We Picked our s24 also from his summer program today after 4 weeks and he loved the experience. He seems totally ready for college where as I am having a little harder time than him. He seems to have made some good friends and hopefully will stay in touch with them.
Now he needs to get back into essays and narrow down college list. He has 3 weeks before college starts and hopefully he will use his time wisely.
Exciting to read the above two comments about summer programs. My son is in the air as I write this on his way home from his language-immersion summer program in Europe. Spoke with him yesterday and, like the other two above, he also absolutely loved his experience. I cannot wait to see him!
In the three weeks before senior year begins, he has two separate college-visit trips (one with my DH and one with me), a research project to complete and all of his apps to get a great start on. His goal is to get it all mostly done before school begins. So will be a v busy month!
I think he will be v motivated to dive in bc heās ready! First, though, we are all going to see Barbie together 
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Completely separate from the above comment, curious if lists are mostly taking shape for all of your kids?
How many schools will your child apply to?
Will your child do an ED app?
Iāll go first - my son has around 18-20 schools on his list. His first choice doesnāt have an ED option, so he may shoot his shot at a super far reach SCEA app.
Well, Iād say my S24 has made progress.
He now has some definite choices on the list, and has eliminated others, and one is kinda on the bubble. But having learned more about what he likes, there are probably still too many possibles to apply to them all.
And we are also running into a potential issue where EDII might be a relevant stage for him (or obviously might not, depending on how the early applications go). At the moment, he does not have a firm sense of which, if any, of his colleges with an EDII option he might pick for his EDII school in such a situation. And conceivably, a given college he hasnāt visited yet could go from just a possible to an EDII contender, or off the list entirely, or anything in between.
But finding time for college visits during the week is really hard.
So . . . weāre off to WUSTL this weekend because they actually had a Saturday visit available. Weāre going to try to identify more opportunities for quick visits during gaps in his school/activities schedule. But I think he is also going to have to rely on some online visits, at least when forming the final application list.
S24 has one more week at his summer program. Very excited to see him next week! He has also been having a wonderful time and so thrilled that he did it.
@Katiekatie12345
At this point his list is not formalized. He is going to ED for sure, choosing between 2 schools, and possibly ED 2 to a different one. He will apply to at least 5 other reach schools, 3 matches and 2 safeties. Figuring out exactly which on the list of 25 schools we have is the hard part.
Definitely going to be a big if for ED2. The school S is considering is a highly selective and RD acceptance is less than 6% and they give a huge boost to ED. I agree it will depend on how he likes the EA schools and if what he choices are.
By the way, my S24ās summer program has actually been sort of a mixed result.
On the one hand, he found classes he has really liked. He has also gained experience with the whole college residential system that I think will translate anywhere he goes.
On the other, I think the vibe/student population at his particular program ended up maybe not the best fit for him. Personally, I think that is critical information, and he knows that, but frankly I think he has been a little bored because most of the people are spending most of their time working on their classes (particularly after the first set of grades came out), and he would prefer more social stuff.
From my perspective this is actually a good development in the sense I think his original rough ranking did not have many (maybe any) EDII options after his top choice. Now that he is thinking about things a bit differently, it is possible his next choice would be an EDII school. Iām not sure applying EDII will actually help, but it couldnāt hurt, and it could also lead to at least a somewhat earlier conclusion to the process, which would be nice.
And fortunately, we obviously still have time to figure that out (although the weeks do seem to be going by faster and faster . . . ).
Anyway, it is a ānewā agenda item for us, and is minorly complicating our information-gathering plans. But ultimately in a good way, I think.
Sonās current plans are to apply to four schools. One with rolling admissions and three with EA.
None of the schools offer ED. All recommend EA for his desired major.
S24 planning on applying to four schools. All offer EA so thatās the plan right now. He didnāt have a clear first place winner so no ED application.
Itās crazy how few schools offer weekend tours.
List is narrowing but not set. Heāll apply to 8-12, I think. Has 2 strong possibilities for ED. Potentially an ED2 but not yet decided. Will EA anywhere that is possible.
D24 will probably apply to 6-8 schools. List has pretty much been nailed down. Not doing ED.
My S24ās list seems much more uncertain than most of yāallās. He might be NMSF, but we have to wait a few more weeks to find out for sure and that could make a big difference in his application list.
He has good, but not knock-your-socks-off, grades (3.92 UW) & test scores (1500 SAT). But apart from that his profile is really average kid (not CC average kid, actual average kid)ā no big hobbies or sports or music, works 20 hours/week, involved in church, and has a group of friends he plays games with weekly. He is undecided for his major (and unfortunately very stressed about it 
) but wants to keep engineering as an option, so that cuts out a lot of schools. Also, our income is high enough that some schools will expect us to pay over $50K/year, which isnāt possible at all, and 40-50 is a stretch.
Anyway, heāll apply to our state flagship but not sure if he would like it. Heāll probably apply to a non-flagship SUNY. Andā¦some other schools?? I think heād like a school with a co-op program but Northeastern is impossible to get into, he doesnāt want to live in Philadelphia (Drexel), so maybe U of Cincinnati? He likes the look of the programs at Lehigh, but not sure about the social environment. Other schools he really likes are either probably not admissions possibilities (Brown) or are too expensive (Rochester) or both (Tufts, Case Western). If he is NMSF, heāll look more at Maine & Tulsa.
Basically, he isnāt excited about any of the schools that are realistic, but also is unsure enough about what he wants & finances to ED anywhere he thinks he is excited about. 
D24ās list has changed quite a bit over the summer. I posted a short list, all reaches, a while ago and got quite a bit of good advice and lots of suggestions. From there we cast a very wide net and started with around 50 schools. Lots of online research and info sessions later and I think weāre down to 10-12 now. Good mix of safeties, targets, and reaches.
The informal plan as of now is to rank them and start with the top 6-8 schools, possibly applying ED if she has a clear favorite, but other wise EA to all of them. Once those decisions start coming in weāll see if she has to do more apps.
Unfortunately we havenāt been able to do many visits this summer due to other commitments. She has only seen two campuses from her list. But, both brothers applied sight-unseen and we did visits after acceptances were received, and then they made their final decision.
She applied to Williamsā WOW program and decisions come out tomorrow. Also applying to Home at Hamilton and Explore Bowdoin. If those donāt pan out then we will probably do a couple of visits over fall break.
Itās been interesting to see how her list has changed from the original, abut itās been fun. A very different journey than either of her brothers.
That is very hard. He should get great merit at Maine and Tulsa even if he isnāt an NMSF (we have the same situation with being on the cusp for our state). Do they offer engineering as a major after admission? That one is hard.
I think both do, but he will probably apply as engineering everywhere since it is easier to switch out of engineering than into it.
If he isnāt NMF, I think heād rather SUNY Oswego to Maine but he might look into that more. Tulsa is a non-preferred location, but he would consider it for the amazing NMSF deal. (We have family in Tulsa and I lived there for some years, so we know the good and the bad of living there.)
Arenāt going to do Lehigh for 40-50K. No real merit money there so unless there is need based basis you are going to need to pay full rate which will be closer to 70K
Thatās interesting. The NPC for Lehigh came in at one of the lowest that I ran, about $33,000 per year. I used the exact same numbers I used at other schools, so Iām not sure why it was so much lower. Some schools like Brown came in at about the same price, but most schools came in in the 38 to 48 range, with a few expensive schools at 50 or higher.
UDel, Miami of Ohio, Bama, Clemson, Purdue, U of South Carolina all have engineering programs and give OOS merit that can likely get you in your price point or even better. I donāt believe any of those have co-op situations.