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My Daughter Got Her Rejection Letter from FSU today

Just as an update, my daughter has been accepted to FSU and started classes this week. Go Noles!

Outstanding! Our kid, second generation Nole, graduates in May. We go from him getting accepted the day or two before the win over Auburn in the Natty to getting out in four years. Blink of an eye...swear. Enjoy the ride....we loved every minute...sans sweating the drive from Broward to Leon too many times. Go Noles!!!
 
That is awesome! My daughter starts applying in the fall. She is already stressed, although she should get accepted with her over inflated GPA and first ACT score. I am not sure if I can handle the next 12 months of college application stress!

My oldest submitted his 11th and final application last week. He still has 2 500-word essays to write in pursuit of scholarships, but he has been dedicated and working at this like it is his job (because,well....) since the first of October.

He’s a pretty mellow kid but there was some visible stress towards the end so it wrapped up at just the right time.

Pro tip - he made a spreadsheet last summer with all schools he was interested in and their application dates, fees, acceptance date, plus additional milestones (like scholarship applications or essays). List started at 20 schools but he whittled it down during the fall.
He also kept a running file with ALL of his essays; each school is a little different but it made it easy to copy and paste where possible.
 
She completed her AA so now she's right into her major. Hoping to have her undergrad completed in less than 2 years. My son is a semester behind and should enter FSU in the fall.
What’s the rush to finish? College is some of the best years of your life, never understood trying to rush it along to move into the workforce or grad school.
 
My oldest submitted his 11th and final application last week. He still has 2 500-word essays to write in pursuit of scholarships, but he has been dedicated and working at this like it is his job (because,well....) since the first of October.

He’s a pretty mellow kid but there was some visible stress towards the end so it wrapped up at just the right time.

Pro tip - he made a spreadsheet last summer with all schools he was interested in and their application dates, fees, acceptance date, plus additional milestones (like scholarship applications or essays). List started at 20 schools but he whittled it down during the fall.
He also kept a running file with ALL of his essays; each school is a little different but it made it easy to copy and paste where possible.

Good luck. He sounds very focused and the spreadsheet is a great idea. For my daughter there really wasn't anywhere else she was interested in going. From the time I brought her to her first games, she was headed for garnet and gold.
 
What’s the rush to finish? College is some of the best years of your life, never understood trying to rush it along to move into the workforce or grad school.

She may slow things down and I'm fine with it if it takes longer. Upcoming year's games should be fun as I have a bunch of friends whose kids are up there now too.
 
She completed her AA so now she's right into her major. Hoping to have her undergrad completed in less than 2 years. My son is a semester behind and should enter FSU in the fall.
congrats to her excellent! what is her major?

so she's a mid-term true freshman by age but now beginning her junior semester?

my daughter is a semester behind that if so - she will begin her junior year in the fall but is currently classified as a sophomore at FSU even though she's a true freshman.
 
congrats to her excellent! what is her major?

so she's a mid-term true freshman by age but now beginning her junior semester?

my daughter is a semester behind that if so - she will begin her junior year in the fall but is currently classified as a sophomore at FSU even though she's a true freshman.

Yep - 18 years old and just wrapped up the AA - Congrats to your daughter as well.
 
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What’s the rush to finish? College is some of the best years of your life, never understood trying to rush it along to move into the workforce or grad school.
Also, if you prepaid all that tuition might as well take more time/classes, get a second major, etc.

Also, congrats! @More Kirk Less Spock I Was very happy to hear. @jaxnole77 actually walked in here to make sure I saw it.
 
What’s the rush to finish? College is some of the best years of your life, never understood trying to rush it along to move into the workforce or grad school.

Unlike back in the 80s (ya, I’m old), there is a huge FSU press on kids getting out in four years. Just sayin’
 
at orientation, they explained that there is a surcharge on tuition when you reach 110% of the required credit hours of your declared major...Tuition goes from $215 per cr hour to some astronomical number...not sure what it is.

And I know what you mean about things in the 80's - I'm class of 1990.
 
When I first moved to Atlanta upon graduation in 1998 I planned on living here for 3 years, get some experience in a large city that I liked as a kid (go Braves!) and then move back to Florida. Problem: I met my only child wife who is from Atlanta and not wanting to move to Florida (happy wife means happy life). My kids attending FSU wasn't a thought in my mind years ago. It is now. But the fact is I am not paying out of state tuition. I just can't afford it-- especially when there is a UGA, GT in-state (even though I dislike UGA athletics it is a good school).

I know there are loopholes but you would need to move to Florida, get a job, work for a year BEFORE applying to TCC or FSU. In other words you cannot move to the state for the reason of going to college in order to pay instate tuition.

I love my alma mater and want the kids to go there (if they choose). They are all nole fans. It doesn't look like its going to happen though. I do get bummed about this from time to time....
 
Recently constructed (2014) 2000 SF 3/3 townhome 150 yards from the beach in NE Broward owners willing to listen to offers. Checks a lot of your boxes...but we’re unmotivated sellers, sooo...but you can make your kid’s dreams come true...no pressure.... : )
 
at orientation, they explained that there is a surcharge on tuition when you reach 110% of the required credit hours of your declared major...Tuition goes from $215 per cr hour to some astronomical number...not sure what it is.

And I know what you mean about things in the 80's - I'm class of 1990.

Tuition is 215 a credit hour? Holy crap that's cheap.
 
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I also have an Economics degree. When I graduated in the early 2000s, Econ majors were in higher demand in the business world and getting better jobs than people with BBAs in Finance. Times change.
Count me as someone with an Econ degree from FSU (actually, two, BS (1996) and MS (1998)) who learned a lot, and was able to put the degrees to very good use. My econometrics classes were the most useful courses I’ve ever taken, and several micro courses were quite valuable, as was labor econ, all because of the quantitative methods covered, which I still use almost daily.
 
I also have an Economics degree. When I graduated in the early 2000s, Econ majors were in higher demand in the business world and getting better jobs than people with BBAs in Finance. Times change.
Count me as someone with an Econ degree from FSU (actually, two, BS (1996) and MS (1998)) who learned a lot, and was able to put the degrees to very good use. My econometrics classes were the most useful courses I’ve ever taken, and several micro courses were quite valuable, as was labor econ, all because of the quantitative methods covered, which I still use almost daily.

Econometrics is still one of the hardest college courses I've ever taken and that's including going through 2 masters programs.

I got an A in it but after every class I felt like I had been hit in the head with a hammer.
 
When I first moved to Atlanta upon graduation in 1998 I planned on living here for 3 years, get some experience in a large city that I liked as a kid (go Braves!) and then move back to Florida. Problem: I met my only child wife who is from Atlanta and not wanting to move to Florida (happy wife means happy life). My kids attending FSU wasn't a thought in my mind years ago. It is now. But the fact is I am not paying out of state tuition. I just can't afford it-- especially when there is a UGA, GT in-state (even though I dislike UGA athletics it is a good school).

I know there are loopholes but you would need to move to Florida, get a job, work for a year BEFORE applying to TCC or FSU. In other words you cannot move to the state for the reason of going to college in order to pay instate tuition.

I love my alma mater and want the kids to go there (if they choose). They are all nole fans. It doesn't look like its going to happen though. I do get bummed about this from time to time....

I'm glad you only have one child wife at least GN. Jk.

Similar boat, FSU just not really an option with UGA and GT available as better schools at a much better price. I just had to pack up those feelings and put them away as soon as we moved here. My oldest applied, just on the flyer that maybe she'd land a big scholly, but it was never really an option.
 
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Congrats on your daughter getting in. We're about 48 hours away from the monumental moment on our house, when my daughter hears about Georgia Tech. GT has been on and off her dream school since she was in kindergarten. We're keeping some other options on the line, but nothing that's quite ideal yet, but it would take a massive amount of pressure off if she gets the acceptance this Saturday. Feels like we've been building to this for years.

She and we were all feeling pretty good as she skated into her earlier acceptances as expected, but she got deferred from Tulane, which was quite a reality check. She wasn't going to Tulane, but that was rather unexpected and has her (and us) nervous.

Obviously, a deferment from GT is not the worst thing in the world, but I can't imagine dealing with the uncertainty a few more months. Part of me wants an accept/deny decision Saturday so we can at least move on with life. I'm more worried about the devastating impact on her emotionally to not make it after working so hard for it for many years, than I am about the actual impact on her life of going somewhere other than GT.

And it's even kind of a two-for-one. GT has a legacy program that extends to siblings...if your sibling is a GT student/graduate, you're guaranteed a path to Georgia Tech. If you don't get in on your own merits, there is a program where you can do one year of specified courses at another college, and as long as you pass them accordingly, you have guaranteed admission to GT. My 14 year old son is at least warm toward GT now...my daughter getting in Saturday puts an awesome card in his pocket that would be great to carry with him when he starts in on the process in a couple years.
 
Tuition is 215 a credit hour? Holy crap that's cheap.

Well, I guess on a relative scale. Pleased that my kid got all her books on amazon for....and this is hard to believe.....under 70 dollars...total.

215 a credit hour is much cheaper than other states.

Getting a semester's worth of books for 70 bucks is unreal. Half.com was starting out when I was finishing college. I bought my books from there and sold them to the bookstore for a slight profit my last semester.
 
FSU is difficult to get into, and the "better" schools are insanely difficult to get into to. I gotta say, though, I work with a lot of kids from the elite institutions - Berkeley, MIT, GT, etc. None of them really knock my socks off.
 
Congrats on your daughter getting in. We're about 48 hours away from the monumental moment on our house, when my daughter hears about Georgia Tech. GT has been on and off her dream school since she was in kindergarten. We're keeping some other options on the line, but nothing that's quite ideal yet, but it would take a massive amount of pressure off if she gets the acceptance this Saturday. Feels like we've been building to this for years.

She and we were all feeling pretty good as she skated into her earlier acceptances as expected, but she got deferred from Tulane, which was quite a reality check. She wasn't going to Tulane, but that was rather unexpected and has her (and us) nervous.

Obviously, a deferment from GT is not the worst thing in the world, but I can't imagine dealing with the uncertainty a few more months. Part of me wants an accept/deny decision Saturday so we can at least move on with life. I'm more worried about the devastating impact on her emotionally to not make it after working so hard for it for many years, than I am about the actual impact on her life of going somewhere other than GT.

And it's even kind of a two-for-one. GT has a legacy program that extends to siblings...if your sibling is a GT student/graduate, you're guaranteed a path to Georgia Tech. If you don't get in on your own merits, there is a program where you can do one year of specified courses at another college, and as long as you pass them accordingly, you have guaranteed admission to GT. My 14 year old son is at least warm toward GT now...my daughter getting in Saturday puts an awesome card in his pocket that would be great to carry with him when he starts in on the process in a couple years.
I think Tulane p[l]ays the game to get as many applications (and application fees) as they can to bolster their application to acceptance ratio. Did I mention the fees?

My oldest got letter after letter from them, seemed like they were begging for her to apply. She was denied. Again, this was a school she had no intention of attending, just wanted to test the waters.
 
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Congrats on your daughter getting in. We're about 48 hours away from the monumental moment on our house, when my daughter hears about Georgia Tech. GT has been on and off her dream school since she was in kindergarten. We're keeping some other options on the line, but nothing that's quite ideal yet, but it would take a massive amount of pressure off if she gets the acceptance this Saturday. Feels like we've been building to this for years.

She and we were all feeling pretty good as she skated into her earlier acceptances as expected, but she got deferred from Tulane, which was quite a reality check. She wasn't going to Tulane, but that was rather unexpected and has her (and us) nervous.

Obviously, a deferment from GT is not the worst thing in the world, but I can't imagine dealing with the uncertainty a few more months. Part of me wants an accept/deny decision Saturday so we can at least move on with life. I'm more worried about the devastating impact on her emotionally to not make it after working so hard for it for many years, than I am about the actual impact on her life of going somewhere other than GT.

And it's even kind of a two-for-one. GT has a legacy program that extends to siblings...if your sibling is a GT student/graduate, you're guaranteed a path to Georgia Tech. If you don't get in on your own merits, there is a program where you can do one year of specified courses at another college, and as long as you pass them accordingly, you have guaranteed admission to GT. My 14 year old son is at least warm toward GT now...my daughter getting in Saturday puts an awesome card in his pocket that would be great to carry with him when he starts in on the process in a couple years.
Fingers crossed for you and your daughter Lou. My son got in to both Auburn and Eckerd so far and FSU will notify him in two weeks. We feel like he is safe to get in but the waiting can't help but make us nervous for him.
 
I think Tulane p[l]ays the game to get as many applications (and application fees) as they can to bolster their application to acceptance ratio. Did I mention the fees?

My oldest got letter after letter from them, seemed like they were begging for her to apply. She was denied. Again, this was a school she had no intention of attending, just wanted to test the waters.

Yep, that is what my sister says, who with kids in the same age range is DEEP into all the nuts and bolts of what goes on. She says Tulane has a reputation for soliciting massive amounts of applications so that they can reject them. Mine had the same experience as your oldest...a bunch of personal letters, and most importantly, a waiver of the application fee. That's the only reason she applied...she was intrigued when she looked into it, but we never really considered it an option or planned a visit or anything. It was more like "they seem to really be aggressive...let's see what they offer." We didn't understand the aggressiveness had a different purpose.

I'm also sure that they also track who has applied on a "free application" solicitation, has never visited, has never contacted them, etc. As I told my daughter, it makes ZERO sense for them to accept her, and defer another kid who has 100 points lower SAT score, but an actual interest. I'm sure they have analytics that identify the kids like yours and mine, and they're not going to waste acceptances on them over real prospects.

In addition, I read that Tulane has kind of a role as a "safety school" for super elite kids, and a fantasy "wouldn't that be fun" lark application for a certain type of student. Sort of like I'm sure schools like FSU, Miami, UCLA, and Hawaii have to deal with/weed through a ton of applications from all over the country from party-hard kids that fantasize about what it would be like to go there from Minnesota, but are never ever seriously going to go there once reality (and parents) kick in. I think Tulane is that for a lot of smart/private school types.

Trying to get her not to let it reflect on her GT chances because of those reasons, but it still upped the nervousness quotient a great deal.
 
FSU is difficult to get into, and the "better" schools are insanely difficult to get into to. I gotta say, though, I work with a lot of kids from the elite institutions - Berkeley, MIT, GT, etc. None of them really knock my socks off.

Of course. I've always told my kids...once your talking about a major institution, it's really all about what you make of it. Ole Miss is objectively not as good a school as the University of Virginia, but I guarantee you if you go to Ole Miss, you are going to meet students and teachers that are so brilliant that they blow you away.

So maybe it's fewer of them than at an elite school, but there's a flip side too, and an advantage to going into Ole Miss as a top 5% student as opposed to say UVA as a top 20% student let's say. There are awesome competitive opportunities that come up, in terms of mentorships, research opportunities, leadership opportunities. Things that an elite student might be able to take advantage of at a "just good" school, that they wouldn't even sniff at a school with thousands of mega-elite kids.

My oldest bought that line of reasoning and went to Alabama over UGA, because they gave her a scholarship and she just felt it was a better fit and she liked it better.

But this daughter is a snob about schools and really has it in her head she wants to go somewhere with a certain level of reputation. I've had to work hard to convince her that even UGA is a very, very respectable university at this point. It's made it tough, because while her stats would likely make her eligible to get into some pretty great reputation places, they aren't nearly good enough to put her into meaningful scholarship competition. You don't sniff a scholarship at Duke unless you're choosing Duke over Stanford and Harvard. They don't give scholarships to just "very good" students, or try to steal kids from Clemson or GT.

There's literally no objective reason for her to put so much emphasis on that as an undergraduate, but it's just where her mind is, it seems to just be a personal goal thing.
 
Congrats on your daughter getting in. We're about 48 hours away from the monumental moment on our house, when my daughter hears about Georgia Tech. GT has been on and off her dream school since she was in kindergarten. We're keeping some other options on the line, but nothing that's quite ideal yet, but it would take a massive amount of pressure off if she gets the acceptance this Saturday. Feels like we've been building to this for years.

She and we were all feeling pretty good as she skated into her earlier acceptances as expected, but she got deferred from Tulane, which was quite a reality check. She wasn't going to Tulane, but that was rather unexpected and has her (and us) nervous.

Obviously, a deferment from GT is not the worst thing in the world, but I can't imagine dealing with the uncertainty a few more months. Part of me wants an accept/deny decision Saturday so we can at least move on with life. I'm more worried about the devastating impact on her emotionally to not make it after working so hard for it for many years, than I am about the actual impact on her life of going somewhere other than GT.

And it's even kind of a two-for-one. GT has a legacy program that extends to siblings...if your sibling is a GT student/graduate, you're guaranteed a path to Georgia Tech. If you don't get in on your own merits, there is a program where you can do one year of specified courses at another college, and as long as you pass them accordingly, you have guaranteed admission to GT. My 14 year old son is at least warm toward GT now...my daughter getting in Saturday puts an awesome card in his pocket that would be great to carry with him when he starts in on the process in a couple years.

Keep us posted on what happens with your daughter.

What does she want to do for a career? Engineering? GT is not for the weak— she knows this right?
 
Yep, that is what my sister says, who with kids in the same age range is DEEP into all the nuts and bolts of what goes on. She says Tulane has a reputation for soliciting massive amounts of applications so that they can reject them. Mine had the same experience as your oldest...a bunch of personal letters, and most importantly, a waiver of the application fee. That's the only reason she applied...she was intrigued when she looked into it, but we never really considered it an option or planned a visit or anything. It was more like "they seem to really be aggressive...let's see what they offer." We didn't understand the aggressiveness had a different purpose.

I'm also sure that they also track who has applied on a "free application" solicitation, has never visited, has never contacted them, etc. As I told my daughter, it makes ZERO sense for them to accept her, and defer another kid who has 100 points lower SAT score, but an actual interest. I'm sure they have analytics that identify the kids like yours and mine, and they're not going to waste acceptances on them over real prospects.

In addition, I read that Tulane has kind of a role as a "safety school" for super elite kids, and a fantasy "wouldn't that be fun" lark application for a certain type of student. Sort of like I'm sure schools like FSU, Miami, UCLA, and Hawaii have to deal with/weed through a ton of applications from all over the country from party-hard kids that fantasize about what it would be like to go there from Minnesota, but are never ever seriously going to go there once reality (and parents) kick in. I think Tulane is that for a lot of smart/private school types.

Trying to get her not to let it reflect on her GT chances because of those reasons, but it still upped the nervousness quotient a great deal.
Yep, that is what my sister says, who with kids in the same age range is DEEP into all the nuts and bolts of what goes on. She says Tulane has a reputation for soliciting massive amounts of applications so that they can reject them. Mine had the same experience as your oldest...a bunch of personal letters, and most importantly, a waiver of the application fee. That's the only reason she applied...she was intrigued when she looked into it, but we never really considered it an option or planned a visit or anything. It was more like "they seem to really be aggressive...let's see what they offer." We didn't understand the aggressiveness had a different purpose.

I'm also sure that they also track who has applied on a "free application" solicitation, has never visited, has never contacted them, etc. As I told my daughter, it makes ZERO sense for them to accept her, and defer another kid who has 100 points lower SAT score, but an actual interest. I'm sure they have analytics that identify the kids like yours and mine, and they're not going to waste acceptances on them over real prospects.

In addition, I read that Tulane has kind of a role as a "safety school" for super elite kids, and a fantasy "wouldn't that be fun" lark application for a certain type of student. Sort of like I'm sure schools like FSU, Miami, UCLA, and Hawaii have to deal with/weed through a ton of applications from all over the country from party-hard kids that fantasize about what it would be like to go there from Minnesota, but are never ever seriously going to go there once reality (and parents) kick in. I think Tulane is that for a lot of smart/private school types.

Trying to get her not to let it reflect on her GT chances because of those reasons, but it still upped the nervousness quotient a great deal.

From what I understand this is the first year Tulane has offered an “Early Action” application - not the normal early decision, which is binding - and they accepted fewer than 2% of these applicants. Your daughter will have her application entered into the regular decision pool of applicants and the notification date is April 1st. I would say her chances are still very good. They normally accept ~30% of applicants.
 
Lou,

How did your visit to GT go? How did your daughter like it?
 
Keep us posted on what happens with your daughter.

What does she want to do for a career? Engineering? GT is not for the weak— she knows this right?

Biology. It's kind of silly she's fixated on Tech, as UGA is probably better for biology with better opportunities, but my kids just don't dig UGA, never have. To my frustration. The rigor does indeed worry me, and I try not to show it and spook her, but I keep telling myself, dumber kids than her get through there. Their retention is actually sky high now. It's all about getting help early and often and putting in the work. I don't think they' let kids wash out of there any more IF they put in maximum effort...they've got tons of help. That's a big change from 20 years ago.

But...the work/study load is still very high.
 
Lou,

How did your visit to GT go? How did your daughter like it?

Yeah, she liked it a lot. She was already biased to it, but she was pretty surprised she liked it as much as she did. She had some fear I think that after always thinking she wanted to go there, it just wouldn't click for her. And she was also prepared to be intimidated out of it. But she came away feeling both like she COULD do it, and that she still WANTED to do it.

The UGA visits are trash. It drives me nuts, but their visits are almost designed like they DON'T want kids to go there. I've take two kids there that were considering UGA until they took the official visit, and spoken to many others with the same experience, especially compared with a place like Alabama, that has kids ready to walk on as a tackling dummy by the end of it. But she might end up "having" to go to UGA. If she does, I'm going to make her go there for another visit outside the standard tour. Either an official "accepted students" weekend, or something unofficial set up with a student there we know. I am almost 90% sure if she really saw it she would like it.

One of our friends had that experience. After their daughter took the visit, she was totally against it. Knowing it was the best affordable option, they made her spend the day with a student they knew...she walked away 180 degrees reversed, and it became her number one.

Then she got deferred. :(
 
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Biology. It's kind of silly she's fixated on Tech, as UGA is probably better for biology with better opportunities, but my kids just don't dig UGA, never have. To my frustration. The rigor does indeed worry me, and I try not to show it and spook her, but I keep telling myself, dumber kids than her get through there. Their retention is actually sky high now. It's all about getting help early and often and putting in the work. I don't think they' let kids wash out of there any more IF they put in maximum effort...they've got tons of help. That's a big change from 20 years ago.

But...the work/study load is still very high.

Biology will be great at GT. If she gets her degree from GT she should be able to do whatever she wants. Tech is great for all STEM majors. It’s business school is also technology focused. Either way congrats....
 
We were planning on taking a spring tour to GT but my daughter's school took some interested potential candidates down to GT & Emory last Fall. Unfortunately, she had the same experience as you all did with uga. GT could not have been more uninviting. From what I was told they put too much focus and emphases on the exclusiveness as a means to impress. It created tension among these exceptional students all of which were coming from a STEM school who have interest in engineering. The consensus was these kids had lost their interest in perusing GT post visit. It was a blow to me for I had been worked out the finances in my head of her going there when she first mentioned interest in this college knowing how expensive it is to attend out of state and how few scholarships GT offers. I addressed the possibility of just being unlucky with a poor tour guide thinking we could go back and have a better experience on a repeat visit. But the damage was done and she said the students looked stressed walking around campus and if it was simply a projection of her own feelings or not, the reality was she wanted no part of that environment.

Conversely, one of the schools she had a minimal interest in TN Tech blew her away with the visit. One of my vendors does work with one of the engineering professors up there. He gave us a name of one of the chemical engineering professors who volunteered to mentor my daughter surprising enough without us asking. My daughter got in touch with her and have had some conversations back and forth about this field. We set a visit in November and the general information speaker did an exceptional job selling the university and the benefits to going there. They then broke us up into a walking tour of the campus with an engineering student who walked around campus, talked about the history of the school and buildings and answered all our questions. This guy then walked us to the Chem. Eng bldg for us to speak to a professor. My daughter and another girl were led to a room and I was surprised the the head of the dept met with us. He asked several questions of both girls and the parents. We spent well over an hour talking about engineering field, the department and how they approach their studies as well as going over some personal stories. They brought in one of the top grad students to tell her story and her successes in this field and in academia. The mentor professor came in to introduce herself to my daughter and exchanged pleasantries during this time too. This lasted so long we missed the tour of dorms.

We are planning on visiting several other schools this spring but I suspect they have their work cut out to compare to the level of attention and detail she received from this instate school. Not to mention my daughter has an uncanny appreciation for value and cost at her age. All the points the initial speaker raised about numerous scholarships and very high percentage of graduates with little to no debt was impressing her as much as it did with parents in the audience. The smaller town and campus feel may have a lot to do with it too. I know she has the acumen to go anywhere and be successful but with the stress of competing in the classroom she should feel comfortable with her environment and suspect she has already made up her mind....we will see.
 
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We were planning on taking a spring tour to GT but my daughter's school took some interested potential candidates down to GT & Emory last Fall. Unfortunately, she had the same experience as you all did with uga. GT could not have been more uninviting. From what I was told they put too much focus and emphases on the exclusiveness as a means to impress. It created tension among these exceptional students all of which were coming from a STEM school who have interest in engineering. The consensus was these kids had lost their interest in perusing GT post visit. It was a blow to me for I had been worked out the finances in my head of her going there when she first mentioned interest in this college knowing how expensive it is to attend out of state and how few scholarships GT offers. I addressed the possibility of just being unlucky with a poor tour guide thinking we could go back and have a better experience on a repeat visit. But the damage was done and she said the students looked stressed walking around campus and if it was simply a projection of her own feelings or not, the reality was she wanted no part of that environment.

Conversely, one of the schools she had a minimal interest in TN Tech blew her away with the visit. One of my vendors does work with one of the engineering professors up there. He gave us a name of one of the chemical engineering professors who volunteered to mentor my daughter surprising enough without us asking. My daughter got in touch with her and have had some conversations back and forth about this field. We set a visit in November and the general information speaker did an exceptional job selling the university and the benefits to going there. They then broke us up into a walking tour of the campus with an engineering student who walked around campus, talked about the history of the school and buildings and answered all our questions. This guy then walked us to the Chem. Eng bldg for us to speak to a professor. My daughter and another girl were led to a room and I was surprised the the head of the dept met with us. He asked several questions of both girls and the parents. We spent well over an hour talking about engineering field, the department and how they approach their studies as well as going over some personal stories. They brought in one of the top grad students to tell her story and her successes in this field and in academia. The mentor professor came in to introduce herself to my daughter and exchanged pleasantries during this time too. This lasted so long we missed the tour of dorms.

We are planning on visiting several other schools this spring but I suspect they have their work cut out to compare to the level of attention and detail she received from this instate school. Not to mention my daughter has an uncanny appreciation for value and cost at her age. All the points the initial speaker raised about numerous scholarships and very high percentage of graduates with little to no debt was impressing her as much as it did with parents in the audience. The smaller town and campus feel may have a lot to do with it too. I know she has the acumen to go anywhere and be successful but with the stress of competing in the classroom she should feel comfortable with her environment and suspect she has already made up her mind....we will see.
Tech's engineering program is solid. I know many good engineers that graduated from there.
 
Just as an update, my daughter has been accepted to FSU and started classes this week. Go Noles!

Congrats! I found out over my Christmas trip home that my niece from Virginia has applied to FSU. Hope she gets in and decides to accept and start in the fall. Her other top choice is Penn State, and she has already been accepted there. :(
 
A guy I went to high school with in Dallas went to Georgia Tech. He went the engineer route but it was also to get away from Texas.

He said it was a great experience but this was 20 years ago. He also managed to meet and marry one of the very few good looking girls at Georgia Tech (his words, not mine) so that may have something to do with it.
 
A guy I went to high school with in Dallas went to Georgia Tech. He went the engineer route but it was also to get away from Texas.

He said it was a great experience but this was 20 years ago. He also managed to meet and marry one of the very few good looking girls at Georgia Tech (his words, not mine) so that may have something to do with it.

GT is close to 70% male... and trust me that 30% of females does not resemble a sorority at FSU.

A couple of sayings have come out of tech:
From females: "The odds are good but the goods are odd"
On orientation day at tech: "look to your left and then look to your right... chances are only 1 of you will graduate from tech"
From every student who graduates: "The best two days at tech is the orientation and the day you graduate"....like I said not your typical college experience there.
 
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