Thing #1 applied to only two schools. He only applied to the 2nd because I said he had to. He got into his first choice no questions asked. I tried to get him to apply to UVM as a third and safety school, but he dragged his feet and didn't get the application done in time.
Thing #2 applied to six or seven. He didn't want to spend the money on his first academic choice, it would have been a stretch and he wants to keep his debt low. So he went to UVM which was the cheapest of all the schools that were an academic fit. Fortunately for him he's instate and in commuting distance. Unfortunately for me he's in commuting distance. After two years on campus he's living at home. Why he borrowed money to live on campus during COVID is beyond me. He should have commuted to class the first two and gotten an apartment this year. Oh we'll. Smart kids do dumb things.
Thing #3, well, he's a senior in HS and can't really decide where to apply. The schools he wants to go to he just doesn't have the SAT scores for, however he has decent grades, but not 4.0/4.0. He did sports all four years, but no clubs or engineering related extras. He's the opposite of thing #2 in that regard. Because thing #2 hit the first four years of the proficiency based grading trainwreck, his grades weren't good on paper. However, he had years of engineering activities and clubs, plus high standardized testing scores. Clarkson and RIT we're above UVM in his list that he wanted to attend, but didn't want to pay for. Thing #3 could probably get into Clarkson because our HS has a relationship with it, many alumni as teachers. But he won't consider it because of size and location. He went to the WPI open house on Monday. His SAT score and lack of engineering clubs is going to hurt him there. And he said all the female students he saw were nerds, not good looking enough. He doesn't realize how that actually could help him.
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