<p>stillnadine: Thanks so much for the C of C residence life info. but I can’t find pictures of the housing options. Does anyone know what the C of C housing looks like?</p>
<p>Rockvillemom: Do you know how competitive it is to get into C of C? Is there a train or bus to C of C from Washington DC area? </p>
<p>Also, I want to caution you about applying ED. Generally speaking, if your child applies Early Decision, and is accepted, your child is basically committed to that school and chances of merit scholarship are seriously lower by ED. If you are accepted EA, you can still apply to other schools. Be careful about ED if finances/merit aid/financial aid are of any concern to you. I think ED is only good for the wealthy who can easily pay the sticker price.</p>
<p>I don’t agree at chances for FA are lessened by ED. It’s true that packages can’t be compared, but a school has a strong vested interest in creating a package that allows an ED admit to attend.</p>
<p>I saw the ED package and RD package at the school DD attended (she was deferred, but he got to see the package that she would have been awarded had she been accepted ED. She was accepted RD.) For various reasons that pertain only to our family, the ED award was higher. Drat!</p>
<p>Mythmom: I wonder if your situation is unique or par for the course. I was given the impression that it is far more difficult to get any merit aid under ED because the school knows it is your first choice and may therefore assume that you will take on more debt for your first choice. I also heard, in terms of strategy, that some parents/students feel it is more advantageous to find out the potential merit aid from more than one school on RD than just knowing one school ED. Any other parents out there who got merit aid under ED?</p>
<p>from levirm
</p>
<p>I can’t speak generally but folks we know who live in Montreal talk about Concordia as being the PLO university or something like that. The daughter of a friend at Carleton (near Ottawa?) spends a lot of time on pro-Israel outreach and in particular combating anti-Israel stuff. She’s actually gotten training in how to do it and is very gung-ho. Methinks it may become her future job.</p>
<p>mdcissp: I think that the question you ask is very school specific; on this thread, specifically, I know kids who received merit $$ at Muhlenberg ED, for example…without going through the entire list, I think that yabeyabe’s son received merit $$ at Susquehanna ED as well…</p>
<p>so to summarize, it depends on the school…when you have your list together, you could actually post a question like that on each school’s specific forum…</p>
<p>What do people know about Kenyon? I just spent a great weekend at my college reunion and two of my roommates had kids who are very happily at Kenyon, but neither is Jewish and wouldn’t know about Jewish life.</p>
<p>shawbridge: we know a freshman at Kenyon who is half-Jewish that is very happy there; not sure what his religious involvement is…</p>
<p>mdcissp - use stillnadine’s link for CofC - at the very bottom of the page it says Residence Life in red letters - click on that - you will see a page with various tabs at the top - go to prospective students - and you will have info by dorm with the price of the dorm and some pictures. C of C apparently has 3 tiers of housing - with each tier being more expensive - but newer/nicer as well.</p>
<p>CofC promotes themselves as being for the student who earned primarily As and Bs in high school. Their out of state ACT range is around 24-28. (In-state is a little lower). I noticed they do offer actuarial science - that’s what your son is interested in, right? I would have to think boys get a slight bump in the admissions process - since the school is about 65% female.</p>
<p>Thank you so much Rockville mom. I am going back to the C of C web site and look for the info. on actuarial science and dorms. I saw the different tier price info. for the dorms but did not see the pictures. I’ll check again.</p>
<p>[Residence</a> Life and Housing](<a href=“Residence Life - College of Charleston”>Residence Life - College of Charleston)</p>
<p>Click on the dorm name and you will get a description and pictures. It is an urban campus - so the dorms look like buildings on a city street.</p>
<p>Incidentally C of C has a special accepted student program in March for Jewish students. About 800 Jewish students - so about 8% of undergraduates - and this number is increasing. Jewish sorority and fraternity. Jewish studies minor.</p>
<p>65% female at CofC–no wonder Rockvilleson likes it! 
. </p>
<p>Mdcissp, I was sure that applying ED would reduce or eliminate my son’s chance of merit aid, especially since were not asking for need aid, but they were extremely generous to him and to his best friend, who also applied ED. I have become very cynical about much of the college admissions process, so I was shocked.</p>
<p>I do not know if this was unusual.</p>
<p>I think the cynical interpretation of merit money (or need-based aid for that matter) is that schools use it to leverage students they want, and why waste it on ED candidates? I thought of it a different way – that the most money was available at the beginning of the process (for the schools) and that ED admits were the kids the schools wanted the most.</p>
<p>Since all the schools I spoke with said that an ED agreement could be dissolved if a student couldn’t afford to attend, the school has a strong interest in making sure a student can attend. </p>
<p>As the ass’t ad officer said to me: “If we want you and you want us that much we’re going to do everything in our power to help you attend.”</p>
<p>We <em>did</em> have financial safeties (state system) if it didn’t work out and also private EA’s that might have done a better job with aid.</p>
<p>I think it depends on how much a student wants a particular school.</p>
<p>Cross-posted with above post – we both mentioned cynical.</p>
<p>[Kenyon</a> Hillel - Home](<a href=“http://www.kenyonhillel.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=4fa0fdd6c241bcc844568c383ee63a0a]Kenyon”>http://www.kenyonhillel.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=4fa0fdd6c241bcc844568c383ee63a0a)</p>
<p>I don’t know much about Kenyon personally, but have a good friend from Ohio whose daughter (not Jewish) will be going there in the fall. She thinks very highly of the school. From listening to her, it sounds like a great place academically. But it is a very expensive school - $53,000 this coming year per my friend, and is in the middle of nowhere. It is also quite small. I know another girl there who loves it - but I think this is a school to examine very closely in terms of cost/benefit and the remote location.</p>
<p>Kenyon has been a very highly rated LAC for a long time. That cost does strike me as very high for Ohio, where I have heard schools were cheaper than Eastern LACs.</p>
<p>mythmom, I understand schools being generous with need aid ED, since those kids are sure to come to the school if they can afford it. I had thought merit might be saved as a recruiting tool for RD kids to boost yield. My guess is that schools which are not at the tp of the pyramid are really pleased when kids apply ED–it boosts both their egos and their yield and help ensure a sense of kids happy to be there on accepted student day.</p>
<p>At a time when, because of kids applying to lots of school, even as fine a school as Lafayette has a yield of only 27% of admitted kids, you can imagine admissions folks are very fond of the “sure things”.</p>
<p>yabeyabe2: May I ask which school did your child apply ED and get good merit aid? Also, were your child’s stats stellar (clearly obvious that your child would get merit aid).</p>
<p>I recall when we looked at Carnegie Mellon for our older son, that the school gave the impression if you apply ED, you have a better chance of acceptance, but less likely to get any merit aid than in RD. I also read, in general, that ED favors the wealthy who can afford sticker price. Clearly, if you are in real financial need then I would guess the college would meet the financial need ED or RD.</p>
<p>Yes, good point. Again, it all depends on how much the kid wants a particular school and how far out on a limb the parent will go for that.</p>
<p>I <em>have</em> heard of many merit packages for ED students based on the same stat formula as RD. Of course, that won’t be the case for all merit based aid. It probably will be for need based aid.</p>
<p>For those of you with daughters: the male/female ratio at CofC is some what more balanced because the Citadel, which is mostly male, is right down the street. Of course, the only Jewish child I know who goes there is female – she’ll be a freshman this fall!</p>
<p>mdcissp, the school was Susquehanna and neither he nor his friend had stellar stats by their standard, or hooks (except my son being Jewish may have helped if they are hoping to attract more) although both were clear admits.</p>
<p>I think that kids who lack academic confidence can really get a boost by receiving merit awards.</p>