I would prefer that they go to a non-for-profit but if our CC gets something for them, the books get used, they are easy for me to donate, I am good. I have to make decluttering easy or it doesn’t happen. That said, I understand how this doesn’t work for all.

Better World Books has a donation box at our local community college. The proceeds from the books are to go back to the college. I checked the box a couple of weeks after dropping the books off. All of the college textbooks were gone though a couple of the high school textbooks were still in the box. I don't know if the students scavenged them or Better World picked them up.

This is very misleading. My oldest’s list of schools included both full-need and merit-based schools. She received more money from the full-need schools but that money was never calculated because it was not “scholarship” money and instead came in the form of grants. This practice goes back a long ways as my own guidance counselor encouraged me to chase scholarship money for this very purpose.

Are any of the schools listed in a small town with a college town vibe - coffee shops and fun local restaurants and similar. Macalester is on DD’s list but she would also enjoy a hopping small town.

Directly asking seems brazen to me. I realize there are a few one and done applicants but, in this day and age, most students are applying to multiple schools particularly if the schools/scholarships are competitive.

I remember something about the FAFSA no longer providing access to this information. I will have to think about high stats applications. We didn't see this to be the case for DD18. She got accepted at several colleges that she was clearly above in stats and there was no financial advantage. We will have to see how this plays out as my rising senior submits her applications.

I get visit, interview, submit all optional essays. We were even at one school told to stay overnight if possible. However, what do you mean by open and click on links in all emails? From this, I assume that they are able to track who is accessing that link. Also, who do you contact if the school does not have a regional representative? We tried to identify a regional administration representative for one institution and was told that the regional reps change yearly and do not get assigned until application reading time. This school does most of its local recruiting through alums and students.

Following the University of Rochester thread has me wondering how does an university know when a student is applying to another institution particularly a safety? Does FASFA, Common App, ACT/SAT, or CCS provide lists to colleges? I would sure like to not to tip our hand this time around if we can help it.

Last year my oldest DD has a top tier LAC review her application prior to submission. Though her composite ACT score was in line with their published ACT range, they recommended that she bring up her ACT Math score to be more in line with the rest of her scores. She did bring it up a point or two but it was still a couple of points lower than her composite score. That may be why she was wait listed to that school.

OMG! How exciting!

My DD1 took the PSAT her Junior year and then 3 ACTs. She was dual enrolled and her program required 3 ACTs. Based on her ACT score she landed a place in a top 10 LAC which meets 100% need. DD2 will probably do similar though she may add an ACT or SAT depending on her next ACT. She considered taking an AP or two but they conflict with her dual enrollment finals.

The menu app with allergy filters helps DD figure out the best dining hall to eat at for that meal.

529’s worked well for us.

At my daughter’s college, work study jobs are highly competitive and hard to get. As of yet my daughter has not been successful at getting one. She currently trying to arrange to do her summer job remotely.

My oldest DD goes to a women’s college. She wears by choice skirts and dresses a lot and straight jeans. She wears a lot of logo T-shirts with either her skirts or jeans. One of the best graduation gifts was money for school spirit wear. This allowed her to choose what she wanted. She has a logo hoodie and a school sweatshirt which she wears non-stop. As for shoes, she has 2 pairs of ankle boots, a pair of Chucks, a pair of running shoes, a pair of black sparkle Tom’s, and a pair of Teva sandals. She wears socks with everything except the Tom’s and Tevas. She does have fun socks - tie-dye and patterned. She also has leggings but usually to wear as an extra layer or in yoga class. We didn’t buy a lot of clothes before she left last fall, as we didn’t know exactly what the other women would be wearing. At Christmas, we purchased a couple of things to fill out her wardrobe. She still wants to go shopping with her college friends to buy going out clothes.

I like the idea of going to the CC and taking a placement test. It could be a real eye opener for her. Have the two of you sat down and explored the course requirements for various majors? That was a real eye opener for DD16 who is interested in food systems but not interested in the agricultural side of it. While you are at it you might look at a liberal arts environmental sciences degree. DD18 is currently taking the intro class and is finding the Pset much easier than last semester’s Physics. If possible, she might benefit from a semester or two or three of exploration to see what she really likes. That doesn’t work well with an engineering major but many liberal arts programs encourage it.

8, this summarizes what I have been thinking about in my own house. My DC are slow at determining direction and thus do not communicate a drive that will impact a campus. For this reason, automatic scholarships and schools where we can afford the CoA are a better direction for us to focus than highly competitive merit scholarships. Thank you for helping me clarify this in my mind.

Bed, Bath, and Beyond has a service where you can purchase at their local store and then it will be available either on campus or at the local store come August. Grandma might like that. I recommend holding off on sheets and such as the twin XL are not very common until midsummer.

My First Year's greatest struggle has been roommates. Too much time was spent trying to make the situation work. That said, she explored all of her resources to help solve the roommate problem - friends, upper class women, health center, chaplain, RA, and resident director. This semester with better roommates, she is realizing that the friends she clung to last semester may not be the best for her and she is starting to reach out to other women. She also had a few executive functioning issues, forgetting to write down assignments and over sleeping for a group presentation, which she had to work through. One thing that surprised us is that once on campus she did not have the time, focus, or energy to purchase anything other than the barest necessities (books, toiletries, and school supplies). Consequently, we sent her back with everything she needed to get through the next semester.

Dorms are a good deal at DD’s Boston college. 98% of all students live on campus.

We have not found graduating high school with an AA degree to be a problem. As long as the student graduates from high school after they earn the AA degree, every school we looked at considered DD to be a Freshman and many cases with Advanced standing. She was considered for Freshman scholarships and slotted into Freshman housing. It is important to check each school and degree with regards to whether the CC credits count towards anything and how many can be used. DD ended up attending a highly selective LAC which did not take any of her CC credits but her CC transcript was proof of her rigorous high school education. CC has been the right choice my DKs. Once In high school, they needed to branch out socially and start performing academically for someone else.

It really depends on what Accepted Students Day covers. My students want to get a feel of the campus by siting in a class, eat in the cafeteria, and sleep over night in the dorm. Some schools include those activities in their Accepted Student Days and for some schools we have to set up a separate visit.

Missouri S&T has nuclear engineering. Even out of state tuition is less than most privates.

In my mind this chart is relatively useless. I looked at similar type data for individual schools and they did not accurately represent our financial situation. For me, it has been best to run the net price calculator for each school and only look at what the school would provide in grants. I would then add in any automatic scholarships that I knew that DC qualified for and started comparing. I totally ignore loans, student contribution, and student work study because that is dependent on so many things that I have no control over and there is not much rhyme or reason from school to school For us the state schools are less transparent but in a "good" way because there was more scholarship money available for higher stats students that one could not always identify. With the private schools, our need is greater than most automatic scholarships and competitive scholarships are too iffy to count on. Consequently, I took the numbers from the Net Price Calculator at face value and knew that the state schools would come in less than calculated.

Thanks for the heads up on calling local schools. I hope to go through the Public Schools but when you mentioned that schools don't offer all tests concerns me. I am not sure that the district has any schools which offers 4 years of Spanish. Calculus BC could be difficult. We better get on it tomorrow.