He's visiting NU with his dad in mid-November. Hypo visited and tried to get an interview but wasn't able to get a slot when they were here locally. She did get one with Wash U which happened to be at the same place at the same time. After her Wash U interview, we walked over to the NU interviews and she told them she wasn't able to get a slot during sign ups and she wondered if there were any cancellations. They interviewed her on the spot. That was total chance.

Brown, Northwestern and Cornell are all in the same category right now- He needs to see them to know whether he "feels it" there so all three are up in the air. He might apply to all 3, he might not apply to any of them. We'll see. I do think Cornell is much bigger than the schools he is favoring, but that program might make it worth it.

Plus, Cornell is in a pretty, woodsy location...it might feel smaller to him than the schools in cities.

Maybe, but he thought the school where you teach is too big (the rural campus!)and I thought it seemed really cool so... we'll see!

Ah! Cornell ILR School is also a state school--would that help in terms of cost? For OOS, I have no clue if its much cheaper than the endowed schools. It used to be that ILR and the Ag schools were considered a backdoor way in but they're actually really good.

My experience with Hypo is that, with our financial aid situation, most schools were within a couple thousand of each other no matter what their Total Cost of Attendance.

She enjoyed meeting you :)

Anybody out there familiar with Butler University in Indianapolis? They were at a college fair last night and Halo talked to them for a bit and may be interested in adding them to his list.

A bit. It was down to Butler and OSU for Son #2, and a very good friend of Son #1 graduated from Butler last spring. We found they gave very generous scholarships/financial aid in both cases. Academic choices were very appealing to #2, but in the end he wanted the big school experience. Nice campus, not huge but large enough to offer strong academics and campus life. Friend loved her 4 years there and feels she got a great education AND was able to get a job in her field soon after graduation.

I almost went there. Amazing campus and what seemed like great academics (to a high schooler 6 or 7 years ago). What threw me off was the climate. They talked about tornado warnings and feet of snow neither of which is appealing to this west coaster. Also the day before we visited there had been a huge rain storm and there were humongous worms on the sidewalk, like six inches long. Loved them otherwise though. Good basketball team too.

At the same time that I considered both the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, I also considered Butler University and Ball State University in Indiana. Actually, the two Indiana schools had better programs in my first major (art history). Butler is a popular pick for students from the north suburbs around Chicago. It is not quite Cornell, Brown, or Northwestern, but it is a very solid choice.

And may be more appealing as a several hours drive vs. a flight to the northeast. And maybe there's a train option? I can't say I'm familiar with any of the north/south routes except along the coasts. But relatively speaking, the weather in Indy is pretty temperate and the city has a lot going for it.

Butler would probably be more of a safety for him. Northwestern, Brown and Cornell are a crap shoot, even for students with great credentials and numerous accomplishments. I was looking for alternatives to some of his other safeties- Albion, Kalamazoo- it sounds like Butler might be a good fit. The drive to Indy isn't bad from here although to go there and back in a day is a little much so it would probably require a hotel stay when I went to move him in or pick him up, but it's manageable.

The biggest downside to Butler at the moment is they don't use the common app and I don't know if we have time to get everything in for the 11/1 early action deadline. They strongly recommended he apply EA for the highest merit scholarship opportunities. We'll see how the weekend goes and if he can get the application done. He's working on his essays now.

He has a few minor tweaks he wants to make to his essays, but two college apps are almost ready for submission! 11/1 deadline going here... I think he's going to make it!

The first two are submitted :) Woohoo!

I am very familiar with Butler, if you have any specific questions PM me. I mentioned Butler early in the thread because it sounded like a good fit for him looking at its size and academic programs.

Macalester just showed up on his Common App list. Flights are easy between there and Detroit at least! We'll see.

We leave tomorrow for Providence and Ithaca! I'm excited to get away for a little bit and check out these schools. The weather will be kind of iffy, but not too terrible for early November.