Congratulations!
I’d find it hard to walk away from Grinnell with that package. Does “full aid” include loans on any of these.
Just to note on your WLs that Northeaster had a record 105,000 applications. A lot of schools are seeing exceptionally high numbers of applications this year.
You do have four admissions with “full aid”, so you seemingly have a college to attend.
With respect to “yield protection”, your waitlist colleges all consider “level of applicant’s interest”, so if they see you as “overqualified”, they may want some indication (beyond applying) that they are one of your top choices, rather than a backup. (“Overqualified” admits tend to have lower yield than admits who were reaching for the college when they applied.)
You’d never know why a school makes a decision. Just looking at the list, some of those are need aware - so they can reject you simply based on the amount of funds you need.
You can only go to one.
I think you’ll be just fine 
No, Not necessarily but if I had to take out loans, it would be max $3,000/year which is not bad at all.
Ill list the rest of my aid packages and how things have turned out for the schools I have been accepted to:
FSU (Full Tuition)
W&M (Full Tuition; W&M Scholar + Research Program)
UHawaii (Full Tuition)
UVA (Full Aid; Zero Loans)
Grinnell College (Scholarship + Full Aid; ~2K/year in Loans)
MiddleBury College (Full Aid; ~2K/year in Loans)
University of Rochester (Scholarship - Full Aid; 3K/year in loans)
Oberlin College (Scholarship - Full Aid; ~1K/year in Loans)
Carleton College (Full Aid; ~2K/year in loans)
University of Southern California (Full Aid; ~5K/year in loans)
The above are schools that I would end up paying ~0 out of pocket if I did take the loans they gave me.
VCU (Scholarship; would end up paying 10k/year after aid)
Virginia Tech (accepted, withdrew, moot point)
Rutgers (No Aid; gave me $100 dollars :laugh-cry:)
UMD (No Aid)
Penn State (No Aid)
UC Irvine (No Aid)
UC Davis (No Aid)
UC San Diego (No Aid)
I understand that and, I personally did apply to way too many colleges as well.
Without a doubt I have fantastic options and I am very grateful. I am looking ahead into the next few weeks as T20s begin releasing, with my dream school right now being Harvard (Rest in Peace MIT), it is a little discouraging to be waitlisted by so many schools that, well, have a higher acceptance rate than Harvard and the rest of the Ivies.
Thankfully, at least for cost concerns, the Ivies are full aid and most t20s as well, so I can expect a similar financial aid package to the schools I have already been accepted to.
The U of Chicago president said a few years ago, “If we removed our entire incoming freshman class and replaced them with the next group behind them, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
The fact that you have been waitlisted by schools with a higher acceptance rate than Harvard means nothing other than the fact that there are too many highly qualified applicants whose qualifications are very similar and there isn’t enough room for all of them. We have a girl in our local high school who was rejected by Holy Cross and accepted by Yale. Go figure.
Congratulations on fantastic results so far. If it’s any consolation, many of the schools that waitlisted you are need-aware, which may have been a factor since you did get full aid from schools like Middlebury and Grinnell, which are need-blind. I bet you’ll have more good news in the coming weeks, but you already have stellar options that you can afford.
That and he wasn’t choosing those anyway
You only get to choose one. Sure a yes is nice but you’re not going to them.
I’m sure need aware is a huge factor at several. There has been articles saying they turn down studs to ration for more. Budgets are not endless.
Congratulations on having so many excellent and affordable options!
W&M and UVA seem like the best options, but I get it if you want to go OOS. Some adult or counselor should have told you not to apply to UC schools or Penn State as a need candidate.
If you have significant need, stick to private schools and in-state public schools, for the most part. If you are full-pay, then focus on OOS public schools since all the privates are much more expensive.
Do you think it is too late to show interest in some schools like BU, BC, and Vanderbilt?
At least for USC, they gave me $92K/year out of the 100K i need and then it would be like 8k in loans if I so choose. Any OOS private t20 or so school would givee me full financial aid.
Accepted
UCSB
Hamilton College
Colby College
UNC Chapel Hill
Swarthmore
Wake Forest
Washington and Lee University
Waitlisted:
George Washington University
Davidson College
Bates College
Rejected:
Johns Hopkins
Amherst College
Williams College
Bowdoin College
Colgate University
Pomona College
Claremont Mckenna College
UCLA
Boston University
Tufts University
Notre Dame
Boston College
Im really hoping for better news this week for ivy day, but I am losing quite a bit of hope
These are fantastic acceptances (in addition to the ones you listed earlier), congratulations! I assume UCSB is not affordable.
The rest of these newer acceptances should meet your need…are they affordable? If these excellent choices are your final set of choices, which school do you lean towards attending?
Seriously, cut it out.
You have affordable acceptances to some of the best colleges in the country, colleges that many would give their right arm to attend, but they can’t, because they were among the 85% who got rejected. Spare a thought for them, at least. Better yet, realize your good fortune and enjoy knowing the next 4 years are going to be fantastic.
USC is covering over 90% of the cost and you are losing hope ??
And all six of your acceptances (except UCSB) meet need - did any of them come big financially ?
Yes it’s too late to demonstrate interest but people could easily choose your admits over those schools.
If you’re only about a name and you have great ones already, life is gonna stink.
Find the right fit. Fit includes affordability.
You are pre med or bio. The where is going to matter little regardless.
But you have top names.
Good luck.
Hamilton matched aid so I’d take out a 5k/year loan or pay out of pocket for that.
Colby Matched aid so I’d pay 2K/year or take out a loan
UNC would be about 12k/year or take out a loan for that amount with aid
Swarthmore gave me a full ride, no loans.
Washington and Lee would be 5k/year or take out a loan for that amount per year.
WFU has not done aid.
Yes, I know i have great, and more importantly affordable options and as a premed, that is what is most important. And I am incredibly grateful for the acceptances I got and the money I got as well.
But no less, I still have a dream/top school that i am gunning for, and every rejection hurts ever so slightly.
Regardless, I am very grateful that I have options, as it looks, USC, Colby, or Swarthmore are my top choices (especially being top research and pre-med schools).
Great attitude. These are very different. Size. Environment. Once you get your final decisions, I hope you focus on fit.
Congrats- you’re already the envy of most every college applicant in America !!
Absolutely, yes! And you already have all of these other acceptances which seem to be affordable:
Frankly, it’s an embarrassment of riches! Right now I would focus on what things are most important to you in a college and look at each of your affordable acceptances and rate them on how important they are to you (this recent post explains it much better…I think it’s a great way for students to get clarity on their priorities and make a decision).
I’d also suggest doing some 4-year plans for some schools, especially those with different course plans. For instance, if you did course plans for the following five schools, you might learn your preferences about distribution requirements, the amount of classes you take at a time, the amount of courses you take over your entire college career, academic calendar preferences, etc. All of which (if any of your preferences are felt strongly) could help to eliminate (or move forward) schools of a particular type amongst your acceptances.
All of this to say, it looks like you have 16 affordable schools to start to winnow down. If you’re looking up living learning communities, research interests of professors, clubs of interest, etc, for these various schools to help you find your preferred options, there’s no time to be worrying about what may or may not be coming down the pipeline from a few highly rejective colleges. It very well may be that as you learn more about your options, you may prefer them to whatever decisions you haven’t heard back from anyway.
ETA: I was writing while you posted, but I still stand by what I wrote. Good luck!
Two things to keep in mind:
Someone up-thread mentioned the benefit of the in-state flagships, which I think makes a ton of sense, especially in the travel / social dynamics regard. The full ride / W&M Scholar recognition is huge, as is the full aid at UVA. I know you’re holding out hope for Harvard, but would strongly encourage you to keep W&M and UVA in the running all the way until your final pool, and would strongly recommend going to W&M’s Day For Admitted Students (April 12th) and one of UVA’s Days On The Lawn (April 5th / 19th / 26th).
I know that Williams gives aid for travel and storage, would guess that some of the other LACs do also but that would be a guess
There is some very good advice here! I also think you have amazing opportunities if you stopped today with acceptances. I do though want to validate your hard work for the last 4 years and your desire to go to a dream school. If you do not happen to get into Harvard I might suggest Swarthmore. They have a cool program where if you go with another student they will pay for you to train to philly and get dinner and see a show. Also they have no class size restrictions so the class will go if only a few people register for it. There are other really cool things about the school but also the campus has an ivy feel. My kids did not go here but I was so impressed with the school. W and M is also a great school with an awesome campus.