Thanks for sharing. We too have a fifteen year old son who is on Autism spectrum. We often worry about his college.
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Hi does anyone know how to check UT Dallas decision especially if my daughter got in and got into their NMF program.
Looks like there is a glitch going on.
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Things like this are we we have the email addresses our kids uses for college stuff also forward to us parents. Though it was super annoying to be getting 60-70 spam emails a day from schools at peak marketing season months ago. Glad it worked out for you.
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Just passing along for those still evaluating choices. Some not so obvious things to look as you are evaluating choices.
- Long term strategic plan - always insightful into what the vision of the school is
- Facilites plan
- Meeting Minutes - Student Senate, Governing boardā¦
- School Newspaper
- Course catalog - this one may be obvious, but I always hear about students that were unaware that the college had core requirements outside their major. Check out things like AP credits, foreign language requirementsā¦
Hope everyone is closing in on a decision!!
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I think a few of our kids are going to end up at Syracuse. 
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I got my law degree at SU - it is SUCH an amazing school. Just loved my time there.
All I am going to say, ALL DONE! 4 kids and my 23 is the baby. My oldest is in Grad school, went through the grad school process with my 2nd oldest this year. (definitely not as bad as UG, but extremely stressful). My 21 will graduate early and she is starting the grad school process. My 23 is down to 3 schools, 2 are more out front, all within $1000 of one another.
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Thank you very much. Appreciate your thoughtful points 
One other thing: I know in Ohio and Arizona, decisions about tuition increases are made at the state level and not voted on until after May 1. You need to research the request made by the individual colleges. Ohio State was high on my 21ās list, but they asked for a $3000 increase in the OOS surcharge that year. We declined, and good thing, because it was implemented along with another $3000 increase the following year. There are requests for 4% tuition hikes in Arizona, affecting the incoming classes. JMU had some significant yearly increases over several years at about the same time. I would also research if tuition, Room and Board are frozen for 4 years. Tuition is frozen at UofArizona, even for OOS, so we were spared the 2 year 9% tuition increases for OOS.
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S24 has been using his iCloud email address for the schools he is interested in. I asked him if he has been checking his email and we went over the whole ādemonstrated interestā thing. He sits down next to me last night and opens up his iCloud emailā¦12,653 unopened emails 
. I said ok now you need to type the name of each school in the search box and make sure you open al of those emails, click on everything, etc. Lord have mercy. I can only imagine once he actually applies and has actual important emails.
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We have a separate gmail that was set up for college stuff too that I monitor. The Honors College acceptance only went to his actual University email. It wasnāt sent or copied to his personal email that UTA has on file.
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DS has his final 2 choices, but has been struggling with the decision for over 2 weeks now! I understand, because Iām not the best at making decisions either and this is a hard one. Any advice beside the usual pro/con list?
Heās debating UT Austin or Purdue for mechanical engineering. Cost for both is below the limit we set at the beginning (of $35k), but Purdue is around $12k/yr less than UT. He got honors at Purdue, not at UT, so that might help make big school smaller. Would have to do FYE at Purdue, but thinks it would be fine. Study abroad more likely at Purdue. He loves UT though and would prefer the city. I think he feels like he canāt logically make an argument for UT, but he doesnāt want to give it up! Especially after being so unsure he would get in.
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Check out the Honors curriculum. Not all Honors are the same. My son got Purdue with merit but refused to apply because of the curriculum.
He loves UT though and would prefer the city.
This seems like a logical argument to me.
He should go to UT.
Best of luck.
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Which program would he get the most out of? You can always move to a different city after graduation so I wouldnāt necessarily base it mainly on a preferred location, as long as he doesnāt truly dislike the other.
My kids would go for the extra money, study abroad and Honors. We have a friend whoās a freshman aerospace major in honors at Purdue and she loves it. Itās a good community. And I think FYE sounds like a positive.
How do you determine which program he would get the most out of? Both programs have very similar rankings, career outcomes, classes, etc. What else would you look at?
He is definitely looking at the extra money and thinking of all he could do with it. (Heād have it for in college needs - tech/study abroad, or help with house down payment). Thatās a big part of why Purdue makes logical sense in nearly every way (other than location).
On a positive note, we are pleased how it worked out for our youngest, despite enormous (justified) trepidation during the process. Heās a typical CC high stat kid with an EC spike. But he had his eye on reach colleges and didnāt focus on developing a balanced list. He didnāt want to do tours, didnāt want to hear suggestions for good targets or safeties that matched some of his interests. He did say he would be fine with his state flagship, and we had to hope that was true.
In the end he had a number of great options. But what struck me was the one he likes most in hindsight seems exceptionally suited to his profile ā like they found him as much as the other way around. Our older kids went into first year with no idea what they wanted to focus on. Heās the opposite and has a strong interest in theoretical physics/math but also wants to retain his jazz performance opportunities (at an advanced level) ā not a common mix. The college that picked him not only is strong in physics but has over a dozen jazz bands/ensembles and requires exposure to jazz as a graduation requirement for every student.
While not everyone has as clear a happy ending to the process (yet), my guess is when you scratch beneath the surface, or in hindsight, you can usually find that the colleges that picked you/your student, for more than just stats, did so because thereās a common point of interest. They saw something important to you that is also important to them and knew you/your student would bring something particularly valuable to them. Which is why we hear so often about kids who head off to colleges they werenāt initially excited about and come back happy.
Congrats to everyone.
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My D has loved her honors college experience at Purdue. Honors engineering design for FYE was her favorite class freshman year and the honors seminars were great. The three profs who teach honors design are fabulous! Advising is wonderful too and they make it easy to get the contract credits students need without adding extra coursework later. She went abroad with honors too. Canāt say enough about the program and the opportunities for leadership and research.
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Thanks for your input! There are so many people that say to do engr133 instead of honors - even the honors kids at the Purdue for Me day! DS is leaning towards 161/2 if he goes there, but so many people have advised him to not do it, that he is second guessing himself! Is your enjoyment of the class based on the group youāre assigned to, AP classes you have or have not hadā¦or what? Why do so many people say not to take it?
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If your child has taken AP Physics C mechanics, they should be just fine in honor design. The class combines mechanics into the class so you donāt need to take it separately. Itās a lot of work, all project based, but itās a straight dive right into engineering design. My D loved every single minute, and again, the professors were amazing. Iām honestly surprised your son got the advice not to do it.
He may want to reach out to the honors engineering dean and ask about average GPA and % of students successfully transitioning to their first choice major. When my D was an incoming freshman, we were told the average honors engineering GPA was a 3.5. Well above the the threshold for transitioning to major. And she had no problem staying above that, even first semester.
There are a lot of supports in honors engineering as well - help rooms in the dorms, study groups, tutoring, etcā¦ The key to being successful at Purdue is to utilize all the supports from day one. Go before you need it!
Feel free to PM me too!
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