<p>After telling us last week that transcripts are not sent anywhere during the summer, the guidance office at DS’s high school called this morning and said they were sending his transcript to Bama today. No idea what changed but I’m not complaining! So now we are in waiting mode also.</p>
<p>On a different note, I have a question. DS has informed us that after considering all of his options, he is planning to only apply to Bama. He says there is really nowhere he would rather go, so why should he waste time with essays and applications if he doesn’t have to? We are thrilled to have him go to Bama as we all fell in love when we visited, but I am concerned about any second guessing or regrets. I don’t know anyone else who only applied to one school so I’m not sure what to tell him. FWIW, he is planning to major in CS and is a likely NMF with very high stats, and the other schools on his short list are Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford and Wash U St Louis. Obviously he might not get into most of those (I think GT is a match, others are reaches), but should he apply anyway just to be “sure”? It just seems too “easy” to have him be done already!</p>
<p>I realize that this is a somewhat biased crowd, but any opinions are welcome anyway. :)</p>
<p>We are in the same position, but the world is uncertain.</p>
<p>For instance, (and this is a horrible worst-case-scenario) would UA have actually been able to open the next year if the tornado’s path had crossed the campus? Probably not.</p>
<p>You never know what may change, and often changes happen that are completely outside our control.</p>
<p>It is prudent to have a back-up plan. And a back-up plan for the back-up plan.</p>
<p>And, with the Grace of God, then attend The University of Alabama. Roll Tide.</p>
<p>I made D1 apply to more than just UA although it was the obvious choice by the beginning of senior year. I’d heard too many horror stories on CC and the reality is that a 17 year old changes a lot in a year. She applied to 5 but it was moot.</p>
<p>However, her prom date only applied to one school. He knew he’d get a full ride, and it had the specialty program he wanted. This was a kid with a 34 ACT, tons of APs & top of the line GPA and it was a state directional university. Not even close to a flagship. Made his poor dad crazy. He asked him to please apply to Harvard, etc. But nope. He had an amazingly stressless senior year & is happily going into year 3 there. </p>
<p>I think outside of the CC bubble a lot of kids only apply to 1 or 2 schools.</p>
<p>Hi Lisa! I was in a similar situation so I thought I would share my input. I knew that Alabama was the place for me shortly into my visit in the Honors College and couldn’t fathom going anywhere else. I decided to look into a few more schools, but everything was a disappointment. I applied to only two schools, solely because my mom told me it was “socially acceptable” to have a backup plan. (Wash U was in my top 3 choices, but I personally felt that it was a little hoity toity after visiting with a few reps. Nothing against the school, just personal opinion.) I felt that I had made an economical choice by applying to only 2 places because doing several applications gets expensive! (I had one friend who applied to 12+ schools and I saw that bill run up!) I was glad I didn’t waste my parents’ money, my effort, and my time filling out forms and doing essays when I knew where I belonged. I would say have a backup but go with your heart! ROLL TIDE!</p>
<p>I would definitely have him apply elsewhere. Things change, kids change throughout senior year, and even if one is positive that UA is “it,” it’s still nice to have a choice when the time comes and all the other kids are choosing. He’ll likely choose UA anyway, but really, the time and expense for a couple more applications is worthwhile.</p>
<p>I only applied to two schools: Alabama and a state school where I was guaranteed admission. At first I had a list of about 12 schools of a large variety (my top choices were competitive privates like WashU). Alabama and the state school were my “safeties”. But after visiting my so-called “back-ups”, I realized there was no reason I couldn’t be happy at either school. It was weird because while I thought they were fine as back-ups, I had thought I’d only really “fit” at one of those other schools. And then, having the NMF package at UA, it just seemed silly to go into debt paying for a school that wasn’t even really “better” for me. So I did the Alabama application, and once I had that acceptance I was even less motivated to do a bunch of longer applications. I didn’t apply to the other school until two weeks before the deadline because I suddenly panicked about not having <em>any</em> options.
If I could do it again, I’d probably do more applications. It would have been nice to find out whether or not I actually would have made it into any of those reach schools. But I don’t think it would have changed anything.</p>
<p>Thanks. I think some of it is laziness and a fear of essays - he is definitely a math/science kid and was not looking forward to essays. Maybe it will be a little easier if he’s not so nervous about getting in to the school in question? He also finds the idea of a stress-free fall extremely appealing (as do I, if I’m being honest LOL).</p>
<p>I do understand that life is uncertain and it is good to have a backup plan though. I don’t really see him changing his mind, but unforeseen circumstances can always come up I guess. We just all feel that not only will Bama allow him to accomplish everything he seems to want (as of now!), we actually believe that it will be better than most of these other schools in many ways. Makes it hard to voluntarily overcomplicate things. :)</p>
<p>We also have a STEM guy who hates essays. UA was our first college visit, and as far as he was concerned, our last. Every other college we forced him to visit (including GT, which I thought he would like immensely) didn’t come close to measuring up. When application time rolled around, he applied to 'Bama and declared himself done. Although DH and I agreed Alabama was by far the best fit on many levels, we still insisted he apply to at least one other school - for the same reason we insisted on college visits: to <em>reaffirm</em> for him that 'Bama is his first choice, and why. He still gripes about being forced to examine other options and write extra essays, and maintains that the end result was the same, so the road trips and apps were wasted effort, but WE sure feel better about helping him ‘confirm’ his choice. Plus, like he said, no place else measured up, and every visit reassured <em>us</em> that UA was indeed his new home.</p>
<p>And it didn’t hurt his ego to decline the other school and its robust scholarship offer, either.</p>
<p>My DS is also a “Bama or nothing” guy. He’ll be starting this fall (actually just a few weeks from now) and can’t wait. He has been set on going to UA since he was about 10 years old and has never wavered. Last spring, we visited a few other schools (UNC, Georgia) to gauge his interest, and while he liked the schools, his mom and I could sense that none of them could ever measure up, in his view, to UA. So he applied early admission, was accepted, and that was that. An application to any other school would have been a waste of time and app fees.</p>
<p>To be frank, given his GPA, ACT score, AP credits, range of activities, etc., we were fairly confident he wouldn’t have too much difficulty being accepted. That, plus the fact that we fell in love with the campus, the helpfulness and friendliness of university administrators and staff, and the spirit of T-town, let us know that our son knew what he was doing all along.</p>
<p>I have to say that personally I recommend applying to other schools, as well as visiting other schools. Yes, it can become expensive but it is certainly nice to be able to ascertain that UA is the right fit for your student, and for your student to realize that when he/she accepts admittance to UA, they will be happy with their choice.
Okay, lots of students do not like writing essays and speaking about themselves but these college applications are important practice for the many more graduate school and job applications that will come along later on. The experience of writing, proofing and presenting oneself at a college interview is invaluable and will help build your student’s confidence.
If you use the college visits as information gathering sessions and as downtime (think mini-vacation), these visits can be a fun bonding experience.</p>
<p>Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that he wasn’t willing to look at other schools. We visited 12 or 13 schools, and we very much enjoyed the college visit process (although it was exhausting at times!). His decision is based on his feeling that none of the other schools appealed to him more than Bama, so if he knows he will get in and get almost a full ride, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to apply anywhere else.</p>
<p>I did show both DS and DH the responses on this thread and the thread on the Parents board. They both basically said “yeah yeah, Bama is it and let’s call it a day.” Looks like we are done. Of course DS could always change his mind and apply elsewhere during the fall, but I am not going to hassle him about it.</p>
<p>Roll tide! (Have to start practicing that! :D)</p>
<p>I had my son apply to the our state university in addition to Bama just on the off chance that something unforeseen might happen to where he would need to be closer to home. It was nice to have that acceptance on hand just in case…</p>
<p>Lisa6191 - You have been reading the lengthy NMF scholarship thread, right? Have a back-up plan and apply to at least 1 additional school is my/our advice.</p>
<p>Well, now that we know what the packages are for 2013, can’t we just work from that? I mean, if UA commits to a four-year-renewable scholarship package, they can’t just take it away later, can they? (well, I guess they can do anything they want, but I wouldn’t imagine that would be very good for their ultimate goals!). Plus, even if they did that, it wouldn’t matter then where he had applied this year.</p>
<p>Our decision is also not dependent upon the scholarship. The NMF package put UA on our radar like so many others on this board, but it’s not the only reason (or even the primary reason) that UA is his first choice. Fortunately we do have money saved for school that can be used if necessary, so we have some breathing room even if the scholarship isn’t quite as big as we had originally thought.</p>
Of course DS could always change his mind and apply elsewhere during the fall, but I am not going to hassle him about it.</p>