Congratulations!!!
Congrats that is fantastic news!
Congratulations!
Wow that is fantastic news!! Huge merit award!! Congrats!
Congrats to your D!
@wisteria100 @Veryapparent, @Mom24boys @93pilots, @Kelvin82, @Dancer41
Thank you all for the warm wishes regarding this acceptance!
Yay! What an accomplishment. You must be very proud.
Wonderful! May you both sleep well.
@Dancingmom518 I am very proud of her, I always have been. She has some other really nice acceptances under her belt but this was a big one for me, anyway.
She has no clue really what is a good school and what isn’t, we really had never heard of many of these schools before December. I just felt from her communication with her AO and my communication with the AO, and hearing from other families, and some very trusted people who have accompanied me on this journey, that this school was a great fit for my D and her personality.
Now we wait a few more days to see if it does indeed end up meeting full need or very close to it.
But I’m proud of her, she’s done a great job with high school and trying to navigate this whole new world. She’s a great kid and I’m so lucky to be her mom.
Congratulations!
@gardenstategal Thank you!
Congratulations!
@Grinnellhopeful, enjoy the moment with your DD - it’s a big accomplishment to have a seat at the table of several great schools. There are no bad choices, and yes I still believe that St. Olaf will be a great one as well - they have too many grateful alums for it not to be something special.
Good job – hope the FA package meets your D’s expectations!
@Chembiodad Very well said. It is an honor for my D to have been accepted to so many great schools. When I first came to this board I had a sinking pit in my stomach that my daughter just wouldn’t make the cut, and many said as much. I reminded her of that again tonight. It’s hard for her to grasp the quality of the schools when she’s not familiar with this world.
But we ended up with an amazing list of acceptances and I am so proud that her application and essay were able to bring her to life to the admissions board.
Of course I think she’s amazing, I often just look at her in awe, and wonder how she does all she does and with such grace. But I’m her mom, I’m slightly biased. I do know she is very well respected amoung her teachers and peers and always has been, but without seeing her LORs, I have no idea how those things were articulated. One of her AOs gave me a little insight into them…she said something along the lines of they were definitely not form letters.
I need to maybe start another thread because I won’t to find a way to let our GC and educators how much we appreciate all they did to help in this process. Her GC having NEVER seen the common app before…he’s been amazing and has really advocated for her every step of the way and learned so much.
But yes, take waiting for the FA packages to arrive out of the equation. Every school she has been accepted to seems to be exceptional. And she would be in good hands at any of them. For this we are so blessed.
Thank you for @intparent. If we are lucky enough to end up with an acceptance and a FA package that meets full need or close to it (no gap after 5500 in federal loans) I don’t even know how to feel, the gratitude will be immense, I will rest easier. We haven’t had the best luck the past few years, we aren’t used to things just working out. It’s still hard to even imagine that StO or Earlham are even possible with our financial constraints.
If indeed either works out, it might take me awhile to trust that it’s real. I suppose it’s still possible some of the others could come through with a better aid package, although I feel like they’ve been generous thus far.
Hopefully we’ll have some more answers regarding the full picture of financial aid at some of the other schools soon, we should hear from StO after Feb 1st (I don’t know if that’s the day the decisions are mailed or that’s the day students have a decision. It could be a week or so later, I don’t know the answer to that. But I did find out today how much her deposit would be and the due date for it, that’s February 19 so I feel like they would give us a little bit of time to review everything. Hopefully that means the decision will be here sooner rather than later.
Thank you for the kind words.
^Be prepared to make the review your top priority and to meet their dates. Everyone is in the same boat on this who applies ED. You have given this more thought than most – you’ve got this, @Grinnellhopeful .
@gardenstategal Thank you for your support. I’ve had a sleepless night. So much for feeling like I could rest…lol
I want to talk to my daughter again. I want her to evaluate things, tomorrow. I’ve been given some great talking points from someone I trust very much. It will be a conversation that will really make her think.
Please relax, especially since you and she are still waiting on colleges’ decisions.
What does she need to evaluate tomorrow?
Seems like that only things she really needs to evaluate are backup plans if St. Olaf gives a rejection, or admission with FA unaffordably worse than the NPC estimate. But, in that case, she will have until May 1 to consider the non-St.-Olaf backup plans.
Obviously, if St. Olaf gives admission with FA matching the NPC estimate, then she will matriculate there, so there is nothing else to evaluate in this case.
A very informative thread! I don’t have a dog in this fight, but there are some rather objective items you might want to consider as you compare Earlham and St. Olaf.
I see that your daughter is interested in chemistry. I took a look at the number of chemistry graduates from Earlham and it is only 2, while St. Olaf graduated 45 (numbers from a popular college data site). The access to courses, faculty and facilities would be much greater at St. Olaf in chemistry. Also, looking forward to landing a job, it would stand to reason that more employers looking for chemists would be recruiting at St. Olaf than at Earlham.
Another poster commented on the graduation rate from Earlham. The first year retention rate at St. Olaf is 92%, Earlhams is 80%. The 4 year graduation rate is 65% at Earlham and 86% at St Olaf. I checked other similar schools (ACT/SAT range and acceptance rates) and Earlham’s rates are quite low. You might want to find out why. As the institutional aid will only be for 4 years, I would strongly suggest that you pay attention to the 4 year graduation rate - it would be quite painful to have to figure a way to pay for an extra semester or year without out a scholarship or need based grant.
I also recommend that you figure a way to visit the two campuses, even if it is really financially difficult. Basing a life changing decision about where your daughter will attend college without a visit isn’t ideal. Take some time reading the treads on this site about colleges that moved up, down, or off the college list after visiting to see how much a visit can change the perception of a college. It is interesting to see how kids have different reactions to colleges. It is also interesting to see how sometimes the parents and kids have opposite reactions.