and daughter is not going to be nominated for scholarships there.
I’m tempted to script an email for her asking about weaknesses in her application, just to see if there’s anything that can be done, but suspect it’s not the essay or activity list but the high school, no access to APs, foreign languages, or it could be TO, all of which are not changeable.
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We’ve got 8 acceptances so far (for two kids) and all are unaffordable.
Hendrix is 23k for daughter and 24k for son, and that’s the lowest for each, which is what others are seeing too (Hendrix is the lowest).
Waiting on a few hopefuls in the next couple weeks.
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Wow congrats! And thanks for the news.
Got excited but nothing on the Agnes portal for mine. No letter either but we are a farther send.
Weird that they don’t send merit along too, everyone else is at comparable places.
I guess the adorable package is the reason for not sending an email?
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