Welcome, Caleb's mom! I was really worried that my son would be like yours, but he finally kicked it into gear last year -- and took a class that he loved (which has become his planned major.) Until then, I was really worried he'd be drifting. But I got plenty of gray hairs freshman and sophomore years!
My son applied to 4 schools: all public. 3 in-state and 1 out-of-state school. I think he's narrowed it down to 2.
-- Out-of-state school eliminated due to cost. They weren't particularly strong in his field anyway, but he'd heard they give good scholarships. They did offer him enough to offset the out-of-state surcharge, but he's also received a larger-than-anticipated merit scholarship from one of the in-state schools, so it can't compete there.
-- The two in-state schools still in the running are Miami-OH and Ohio State. Both are ranked pretty highly for his major (Business/Economics). With the merit scholarship, they'll be within a couple thousand dollars total cost. (Ohio State is within commuting distance -- which would make it much less expensive, but DS wants to live on campus anyway, and I don't really blame him.) We've scheduled admitted student visits at both (although we've already visited both), because he wants to see them again before he decides.
-- The third in-state school is University of Cincinnati. He hasn't received an official answer from them yet. Their decision day is 1/18. Up until last Friday, DS insisted it was in contention with the other two, although I really thought it was in a distant 3rd. On Friday, he got an e-mail offering him an interview for some sort of Business honors program (separate from the univeristy honors program, I guess). The interview process looks pretty intensive -- panel interview, one-on-one, some sort of classroom experience -- from 9am-1pm on a Saturday. So 1) I guess he's in, huh? Odd that they'd send those out before the official decisions go out, but the interview would be 1/24, so I guess if they waited till 1/18 to send invitations, it wouldn't give people much time. 2) DS doesn't want to do it. He said that Cincinnati was "just his safety school" and since he's in at Miami and Ohio State, he's not really interested in Cincinnati anymore. And, on one hand, I really didn't think Cincinnati would end up being his top choice, but as of the point that he received that e-mail, he was telling people it was still in the running, so... I don't quite know what to do.
I'd hate for him to skip the interview if Cincinnati is on his radar AT ALL -- and he did like *some* things about it, and we haven't seen their merit scholarship offer (because he's not officially admitted yet). But I'd hate to *make* him do the interview if he's really not considering UC anymore. That seems like a waste of time for all involved. But, on the other hand, the interview would be great experience for him (aside from getting hired as a cashier at the local grocery store, I don't think he's ever had to do an interview) -- and maybe even all the better if he doesn't actually care about the outcome. Conflicted!
We did get a letter from ESU last night that he's being offered a pretty substantial amount to attend, so it certainly got us excited about it, though it was not first choice on his list. We may need to go visit again and give it a deeper look as it's hard to pass up what could amount to 25% of tuition, room and board.
So happy for both of them!!
