College admissions/applictions stories?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Well, some might accuse me of simply wanting to brag, but moreso I just wanted to share my happiness and relief, and wondered if anyone else wished to do so as well.

Today my middle child was accepted at his 3d choice college - Purdue, to study aerospace engineering. Hasn’t heard yet from choices # 1 and 2. But even if they both say no, we know he’ll be going to a great school that we can afford without all going broke, studying what he wants to study. As a parent, it doesn’t get all that much better than this. Yippee! Join me in a happy dance? :cool:

Now I hope he kicks back a bit and really enjoys his senior year, before he hits the wall of college engineering studies! :eek:

I’m glad we pushed him to get his applications in early in the process, because now we can all stop worrying about this earlier than otherwise. He applied to a total of 3 schools, and would have been happy to go to any of the 3. Just this morning I had asked my wife whether she thought he should consider applying to any other schools, to make sure of a “safety.”

And a hand to Purdue for relieving stress from parents - on the outside of the envelope it says “Congratulations, You are a Boilermaker!” So she doesn’t have to wait til he gets home, or drive herself blind trying to read through the envelope.

Anyone else got anything to share?

2

C’mon, we all know that West Lafayette is a Sodom and Gomorrah like setting of hot drunk chicks, beautiful beaches and wild carousing. He’s going to have a blast!

No, wait, that was my school. Sorry for the confusion, not all of the synapses are firing like they once did.

Congratulations to the lot of you!

3

Congratulations, Dinsdale and Dinsdale son! Purdue is where my boss went - excellent school!

My son has just applied for the ROTC Scholarship - keep your fingers crossed. We are aware it’s extremely extremely tough though, so he may end up going with Deferred Enlistment - we’ll see. But Navy is on the horizon for Kid2U!

4

Congratulations!!

Having just gone through all of that myself, I can really appreciate what a relief itis to know where you’re going, or at least (you said he hasn’t heard from his #1 and #2 choices yet?) know you’re safe.

Yay for security (and college!) :smiley:

5

Congrats back atcha, Missy. My dad, a couple of uncles, and a couple of friends are/were career Navy. It really can be a great life.

My son was thinking about one of the military academies or ROTC, but his feelings about this Iraq debacle convinced him otherwise.

6

Yeah, his top choice is UofI, and #2 is Wisconsin-Madison. They are all almost identical distance (2.5 hours) from our home, and all have great engineering schools.

All are somewhat affordable since they are state schools. UofI is the cheapest, as it is in state, Wisc is in the middle, but they are all do-able. And we’ve discussed the possibility of moving to Indiana at some point in the near future, which would give us in-state for Purdue.

I agree with you, there is a lot to be said about security and certainty.
The kid puts so much pressure on himself, and is working so hard taking such tough classes. Now that he’s been accepted at a good school, I’d really just as soon see him kick back a bit, and just get Bs instead of working his butt off for As. And maybe go to some dances, spend more time on extra-curriculars, or just hanging with his buds. Enjoy it while you can…

7

Dinsdale - My niece is a junior and she’s planning on engineering school. She has a 4.0+ and is taking three honors classes. She hasn’t really thought yet about colleges, and I’ve told her she needs to start looking. She doesn’t really have any extra-curriculars - how important is that? She babysits constantly and has sewed and sold a baby carrier online and has saved thousands of dollars. I don’t believe tuition will be a consideration because her parents have that fully covered. She lives in Pheonix and doesn’t like the idea of cold. Any suggestions?

StG

8

Congrats to your son! I’m trying to get into a mechanical engineering program, which has an aeronautical concentration.

I’m not quite so lucky… I’ve just found out today that my university has decided to close admission in January to the majority of their Engineering programs (citing capacity reasons), so I have to wait until at least next September to get in. I’m taking this year to get caught up in math/physics (courses I’ve mostly taken before, but so long ago I don’t remember the material much), so it doesn’t change much, but it’s still disappointing to have to wait to get into the Faculty again. I really do hope I get in next year… I’ve given up my previous career as a chemist for this, so if I don’t get in… well, I don’t know what I’ll do!

At least the courses I’m taking are going well (although one physics class in incredibly frustrating, I’m managing to get decent grades on the assignments). We’ll see what happens come midterms…!

9

My brother went to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for his first year of college.
His last 3 were at Purdue. He majored in Aeronautical Engineering (he’s always wanted to be a pilot.) All of his graduating class of AE peeps at Purdue got pilot jobs fresh out of school, while many of his Embry-Riddle friends had to settle for flight instructorships.

Just Sayin’ is all.

10

The other way to tell is if it’s in a big envelope.

Full-page sized envelope = acceptance. They’re not going to send you a big brochure on the school when they tell you you didn’t get in.

Normal-sized envelopes -> rejection (probably. Out of 7 undergrad and 5 grad applications, I got 1 little envelope that was an acceptance from the department a few days before I got the big envelope from the school.)

ETA: Perdue’s a pretty damned good school to be a safety, isn’t it? That’s probably a good sign.

11

Good luck, man. My wife and I were both LAS majors, so we had no idea of what the deal was w/ eng.

My kids have pretty consistently gotten really good grades, and my second 2 test really well. This guy was right around 5% in his class, and I think he got a 32 or 33 on his ACT.
His extracurriculars were 3 years of band, chorus this year, and a few theater productions. He was an eagle scout - but stopped scouting a couple of years back, and he has a part-time job.

Just trying to give you an idea of what got him a quick acceptance to Purdue (and a few thou merit scholarship.)

When looking for schools, I knew UofI was top 10. That’s where I went, and it was the cheapest being in-state. I just pulled up a few engineering college rating lists, and saw the 3 he applied to were all top 10, w/ UofI generally the highest ranked. I talked with some friends who had kids in eng at UofI, and they thought he’d be close to getting in. His counselor thought he should be a lock for Wisc or Purdue on grades and test scores alone.

Long story short - talking to that counselor and a friend who is a HS counselor in another district, many eng schools admit solely on grades/test scores. So you should be able to find out at least some schools your daughter would qualify for. For instance, my friend told me the formula Iowa uses, and said he’d automatically be admitted and given money. So you really should be able to see where she can get in, and then identify a couple to reach for.

The applications very much differed in terms of what they wanted. A couple wanted short essays, but I got the idea they were very businesslike. Wanted to see that you got decent grades in a decent curriculum.

Plus, they always want to attract more women.

If she indicates on her test applications that she is interested in engineering, she will get more mail than you’d ever expect. Then check out the best schools in the areas she would like to go to.

Good luck!