<p>emeraldkity- I have suggested Western Washington for my D. I have a good friend whose D loves it. Would your D be happier in a living arrangement that had more people? The girl we know lives in an old house with 5 roommates each with their own room. Always someone around to do something with.</p>
<p>Poor D- she liked her dorm last year I thought- but a couple of her friends ( who were from out of state) have gone back to their home state schools.</p>
<p>She also attended an inner city high school and had many overlapping groups of friends in her school. She feels WWU is too " clicky" & she also is not happy with the level of instruction. ( she did have some amazing teachers in high school) She is wanting to take marine biology classes & is more interested in some of the programs that some of the CA schools have ( like Monterey Bay)</p>
<p>She does have a learning disability ( only freshman year did not have services set up- I don’t think it is much better now) but she is coping with that( however that affected freshman grades). She also wants to attend a school with more diversity. ( I had expected that that might be a problem- & I appreciate that she at least tried it- only I wish she had said something * before christmas break*)</p>
<p>She doesn’t have a car & while she has a bike- the weather isnt usually conducive to that! I think that is also a lot of it- We both are bi-polar & get Seasonal Affective Disorder & long grey days are soo depressing.</p>
<p>She didn’t take a lot of time looking at schools when she was still in high school, because her grades/our income wasn’t enough to get her into some of the schools her friends are attending ( Georgetown, Columbia et. al.) & because she felt " it didn’t matter".
Now she sees it does- so I am going to do what I can to help her find something else I guess-</p>
<p>I still think WWU is a good school & she admits there are many kids who love it.
Something that she wasn’t able to do much about, was that she took a year off to travel & work & that has given her a different perspective from the other students- even though both her roommates this year & last also had taken a year off to travel abroad.</p>
<p>Thank you SJTH for the info. Will have to visit Willamette. I keep hearing about how beautiful it is.</p>
<p>Twin son and daughter have both been accepted to NAU and now daughter has been accepted to SFSU. Still waiting to hear from Sonoma, CSUN, CSLB, SFSU for him, SJSU and SDSU. Suddenly it’s much more real than it’s been. Yikes!</p>
<p>congrats on the acceptances, nyn8. do they/you have a preference?</p>
<p>Interesting thread! Hoping I can chime in even tho’ S is still a HS jr and won’t be applying till this fall. Two questions maybe someone can answer??</p>
<ul>
<li><p>If you indicate on an app that you do not need FA, is it possible to be offered merit aid anyway?</p></li>
<li><p>Besides the (hopefully) obvious CSUs, where could S get in with, say, a 3.1 GPA (no AP) and 1650 SAT (CR/M/W)? He will not necessarily have these exact stats (I am projecting-- has not taken SAT yet)</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>BfloGal- if your child uses the common app there is a place that asks if you will apply for financial aid, another box for merit based aid. These are two separate boxes. I believe most schools keep these two types of aid separate. (my experience is limited though to one child in the system!)</p>
<p>Thanks, katliamom. My preference would be for something smaller than SFSU’s 30,000 students. NAU has about 18,000 - still larger than I’d like but smaller than so many of the Cal States. (I went to a large SUNY a million years ago and was lost on a campus with 15,000). Sonoma would be a great size but daughter wants a solid Greek life…not sure if they have that. NAU is the only campus we’ve visited so far…we’re waiting for the decisions so that neither of them falls in love with a school that they don’t get accepted to. They both liked NAU a lot and I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of them ends up there.</p>
<p>Son got his first acceptance yesterday: Southern Utah University. We are in SoCal, still waiting on decisions from NAU, Chico, Sac State, and Fullerton (our local). </p>
<p>I like SUU because it is only about 7,000 undergrads which I think would be better environment for him. We’re visiting in about 2 weeks. He has also convinced a friend to apply so things may come around.</p>
<p>He is enamored of NAU because he wants trees and snow (which SUU also has), but also because a friends father attended many years ago and talks it up as a great experience.</p>
<p>The three CSU’s he kind of lacks enthusiasm for, but will remain in play depending on WUE from the two out-of-states. Exciting times.</p>
<p>Just chiming in: my brother went to SUU and loved it. It’s a safe, awesome school with wonderful and caring staff. Solid academics too - Shakespeare theater in the summer is spectacular! Definitely one of those “hidden treasures” schools.</p>
<p>loopyloo, thanks for the insight. Can I ask, was your brother in-state or OOS? I ask because it looks like about 20% of the student body comes from outside Utah, but a high proportion of those look to be recruited athletes taking a look at the hometowns on the athletic rosters. I guess I’m trying to get a feel for how insular the student body is.</p>
<p>Any idea of the, shall we say, devoutness of the student body?</p>
<p>My brother was OOS (we are from Los Angeles). Don’t worry about “devoutness”. My brother is not LDS and had no problem at all. In fact, it’s really a mixed bag there which makes it nice. Of course, locally, things close up/slow down on Sundays so there won’t be much of a night-life then. And again, the staff is wonderfully nurturing. But the great thing is you, as a parent, can go to sleep each night knowing that if he is out late and it’s dark, he will be safe (this is my #1 requirement in a college for my daughter - she loves computers, which means there will be late nights in the computer lab). The best thing is to go on a visit. Y’all will fall in love.</p>
<p>The more we look at the reach-factor of UC Santa Cruz, the less likely my S thinks it will be for him to get in. I agree. His UC gpa is about a 3.3 – maybe a smidge higher. </p>
<p>He didn’t apply to UC Riverside, but has been told by friends who are now college freshmen that when they were denied by their first choice UCs, in some cases, other UCs were offered, especially Merced (which he is not interested in) and Riverside (which he could be interested in). If this is the case, is there anything a student can do to register interest in a particular “Plan B” campus now that applications are closed – that you wise folks know about?</p>
<p>Sort of answering my own question ^^^ I’m thinking that we should schedule a tour, at the very least. My son has a day off of school next week that coincides with a day I don’t have work. Perhaps we should drive down and check out Riverside. I certainly don’t love where it is, but the campus itself my be nice …</p>
<p>calv 1n… Did your S receive the email regarding UC sharing applications to campuses that he didn’t apply to? It seems that applications will automatically be sent to campuses “lower” than the ones on the original application at no charge.</p>
<p>Yes, digitalmom. He did get that UC email. I don’t know specifics about Riverside’s accepted students’ stats, but I’m hoping he’s right in there. I am really hoping that a UC will work out for him so that he doesn’t go clear across the country to SUNY Purchase, which has accepted him and which he’ll be visiting in a couple of weeks time with my hubby when hubby goes on an east coast business trip.</p>
<p>calv1n, </p>
<p>I recall that you posted news about your son’s acceptance to NAU a few months back. It appears from your current postings that he has removed it from his list. What ultimately did he (or you) find unattractive about that option? if you wouldn’t mind sharing.</p>
<p>Although NAU seems to be an excellent school in a gorgeous part of the world, my son wants to be close to a city or else on a campus were he feels he fits in. Flagstaff may be a bit isolated for him plus he is not a jock and thinks most guys there will be – or that’s how he imagines it --he may be wrong. </p>
<p>If he does go to SUNY Purchase, it’s a short train ride away from Manhattan. UCSC would be a fit, but is really an academic long shot in terms of gpa. If UC Riverside works out, he’ll have his car and be within manageable driving distance of a few cities as well as all the live indie music that comes through Pomona, which is not far away. He’s a left-leaning, artsy hipster (I really don’t like labels, but they help in this instance) and for whatever reason, doesn’t think he’d thrive at NAU. Make sense?</p>
<p>Perfect sense. Personal preferences outweigh all else. Thanks for responding.</p>