https://admission.stanford.edu/application/decision_process/restrictive.html Here is the link to Stanford's REA policy. HTH.

Early Action (EA) An option to submit your applications before the regular deadlines. When you apply early action, you get admission decisions from colleges earlier than usual. Early action plans are not binding, which means that you do not have to enroll in a college if you are accepted early action. Some colleges have an early action option called EA II, which has a later application deadline than their regular EA plan. Learn more about applying early. ^Also from the same source that MicheleinMN used. That glossary, however, doesn't have either Restricted Early Action or Single Choice Early Action. For these schools (the four I know of are Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford) allow you to apply early and receive a NON-binding decision (which is a key difference from early decision). However, with REA/SCEA schools you can only apply to ONE of these types of schools. There are exceptions that allow you to go ahead and apply to other schools - usually any rolling admissions schools, any public schools, any foreign universities, and any special programs at public schools that have early deadlines for special programs. You can still apply to other schools before hearing back from the EA, or REA/SCEA schools, but you can only apply regular decision.

I really like the shoe bag idea. I think storage can be tougher for girls than boys as they do tend to have more clothing, shoes, etc. There is also the issue of many smaller items - jewelry and hair accessories. When ds went to sleep-away camp the first year and we purchased his trunk, a friend said we *had* to get the one with the wooden tray that sat at the top. He took it one year and then we discarded it. We came to the realization that that wooden tray was necessary for girls but not for boys. The girls just had more small, loose items to contend with. You are wise to plan ahead, but I do think it's hard to know what you want/need until you are actually in the room. But, I vote to think about "girl stuff" in your planning.

Not to derail, and I may not be understanding what you are saying very well, but MANY large universities do NOT guarantee on-campus housing after freshman year. This is the case at our local flagship. Some students do get university-managed housing, but it may require a commute to campus. However, the student bus system is quite good. Not continuing to live on campus makes me sad for students. I lived on campus all four years. I can't imagine it any other way. Maybe moving off-campus one's senior year would be understandable. To me, living off-campus in an apartment and having to drive to college would make it seem more like a job. I am very glad ds chose a school that guarantees on-campus housing for all four years. I realize this is slightly off-topic, but it is wise to inquire during the college search about the availability of continued on-campus housing beyond the freshman year if that is important to you. Jenny, I hope you are able to work something out.

I had wondered about contacting a church as well. I was a youth director for a summer at a church that was not in my hometown. I lived with an elderly woman who provided me with room and board in exchange for helping her around the house.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/08/will-you-be-able-to-help-your-college-age-child-in-a-health-emergency/index.htm This topic may have been covered before, but I am sharing a link to bring it to the attention of those about to launch freshmen. It may or may not be something you want to pursue - just tossing it out there.

We do a weekly phone call with some intermittant texting. We did lay out the expectation of a weekly phone call before ds left. The texting was more open-ended. I let him take the lead on that. I have to admit that he just isn't as communicative as I would like him to be. I typically send a care package once a month. That actually gives me an excuse to text because I can track it and let him know when it gets to the post office. I often send baked goods, so time is of the essence. I, too, am impressed by the daily letter writing, but that wouldn't work for us as ds doesn't go the post office very often. This was proven when the ambulance bill (after his knee dislocation - NOT an alcohol transport!!!) remained in there untouched for a month! Not good. We had told him to go look for it, but he clearly didn't. When we talked later during a weekly phone call, and I told him he might want to check his mailbox for a card from me (that had some moolah in it), within 20 minutes we received a picture of the "missing" ambulance bill! We really have no idea how they even got that address, as all his other medical bills came to our home address. Anyway, I can't see ds going to the mailbox on a daily basis. I will say that when I attended my month-long summer camp every year, my mother wrote every day, and I truly appreciated it. On the care packages...three of them were "group" care packages. I and some other mom friends of freshman would get together and pack care packages for all our kids together. We organized via a group on Facebook. Everyone would post what they were bringing so we didn't get duplicates. One mom always brought card stock and we would make cards to each individual dc. Everyone signed them writing short, personalized notes. It was BYOB - Bring Your Own Box. It was a great way for us to stay in touch with each other and hear how all our kids were doing. We did an autumn/Halloween one, a Valentine's Day one, and a Finals one (which was mid-terms for ds).

I honestly can't recall when I first heard this term. As with many other things in life, different people probably experience it to different degrees. I kind of wonder if it's tied into the necessity of really getting serious about choosing your major. I did have a friend whose daughter went through a slump at semester of freshman year and did not have it after that. I also kind of wonder if the quarter system exacerbates it. My alma mater had "trimesters" (because no summer school was offered - the campus was used for other things in the summer). Winter quarter was always really tough anyway, but sophomore year was the worst. Thankfully, we did have our large winter formal during that quarter which gave everyone something to look forward to. Ds may try for study abroad spring quarter. If he were to get that, I think it would make winter quarter more bearable. Then again, if he didn't get it, it might make the slump worse. Sigh. I'm just a worrier by nature. Of course, I can prove that worrying works: 98.7% of what I worry about never happens! ;)

Ds is still several weeks away from starting his second year of college, but I am already worried about the "sophomore slump." He and I have discussed it, and he seems to feel the best approach for dealing with it is to load up on coursework. He feels like it's a tough year anyway, so might as well pile it on. I know I experienced the slump in college. The newness of being away from home was gone. While I had settled on a major, I was only taking introductory classes in my field while still fulfilling a multitude of core requirements. You don't have the clout of an upperclassman, but you're not a newbie either. Did you or your children experience the sophomore slump? Is there any way to minimize it or make it more tolerable? I would love to hear wisdom gleaned from past experiences.

My ds wanted nice weather. He considered places that had four season, but he was adamant that he would not go somewhere extremely cold with snow on the ground for long periods of time. He preferred a school with strong athletics - maybe not where it was THE focus, but he did not want to attend a school that had no school spirit. He wanted the "college experience" - on campus all four years and a strong campus culture. He wanted a school where he would be able to take music instruction (though he ultimately has not yet availed himself of this). He didn't want to to go somewhere where he couldn't have access (because he was not going to be a music major) to top music faculty for private instructors.

Can you pinpoint why you are hesitating? Is Davidson your dd's top choice? It sounds like you have done all the proper homework. Ds had a good friend who got into Davidson last year, but he got no merit money there, and they didn't qualify for need-based aid. It really was his favorite school. He would up choosing W&L with a big ol' scholarship. O/T - Too bad Davidson stopped the laundry service a couple of years ago!

Double post - sorry!

Does Davidson meet 100% of demonstrated need? How is it met? Without loans for sure? Not even Stafford loans are required? What are the student contribution expectations via working during the school year and over the summer? Where are you on being able to afford Davidson? Is the college counselor/consultant aware of your financial situation? Have you run the NPC for Davidson? Do you have any of the more challenging, hard to calculate EFC issues such as owning a business? There is no doubt that applying ED provides a boost in chances at admissions at most schools. UPenn took nearly half its entering class in ED last year and admitted 25% of its ED applicants. Honestly, I am kind of against it unless one knows they can pay full-freight. I did have one friend whose daughter applied to Dartmouth ED and got in. They are pretty dang poor though. It was a sure thing they were going to get enough in financial aid.

Can save and return, BUT the new app doesn't open until August 1st. I wouldn't start until then.

The person I know with a Masters in Anthropology (from Texas A&M - no idea how good they are in that area) is a brick mason. Nothing wrong with that, but I don't think that's what he had in mind. So I totally agree with the other poster who said no debt.

Here's my $0.02. You need to go and visit the school and see what she thinks. One question I have (and maybe I missed it) is what is the 6-year graduation rate at this school? If you are one who would qualify for lots of need-based aid, there is nothing wrong with applying to the reachy schools as long as you are realistic. I saw that someone mentioned Smith? Do they meet full demonstrated need? I would not take on ANY debt for an undergraduate degree in anthropology/archeology. But, if she can get into a reachier (although not uber competitive since that's not her thing) school that meets full-need then that would be great! Ds has a high school classmate who chose a school that sounds similar to the type you are considering. VERY small Honors program. She had an identical ACT score to your dd's. It's been a super fit for her as she is definitely a big fish. She really would have gotten lost at our local Big State U. She's out of state at this Tier-2 school, but she still received great merit money.

Congrats all around! We have friends with two daughters who have graduated from Tulsa, and they absolutely LOVED it! The older one came in as a transfer her sophomore year and had no trouble assimilating at all. Also have friends whose ds got a great scholarship and will be a freshman there this fall. Great school and unique in its smallness coupled with Div I status.

:(

Just keep in mind that many outside scholarships are one-time-only deals.

I wanted ds to "own" the process, but there can be so much at stake scholarship-wise, I wasn't comfortable turning everything over to him 100%. We started with the safeties - ds had three. All were Big State U's, all had rolling admissions, and all were going to give him scholarship $$ based solely on his stats. Those apps are easy-peasy. Some had separate Honors College/scholarship apps. None were Common App schools. We got those done first. Next, ds applied REA to his first-choice school. That had a super-early deadline (October 15th for him) because he submitted a music supplement. After that he continued to work on all his other apps. He applied to eleven schools. We initially had weekly meetings on Sunday afternoons for about 20-30 minutes. We scheduled out together what he was going to accomplish that week in terms of completing applications, essays, supplements, whatever. Other than during that weekly meeting, I DID NOT MENTION THE PROCESS AT ALL! I didn't want all our conversations to be about the college application process, and I didn't want to constantly be nagging him - "Have you done this?" "Have you done that." If *he* brought up something, then we talked about it, but I did not bring it up except during our weekly meetings. My purpose for these meetings was to make sure he didn't miss an hoops that were going to cause him to lose out on big merit $. I was basically a secretary. Once all of those were taken care of as well as his REA school, I loosened the reins a bit. I told him, we knew he was going to get in some places where he could go for free, and he had applied to his first choice school, and it really didn't matter to me if he finished the rest of them or not. My goal was for him to have all apps finished before we smelled turkey cooking (meaning, before Thanksgiving). He didn't accomplish that, but most everything was done by the time he received the deferral from the first-choice school (yes, he got in in the regular decision round, and that is where he matriculated). It was good that he had done that, since the deferral was most disheartening. But, knowing he was in at his three safeties with lots of merit money made it easier to take. He added one other school in December because they offered him a fee waiver. It is such a stressful time. Longest winter ever once all the apps were in. I think it is best to be as supportive as you can without micromanaging. It is also important to remember that just because your child approaches things differently than YOU would, that doesn't make it wrong, kwim? But get the safeties done first. Also, ds lined up his recommenders during the summer and let them know.

I think this is an important point. It's really not dissimilar to any other major life event whether happy or sad or traumatic or whatever. Everyone experiences emotions differently. There is no right or wrong way go about it. A lot of my friends struggled all through their child's senior year, experiencing so many "lasts." That didn't happen to me - can I tell you how happy I was to be at the LAST Christmas concert???? - but that doesn't mean their feelings/emotions were invalid. Dh and ds drove the 1,800 miles to school so he could take his keyboard with him. I flew out a few days later to meet them for move-in day. On the plane, across the aisle from me, was a young couple with their one-year-old lap child, a brown-eyed baby boy. Of course, he was fussy, and they were exhausted and so relieved when he finally fell asleep. The dad gave me a big "Whew!" once he was out. The entire plane ride, I would get weepy anytime I looked at him. I know that they thought I was nuts. I finally explained myself, and promised I wasn't crazy. They were sympathetic, but they certainly didn't get it. Then I gave one of those, "Seventeen years from now, you'll think back to that crazy old woman on that flight, and you'll get it..." kind of statements. Ha ha! Once I got off the plane and met ds and dh I was fine! Didn't cry anymore at all!! We need to be kind to ourselves and not make comparisons. Yes, we (myself included) giggle at the extremist type comments made by the helicopter parents, but we are ALL helicopter parents to some degree each with our own concerns and worries. Some are valid, some are ridiculous. Certain individuals do a better job keeping it to themselves than others. The reality is, until you have walked in those shoes, it is hard to say how (or when) you will react, kwim?

Not an orientation, but at an Honors Day Convocation, a mom asked what the college did to supervise kids in all the free time they had since they were only in class 15 - 18 hours per week!

Ds does not have one, but I believe there are dorm safes that have some sort of cable on them that allows one to attach to a heavy piece of furniture such as your desk or bed. My ds tends to use his debit card more than cash.

How much emphasis has to be placed on the cost factor?

Just to play devil's advocate a bit here... There is absolutely nothing wrong with being one and done. If you are in-state for Georgia Tech, and your dd is headed for engineering, that's gonna be tough to be beat in many ways. She doesn't *have* to come home. Would she live on-campus there? Our state flagship is local, and many of the local kids who attend don't see their parents any more than the kids who went "away" to college. I have a childhood friend who lives in Georgia. His ds applied to several other schools in addition to Georgia Tech. There were deferrals, stress levels, etc. that really all could have been avoided. He wound up going to Georgia Tech in the end anyway. Now, if he'd gotten *into* MIT things might have been different. But, he had a great freshman year at Geogia Tech. If your dd likes it, and it meets all the necessary criteria, I'm not sure I would push *too* hard. Just free advice - which is worth what you pay for it. Ha ha! Nothing againt UR AT ALL! I know it's a great school, too. Additionally, I don't know how your dd is, but my ds often says "black" just because I say "white." The more you try to spark an interest the more she may dig in her heels. There is not much very fun about the college admissions process. Keeping it simple might keep everyone happy. Just a different perspective.