Once all decisions are in, DS will revisit his top 2 or 3 choices. He’ll do overnights if available. Some schools have started posting the dates for their Accepted Student days, so I’ve been checking. DS has commitments two weekends in April (don’t ask me why the theater teacher scheduled the musical for April) so that really limits our ability to visit.
@me29034: Yes, it is.
I have not known anyone who has partaken of the services of these tour operators, but I have seen programs on PBS about independent persons in school districts where students do not often have the opportunity to visit multiple schools who raise monies to make sure many of the kids in that district can have such opportunities.
I think the service is a well-entrenched one in this country, and has been for some time.
@Waiting2exhale - did you mean my D? No-she has toured about 16 colleges between our family trip 2 years ago and the tour she went on last spring. Her 2nd choice, and one that accepted her already, was on that second tour, as was one where she’s in the running for a full-ride. The tour was partially paid for by fund-raising the kids did themselves, but it would have been worth it to pay the entire amount for those 2 acceptances alone.
@me29034 - The tour D went on was to a group of HBCU’s (historically black colleges) on the east coast. We live in Seattle so touring them was not something easily done. It was done over our spring break, and the kids raised some of the funds. There are several tours like this across the country but not a lot of them start out of the northwest. I’m pretty sure there are tours to the schools traditionally mentioned on CC too. D also stayed at several WA State schools through summer programs or school activities.
Thanks for all the input. @Skates76 we have scheduled our Tulane trip as mini vacation in March. If she eliminates it before then, spouse and I will just go on the trip anyway!
@mysonsdad. We had an offer to have S visit and sit in classes of one of his top choices, but because it is a lottery school I passed for the exact reasons you mentioned. If he gets in, he can visit then.
(Long)
All 13 admission letters are now in D16’s hand and its time to start cutting schools. So, D16 and I had a meeting this morning to review her list of colleges and whittle it down to leave only a hand-full of top contenders. I think we found the winner, too. Amazing to think we might be done.
We listed only her favored schools, then categorized those by “nearby but residential schools” (too far to commute), “commuter schools” (live at home with an easy commute), and “far, far away schools” (we’ll see you at the end of the school year, kid).
We listed the total out-of-pocket COA for each school (applying her annual $34,000 tuition grant), and noted whether the undergrad degree (BSW) was offered, which shaves a year from the 2-year MSW grad program costs. We discussed other pros/cons for each, such as in which state does she want to get licensed/settle, school setting (big city, suburb, small town), school racial diversity, program specialty, etc.
She saw that attending the nearby/residential and the commuter colleges ultimately will cost her the same because the commuter schools offer only the Psych BA, forcing her into a 2-year MSW program. The nearby-residential options have a BSW, cutting her grad program down to 1 year through “advanced standing.” The spending on residential room and board for four years is equal to that 2nd year of grad school costs.
The far, far colleges have been cut due to a higher out-of-pocket COA for us. The commuter colleges have been cut too because we want to invest now for undergrad room and board instead of spending those funds on a second year of grad school. Then, comparing the remaining nearby-but-residential colleges, one clearly rose to the top, based on her desires for college and career.
She wants the nearby residential LAC that would shave a year off grad school and has her career-niche specialty. She loves that it looks like Hogwarts, is in a close-in and SES-diverse suburb of a big city that she already knows well where she has a support network, and has a shuttle/public transportation easy-access. The college has a significant number of Latino students, matches her academic stats well, and doesn’t host Greek life or a huge sports obsession, but is a bit of a suitcase college. The school seem financially stable.
This college has already confirmed she has been granted and will continue to receive full-tuition if she meets SAP each semester. D16 would have to take $2500 to $3500 student loans for each undergrad year. (She’d be eligible for the new income-based student loan repayment and for public service loan forgiveness plans, as she will always be working for a NFP after grad school.)
She’ll contribute $4000 of her savings to her first year and start working (10 hours per week) in spring of her freshman year, then continue that each fall and spring semester until graduation. She’s hoping for but not counting on it: an RA job starting in junior year, which would help cover room and board. Plus, she’d do full-time work each summer.
We parents would pay the rest of undergrad from our cash flow, which means penny-pinching to the max. Especially because DH’s income is precarious. Mine is solid, thankfully. We’re not going to borrow for college.
She’d probably live at home to save money during the 1-year graduate program, and maybe even two years after that while getting started in her social worker career and preparing for LCSW licensure.
The college she loves wants an answer by mid-Febrary so it can give the full-tuition grant to someone else if D16 declines. She’s ready to make her choice.
From my POV, it’s really hard to cut the list and chose only one school at this time. D16 didn’t get to visit any of the far, far colleges – but they’re so expensive. And, although there are also two she really likes in the next state over (full-day’s drive), she hasn’t visited. I’m sure either of those two schools would be great for her – they seem to be peer schools to her top-choice nearby-residential school. They’d even cost pretty much the same as the chosen college. I keep wondering: what if she visits and magic happens – loves the city, the school/s, the program/s…? What if, what if?
Still, her chosen school was always at the top of her list from the start and was for her, love at first sight/introduction. The school is the best fit for her/us on all levels, as far as we know. No matter what, college costs are going to hurt. But, there is no real alternative for her. Her education is the best investment for our family.
I think we’re being as prudent and strategic as possible and are going in with eyes wide open. For example, the default advice to “live at home and start at a community college” would actually cost us the same for her total higher education spending with the terminal degree. This is because of the undergrad full-tuition grant and the advanced standing for the grad degree.
Lordy, I hope I’ve covered the bases for this decision. We are going to let her accept the admission offer and make the housing and enrollment deposits.
We are done. I think.
Congrats, @dyiu13 ! That sounds very well thought out!
In other news, S16 just found out that he passed the state EMT certification test with a score of 86! We were told it would take 4-6 weeks to find out the results and he just took it 12/29 so this is a nice surprise! He came out of the test not feeling very hopeful.
Well, I think DS has decided to withdraw his app from a school that was formerly pretty high on his list, but that has fallen based on a couple of acceptances. That means he is “done”! Which is a big relief. I told him I hope we can still spend Saturday nights together with me cooking roasted potatoes for him while he works on writing papers, even if not essays. He said sure, but … not tonight. It’s the Science Team party!
Congrats @RyanG1207 and @dyiu13 It’s so nice to know!
We are luckily down to 3 contenders but trying to do 3 admitted student weekends would be crazily expensive on opposite parts of the country. One of them is even the weekend of the 28th meaning he’d have to make a final decision away from home which seems impractical at best. I’m thinking he is probably going to have to decide at least down to 2 (if he gets accepted to the 2 outstanding apps). He doesn’t want to visit before because he wants to meet the other admitted students which makes sense too. All of these schools are “destination” type schools not local. I have no idea how people can make plane reservations etc in less than a week between acceptance and weekend either. At least this year Easter is not in April which helps!
@Booajo I was having some very similar thoughts about NOLA in the spring (-:
@dyiu13 Very well thought out and a process we are all going to have to go through in one form or another. Congrats!
Congratulations @dyiu13 and @RyanG1207! What a great finish to your races. We hope to join you at that finish line soon.
We’re sitting on 3 EA accepts, and 3 RD … wait 'til March. Two of the accepts have essentially fallen off the list because of the extremely generous merit aid offered by the third. It’s safe to say that none of the remaining schools will be able to match that, but he wants to have all of the data before making a final decision. We’re good with that. I’m just glad that there’s a couple months of (relative) peace before information starts coming in again.
I just checked and he’s got other obligations two of four weekends in April, which will make admitted student visits complicated, to say the least. He’s visited all but one of the schools at this point, so maybe - IF he gets in - the one he’s not visited will land on a weekend he can go? Or is that too much to expect from this crazy process? 
This weekend we’re gearing up for the new semester. I’m checking to make sure uniform stuff is washed, he’s excavating textbooks from wherever he dropped them a few weeks back. Hard to believe this is the last semester!
I’m eagerly reading all of your comments on accepted students’ visit dates, and yes it would be great to send our kids to many. But also, I’m remembering that when I visited MIT senior year, I hated it, ended up crying at a party at Tufts Hillel on Saturday night, not feeling like I fit in at all. My parents batted around the idea of sending me to visit another college, but eventually gave me the choice of MIT or a gap year in Yeshiva so I picked MIT sulkily…but it was absolutely a wonderful match and I inhaled everything once I got there freshman year.
So it’s important to remember that a visit might not be accurate! (What was so hard for me was that the other two visiting Hillel girls had older brothers already attending, so they knew everyone already, and it seemed like no one talked to me, and I guess I was shy enough that I didn’t go out and talk to new people on my own, until that party at Tufts - where I still have a very soft spot for the kids there, who were so nice to a random prefrosh from another school! What mensches they were.)
@dcplanner When D14 was applying for college, there were several schools across the country that she would not hear from until late March…but there were a couple that she already had acceptances to. We were not financially able to pay for flights “last minute” based on those later acceptances, so in January we planned a trip for spring break plus a couple of extra days, got airline tickets and booked a rental car…all very reasonably priced. At that point we did not know if we were going to be visiting 6 schools or just 3-4…but we figured we could spend a few extra days at a relatives house if some rejections rolled in last minute. It worked out well…we were able to visit all but one (which was a rejection)…and the cost of the trip was reasonable since we booked it early. We did drive both through the northeastern US as well as the midwest…so put many miles on that rental car! Long hours on the road…but worth it. At the third school (which she did an overnight, admitted student event) she met me in the morning and said “mom, I want to go here!”. We did still visit the last 3 planned on that trip…but her decision held. She is now a happy sophomore at that chosen school, and I am very thankful we spent the time to travel and visit…because several of those schools ended up in a different order on her final list because of that marathon trip.
My advice…plan the trip early, and if there ends up being fewer colleges to visit because of some late March rejections…then do something fun with your extra time!
Love you story @fretfulmother
We got a letter from one school about preview day, reg etc., and I checked the date and it is the weekend before the other CA school that is currently on the top of the list. No way he/we can make two trips from the Midwest two weekends in a row. Ok, well it could be done but it sounds awful. He really did like both of these schools a lot, but one has already given such a large scholarship that I doubt the other will end up stacking up that way. Still, I couldn’t believe they were one weekend apart!!
@Ballerina016 thank you! 
@fretfulmother - That reminds me of an experience my S’ gf had last year at one of her admitted schools. Her host abandoned her and went off to a sorority party - not her thing AT ALL - and she ended up hanging out with a few random people, and spent most of the evening texting my S. She was deciding between two schools, and that overnight pretty much made up her mind. I’m not sure that’s what the school intended. It’s one of the schools my S was accepted to this year, and her experience has influenced his thoughts about the place, too.
@2manybooks - oh no, I totally feel for your S’ gf. These things can really be influential. I’m still trying to undo the damage from DS16’s trip to UMD in October when he got put with smoking roommates (not sure if I posted here but I think I did). There will be unfriendly people, smoke, whatever - at every college, and our teenagers are smart but they don’t have adult wisdom yet to put things in perspective!