I am the OP and wanted to add a follow-up for anyone who may come across this thread in the future. My ds did not take any math his senior year. It didn't not adversely effect him in terms of college admissions - he was accepted at every college he applied to, and was offered merit scholarships by all. Also, he earned an A- in his first college math class, taken his first semester of freshmen year. He was a little rusty, but wasn't afraid to ask for extra help when he needed it. So not taking math in 12th grade worked out just fine for my son.

We moved to Kent two years ago and love the town. I regularly attend KSU theatrical performances and am impressed with the quality of their shows. I hope your daughter will be very happy here! 🙂 (Did we connect on College Confidential?)

And we have a decision! Final financial aid numbers have been received and ds is Penn State bound!

I was in Alpha Phi Omega during the same time period as your family members. I probably knew them. Small world!

Miami is where I got my bachelor's degree. What would you like to know? It is the quintessential red brick college campus/town. A fair amount of the social life, though not all, revolves around the Greek system. It is no more of a party school than anywhere else. I didn't go Greek and neither did my friends. We had plenty to do socially and a great four years. They have a campus in Luxembourg where some students study for a semester. I was in Alpha Phi Omega - the large service group Sebastian mentioned - and it was a really fun group at the time. Not sure what it is like today. I was also an RA.

My ds finally decided last Friday. It really wasn't his fault. We were waiting to hear about a final scholarship opportunity. And yes, it was a long, tough spring! I feel your pain.

A school came off ds's list for this very reason. The faculty member he would be studying under for four years (the head of his area of concentration) couldn't be bothered to respond to ds's emails asking if they could meet on two different occasions when ds was visiting. He didn't offer to answer ds's questions via email or phone. He just didn't respond at all. The dept found someone else to answer ds's questions, but the whole situation left bad impression and was just a big red flag. Sadly, it was one of our more affordable options.

Thanks so much for all the good advice. DS did make an appeal by phone this morning, and was turned down. But he is glad he tried, and they gave him props for calling himself, versus having his parents call. This particular school is notorious for giving very little aid, and we knew that going in, so we weren't surprised by the outcome. It was important to ds to know that he had tried everything possible to attend this school, and now he has the peace of knowing he did everything he possibly could. So, onward and upward.

Has anyone successfully negotiated for a tuition reduction or additional merit money? Ds's second choice school is offering significantly more (as in double) the merit and talent money of his first choice school. We'd like to get more from his first choice school as that is the only way we can afford to send ds there. Any advice for us on negotiating with school #1?

My DS was admitted to all six schools he applied to. His final three are: Penn State - (Provost award) Otterbein - (President's Scholar Award and talent award) Western Michigan University - (merit award)

So for the teacher recommendations, is there a way to see if they have been uploaded to the Common App? If so, where would one find that information?

Yes, I mean in the homeschool supplement. You are writing course descriptions for all of your son's classes? I didn't do that. I'm just uploading a standard transcript.

I am so over the Common App too, and I just started working on it. Had I known ds wanted to apply to a school that only took the Common App, I would have started back in August. Now I am really under the gun to get the whole RIDICULOUS thing done. The school profile section is such a joke for homeschoolers. Who do they make us do that? But it was the distilling all the info for his 17 outside classes down to only 1000 words that just about pushed me over the edge.

Right there with you FuzzyCatz and Saw. My son wants a BFA in tech theatre. This whole apply to each school twice - once for academic admission and then again for the fine arts program - plus putting together a portfolio, the acceptd account, the interviews - it's making me crazy. Bring on the chocolate!

I found The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Teens by Debra Bell to be really helpful, especially if your teen is college-bound.