Thank you for sharing your experience and perspective. I think the decision would be a bit easier if he were going into engineering, although I have no doubt he will follow-through with his goal of obtaining a PhD in clinical psych and work hard to find a partially or fully funded PhD program to make that side of things more budget-friendly. But obviously there are never any guarantees. I know that our offer is equivalent to “hitting the jackpot” as far as Case Western offers go, so we ARE GRATEFUL but do have alot to think about and discuss moving forward.
I would imagine that your son would need a high GPA and clinical hours to go for a PhD? If so, I would focus on a college that isn’t the most rigorous and close to a place where he can attain the clinical hours (Pitt or other). Not sure if you have any of those type of college acceptances.
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Case Western is surrounded by hospitals so I’m assuming he could find some placements there. He’s a high achieving student but I know it’s a lot tougher to maintain a strong GPA at Case Western than many other schools on his list. Some other good options are Buffalo State ($16k) University at Buffalo ($19K) SUNY Albany ($18k) Pitt ($28k) Rollins-Orlando ($25k) and Barry-Miami ($16.5k) All honors-except waitlisted to honors at Pitt-so hopefully research opportunities and close connections with professors. He did get into Fordham but it’s $53k! I agree he should focus on standing out in undergrad and saving money. I think he could graduate in 3 years if colleges take his AP, SUPA & CLEP credits (pretty sure Case doesn’t accept CLEP.) With the right program and location, he can get into a strong PhD program and that should be his main focus. Not saying Case is off the table, but it’s tough to justify with other good options on the table. He’s waiting to hear from Northeastern (was deferred to RD) but guessing they will be over budget if he gets in.
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In this situation, it seems to hard to pull this off without loans. Any addl scholarship or co-op incomes will negatively impact the $8K FinAid. So the scholarship or co-op funds needs to cover $8K*4 years. It seems a bit risky to pull it off for 4 years, as life could throw curveballs at you and in the 3rd year you don’t want bad choices.
My recommendation would depend on what is the next best choice. I heard, NE is also a good co-op university to generate funds towards tuition, you might have to wait to see what merit scholarship you get there.
You can always come to CWRU for the PhD when it is even more funded.
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YES!!! Indeed, appreciate exactly where you’re coming from!!!
Also, 30 years ago, my offer to CWRU and Pitt were the exact same… I’m assuming each knows roughly what the other’s algorithm is for an offer… actually cheaper to go to CWRU at the time… so then it was a no brainer compared to Pitt. I suspect same boat these days… within a cup of coffee the same price.
He will love CWRU!
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My son a rising fourth year at Emory (it’s my daughter at CWRU) is about to be applying to Psyche PhD programs and has been doing all
applying footwork. It isn’t clinical hours they need
for psyche PhD or PsyD programs but research time that is looked for. Even for clinical psychologists it’s that side that is not required but highly wanted. Many go to a masters program first to get that experience and then have the credits role to PhD. PhD programs are small with very few slots so they get in however they can. CWRU has a PhD program in psyche so an undergrad would certainly find a way to research with faculty. OP and family need to figure out what is the best fit both academically and financially for the student and go from there.
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Well… my son was accepted RD to CWRU with a $25.5k / year university scholarship (no financial aide offered).
Puts CWRU about $12.5K more per year than Georgia Tech … and $32.5K more per year than PSU Schreyer Honors College. Being CWRU is my alma mater, if the cost was more “in between” the two, say less that GT but more than PSU… so maybe $40K… it would a compelling discussion.
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It’s hard to make choices - so sometimes it helps when another makes it easy for you.
And just think - now you’ll have a big time college football team to cheer on 
Let us know which of the two he chooses.
Still, a confidence builder I’m sure for your son in what’s not an easy admit!!
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Yes!! You’re right… for me as a parent, each added “tough admit” is a bit of a confidence booster from a parent perspective… 30 years removed… but, to my DS, he’s very smooth about it as if to say, “Hey, you get into some, you don’t to others… some deserving kids are left out and vice versa.”
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I’m curious if any of you have already attended an admitted student event at CWRU? We’re trying to book ours but I’m surprised to see it’s a 2-day event, which means my son will miss 2 days of school right after we return from spring break. Is it necessary to be there on both days? Or is it possible to get a good feel for the place and the info we need in one day?
We’re trying to attend 3 different admitted student events from his top 3 colleges but it’s tricky since none of them are very close. CWRU is the closest at 5 hours away but still requires 2 overnight stays in a hotel.
I’m sorry if this has been asked. I tried searching and had trouble finding answers.
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My daughter was ED last year and the end couldn’t attend hers but it wasn’t the same kind of issue. Stating that I attended one about 30 years ago and at that time one reason for the two days was they had you stay with a student in a dorm overnight. Due to Covid that stopped but it I know they have been considering it’s return. I don’t know that it has as of yet. Stating that CWRU is a school that hand holds its students and families. It is very communicative. I know people make fun of this during the application process but it doesn’t stop once you enroll nor once you attend. It’s part of who they are so my understanding is yes it makes a difference to being there both days. My daughter has heard this from friends that chose to attend it last year. The simply really felt they knew CWRU. Stating that my daughter knew she wanted to attend simply from her amazing in person tour where even there the school put its best foot forward and showed a lot of what makes CWRU - CWRU.
Give the admissions department a call. They will discuss it with you and help sort things out.
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I don’t know the answer. Suspect you’re an adult and if have to leave after one day they won’t do anything good or bad.
Personally, I think an “whole day” at a school is good enough. That’s what we do for EXACTLY what you’re suggesting for three schools… one day each (bonus one is on a Saturday).
CWRU you can get to know in half a day. The surrounding area the other half day.
What I will say, from when my brother attended in 1986, and I attended in mid-1990s and again in the early 2000’s, until now in 2023… I agree with other poster that CWRU really tries to nurture the students. It used to be “feed them to the lions” kind of scenario, drop off at dorm in 1986, good luck… to now b/c it basically is a small school, basically it offers the personal touch to cater to the students.
The reason being… ALL of the students they accept now are brilliant, hard working, and will succeed if they show some effort… so the trick with CWRU and other larger schools is becoming the hardest part is getting in… yes, they will grind on the students and make 'em sharp… but they aren’t going to fail a student for no reason anymore just b/c they scored a 94% on an exam (actually, it was a D in 1994). 
One day should be fine. Should love it… small school, lots to do, lots of opportunity… lots of eclectic small places to go for fun.
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There is a sample schedule we saw from last year, and at least some of the talks occur on both days. We plan to go for one day only during spring break. We didn’t do the dorm tour when visited last summer, so most interested in dorms/campus living etc.
I’m sure you can get a good feel for the place in far less than one day.
These are marketing events - sure they have positives for you - but now is their time to build yield.
If there are certain things you want during your day there or half day, etc. let them know and they may be able to arrange a one off.
I’m sure many will not be staying two days and on the admitted days we attended, many left at lunch, etc. (other schools of course).
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FWIW, it’s not a given these events make kids walk away feeling better about the school, or for the right reasons. My oldest ended up eliminating a couple schools after negative experiences at admitted student events, having likely over-indexed on specific experiences with specific individuals. We didn’t do any tours with the youngest and are not encouraging him to do admitted student events unless he really wants to or if he ends up right on the fence about multiple schools. If there’s a front runner, and its a front runner for a bunch of logical reasons, no need to risk the tours/admitted days messing that up…
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Thank you all for your feedback. I had looked over the sample itinerary and while there’s overlapping sessions between the two days, they do seem to offer some new info on the second day. A lot of it will not apply to my son who will not be majoring in one of those popular majors (engineering, CS, bio, etc) but since none of us have ever been to Cleveland, we feel it’s important to visit.
My son really wanted to go to college outside of the Midwest but CWRU checks off the rest of his boxes, so it’ll be good to attend one of these events. I just don’t want to miss anything important if we cut out part of it. We’ve decided to go ahead and register and arrive late on the first day. That way we’ll be there for one night only but 1.5 days of events/sessions. We’ll also try to arrange to meet with faculty from his department and make sure we get a chance to visit that dept and facilities. Definitely want to maximize our time there since a lot of the schedule doesn’t apply to him or interest him necessarily.
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Having gone to CWRU… I can “guarantee?” that in one day you’ll have a good vibe of the college.
In that time you’ll need to just be sure you’ll meet the department of interest, and advisor, the library, the dining hall, and a dorm.
To be honest… now that I think of it… CWRU life is pretty much one’s dorm, the library, and the classrooms. That’s it. Its relatively smaller “city” campus.
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Thank you! This is helpful! My DS wants to cram in two Admitted Students day that are in Cleveland and nearby in two days so I’ll plan accordingly!
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My son received the max merit ($43,500) and $8400 financial aid but CWRU is still about $9k above our budget max. I doubt they will budge in giving more (and can’t blame them-they have a line of waitlisted students willing to pay full price) but my son plans to write an appeal letter and hope for the best. I know they won’t offer the $9k we need but even a little more might help us justify him going to his 1st choice college. He has pending outside scholarships (which FA told me would stack and come off the COA, not just reduce the FA) but we probably won’t know the status until after May 1st. So we are looking for security and consistency and not feeling too confident we will get either with Case.
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If it’s that close to your max, deposit elsewhere and frankly I’d move on.
Why risk straining yourself financially ? What if you lost a job or markets tanked ?
Hopefully you can find a school that you can comfortably afford.
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