Aw that’s great!!! I am so glad you bragged. That’s awesome!
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Amazing! Brag away! He’s earned it!
And I realize I never responded to your D24 looking for equine science… my niece went to a small school in PA called Delaware Valley University (DelVal to those who go there). Very farm science oriented. She was also on the equestrian team and did not have her own show horse. They have both Hunter and Western seating, I am pretty sure.
She only looked at schools with equestrian teams and most were a little ‘uptight’ for her. DelVal was much more like a farmish family, completely different feel and she really liked it. After graduation, she did not want to be a vet, but found a job working for her state regulation department testing and tracking horses on the race scene. Her closest friend there tho did go right into vet school and is now practicing.
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A few things @AnonMomof2 My D applied RD to Ham on the due date (Jan 5). She did not immediately set up portal. When she did, over the weekend, she saw the extra essays, video, etc. with a deadline of 1/15 and she just couldn’t get it done with work and school commitments. BUT she decided to do it yesterday and the portal still accepted her submissions, even though the date passed. So maybe she can still do it? And if not, I don’t think they’d hold it against her. Giving them only a few days to write something they didn’t know would pop up in a portal is not cool!
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One of the schools my daughter applied to keeps adding new financial aid requirements to their portal without sending any kind of email notification. Most people aren’t even checking these portals once, let alone checking back for weekly updates. This school must have so many kids with incomplete financial info.
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Yes, Hamilton is one who cares about demonstrated interest, and though the info on the existence of the portal-associated supplemental essays/video etc is on their main website, I agree many kids may miss that and not know until they check their portal (which could be much later). My Ds didn’t apply to Hamilton but a couple schools on their lists functioned similarly–and it was always the ones who cared most about interest.
Makes sense. There was nothing like that when my older kids ('18 and '19) applied. And I get what you mean … perhaps she should have known had she looked closely at the website or immediately set up the portal – but I keep thinking … these are 18 year-olds juggling many other responsibilities. It seems to me that if a school wants a “Why Us” response (even if it’s optional), it should appear in the Common App.
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I agree–better to require it and make it obvious , then they can assess interest based on the content of the Why Us, in my opinion. It is all quite a “game” these days. One of D23s schools that “doesn’t consider demonstrated interest” had an interviewer who mentioned how they were going to convey her demonstrated interest. Could be that they were just not up to date on what is considered, but I do think they all care about interest on some level, and some make it sound as though parts of the application are “optional” when it seems they are likely not optional for the vast majority of applicants.
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At UPENN alumni interview my D23 was asked if she had visited their campus; so indirectly demonstrated interest does seem to come into play.
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Yes! They have almost all asked her that, or seemed very happy when she volunteers she has. She has two more interviews scheduled next week–we shall see if the pattern holds.
Out of S23’s schools, only 2 of them did not offer EA. We knew he’d be applying to them RD, but he applied to all his schools on the same day in mid-October.
Boy did he complain about how none of his friends were doing anything with their apps yet. He would have procrastinated the RD apps but we told him just to get everything in early and then he could move on with his life. And that he’d be thanking us later. He did a huge push that week and got it all done.
The early apps definitely paid off and he is indeed happy he did it early. It was a bit weird to apply to RD in October, but once they went out the door, the stress evaporated. Decisions have steadily trickled in, including aid offers, so waiting for March doesn’t feel as weird as we’d expected.
Meanwhile, some of his friends are still working on apps. They are exhausted and have lost steam. Because they’re tired, they’re crossing schools off the list, which is probably good at this point.
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I wish more New York based parents could read some of the comments on this thread and see the in-state costs of some of other states’ public flagships to understand what a deal the SUNY and CUNY schools are: Buffalo, Binghamton, Stony Brook, Geneseo, City College of NY etc
For those that don’t know, the standard in-state tuition for NY 4 year undergrad schools is about 7K per year, and with fees is about 10K a year at the big university centers like Buffalo and Stony Brook. Quite the deal compared to in-state rates at neighboring flagships in PA and NJ.
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Yes, they are even a great deal for out of state students as well. My older D almost applied to one of the SUNY colleges.
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Oooh, DelVal is a great little school! @alaskajo - my hub has close connections there and raves about it. It’s a no-go for my kids’ majors but I’ve been there and seen the caring & intellect of the faculty. Definitely check it out.
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Oh I knew the essay would pop up because I had looked into it, but she got super swamped with school and dance and didn’t make it. (But did do a lot of nothing over xmas break). She did however do an arts supplement dance video. I just texted her telling her she should still try to add an essay if it lets her.
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23 was accepted to a school and then invited to do additional essays. 
23 didn’t want to do them and said they don’t want to attend that school.
That means 23 is down to 12 schools. But 23 also said they’d choose small school 1 over small school 2, if it came down to those, so that’s another school off the list. Both of these won’t make it if others come through.
Down to 10 schools.
Looking back, I might have suggested fewer apps but it’s hard to know that when playing the merit game.
**
On a completely different note, Hobart William Smith sent ME a mailing of the alum magazine. Quite impressive. We visited and liked the school, yet 23 wants a larger place. If anyone is seeking a good Tuition Exchange school, this is one to look at.
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Hmm. The detailed NPC at each school gives back reliable results based on my experience. Our strategy was auto merit and privates we can afford plus 1 hail Mary. For privates, we targeted one where my son is near or slightly above the 75th percentile for SAT/GPA and one where he is between 60-70th percentile.
In the end it’s always too many because whether it’s 2 or 20 apps, you’re only going to one.
But if you get the desired result, then it wasn’t time or effort wasted.
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Our luck with NPCs has been all over the place. Many offered more merit than indicated and a few were far less. Some have pretty terrible calculators to begin with…looking at you Baylor.
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Econ twin has decided not to complete the invitation only scholarship application for Indiana. In addition to close 1000 words of essay questions (he did those) they want a 1000 word research paper done for their application only. It’s the straw that broke the camels back.
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I had never heard of it until my niece was looking at schools. But boy was it a beautiful place with a great staff and you could not beat their milkshakes!
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