Welcome! We were through this process last year and it is overwhelming, but this forum is a lot of help.
Does your daughter have a major in mind? Your daughter’s list looks a lot like D25’s list. On the west coast she liked Chapman and Pepperdine.
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She wants to major in business of some kind. I just read through the whole 2023 TE thread. Wow! Kinda bummed on people’s experience with Syracuse though. That is one of my D24’s top schools.
Of the people that I know that got Syracuse TE this year, they stacked aid to cover full tuition. It’s a nice award! There may have been some people that didn’t get stacked aid, not sure. It’s just not an easy admit for some majors, and they aren’t giving out as many TE awards as they used to. But don’t rule it out – we were pleasantly surprised by their offer.
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Good to know. It just seemed many of them didn’t even get admitted and were surprised by that. Currently it is my D24’s second choice. We went to the Orange preview days last summer and she loved the school. Our guide did say they had admitted quite a few freshman that year so maybe they are being more selective now. I guess it all works out in the end so will keep our fingers crossed.
That all sounds right. But, there’s something else I think is going on. Syracuse was a key or founding member (or something like that) for the TE program. As recently as a couple years ago, they promised TE awards to anyone who applied and was admitted. I believe that they have stopped promising that just recently.
I suspect that they may not have admitted students for whom they weren’t prepared to offer TE this past year. Had those students not applied for TE, maybe they would have been admitted? I did also see lots of parents upset about rejections and waitlists on the general Syracuse thread, however. So my hunch might be wrong. It just shouldn’t be regarded as a safety/likely for certain majors.
Regardless, your kid should apply. They did offer TE to a number of people last year, so if your daughter is interested, go ahead! She should have no problem writing the supplemental essay since she visited and loved it. They love demonstrated interest, so do as much of that as possible.
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Thanks for your advice. I appreciate it.
I hope they will take into consideration we came all the way across the country for a visit. If it doesn’t work out at least we know we tried 
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I don’t believe admission decisions are tied to TE decisions.
This blurb, on their info page on the TE site says:
There are a limited number of spots available for students to receive a Tuition Exchange grant at Syracuse University. If a student’s Tuition Exchange application is approved by Syracuse University, the student will be notified and will receive the award PROVIDED THEY ARE ADMITTED AS FULL TIME UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS THROUGH THE NORMAL ADMISSIONS PROCESS. Approval for the award may go out before the official admission decision and does not imply that the student is accepted. Approval for Tuition Exchange is not limited to entering students.
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I second that Syracuse is not an easy admit for some majors - for example Newhouse School has lower admit rate than the rest of the university. My impression is that students in engineering had more success receiving TE at Syracuse. And last year someone at the Visual and Performing Arts school received TE.
I would apply regardless the chances. We received TE at places we thought we had no chance. And yes, being from the other side of the country helps and demonstrated interest helps as well.
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After reading all of the 2023 thread I almost feel we went about this the wrong way for TE. My daughter just picked the schools doing TE she was interested in and then we started visiting them in the summer of junior year. Looking at them now seems like a majority look to be difficult to get TE. Not sure if we should go back to the drawing board and apply for a few more that are easier to get TE. The problem is she really either liked or disliked the schools by our visits. Schools that we thought were going to be her first picks ended up not feeling right. Remembering how much my oldest daughter hated her choice at first (she only visited once accepted) and calling home crying every day, I really don’t want to go through that again.
I think your list of schools is a good mix of higher and lower chance of receiving TE. I think DePaul, Seton Hall and Syracuse are in the 11-40% chance category.
The way I look at it: there is about 30% chance of receiving TE, then out of 8 schools you will have 2-3 TE offers. If you make sure that your daughter loves all the schools on the list, that means that there will be 2-3 great schools to pick from! So I think you went about it the right way by visiting and making sure that she likes the places she applies to.
I also want to add, the rule of thumb is to apply to schools where your student will be in the top 25% by SAT.
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My D22 GPA 3.8 UW, 6 AP applied only test optional. We stuck to Midwest/South region and applied to TE schools in 11-40% and 41-60% award range, mostly LAC’s, and had several TE awards to choose from. She is at Hendrix on TE and absolutely loves it.
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Thank you @dthehun and @NathJ . Feeling a little better now. Do either of you know if my daughter sends in her early applications if she can add a test scores later. She didn’t do so well on the SAT. English was awesome, math not so much. She plans on retaking in October. Not sure if she would apply test optional and then send in scores later or put her current score and then send in revised score.
I think generally yes you can submit updated score or submit score later. You could check each school’s test optional FAQ on their website. If score improved, I’d be inclined to email it to the admissions officer regardless of whatever info I found online - if anything you’re expressing continued interest in the school.
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I’m sorry I don’t have experience with test optional or submitting scores later. 
This would be a good question to the admission counselor at the school you are interested in!
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According to the TE website, Villanova is not offering any TE this year. Not good news for this year’s seniors.
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As others have mentioned TE used to be “given” if your child was admitted to Syracuse (my daughter was offered it 3 years ago) but they changed that - my daughter was not offered it last year. Its getting harder to get into Syracuse and even harder to get the TE.
TE sounds like a great deal (in general) but the reality is it can be hard to get. Cast a wide net.
My D23 didn’t get Syracuse TE either - looking at the excel sheet for last year, it was the most applied to school in the 2023 thread. The accepts/rejects weren’t consistent by basic stats, so I assume their process has some idiosyncratic components (which is perfectly fine, IMO).
Like you said, casting wide is the smart move. Although I do think most of the process is stat driven, some schools have a really mysterious process. One school in particular where D23 was not given TE had a 75% ACT range starting at 28, and D23’s ACT was a high 33. It was her lowest safety! That was not expected! But for the most part, things went as expected. D23 applied to 20 schools - 7 were moderate reaches (her ACT was in the upper 50% range), 8 were target schools (ACT in the lower 75% range), and 5 were safeties (ACT was at the top of the 75% range). She got almost all target schools, a few reach, and most of the safeties.
It’s also important to remember that some schools just don’t award many. TE says “below 10%” for the school, but it turns out it’s more like 1-2%. Mix it up with some schools that award 11 - 40%. One thing that made my D23 less worried about the process was the fact that she was awarded TE at two really good SLAC schools in early November (both were 11 - 40%, and were target schools). So, she knew she had offers in hand early.
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FWIW, I went through this with my S21 and now also have twins going through this process. Our experience with Delaware with our oldest was that it was all about stats for TE. S21–top 7%, 4.2 W GPA, 1350 SAT, many APs–had many tuition exchange offers but was denied at Delaware.
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I’m watching this thread for next year. It so good to hear some award early. Can you tell us which ones tend to do that?
Nicki
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NPuckett - there are a bunch of dates in the Excel for last year’s results (below). In my own case (on the sheet), Hendrix, Lake Forest, and Ursinus all awarded in November.
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