@3scoutsmom – I had your daughter pegged just a notch below sainthood, and now you tell me that she doesn’t like football? Oh my!! She just HAS to go to games if she’s going to be at OU. Tell her to consider it an anthropological study – Some of the fans represent the first generation in their family to walk fully erect.
Free-associating on the cybersecurity scholarship – Both my kids pick up foreign languages pretty easily, and S14 was at one point open to all sorts of possible career options. When he was still in high school he looked into the CIA. I don’t know if they still do it, but at the time they offered college scholarships to interested students. One thing that I remember about the application was them telling the student that no one, including his parents, really needed to know about his/her signing up with the CIA.
Congrats @EastGrad on senior member status . And thank you for updating the acceptance thread. Especially Wofford College especially since my son is the only student listed for that school. Little gem of a school that flies under the radar . Actually ranked higher than Furman University in most rankings.
My D finally attended the only HS football game of her HS career on the night of the last game of her senior year, which also coincided with the first day she had her license and was allowed to drive to an event on her own. She is already ahead of the game in college since we attended a football game while on a college visit/vacation around Thanksgiving. (-; If she goes to that school and lives in the Honors dorm she might be able to watch the games from her dorm room if it is on the right side and floor of the building.
@3scoutsmom, @carolinamom2boys , Ahhh, leave it to parents of college confidential to find out all the ins-and-outs of cyber security programs. I wasn’t sure how the gubment paid the students, now I know. No matter where anyone goes for it, it still sounds like an awesome program and high in demand.
@3scoutsmom Be forewarned that my son the academic nerd wanted nothing to do with football until he went to his first HS game, now he’s hooked. I had to have a long discussion about not only wanting to attend Clemson because of the football, and he assured me that was just a small component . My response, " I was born at night, but not last night . Your momma ain’t no fool."
Wow, I turn off electronics for the holidays and lo and behold I have missed soooo much. First and foremost, Super Congrats to all receiving great news, hugs and whatever indulgences will help those who have received less than expected or hoped for news!
Re: application fees (and college board fees)…UGH…D applied to 15 schools and only one was a fee waiver! The two in state safeties were the cheapest at $50. The others were all $65., $75., $85, etc., totaling approximately $1000. just for applications. I am afraid to add up the College board fees between SAT scores and AP scores sent (a few to schools that she decided not to apply to in the end). I also had to send two colleges transcripts to document DE credits to a couple of schools during the application process (One school charged $10. per school sent to and one gave first five schools free). I was under the impression that DE credit transcripts were only needed after acceptance…but for some schools that was not so. So needless to say, I am going to the poor house before my D even gets off to college. My S14’s process was so inexpensive and easy and my D16 comes along and I can not even say it evened out…LOL…it was literally another mortgage payment!
Re: Withdrawing applications…I would very judiciously because you never know what may happen in the long interim between withdrawing and May or even August. Not that I am a spend thrift or anything but I have already resigned myself to possibly paying two deposits if my D is terribly conflicted. She has terrible anxiety and is not good with intense (and in her mind life altering) decisions and so I feel that the paying the extra deposit could give her the peace of mind she needs in the end. I do not like the idea of waitlisted students having to wait longer than necessary to find out if they will get in…but given the way colleges play the admissions game to best suit them…sometimes the students have to take measures that will best suit them in the end. Its not perfect but I would hate for a student to be a good doobie and withdraw from all the schools they feel will not fit the bill in January and then have something out of the ordinary (or simply a change of heart) happen in March or April and then be out of luck.
Thanks for the info on the Venmo account. I have to check that out. All you guys are so wired in to so many things that I am thankful everyday that I found you all! Go Clemson Tigers on New Years Day…S is devastated that there is no ability to go to game in Miami…lol maybe if his sister didn’t apply to so many schools…shhhh…I don’t think he realizes that!
Count me as another parent who spent over $1000 on app fees and score reports for 12 schools. Not to mention the cost of visiting most of these schools. We have every intention of utilizing the full allotted time until May 1 to make our decision. There is so much that could change between now and May. I have heard so many from our high school regretting letting go of a school or two too early in the process. There are many colleges that will increase their financial and/or merit packages up until the very deadline. You just never know. You should not feel guilty holding on to your acceptance as you are not taking someone elses spot–the schools are well aware of how to manage their yield.
Along these lines, how are you all managing the actual selection? Right now, there is a variety of cost, but all that we we have the financial info on are manageable for us. We are waiting on $ info for three more and one more decision in April.
I know he is leaning towards one and I want him to attend the preview day or a shadow day. How much are you all pushing - and I would not force the issue by any means - more thorough investigation of the top choices? I think someone suggested the idea of picking a top three and perhaps visiting or at least investigating those in a lot more detail. I like that idea.
My son has only applied to and been accepted to 5 schools. He has pretty much crossed 1 off of the list( his safety). All of his schools are in state. He will be attending accepted student days at each one to firm up his decision .
Ours our somewhat spread out, so that may not be feasible, but if we narrow it down, I think it would be well worth the investment. I admit I also love to travel and we are lucky to have frequent flyer miles and hotel points to help with the expense. I’m excited for him and no matter what happens now, I think the remainder of the time will be enjoyable overall and much less stressful than the past few months!
@CAMidwestMom I totally understand that logistically it would be hard for you to attend all of the schools accepted student days. Other than great scholarship incentives for my son, that’s an added benefit of staying instate. I hope everything works out for your son. I’m sure y’all will make a good decision .
We are also thinking about whether to keep the options open. There are two schools that I can’t see any way that she will go to. But you just never know what will happen so we will probably keep them until the end. But D does seem to be narrowing down her decision.
Our big issue right now is money. We gave D a budget and told her that she had to come in under that. Her top two choices are both under the budget, but she has a large merit scholarship at one that makes it $15k/yr less per year than the other, so $60k total difference. The schools are quite different and the experiences she will have will be very different. We told her she could choose, but $60k is hard to ignore.
DS will visit each of his top 3 at least twice before deciding. I would also like him to compare AP credit policies, study abroad options, cost, and campus feel.
@carolinamom2boys I guess it honestly stresses me out a bit to have it all come down to a series of visits in the end, although logically I know that if one of the visits is a game changer, then that’s the whole point, lol. Maybe I lied when I said the stressful part was behind us!
@lvmjac1 said “Re: Withdrawing applications…I would very judiciously because you never know what may happen in the long interim between withdrawing and May or even August…”
Your detailed explanation about why to be cautious before withdrawing an application was very well stated (much better than mine!). Very nice!
@Skates76 My son will be informing 3 of the 7 schools he applied to that he won’t be coming well before regular decisions come out or earlier if he gets a financial aid award (expected to hear in late Jan). He has a great package from one of his top 3 schools plus a deferral and a RD both to extremely competitive school to wait for. All of these are affordable so it really comes down to where else he is potentially admitted and what he wants but he has eliminated the lower on his list schools already.
D has been accepted to 6 colleges so far, and I am expecting 3 of the last 4 to be positive as well. She has toured 3 of those she got into, and 3 of the remaining 4. We cannot send her back to all of them, or even all of those she hasn’t visited. It’s just not an option for her to do that much traveling in a short time frame.
What we’ll do is if one of those she hasn’t seen yet offers such an amazing package that it shoots to the very top, we’ll try and get her down there. But the “top 3” are all schools she has toured in a private tour and had the chance to really deeply investigate. So we’ll see how that goes.
D is letting me research all the nitty-gritty details like transportation in the area, access to banks, size of classes, etc. And I pass that on to her. Once we get all the responses back from all 10 schools, we’ll sit down with dad and tally everything up and make a decision. So far two are well within our price range, 3 should offer hefty merit aid, 2 others will likely come through with big awards, and 3 are unknowns. One of those is her top choice. She qualifies to be in the pool for a large merit package, but it is not automatic.
The good news is that D is nothing if not practical and is willing to go to any one of the schools. I’d love to be able to tell her to pick any of them and we’ll pay, but that’s not possible in our world.
For those who have paid deposits to 2 schools–is this going to cause great upsets with the school? Since some schools determine housing by date of deposit it would be worth risking $200 to secure a high spot in the room lottery but then backing out seems like bad form particularly with a sibling who may apply to the same schools.
