@cypresspat Thanks for you candid post. We live in a community with a large highly competitive affluent high school. I would say my kid had an equal part of “keeping up with Joneses” as we may have had. I think we both got caught up in it. I know we shouldn’t have, but anyone with a competitive spirit will. Having said that when we received one of the safety acceptances that had a scholarship, the rationale side of me took over and I really feel it’s a great option. With the money left over, I could probably give my kid more than $100K to start his life off or use for grad school. But my kid who has never experienced financial struggles doesn’t see how valuable that is, although I have told him I will financially support whatever school he chooses. Perhaps that also may have been a wrong strategy. At least now we can have these discussions and look at the totality the acceptances he will get. My younger son is bit greedier and asks me if he goes to a state school can he use the difference to buy a car :). He has already decided he has no interest in the rat race.
What my older son has accomplished in the four years is quite amazing to me already. In fact I am amazed at all of these kids and what they accomplish.
We are still puzzled however with the rejections we are seeing across the board at our school this year. The number of acceptances are down at almost all of the schools. In an unfortunate way this is helping my kid cope as many of his friends are in the same situation.
Last night after calls from grandparents and cousins, the kid was laughing again and in better spirits. What he is saying now is the biggest frustration is the uncertainty and wait for another three more months before we find out about the RD rounds which I completely understand.
BTW, why does UChicago think it’s a great idea to give notifications during the week of finals! Most IVYs and Northwestern do it the week before. At least the kids have the weekend to recover.