<p>ctmom2boys,
I’m sorry you and your son are going through this. It’s so hard to see our children facing rejection. You son sounds like a great student who will succeed wherever he ends up. </p>
<p>I don’t have any great ideas for getting him out of his funk. He may need time to get over it. Just try to be upbeat. Encourage him to make plans with friends. Also, make sure he doesn’t feel that you are disapointed in him. (I know that you are disapointed FOR him). Kids feel worse when they feel that they are letting their parents down. </p>
<p>Hopefully, he will feel better after the UVM visit. I truly think that most kids can be happy at many different colleges. This is just one step in his life. </p>
<p>Good luck to you and your son. I know how hard it can be to watch your child suffer.</p>
<p>We’ve reminded him of that but it doesn’t seem to help much.</p>
<p>It’s not just that he wasn’t accepted at all, most or even half of his target schools, he wasn’t accepted at ANY of them…I honestly had to stop reading the “Parents of 2010 thread” about how happy everyone is and how they’re planning on celebrating graduation because it’s making me cry.</p>
<p>nemom: Ironically enough, in CA right now it is less expensive to attend many OOS publics than it is the CA publics. There is a program for western schools where OOS kids pay in-state + 50%. It makes many directionals as well as some flagships easier to afford than remaining in state.</p>
<p>DS already has one of these on his list and I imagine that before we are done a few more will be added.</p>
<p>CCL I am so sorry… was it the St Michaels FA award that was so disappointing?</p>
<p>ctmom…sigh you are a good mom to want to be there for your boy this weekend. Hope he gets nothing but good news. Is Providence the only remaining decision?</p>
<p>Just in case he winds up with no acceptances at all, in May the NACAC web site will publish a list of colleges that are still looking for students for the upcoming fall semester and there are generally some pretty good schools on the list. It is not up now because they remove it around the middle of the summer, but starting about the second week of May look for a link to appear somewhere on their home page [NACAC</a> Homepage](<a href=“http://www.nacacnet.org%5DNACAC”>http://www.nacacnet.org)</p>
<p>I want to thank all of you parents of seniors for contributing to this thread. Even though I’ve been through this process with my older two kids, and both of them were also B students, I keep hearing of more schools that sound interesting. I never really considered a down side to early action applications before and am glad to know more about that.</p>
<p>CTmom, I’ve got to tell you that my older son was waitlisted at UVM so kudos to your son for being accepted there. My neighbors have a child that is there and loves it and I’m looking forward to visiting with my youngest. Thanks to this thread, I’m also putting Saint Michaels on youngest son’s list and I’m hoping that we can visit Champlain, UVM and Saint Mike’s all at one shot.</p>
<p>My oldest son was denied admissions into Champlain’s game design program but was accepted into the college. He was very disappointed but it DID turn out to be a good thing. He will be graduating from Roanoke College in May as an English major and has since said that he was glad he turned his back on the more techy path. </p>
<p>There are many roads that we take in this life and the bumps in the road are the ones we will look back on and hopefully learn from. But those bumps sure aren’t fun at the time.</p>
<p>CTMom,
Still thinking about you alot. Hang in there. It must be really hard and we’ve cancelled plans for the same reasons at times. Our son has the same exact GPA and honestly we’ve found it’s just not good enough to impress the schools. Yes, they’ve admitted him, but with zero merit at expensive LAC it’s just not doable. We’re sick about it. Part of me just wants to go and visit and find whatever school really fits the best, and mortgage the house to make it happen. The feelings we experience as parents are so tough, and often from the heart and not the head.</p>
<p>This too is my son’s challenge to pick up. He will have to live and grow through it. Is it so awful to say that he can’t afford to go to a particular school? Maybe one day he could brag about it and go on to say that it was part of how he made it to where he ended up? Rose-colored glasses? Maybe. </p>
<p>Hope your re-visits go well at his accepted schools. My neice went to Clark even though she reportedly ‘hated it’, but did not get accepted to her other choices some years ago. She ended up loving her experience at Clark and laughs about it today. Not much to cheer someone up now, but it does happen where kids are not thrilled by where they end up going initially, but then find that they fit in well and thrive there. </p>
<p>ps: My son was waitlisted at UVM, so no revisit there for us. Everyone I know who has kids there absolutely loves it. Burlington has got to be the coolest place anywhere to go to college. When we visited last summer [okay, it was summer], I didn’t want to leave.</p>
<p>Well, he has 2 colleges left to hear from, Providence and BC. BC was his one (supposed) reach application. We knew he had less than a one in a million chance of getting in there before we applied, but we figured we had to make one really “out there” application or he’d never forgive himself for not taking the chance.</p>
<p>kathie, I know there are many kids who would be thrilled to go to UVM, I know my older son would have loved to have gotten in. The game design major at Champlain is super competitive, my older son is a psych major there. Had he applied to game design he would never have been accepted, and Burlington is a super college town. If only we could convince S number 2…</p>
<p>If there is a UVM class of 2014 facebook page, he might enjoy seeing all the posts from kids very enthusiastic about going there and looking to meet some other kids from CT or in the same major–especially if they are cute.</p>
<p>If he likes sports, remind him that UVM is much more sports oriented than Loyola (they play in the NCAA basketball tourney today and I believe are a big hockey school, too).</p>
<p>The admissions process is often arbitrary and, consequently, cruel. You did nothing wrong, which I know is cold comfort–just like knowing that his struggles with languages will have no bearing whatsoever on his future. By the way, if Loyola requires languages (and theology?) and UVM does not, that could be another benefit of UVM.</p>
<p>In a year, or even 6 months, you will both be happier.</p>
<p>CapeCod, thanks so much for your continued kind words.</p>
<p>I know he’ll live through it and I’m sure he’ll love UVM, but it’s going to be a rough couple of months.</p>
<p>BTW, my friend’s son was rejected at UVM and waitlisted at St. Mike’s (where he was DYING to go) and never made it off the waitlist. She said at one point he didn’t get out of bed for 2 days.</p>
<p>He’s now a freshman at Hartwick (small private school in NY) that I had never heard of, and he LOVES it.</p>
<p>Are they still accepting applications there? Look into it, I bet your son will get merit money there with a 3.3. Might be worth giving them a call to see if they’re still accepting applications.</p>
<p>YBA, Great idea about the Facebook page! He’s all about FB. I’ll suggest it.</p>
<p>He’s also very into sports, he’s on the varsity baseball team and is a big fan of all professional and college sports, thanks for the suggestions!</p>
<p>CTMom,
You know, honestly, I was searching to try to find schools that were still accepting applications. I thought maybe I was nuts, but I’ll bet it’s more common than you think that once kids start hearing back from schools they’ve applied to, they get a little buyers’ application remorse. It truly is so hard trying to visit all the schools junior year and make sure you’ve seen and done enough. Plus the kids get very bored with it, long before parents do. It’s overwhelming doing all of those applications while still trying to keep up with a rigorous academic schedule. My son <em>only</em> applied to 8 schools, which was 3 less than my older son several years ago, so maybe we did not cast a large enough net? [okay, I don’t need another regret to ponder!]</p>
<p>My son from the get-go wanted an urban campus, which really sort of freaked me out. The nice small LACs are not generally in urban areas, so we were pretty limited. After going to a few suburban, he agreed it might be okay, but rural was not on his list at all. I think when he studied in Nice [ya, nice, huh?] he really thrived on the ease of city life with trains, buses, and bikes. The weather didn’t hurt either, however. I also regret we didn’t look abroad for options, but also made sure that all of his schools he applied to were well known for their study-abroad programs.<br>
Going to look at Hartwick now…thanks for the tip!
CCL</p>
<p>Funny, I was just trying to remember the name of a college that had emailed my son this past week to try to coax an application–and Hartwick was it. So yes, they are still accepting applications. I think they are a rolling admissions school. We went through Oneonta on our college tour of NY state last summer, and the area was so pretty that we almost improvised a visit to Hartwick just because we were all in love with the setting. I don’t know anything about the academics, though.</p>
<p>Ctmom, I just went on FB to check my UVM page idea. My first search yielded nothing–I felt like an idiot–but my second search, for whatever reason, yielded more than 1 site, with the official site having 732 kids already!</p>
<p>“My son <em>only</em> applied to 8 schools, which was 3 less than my older son several years ago, so maybe we did not cast a large enough net? [okay, I don’t need another regret to ponder!]”</p>
<p>CapeCod - We’re in the same boat, son applied to 8 schools and obviously it wasn’t enough!</p>
<p>I keep hearing that kids are applying to an average of 12. So yeah, another bad decision we can beat ourselves up over…let’s meet back here at 5:00 pm for drinks. Lots of them.</p>
<p>ctmom - Was reading about your son’s disappointments in the application process. My son is a freshman at UVM. He was a B+ student with great SATs. He ended up with many great college options, but UVM was always his first choice. From the moment he stepped on that campus, he knew it was a fit. He has not been disappointed! So far, he has had a great experience. Loves the friends he’s made, loves his classes (well, most of them!), loves Burlington, etc. He is one happy boy! And FYI, this was a kid that hated high school. If UVM ends up being your son’s pick, he is likely to find his niche there. Happy to give you more info if you’re interested.</p>