<p>Thanks so much guys! I’ll try the bing feature, rankinr, and it would be greatly appreciated if either of you find anything out about the proposed dates : )</p>
<p>I was told a few months ago that the dates were 3/2 and 3/3…3/23 and 3/24 and 3/30 and 3/31. You are evidently randomly assigned a date, but if you have a conflict, they will try to work with you. Perhaps rrankin can try to double check to see if there have been any changes, since I called back in October.<br>
Southwest is great…no fees for changes in flights and they fly into FLL. From there you can use a shuttle…GO shuttle and then you won’t need a car until you depart back to the airport. I think every other airline charges fees to make changes. Best of luck!</p>
<p>I don’t think the dates are randomly assigned. The first one is probably Singer/Stamps for EA, then Singer for EA, then Singer for RD.</p>
<p>Dindune is right, there will be singer/stamps weekends every weekend in March except for the two weekends around spring break. Don’t know about how people are assigned, though…</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the info Dindune, Marinebio444, and rankinr! I’m wondering if both of you might be correct, Dindune and Marinebio444, when it comes to how people are assigned to the different weekends. I think I remember that last year’s threads said something about certain dates being designated for Singer/Stamps, or just Singer, etc, but on the other hand, if someone can’t make a particular weekend, perhaps they are flexible enough to allow you to select one of the other dates? I mean, with such short notice, it seems as if some flexibility might be offered in terms of weekend dates? </p>
<p>I hope so anyway, because in our case only the first weekend would work… timing-wise anyway, not sure about budget-wise : ( Our problem is that we are booked on a cruise out of Miami (our first vacation in four years) and we used our airline frequent flier miles to book our flights, which will bring us into Miami on Saturday, March 24th arriving in the evening. We could not get a flight for all three of us on Friday the 23rd, even though DH got up in the middle of the night 11 months in advance to make the reservation the minute the seats were released for frequent flier booking using miles. Our ship sails the next day, the 25th, and returns to Miami the following Sunday, April 1st…</p>
<p>I guess we’ll just have to wait and see whether D receives an invite and if so, if it specifies a particular weekend or provides a choice. I don’t want to be presumptuous enough to call the U and ask about this since we have no assurances that she would even be invited -it would sure be awkward asking for special accommodations if we’re not even invited to the party : )</p>
<p>IllinoisMom, my D is a Stamps recipient, and last year when she received the invitation I called them about possibly changing the weekend as she had accepted a scholarship interview weekend at another school. For Stamps, they told me if she couldn’t come that first weekend, she would then be eligible for the Singer scholarship. Luckily, we were able to change the weekend at the other school. I think there is a bit more flexibility with Singer than Stamps (at least last year). All of the Stamps candidates attended the first weekend last year. I, however, have no idea if they will do it like this again. Good luck to your daughter!</p>
<p>Thanks so much dumbo11! In that case, it seems we’ll only be making a trip down if D is lucky enough to receive a Stamps invite if the scheduling remains the same this year and the Stamps weekend is held first. Crossing our fingers here - every year certainly seems more competitive than the last. How does your daughter like the U? You must be so proud of her
: ) My daughter and I both corresponded with another of the Stamps recipients recently on CC and she was so incredibly sweet and enormously helpful and was thoroughly enjoying her first year at the U.</p>
<p>Been a little AWOL…have acceptances and S/S invitations been coming out already? We didn’t expect to hear anything til February about admission. Guess I shouldn’t be AWOL huh?</p>
<p>^Only ED decisions have been released. No worries. Just discussion here.</p>
<p>Illinois Mom, my D loves Miami! She is super involved, loves her classes and has found a very nice group of friends. Miami treats its scholarship recipients very well, and they are afforded many special opportunities. My D is very happy she chose to attend Miami, and we very proud of her. She had to choose between 3 full scholarship opportunities and many offers at highly ranked schools. There were many reasons she chose Miami, among them the Foote Fellows program as well as AP transfer credits. It was definitely the right decision. I do agree that as Miami rises in the rankings, these scholarships will become even more competitive. I think just the addition of the Stamps scholarship (new last year outside of music) will bring even more quality applicants to the U. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for your daughter for good news!</p>
<p>^ I have been out of the loop over the past few days here too. IllinoisMom - I agree with you that given your calender for March, the only weekend your family could attend would be the Singer/Stamps weekend of 3/2-3/3 - assuming UM sets up these 3 weekends as they did last year (1st weekend Stamps/Singer for ED/EA applicants, 2nd weekend Singer for EA applicants and 3rd weekend Singer for RD applicants). I don’t know if your daughter was invited to Singer only, that she could attend on that first weekend. I guess that’s really the key question for you.</p>
<p>Have you ever posted your daughter’s stats - I’m sure the prognosticators here would be glad to chance her for Singer potential. And, from last years threads there are plenty of stats available to see what kind of creds last years Stamps invitees had. My D, for instance had 760-760 on M-CR portions of SAT, 33 on ACT and was 6th in her class of 275 with a 3.97 weighted gpa.</p>
<p>Wishing you the best.
~Zinc</p>
<p>Thanks so much dumbo11! Its so great to hear that your daughter is thriving down at Miami. She is obviously not just another excellent student, but one of those rare stars who ends with multiple scholarship offers to choose from. You are truly blessed!</p>
<p>I really wish we had been able to visit Miami; its the only school on her list that isnt within 6 hours driving time so we werent able to manage it. </p>
<p>Zinc That’s what I was thinking about the weekend scheduling, if she isn’t invited to the first one we’re out of luck as they are certainly not flexible with which weekend you attend based on dumbo11’s D’s experience last year… and no, I hadn’t posted her stats yet; they are:</p>
<p>ACT 35 (she didn’t take the SAT, Illinois is very focused on the ACT, every public school Junior is required to take the ACT on the same date in April as part of the “Prairie State Achievement Examination” and that is her score from taking it in school that day)
Class Rank 2/550
GPA 4.0 UW
GPA 4.6 W
SAT II Bio 800 US History 800
AP Euro 5 APUSH 5 AP Bio 5 AP English Language 5</p>
<p>This year she is taking four more APs - AP English Lit, AP Spanish, AP Chem and AP Stats (no calc - she took it at our local community college last summer and got an A) but obviously we won’t have those AP scores until summer, though I expect they will earn more AP credits since the U has such a generous AP policy 
</p>
<p>Science Club/Team president, Habitat for Humanity Club VP, NHS, GSA, etc.</p>
<p>Volunteer work hospital, special needs sports program, library, Special Olympics, tutoring, etc</p>
<p>Science competition medals at the regional, sectional and state levels (an Illinois thing called WYSE Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering, though not exactly worldwide since it culminates with the state competition : )</p>
<p>All I can say is WOW!!!
Okay, I can actually say more… If your daughter does not receive the Stamps/Singer invite, then I’m hanging up my spurs and retiring from posting on this site. Those stats are probably in the top 5 that I’ve ever seen shared here. </p>
<p>I believe your D will also receive multiple “full ride” scholarship offers from pretty much any school she applies to. It would have been nice to establish a personal relationship with someone in the admissions office, but with that resume, it probably won’t matter much - and they realize that folks coming from thousands of miles away can’t always swing a campus visit.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d book my flights for Stamps weekend!! Easy for me to say, since it’s your money I’m spending - but I feel pretty confident about that invitation coming your way in late January.</p>
<p>Tell your daughter - “Way to go!”
~Zinc</p>
<p>P.S.
Did your daughter get anywhere in the National Honor Society rankings - semi-finalist, finalist, etc? Some schools [used to] put some weight on that…</p>
<p>I agree with Zinc. I have never “chanced” before, but I am a gambler, and I would bet that your D receives a Stamps invite. In terms getting the actual scholarship, I think the interview has a big impact. All of the kids invited have high stats. My D had a really good interview, plus she seemed very interested and asked lots of questions on the tour, etc. I think your D will have a lot of offers to choose from also! She seems phenomenal!</p>
<p>Illinoismom,</p>
<p>My son is a freshman this year from Illinois, and had similar stats as your daughter. He was invited to the Singer/Stamps weekend, and was awarded the Singer. Too bad you haven’t had a chance to visit yet, but you’ll be there for a scholly interview, and I think you’ll both really enjoy it. Palm tree lined walkways are quite the change for a flatlander from Illinois…
He was quite happy to start his freshman year with 44 AP credits.</p>
<p>Finally able to get the CC site to load again after trying for days! I think Thursday might have been the SCEA date for Yale, Harvard and an early action date for lots of other top schools, causing CC to crash from the heavy traffic over the last two days. I read that the same thing happened on CC in 2010 on April 1st, the RD date for so many schools. </p>
<p>Zinc and dumbo11 - Thanks so very much for the encouragement! I would so love to be able to plan our trip as soon as possible, but it does seem that every year the competition gets even tougher and with that recent big upward move in the rankings, I’m nervous about how competitive things might be this year. Unfortunately, D did not attain NMSF status, only commended. She was sick the morning of the test but went anyway. She just didn’t know what else to do, believing it was her only chance to become a finalist, which she had made her goal. We found out months later that she could have qualified in an alternate way, through the SAT taken at a later date…that option for kids who are sick the day of the test is not well known, or at least, it wasn’t to us…</p>
<p>The schools D is interested in are all close to home, within 6 hours drive, except for Miami. The diversity, weather : ) and frequent opportunity to practice her Spanish skills (she REALLY loves Spanish) would make Miami a great fit for her. The other schools she is considering (and some of our concerns about each) are our flagship (no merit $ will be offered there -our state is BROKE, not very diverse, tons of kids from the Chicago suburbs attend making it almost like uber-high school), Northwestern (very stingy with merit $ and on the quarter system which makes me very nervous about the pace and workload for a student who needs to learn to relax a bit!), Wash U (really liked this school but they are also not known for good merit $), and University of Minnesota (also really liked this school, they have a well respected college of biological sciences (her intended major) and have offered D several scholarships which bring the COA to about $15k, well below our flagship’s cost of about $32k, but certainly not diverse at all and then there’s the weather : (</p>
<p>And that’s her whole list! She really doesn’t want to go far away… except to Miami. So we’ll cross our fingers for an invite, but obviously, the Singer/Stamps scholarships are a long shot with so many top students with incredible extra curriculars competing for them! </p>
<p>VHFather - wowsers - 44 credits, that’s incredible! Did you have a chance to visit the school before the Singer/Stamps weekend?</p>
<p>ILmom, I think you are very wise about your concerns with U of Illinois. (My son graduated from an IL high school as well, excellent on Prairie State, Illinois State Scholar, salutatorian, etc) and UIUC came back with zero dollars. And be prepared for this… the financial award didn’t get mailed to us till July. Well after the decision deadline. Granted this has been several years ago, but things I’m sure have gotten no better. </p>
<p>I don’t happen to know how I ended up here this morning, just luck I guess… but I too want to wish your daughter all the best at Miami. If she goes there my guess is she will truly love it.</p>
<p>1tcm- a proud mom of a Umiami graduate- and soon to be mom of a Phd! (He should finish his dissertation in about a year!!)</p>
<p>1tcm - That’s what we’ve heard too, and the financial situation at the U of I is even worse than it was when your son was applying. My S, who is six years older than D, graduated from Illinois 2010 and his 4 year locked in tuition rate was around 8k, IIRC, based on the four year lock at enrollment in 06. His COA was under $20k each year with the 4 year tuition lock. He wasn’t a bio major, which has higher tuition costs than his poli sci major, but still, tuition for this fall, 2011, (next fall’s tuition rate hasn’t been announced yet but I am sure it is certainly going up again as it does every year) for majors in business, life sciences, engineering, and chemistry was $16k plus mandatory fees of $3300 plus room and board and other miscellaneous expenses for an estimated COA for Illinois residents for the current school year of 33,028. Next year who knows? Maybe $35k? </p>
<p>Scholarships as far as I know, are few and far between for instaters - mainly limited to URM status or students enrolling in the college of engineering. So it sounds as if your son was happy with his choice and enjoyed his time at Miami? Did he stay there for grad school?</p>
<p>He LOVED his time in Miami and misses it terribly. He still goes down as often as he can to dive down in the Keys and go to Homecoming, etc. Some of his friends are still there, although that number keeps dwindling all the time.</p>
<p>No, he didn’t stay in Miami. He did apply to the grad school there, got accepted, but when it started coming down to stipends and living expenses he got a better offer from Emory in Atlanta. It’s location in relationship to the CDC was also a big plus for him. He likes Atlanta, but not as well as he liked Miami. </p>
<p>Wow UIUC has gone through the roof. When son was considering it (back in Spring 02) total cost of attending including r&b was 18,000 a year. I still for the life of me can’t figure out why the state does not try to keep at least some of their brightest at home. No matter… it worked out, and he’s probably better off because of it.</p>
<p>1tcm- FYI- Our Singer Scholar son is also at grad school at Emory!!! Small world!</p>
<p>Loved UM. Great place for him. Emory/Atlanta are great, but as someone who went to undergrad/grad at the same school, I can tell you that undergrad and grad experiences are son different. Undergrad is the whole school/sports/social experience. Grad school is academic and go home to study. Not involved on campus.</p>