You could take the college vine categorization and turn it into a Chance Me on this site and see what feedback or nuance the people who know the specific schools might add. Collegevine engine plus College Confidential wisdom together could give you some confidence.
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My D22 struggled with apathy during the spring and also has voiced that it feels like itâs coming far too soon after being cheated out of so much high school. These poor kids.
She does have a pretty good college list. We are flying to Southern California next week to see UCLA, USC and Occidental. Oxy is giving in-person tours but the other two will be self-guided. She will definitely apply to USC and UCLA but really wants to spend more time seeing them. We were on the Oxy campus a couple of years ago and she wasnât feeling it. She now wants to look again because aspects of their programs now really resonate with her.
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Look engineering at Lafayette it is not what it is like at CMU or even Lehigh. However, the graduates get jobs. Lots of companies recruit there. The advantage to Lafayette engineering is there is no graduate school. Thus the professors are teaching the classes, the undergraduate students are doing research. Another advantage is the size of the school at 2500-2600 you will not, even in the large introductory classes have 200-300 student in large lecture halls. Your professors will know you by name. Also Lafayette has strong liberal arts so for the engineering student who wants to be well rounded and take a political science or literature course that opportunity is there is well.
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@Southoftheriver Could you give us your daughterâs thoughts on those schools after you visit? S22 is interested in southern California as well but wonât have a chance to get out there. It would be much appreciated!
Yes, will do
Thanks, this is good to hear and confirms what weâve come to understand about Lafayette. The only lingering concern is that it could draw heavily from the from the tri-state area, and jobs would potentially be local as well. I wouldnât want S22 to feel out of place as a Midwesterner.
According to the Lafayette common data set, of the 559 non-athletes that enrolled in 2020/2021 77 or 14% received merit aid of an average of about $23K. Considering that tuition room and board is over 70K one better be prepared to spend lots of money to go there.
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We are going to LA the week after. I am quite nervous about traveling right now, but D22 wants to check out UCLA, USC, Harvey Mudd, and Pomona before finalizing her college listâŠ
I know a civil engineer who went to Lafayette undergrad and Ohio State for his masterâs. He felt he benefitted from the different approaches of the small and large school programs.
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Hi parents! Just jumping in from Class of 2021 parent group (I get a two year break). In case it hasnât been discussed, there are colleges that have early application (not EA or ED) deadlines if you want to be considered for their merit scholarships. Two that I know of are USC and Vanderbilt. I donât think itâs posted on common app but it is posted on their school website.
My son missed out on some scholarship apps (national ones like Coca Cola, etc) because he was so focused on ED app (deferred but got in RD, so I guess it wasnât a bad time investment!) and college apps in general. Some are due before October so be mindful of that if your kiddos have the potential to be selected for those scholarships!
Good luck!
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Hard to know whatâs best. Itâs a short flight for us. We had to cancel two big trips and we really want to fit it in now in case things get worse. USC and UCLA top her list.
I am trying to complete both Coalition App and Common App before school starts next week and wanted to clarify a few questions.
- Can I apply and submit my application to colleges without official transcripts and recommendation from the counselor and Teacherâs LOR? I have self reported everything on my end in the application.
- Also when do I need to send my official SAT score from college board to all the colleges I am applying to? Is it now or only once I get accepted?
- how about sending AP score report? Now or once get accepted? Thanks
- You can submit your part but I would wait if you have time per the deadline. Sometimes, itâs good to walk away and look at it later to get a renewed lens. I would not submit the entire app (eg activities, awards). Iâm glad my son waited til a week before deadline to submit his ED because that was when he found out he was National Merit Commended Scholar. Thatâs a big deal award. You still need LOR if itâs required and official school report and transcript from your counselor if that college requires them (most on UC and common app require this).
- This depends so check with your college. Many just require it once you accept.
- You donât need to send AP til you been accepted and committed. I would not send because if you want to take a certain class, an AP credit may place you out of it. For example, Brown doesnât give you credit for AP but it will place you out of certain classes. My son did not report his 5 in Biology because he wants to take Bio with a professor whoâs got a great rep (wants the college perspective, which from my experience can be so much better than high school AP) and Brown has limited Bio classes with Lab. Submitting his AP score for Bio wouldâve forced him to take a higher level Bio, which heâs not interested in.
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Great point to consider about the timing of early apps. Re national merit commendation, if application was submitted prior to the award, could the student email the AO with an update? Or is it just better to wait until late October?
ETA: It looks like National Merit was released on Sept. 9 last year in our state, so hopefully this is the case again!
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This year could be different but they generally send principal letters earlier than that. If you watch the blogs (a few follow NMSC closely and even have predicted state cutoffs posted now), once the letters are out, your kid (or you) can just call NMSC and ask them to confirm status over the phone. They are very nice and helpful. We did that last year for my D21 because our high school is big and fairly uncaring about this stuff and the principal didnât notify them for months.
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Where have you seen recent cutoff information for National Merit?
Art Sawyer is well regarded for his predictions but this still has some wide ranges:
This one is acting more confident but not sure their track record:
National merit commended cutoff is already known - 207. The principals were notified in April and given a list of students who will be at least commended.
The list of National Merit Semifinalists will be announced in September. S22 is a likely NMSF, and we will not submit any of his applications till itâs announced.
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Tough situation here in California to get National Merit consideration. S22âs school moved the qualifying PSAT to January this year due to COVID restrictions here. Then the January PSAT was canceled, replaced with some proxy online thing. Having a qualifying PSAT was then not possible. I think I saw something about how a qualifying SAT could work in this special case? But then the SAT was repeatedly canceled here. S22âs first chance for an SAT wasnât until June, well after the April 1 cutoff.
His June SAT would have fit a âconfirmingâ score. But all too late. Thanks COVID!
Check individual schools for standardized test score submission requirements.
Of the 11 schools D is applying to that accept SAT scores, 4 require an official report from College Board with the application. The other 7 take self-reported scores and only require an official report if enrolled.
PrepExpert is confident in their cutoff projections. They are also off by 3 on their Commended projection, which is known. Three points is a lot. So confident but very wrong. I think the low-to-mid point of Art Sawyerâs range is the best projection, given the Commended data. Actual data should leak out in a few weeks.
If a NM Alternate Entry application was completed by the April deadline, test scores through June are accepted, and they can be submitted as late as October 15.
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