@frenchtoastlover oh, okay; thank you so much for your help!
@4kids2graduate UW-all three branches, and WSU are popular destinations for many of the kids at Dâs HS. Several of the top students from the last two years are at the Seattle campus now. Some commute, others live on campus. This yearâs class has many acceptances to all the UWâs and WSU as well. Income is likely a factor, as many of these kids are lower income, so they get some FA. But others solve the issue by living at home, and others cobble together scholarships and loans.
It always surprises D how many of the kids from her school stay not only in-state, but local (the Tacoma branch of UW is a popular destination, in addition to the main campus), but year after year more kids go to the Uâs than anywhere else, even some of the kids who get into highly selective east coast schools.
@fretfulmother with D17 I am worried that some of the schools where my son was distinct (out of the area and a regional officer who took notice) might recognize my daughter and hold it against her that he chose a different school. One in particular where he received an unusually large merit scholarship that is not tops in his field but is tops in hers. He has declined the school but needs to decline again because they keep sending letters 
@dcplanner - thanks for the info and good luck to you guys!
No worries @SoCalGirl98!
Half of my kids wardrobes are college items. My son originally said he would keep wearing all of them in college but even now not so much so Iâve gradually started buying him a new wardrobeâŠ
S doesnât have college apparel of any kind, except one t-shirt with a simple Husky (NEU) and a t-shirt from our state flagship that a cousin gave him. Thatâs it! According to him, he doesnât want to jinx anything with any school.
DD, on the other hand, has gotten a sweater from EVERY single school DS has been admitted so far, every single school. Itâs her own little way to say THANK YOU to the schools.
That being said, S is looking forward to wearing his MIT Class of 2020 t-shirt, which according to the school should be coming soon. He will definitely wear that one 
@LKnomad, for UCLA there are no interviews for the Regents. You get an invite and then you write two essays. It also does not cover all need. We are still expected to take out loans, but we should be able to do it so that S have very little or no debt when he graduates.
College wear wise- my sister and I got sweatshirts from our respective colleges when we were accepted and t-shirts for our birthday. Plus I have a winter hat that I got for free at my fall overnight that I wouldnât wear out of the house until I was accepted.
Regarding college apparel:
S14 was accepted at Tulane with a merit scholarship and an invitation to their Top Scholars Weekend (or something like that). He and Mrs. AsleepattheWheel went. He loved New Orleans and he really liked Tulane. He prevailed on my wife to let him purchase a Tulane sweatshirt â of course it was the most expensive sweatshirt sold in the bookstore â an Under Armour hoodie that went for $80. Six weeks later he decided that he was going to Emory.
I went onto the Tulane decisions thread, and offered the sweatshirt to anyone who was matriculating there and whoâd simply reimburse me for postage. I got a severe rebuke from CC, saying that if I ever tried to âsellâ something on a CC thread again Iâd be banned for life. We ended up giving the sweatshirt to a friend whose grandson was at Tulane.
When my son got to Emory it turned out that a lot of the kids wear gear from other schools. So he couldâve and wouldâve used it if weâd held onto it. Oh well.
@mysonsdad â ?maybe a small lesson here for your son. The Regents thing at UCLA is totally fantastic. But ?maybe no decisions on his part until all of the acceptances are in. My son was really sure he was headed to Tulane when he bought that sweatshirt . . . .
Regents scholarships are awarded differently at each UC. For the 4 UCs Iâm familiar with, UCSD & UCI select their Regents Scholars and notify you upon admission. No application process necessary. Berkeley selects a top % as @LKnomad said and invites those to interview. They say that ~200 Regent Scholars enroll each year, so Iâm not sure how many are actually awarded. UCLA invites top 1.5% of freshman applicants + ~600 transfer applicants to apply by writing 2 essays and submitting a letter of recommendation. Of these, 100 students receive the scholarship.
@SoCalGirl98 The UCs also have the Blue and Gold & Middle Class Scholarship.
Oops, apologies for duplicating @mysonsdad. I had my post in draft formâŠbut had to rush S19 to urgent care. Sitting in the waiting room.
uh-oh- hope all is ok @happymochi !?
I understand this is a good problem to have and I am extremely grateful, but oh boy how hard it is to weigh everything to make sure you are not making mistake picking the right school! How to assign a correct weight to the category? How to calculate the return on investment if it has so many variables?
Oh no @happymochi . I hope your son is ok.
@happymochi hope your S19 is okay
@AsleepAtTheWheel, yeah we are waiting to see everything, he always said if he got the Regents he would most likely attend. We will wait and see what else comes along though. We wonât commit for about another month. Who knows what will happen in the next 10 days and the excitment dies down. At least now we have a great choice. Right now he is saying UCLA has everything he wants, school spirit, D1 sports, great academics, great area and two former students from our school who attend UCLA are fighting over who gets to marry him LOL. On top of all this the LA Kings have a deal where students get 50% off on tickets so I told him perhaps he could attend their games (entice much?). The only bad thing is, the arena where the Kings play is 15 miles away which is a 4 hour drive in LA. He really likes the idea of all the perks with the Regents and having little or no debt upon graduation. He figures if things donât work out with his major he can always apply to another school (or UCLA) for grad school.
@happymochi , hope things are ok!
@Ballerina016 , we made a pro/con list. We didnât calculate ROI, but tried to include the tangibles and go with our gut feelings (along with cost/scholarships). I donât think you can ever be 100% sure-my older D chose a school she was CERTAIN was right for her, but it was not, for reasons she would not have been able to determine without actually attending. My youngest feels certain that her choice is the right one, and H and I certainly felt it was a great option from the beginning. Weâre going to have to trust ourselves. I know your D has many great options, maybe there is no âwrongâ choice. Best wishes on choosing!
As for college wear, when we went on our tour, we let D pick something from each school we toured. In most places it was a tee shirt, but sometimes not, perhaps a binder or key chain. She wears the shirts and sweatpants around the house. Ironically, she didnât get anything at the one school she ended up choosing! Weâll need to remedy that on scholarsâ weekend.
Hope your S is ok @happymochi
@4kids2graduate, Iâve got a daughter at UW. We are OOS though. UW offered a little merit aid ($5000/yr), but it is not significant relative to the OOS tuition. She is using my husbandâs GI Bill, so that helps, but the GI Bill only covers the in-state portion of tuition.
UW also does not offer any sort of Yellow Ribbon benefits to the GI Bill users, which is somewhat unusual. Many schools, public and private will kick in money to cover the gap left after the GI Bill is applied. My daughter could have gone to Bryn Mawr with no cost, for example.
D16 did apply to UW, but it was with the understanding that unless outside scholarships came through, it was an unlikely financial match.
Washington State, on the other hand, was exceptionally generous with aid to D16! She decided against WSU though.