Lucky. Good for them.
I would disagree with @SugarlessCandy As long as finances allow (which thankfully seems to be working out) I think each brother should take the best (affordable) college option for his particular interests. It is critical to consider each of these young men as individuals and not a group. From the posts it seems that they are lovely, close-knit, accomplished young men and IMO forcing them to attend the same college and live together could create problems, resentment etc. down the road. Despite the inconvenience (and understanding they may have to move themselves into college etc.) I hope each person get the chance to make his own choice.
@happy1 Good point. I didn’t think of that, my focus was on logistics and burden on parents.
@NikkuWadde hey, could you provide more details on what Army ROTC at Princeton told you? I’m thinking about applying to Princeton next year, and I also really want to do ROTC. How much of a boost in admissions is it? Any details would be awesome.
Congratulations on all of your success so far, and scholarship awards!!!
@college61728 I accepted the rotc scholarship at Georgetown (where I’ll be attending, God willing) but I’m still heavily considering Princeton as well (where I was also awarded a scholarship). From what I’ve been told from Princeton, it helps insomuch as that the Battalion gives Admissions a list of suggested names. But other than that I don’t really know. It can only be a good thing I’m sure. But it’s still certainly no guarantee. For example, at GU having an rotc scholarship has no affect on admissions at all. At Princeton, it seems there is slight pull. Good luck!
@NikkuWadde thanks so much! this is like the only truly uplifting thread on this entire site. congrats again to all of you!
AHHHHHH ALL ACCEPTED AT DUKE
Slight correction: We all received an invitation to Duke’s Black Student Alliance Invitational, indicating that our “chances of being admitted are excellent,” according to Duke’s website.
So. Basically… in at Duke
You guys are amazing!
We feel extremely blessed to be presented with so many amazing opportunities!
You seem like such wonderful, mature, and thoughtful young men and I’m sure any one of these schools would be fortunate to get any one (or more) of you as students. Well done – both to the four of your and to your parents. And more good news may still be coming…
This isn’t college related, but I wanted to let ya’ll know I was awarded a State Dept YES scholarship to study abroad in Bosnia for a gap year! I don’t know if I’ll take it, but who knows, before I start college I might be able to say I know both Arabic and Serbian!
Congratulations! 
Your parents must be sooooo proud of you all!!
You have so many amazing opportunities! So excited for you!
Thank you for keeping us posted. My son, a URM too, attended OSU on a full-ride scholarship (a combination of Morrill, Buckeye and Provost) so if you want any info about his experience, just PM. He was an IR major with a concentration in dipolmacy/national security. He would have loved to have gone to Gtown but did not get accepted. OSU was very supportive for URMs and he had a very positive experience. I agree, if you can swing GTown for IR then you should go there, but Vandy and Duke are not bad choices either. Just a thought, one of my son’s fellow Morrill Scholars from OSU is at Princeton now for graduate school so you could always do that kind of options.
Your parents must be so proud of you.
@Mr. Me, it may be too late now, but be sure to look at scholarships for URM’s from Google, Microsoft and the Tapia Conference, basically any STEM focused organization. Those organizations are devoted to URM’s interested in CS/Artificial Intelligence and these organizations provide not only scholarships but special opportunities like the fees and travel for conferences. My DD is a CS minor in Devices at Georgia Tech (which she loves) and she has been awarded scholarships and fees/travel to attend these conferences which has led to internships, co-ops and lots of other good opportunities. Always keep looking for these opportunities during college because it will lead to many other good things. Many companies and organizations are actively recruiting AA and Hispanic students in STEM for jobs, mentoring and fellowships. Take advantage of all of them. My DD does and it has made her college experience wonderful with these special outside learning experiences.
At Vandy check out the research by Professor Michael Goldfarb in aritficial intelligence. He is the brother of good friends of ours (who have their own CS company bought by Microsoft) and his research is in artificial intelligence one of the best in the country. Here are a couple of links about his research (I hear his lab is great) https://engineering.vanderbilt.edu/news/2016/11030/ also http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/g1315/10-innovators-who-changed-the-world-in-2013/?slide=5
As an aside because I think it is important as you all make your decisions, but I strongly encourage you to look at the support system your colleges provide to URM students. I help URM students in the college admissions process and based on their experiences as well as my own two children, I have found that there is a direct correlation to a URM student’s success at college and the level of support the college provides Each of my own children had an additional advisor and resources available to them as well as additional resources provided to them by their scholarships which made a huge difference in their success and happiness. Same experience with my students so be sure to ask those questions of your colleges. For example when my DS decided to frolic and detour at OSU during his winter quarter, the Morrill Office and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion hauled him into their office and made my son meet weekly with an advisor to go over his time management and to have him complete homework in front of them. The next quarter he got a 3.75 so those efforts were crucial for his sucess. Resources such as extra tutoring, advisors to just talk to, career counseling etc have been proven to make a difference to a URM students sucess in college. I now don’t recommend the UC’s for my Latino students because the support has been terrible and my students really struggle at the UC’s (and these are Gates Scholar students who are smart). To give you an idea of provided support, look at the college profiles at the imfirst.org website. Here is Vandy’s page.
http://www.imfirst.org/vanderbilt-university/#.WMc1cDsrLIV
In follow-up to my post, look for things like “office of diversity support” or “office of minority education development”. Here is an example from Stanford. https://diversityandfirstgen.stanford.edu/what-we-do
@itsv Thanks for all this info! We’ll be sure to look into it!
Also, would Georetown SFS be worth it for me for the max amount of undergraduate loans (all through the gov’t direct subsidized and unsubsidized-- my parents don’t do the whole cosigning for loans thing lol) It would be $27,000 over the course of 4 years. The rest would be covered by other scholarships, GU aid, parents, etc. Thoughts? Is that kind of debt worth it?