From stories from a few hs grads last year that waited until closer to May 1, we also were told their financial packages were increased.
@lifegarding Most schools use 1 May as the deadline to submit a deposit and commit, so going to accepted student days in April is an excellent time to do a final visit to schools.
Unless you have an internal or household constraint that compels you to choose sooner than April, I would recommend considering taking advantage of those accepted student days in April- it wonât be too late by then for most colleges.
@catholicmom3 and @dyiu13 I guess as students decline merit offers it frees up additional funds . Iâve been told by a college counselor who had previously worked in admissions that trying to negotiate your aid package can be very âtouchyâ in how you present it. He said to make sure that you present it that âtheir school is your childâs first choice for x, y and z reasons, but they wonât be able to attend because of financial constraints. Is there any way their financial package can be evaluated?â And then give them a number that you can realistically commit to attend that school. He also said be ready to commit to that school once you get that number or be ready to walk away. He said that the parents of students that presented it as " school x and y offered this, whatâs your best offer ? " like negotiating for a car , were usually told to attend school x or y. He also said if the school feels like you are using them to get a higher award and are not truly committed to attending, you will probably not be offered more. Just FYI. I guess the key is really use negotiating to ask for what you need from a specific school that you really want to attend, rather than using your multiple aid offers to negotiate the best financial deal unless your willing to commit to that deal.
Has anyone applied for housing yet? D has not decided, but one of her top choices is asking her to go ahead with this nowââmany students apply for housing by Novemberâ. We could get all but $25 back if she doesnât go there per the website. But would this be a âsignâ that we donât need more aid?
@lifegarding
I saw this post that provided advice on suggested activities to help make a decision between someoneâs top choices:
But hereâs something I hope you consider. Please GO VISIT XXX campus. Call the department of your favorite subject or field of study and arrange to SIT IN on a freshman class AND a senior class if theyâll let you. I know youâve already visited XXX State, but if you didnât sit in on classes there, please do so.
Attend a performance. Eat lunch in the town. Ride the busses. Talk to the students. Take the formal tour, and then create your own tour. Stay overnight on campus.
I truly believe that your intuition will tell you â once youâve immersed yourself at EACH school â which program/school is THE RIGHT FIT. All the prestige in the world (for the school) will not make you happy in the day-to-day. Good luck on your journey!
@momofsmartdancer I agree 100% that the prestige of a school does not necessarily make for a happy college experience , yet for many it is the driving force in the decision making process.
I have a question for parents whose kids did dual enrollment, did you list your kid as a âreturning first year college studentâ or as a ânever been to college first year college studentâ on the FAFSA? S is taken a dual enrollment course in the Spring and I am wondering what to put.
@momofsmartdancer While that advice you posted is good in theory, it is much harder in reality. D is only allowed to miss three days of school for visiting colleges and all of her schools are far away from where we live so travel time is not trivial. We are trying to figure out where she really needs another visit and how we can fit it in. Of course, we do have the option of just calling her in sick to school so maybe that is the route to go. Also it seems that different schools do different type of visits. I see many people on CC talk about staying overnight on campus, but we contacted two of the schools she is interested in and neither offers that option. Havenât checked the others but they are smaller so maybe they will.
@booajo On the housing question, two of the schools that D is considering do housing on a first come first serve basis. Both require an enrollment deposit before the housing deposit and while the housing deposit is mostly refundable, the enrollment deposit isnât. And then of course you arenât supposed to put enrollment deposits down at more than one school. For now we are holding of doing anything. I think we will wait until she is sure and then just pray that it works out.
@Booajo
I see a lot of posters here cautioning against putting down deposits because it seems that a lot of colleges tie the housing deposit to the enrollment deposit. Something to be cautious about because common app indicates ethics dictate putting down enrollment deposit on only one college. Although they make it clear on the common app, I think that all universities should make this known before someone puts down an enrollment deposit. A recent poster here indicates that they noticed a college being somewhat tricky about the enrollment deposit.
That being said, if the college you are looking at will allow housing-only deposit, I donât think it would affect future financial aid. If anything, I think it shows interest and colleges would rather give aid to those with a real interest in attending.
I will add that my d went ahead with her enrollment deposit since this was her first choice school; this allowed her to register for housing and be a member of room-mate matching group. Two weeks later she was asked to interview for scholarships. She has been awarded their highest level scholarship for full ride+. I think one factor in the selection process was showing interest in the school.
@momofsmartdancer Congrats to your daughter. She had the benefit of knowing what her first choice is , and it sounds like her attending her first choice was not dependent on her receiving the top merit award. My son has two choices that are neck and neck with the other 2 close behind. Hopefully after his next overnight visit the first weekend in Feb, his top choice will become much clearer. Iâd love to be on your position right now. He has 5 more essays to write for scholarship opportunities at one of his schools which is most likely out of reach unless he receives higher merit. It is not his top choice and Iâve asked him if he really wants to continue with this application , and he assures me that he does. So we wait. Ugh. :-S
@mysonsdad, when my D was taking one dual enrollment class at a local U while in high school, she was not considered a degree seeking student there.
For the first FAFSA for freshman year, as fas as I know, you need to choose"first year student"
@momofsmartdancer I agree that intuition will help with the decision. I still remember being 16 and visiting BU and Boston for the 1st time and feeling like I just HAD to go there. And that was it! While my son never had that light bulb moment during any of our college tours, after several visits to his 1st choice he finally said that he could definitely picture himself there. Up until that point, I was getting the same response to almost every school we visited.
Welcome @momofsmartdancer !
BBQ sounds wonderful! - I will bring the coleslaw!
I am so far behindâŠsorry if I have missed congratulating anyone.
@lifegarding â Iâd strongly recommend at least including the Admitted Students Day as part of the process.
An overnight visit may do the trick, but just like the tours are heavily influenced by the quality of the guide, the overnights call fall prey to a mismatched or lousy host. Still, it may help make the call.
For my S14 one of the most important pieces of the Admitted Students Days was being around other high school seniors, many of whom were likely to be his classmates. At Emory they separated the kids and parents very early in the day. S14 got to hang w a bunch of other kids. When the day was done he felt like these were kids w whom he was very comfortable. They were all different in many ways, but in other ways they were âjust like me.â Hosts on overnights already had some time at college under their belts, and it was a bit more difficult for him to picture himself among them. And knucklehead that he is going to lectures, performances, etc. played no part in the decision-making.
Not minimizing the value of all the other good suggestions here, but wanted to add this piece thatâs hard to otherwise get.
And as was stated, no harm waiting until the last week in April to decide. S14 did. The schools all make it very easy to enroll and pay the deposit online.
@me29034 I am in the same boat. It would be wonderful if I could send D to overnight visits at every college to which sheâs been accepted, but itâs not possible. Not only is this the busiest time of year at school, but she too is applying only to colleges across the country. We donât have that kind of money, nor can she miss that much school. The thousands weâd spend to have D make all those visits could pay for the meal plans or a yearâs books NEXT year. Weâll have to go with her tours and possibly one additional trip to a school sheâs not yet toured and trust we chose well. Thatâs more than most adults did when WE chose schools.
Does she still have tours left to do with a tour service?
@sseamom, @me29034, we are in the same boat (perhaps a virtual cruise is in order). For S top choice they released results the last 2 years just days before my S goes on Spring Break. So if the pattern stays the same then on SB we will go on a road trip to some of the schools. Most of S schools are across the country also.
@mommdc, thanks for the info.
@Waiting2exhale What is a tour service? Is that a service that takes kids on college tours? Iâve never heard of anything like that.
Regarding visits, itâs been posted on here about visiting schools, attending activities, perhaps a sporting event. S did that with his EA school and really saw himself as a fit there. The school is a bunch of weird nerds (look at their band) which describes S to a T. When he was rejected the fall was harder and now he doesnât want to visit anywhere because he doesnât want to get too attached. We figure we will wait to see where he gets accepted (except for local schools, we can go there anytime). That way if he doesnât get into a school it wonât feel like he is settling for the next choice, plus it saves money on traveling. Either way, it looks like we are in for a busy Spring Break, unless of course, he ends up at the local cc which is less than a mile away. Lol
Of D16âs top three choices, she spent a month one summer at one of the schools and has visited several times officially and unofficially. She and we know the city and area pretty well, the pluses and minuses. She has never really had any one-on-one time with students or professors there, but her cousin is a PhD post-doc who did her grad work there and teaches some courses at the school, so she can get a lot of the scoop from herâŠ
A second of her top three has had two visits and for it to be affordable she would have to be invited to their scholarship weekend, which would add another visit of a different sort. Still havenât seen the dorms at this one, so that is a definite must see on her list of things to do. Luckily it is also the closest so visits are easy, under a two hour drive away.
Number three she visited and had the full-fledged recruiting tour (NMF school), plenty of one-on-one time with profs, honors program director, students in her intended major areas and a very detailed tour. Since that was a vacation mixed with a visit we also took in a football game and walked around campus on game day, including hitting a nice little flash sale at the bookstore (aimed at alumni attending the game no doubt, but some sweet deals).
I am sure she would take the opportunity to visit all three again, but when I talked to her about overnights, she really didnât want to miss more than a day each for any other visits, so they would have to be around a weekend or minor holiday. She wasnât really aching for an overnight visit at any, and would like to save any school days she might take off for her one financial reach school that is far away and that she has never visited (Tulane, so a quickie vacation built around a visit there would be awesome for all).
She seems happy with her knowledge base and feel for her top three and really is waiting to see if any other school can/will come really close to the full ride+ at the NMF school. More visits are possible, especially for scholarship days, but she isnât feeling the need to go visit again at the momentâŠsubject to a complete change in her mood at any moment, lol.