Oh, @happymochi, that is a disappointment. I’m also glad he had some good news the prior day, and hope of regular decision results for that school ahead.
Those of you with kiddo’s trying for the elite “lottery” schools certainly have a rough road to hoe in this process. I agree with so many of the other members…the fact that your kiddo has the stats to even consider applying and the fortitude to face the potential for rejections is remarkable. Cold comfort in the end I guess but do not discount the effort that ya’ll have put in to get to here, because it truly seems like just random selection. I can imagine it is hard to not speculate on the reasons “why” and to second guess.
We’re in it for the long game, @MidwestMomTo2 . S has at least four more schools to hear from on April 1, as well as one in January.
Good luck to you today!
Honestly, one of the reasons S decided to apply to lottery schools is the financial aid. If he can manage to get into one, at our income level it will be a lot cheaper than the state universities. The downside is, we spend half a year’s income on application fees…
Just 2 more to hear from (1 EA and 1 RD) but both should have answers by end of January…D16 was accepted at Drexel today!
Still haven’t heard on Drexel. Do they release decisions by major? Region?
@AnxietyAttack77 Not sure. D16 did have her app completed and ready to review by 10/6. We are out of state Texas. She applied EA and her major is Health Science. This morning her portal was listed as “unavailable” and we feared a denial because she had not gotten an email or snail mail acceptance. I checked back this afternoon and the portal was available. She logged in and there was a message of status change at the top and further down it said Congratulations! Her financial aid information was listed under the financial aid tab too. Good Luck, I hope you hear soon!
@SouthFloridaMom9 I too applaud those who have reached. My S16 had grades too low for the lottery schools, so I didn’t encourage him to try for them. But when he got into the most competitive school he applied to it got him wondering. At the last minute he added a couple more reaches. If he doesn’t get at least one rejection (and I’m sure he will) he’ll wonder if he should have gone for his dream, MIT. Speaking of which, one of our friends just got deferred from MIT. Best student in a fairly competitive county in my opinion: stellar stats, multiple national awards, excels in math, languages, way cool research internship on orbital mechanics, and a musician – everything but athletics and business experience ;-). He was rejected from Caltech, @ballerina016, so please tell your D that her deferral is amazing. I think he’s still got a shot at MIT, but I am sure he will do well wherever he goes. As long as they have a serious math department.
Meanwhile, my S16 just got accepted to Drexel. I know because I am weak and went on the portal (sorry, I’m no @palm715!). He’s on a school trip to NYC to visit the Met. He was offered merit $$ but the sticker price is $71K . . . wow. Now, do I pretend I don’t know? For this one he seems to be aware that the decision is due this week.
S14 is home for less than 24 hours, leaving for 12 days in Japan. Big question is whether he will see Star Wars dubbed or subbed (he’s taking Japanese but not ready for dubbed!).
A friend from HS reminded me a few days ago that I didn’t attend my “dream school” - Princeton - but instead went to the SLAC where my folks worked, because it was cheap. It wasn’t even all that good back then, and my college friends and I joke regularly on Facebook about our “middling liberal arts campus.” Its reputation has improved markedly since we were there (“since we left,” one friend might insist 
) - but most important, I wouldn’t trade a single minute of my time there for anything - not an Ivy, not the prestige - nothing. Among other things, I wouldn’t have the group of friends that I do, people I love fiercely and with whom I’m sworn to secrecy (as are they) about so many things. I am who I am because of that college, and I’m so grateful.
These weeks and months are hard on our kids. When I’m named Czarina of College Admissions, I’m going to have donut and ice cream truck rolls to the homes of all applicants. Hang in there and hug the kiddos. We’ll all get through this.
DD did not apply to any schools that were a reach/lottery for her stats, she wasn’t interested in most and we could not afford any of them since they do not offer merit money and we don’t qualify for any aid, but D16 and I have had a ‘lottery’ pact. I play a few dollars on one of the big multi-state lotteries every week and if we win she would apply to Cornell. So far no luck with that double lottery school plan (-;
Congrats @labegg on the Drexel acceptance!
DD has not checked her email or the Drexel portal yet, she applied EA but it has fallen to near the bottom of her list at this point since the time of her visit and application and she wasn’t able to complete the Honors app in time after only getting two days to do it, which is part of that equation. My oldest S is a senior at Drexel and loves it there, but for DD the.shine has come off of the Drexel apple.
@labegg App was submitted and complete mid-October except for SAT scores which did not get in until I raised a big stink with College Board in mid-November. This is truly agonizing.
@crowlady…that is a dilemma! You can always text and say check the portal people are reporting results on CC!
@Skates76 - I understand about the shine! Drexel had been at the top of D16’s list for their BS/DPT program and then late September they completely changed the program and it is no longer a direct entry program. She loved Drexel on our visit this summer, so she still applied, but now it is in the same pool as the other straight 4 year BS schools to which she applied. D16 also has the same issue with the honors program! She had 5 days to complete the honors app after the invitation. It was that same week as mid-terms so she did not get it done.
The price tag at Drexel is daunting, but the co-op experience is invaluable. Lots of Drexel Dragons out there in the real world.
To those of us whose kiddo’s don’t have the stats for the elite lottery schools… remember that their acceptance/denial/deferral decisions are just about as fraught in uncertainty. Our kiddo’s stats don’t make them a shoe in at their respective schools any more than the high stat kids at their schools of choice.
Since our kiddos are all from the High School Musical era - We are all in this together!
@Skates76 Our lottery plan is the same as yours.
I’m with Petrichor - one lottery school down and at least several more to go. But, it really is a lottery. I thought her stats were competitive, but so were many others. We’re eligible for financial aid, and those are the schools that have the deep pockets. It will cost me less money to send her there than it would be to send her to the state flagship.
I like the term “lottery.” We’ve been less elegant, calling so much of this a “cr*pshoot.” No rhyme or reason in so many ways. Really feeling for the kids who are taking this so hard, and especially right before finals and holidays. It’s not the center of the world, but it sure can feel like it sometimes, I know.
@Ballerina016 Were you making the point that acceptance rates are higher if you apply EA to those schools? Some have posted here and on other CC threads in the past that the “pool” is more competitive EA and a portion of those admitted EA are athletes, and other “recruited” students…so many feel the actual chance for a “regular” high stats student is the same EA vs. RD. I have no idea if this is actually the case or not. But when factoring in recruited athletes, that certainly would skew the EA acceptance rate a bit I would think.
There are some other non-lottery schools that have a really big difference between EA and RD admit rates (ie: University of Tulsa, 93% EA, 40% RD)…and for those I do think it makes sense to do EA if possible for a better chance of acceptance.
Does anyone have any opinion on Reed College? We know that the academics is good and they send a huge number of students to grad school. More interested in the student body. We want to make sure that S16 is happy in college.
@4kids2graduate I think that is exactly the case. Not only are there the athletes and other recruited students such as legacy or donors but you can have the children of academic deans of colleges for example who are going to get the same kind of special pre-read that you might see an athlete getting. The thing is you don’t always know who those kids are that are in that sort of special pile. So in that ea/ed pile it is probably at least as difficult as RD. When it comes down to it I think you have figure that getting in ea/ed shows the kid is extraordinary but not getting in really is proof of nothing. I applaud those brave enough to chase the dream in the face of the daunting odds.
@rdeyus Reed is near the top of my son’s list. The very top is Harvey Mudd and Pomona, and Reed is next. I feel that Reed would suit him best out of all the colleges that he is applying to - except maybe the two mentioned. My son is very politically aware - watches political satire non stop, very very liberal, interested in learning for learning’s sake, breathes academics, is interested in grad school in STEM, has no interest at all in Greek life and sports. Reed would be a place he could easily call home. The only problem is that it is one state over and he wants to be near home.
My sister has a very close friend who went to Reed and is involved with alumni activities because she felt that going to Reed was a fantastic experience and all these years later still wants to be involved with the school. She went to Stanford for grad school after Reed.
The school shot way up my son’s list after his interview. He asked the interviewer to tell him something he would not know after reading the website. The interviewer told him that at Reed, if you have more than half of your food left over from the cafe you can share that food with someone who does not have a meal plan, rather than throw it away. That seemed to really leave an impression on my son. After talking to the Reed rep he really had a good feeling toward the school.
@Ballerina2016 that is what we are now starting to realize. Instead of applying to Stanford first we should have applied to somewhere with a higher EA acceptance rate and got one under the belt. S second choice school has an EA rate of 36 percent. Stanford’s EA rate is not much higher than their RD rate. so it looks like we wasted an opportunity.