It is confusing! On the one hand, our research helped finding good matches, but the merit aid part has been completely unpredictable!
So far merit has been mostly what I expected (or better). We will see what happens with the 2 full rides she has in the field now. (But not until Feb apparently).
@CAMidwestMom - Iād have to go back and reread threads, but I think our kids are in the same situation with that, but with the opposite schools!
@2manybooks Itās worked out well that my son hasnāt had a dream school or clear favorite. He truly liked a lot of the schools and that makes it easier not to be disappointed and go with the flow!
Yeah - mine either. No ED options at all, and no application to a place he really would not want to go. It doesnāt mean the full ride school will be the final decision, but it did climb up on his list after that!
Our process was one of elimination and getting a feeling for what appealed to DD early on. My biggest disappointment came long ago when I realized the kind of schools she was interested in would definitely exclude my alma mater and other schools like it that I am fond of, essentially small LACās. She is drawn to schools in cities or, even better, in suburbs near cities, larger research institutions with strong biomedical and honorās programs. That was sort of the general Epiphany moment when we all realized she had a school type and made it easier to focus on other attributes such as likely merit money, campus living preferences (she prefers schools with less Greek influence, loves new buildings for dorms and sciences, but appreciates older, classic architecture for other buildings), and location - schools could be near or far, but she had to like the location, which ruled out the Alabama and Texas NMF schools despite my pleas for her to be open minded about them.
Mrs. Skates and I took two approaches together to the school search, casting a wide net with visits and research for schools that made sense for her preferences and financial needs, trying to give her as much choice as possible, while at the same time playing Devilās advocate when it seemed like DD was becoming fascinated with a school or location that seemed contrary to what we know about her and the schools in question. Her supposedly final school list was at ten, but that whittled down to eight and might have been lower if some schools hadnāt sent her free application codes, etc. DW and I had no issues with any of the schools on DDās final list of eight and at this point we all have the same group of three favorites, albeit in different and not set in stone order, at this point. There are also two that might challenge that top three, but both are schools that are financial reaches unless she gets an unexpectedly great, not just good, merit offer from one or both, then the choosing gets a little harder.
For us it seems like most (not all) of the angst, disagreements and āyou just donāt understandā allegations from both the parental and DD side occurred in the earlier parts of the process. Things arenāt a bastion of perfection right now, but with several really good financial offers on the table, and two of them being in her current top three, things are pretty darn good. One final (haha, I know, how many times have I said that to myself) scholarship application she is almost done with and one more Honorās app which is slated to be completed over Christmas break and that is it. Waiting to see about scholarship money then and whether she wants to go to accepted student days or overnights at the true finalists.
Hmm, why does that sound way too easy and smooth to be true? Oh, right, because it probably is (-; One day at a time, right?
Iām really enjoying the updates from everyone explaining where they are ā mostly not done! ā in the process. I did a lot of research, targeting majors, mostly matches (with some low reaches), and the chance for merit aid, but weāve still been surprised by a lot of things.
Like @CAMidwestMom, thereās just no figuring out merit aid ā unless itās purely stats-based and guaranteed. My D is 5/5 now in admissions, but two were safeties. Of the three competitive EAās ā¦ she got decent merit aid from one (Drexel), a decent amount of need-based aid from another (Northeastern) and nothing (so far) from the third (Fordham). I was told by an admission rep from Fordham that there is another round of merit aid decisions to come out Feb. 1. (Although we will certainly get some need-based aid from Fordham, this is the school that had gapped us when I did the net price calculator so we need merit aid for that to happen.)
Weāve been surprised by how competitive the merit aid awards are at these schools. And I know that if we wanted more merit aid we should have targeted schools where my D is more of an outlier. Sheās is a NMSF w 3.94 UW and strong ECs with leadership, top state award, etc. But her 2120 SAT ā which she refused to take again ā is under that tippy top spot where Iām seeing the scholarships awarded. Ironically, for Northeastern, if she advances to NMF, sheāll get a guaranteed 30K ā¦ which basically replaces the nearly same amount they were going to give us in need-based aid, so no real change there.
I suppose we should be grateful that one of her safeties is a true safety ā we can afford it and she says sheād be happy to go there. I just thought weād have more options ā¦ and we may still when final merit/financial aid money is decided on the above schools, and her last three RDs come in.
See you all on May 1.
Our path with D has been so different from pretty much all regular posters on CC, and from H and my own paths to college. She has a sister 10 years older who is from an earlier marriage and had a paternal grandmother willing to pay for mid-priced colleges. Older D did her own research, applied to 5 or 6 colleges, got into all of them, both the less selective and more selective, chose one, and went. Her dad and I split the tours with her, which we did only after she was admitted. Done.
This 2016 kid is another matter altogether. Sheās a superstar without superstar test scores, but has known what she wanted since middle school. Iāve learned so much about HBCUās because of her. I swear I saw an actual light bulb go off over her head when she first head about them back in 6th grade, and that has been her laser focus ever since. Weāve visited every black college fair in or near Seattle since then, and her school takes the kids to the enormous national fairs, plus they have a WA-centric one right there at the HS. Sheās been exposed to so many colleges that way, and visited many others on 2 tours plus those hosting her speech team events.
We ended up with 10 applications to mostly private HBCUās in small college size range. Sheās heard officially from 5, with 3 more pending with ālikelyā calls or emails, and 2 more that seem to have forgotten her. Her goal was, from the beginning, to have no ādreamā schools or favorites such that sheād be crushed if she didnāt get in, but to get as much merit money as possible. And like all of you, weāve discovered that there is no uniformity in how you get those awards. Today was the last day to send in paperwork for a full-ride consideration, and the counselor is not entirely reliable due to some health issues. I am hoping that her rec gets there in time.
I hope to write up the whole process once we know where D is going, since there is so little on CC about HBCUās. Iām probably more stressed about the whole thing that D is, and H is an āthis will all work outā guy. But itās killing me that weāre not going to have any financial answers until mid-January at the earliest. D is likely to make her choice sooner rather than later, as sheās not one to just put stuff in a drawer and let it sit. But I could be wrongā¦
Aargh. Wish D would check the portal for the last school that should be releasing EA decisions this week. Unfortunately she is distraught over how her AP Stats midterm went and thereās a private scholarship application due at midnight with some writing left to do. I have no desire to complicate the situation.
D was just deferred by UChicago. The UChicago thread is a sea of deferrals. I think sheās disappointed, but not heartbroken.
Did she apply to Spelman? It is a great school.
@Undercovermom1 Sorry to hear about the deferral, but glad she is not crushed. Hereās to a good weekend and break for her. I donāt remember, does she have other favorites or will she want to wait to see what happens with this deferral?
Sorry @Undercovermom1 . Iām glad sheās disappointed instead of heartbroken.
@CAMidwestmom she has 3 acceptances so far and quite a few more schools to hear from. Nothing nearly as selective as Uchicago. Iām anticipating acceptances at most of them (two are questionable). Weāre in it for the long haul.
@Undercovermom1 Sheās still in the running.
Well, .
Deferred from the āI love this placeā school. I have a very, very bummed boy, who is in no mood to listen to āyouāre not out of the gameā speeches. And honestly, Iām not in the mood to give them, no matter how true they may be.
Apparently, weāre in good company. Good luck in the next round, @Undercovermom1 .
She wonāt apply to Spelman. She says it will be full of Type A girls just like her and theyād all just annoy each other. That, and the lack of AC in the freshman dorms. Nothing Iāve said will sway her. But what a beautiful campus!
So sorry @petrichor11 . This is very hard to go through, Iām sure.
@sseamom my S16 attends a HBC in North Carolina was part of an early college program. It has been an absolutely amazing experience. He chose this program over our very good local high school, and being a first year partnership I was unsure about letting him attend. I have been enormously pleased with his education - both in the classroom and out.
My son was accepted to University of Chicago AND got a very nice merit aid grant in addition to the financial aid award we expected. We are all so happy here and it means he is narrowing down his RD schools from 6 to 2 which is a big relief in terms of time and expense too.