@“Queen’s Mom” Can you tell me how long Eckerd took to give your child their admissions decision? Am just trying to get a “guesstimate”…
Honestly I don’t even look at the acceptance threads. It is way to hard to read and really doesn’t tell me anything. I think what I (we all want) is too hard to do without a separate doc or spreadsheet of some kind. Last week I was thinking of starting something and posting it in the 2017 FB group. But I realize that is a semi-private group and wouldn’t allow just anyone to update.
I am open to do whatever the group decides, but unfortunately I don’t have any suggestions of how to do it.
@london203, I believe it was about 2 months from application to acceptance.
On a different topic. I am completely freaking out about financial aid. We filled out the FAFSA as soon as we could, why was there no financial aid award with the merit awards? I’m afraid we won’t get anything despite a low EFC. That would make it very difficult.
@“Queen’s Mom” I can’t say for sure in your case but I have heard from other parents that some schools send that separately and often several weeks later. Good luck!
@mommdc, Pitt does not appear to work the way Penn State does, with a clear path from branch campuses to Main. It’s possible, but seems to rely on your major being unavailable at the satellite. The cost would be significantly lower than Pittsburgh campus even w/o merit, but the tiny size, rural location, and commuter focus (more than 60% at the one they funneled him to) make it a non-starter. Fortunately he has other acceptances in hand.
Honestly, I don’t fault Pitt one bit for not accepting him to the Pittsburgh campus. I just didn’t like the way things played out afterwards.
I agree with @MomStudent2017’s suggestions. I’d say we’re small enough to just list by school without a separate list by student. An easy to read format is a must. Some of the school-specific threads have formats that each person can copy/paste and then fill in the info like stats, major, etc. If we stay in thread I think that’s the way to go.
A private fb group has the advantage of a google docs link, but not everyone is comfortable with fb and I think our lovely lurkers ( :-h ) would be far less likely to participate.
Here’s a quick and dirty format example:
College XYZ
Username: ED/EA/RD; public in or out of state if applicable
Status: [hopefully accepted!]
Selectivity: [maybe acceptance rate and 25% – 75%]
Major:
GPA (unw and wt):
SAT/ACT: [I’d like to see subject break-down]
Other factors: [e.g. rigor, AP’s, EC’s, hooks, whatever people think would be useful to share. Maybe EC’s/awards should be a separate line?]
COA:
NPC merit + need-based = Total: [e.g. $6,000 merit + $2,000 need = $8,000]
Actual merit + need-based = Total:
And then put this in alphabetical order of colleges. Of course people just fill out what they’re comfortable with – no pressure! It would end up being quite a long post…
Thoughts?
@“Queen’s Mom”, I have also read on several college threads that merit and need-based aid come separately. I’d wait two or three weeks before contacting the school.
I like the idea of school specific only quite a bit. I have a format idea that may help make it easy to read.
At UPS for S’s interview, he is in now. Dodged a bullet as it was supposed to snow but that’s been pushed out to tonight. Regardless of outcome just coming down here got him excited about the school again and bumped it back up a bit. Not sure how far, still lower as it’s in state. It is also potentially the most expensive on his list.
@eandesmom, just took a look a UPS…wow, what a nice school It seems to be! Wish we weren’t clear across the country from us!
I mean, “from it”…where is my head these days! Actually I know…my keyboard isn’t typing certain letters lately, and when I go to fix typos I lose my rain of thought… >:P
TRAIN of thought…case in point!!! (I’ll go away now!)
@snoozn I like the idea of having all that info but worry that it will get super unwieldy. Really wish they didn’t have such an issue with linking to a Google doc.
@eandesmom, while I have to confess that I was actually relieved that D17 ultimately didn’t end up applying to schools clear across the country, I was a little sad when UPS and Willamette came off her list–they both look like really great schools, and beautiful, too. I’m afraid if D goes too far west she’ll never come back home again!
Can’t wait to start amassing all the data on our kids’ outcomes!
I don’t think this is unusual or different from years past.
Merit awards are usually from the admissions department and based on whatever criteria the school sets - gpa, scores, class rank. Need based aid is usually awarded by the financial aid office. Just because the FAFSA filing opened early doesn’t mean the school changed its priority deadline or notification date.
My kids were admitted in Oct. One received her merit notification a few days later, but no financial aid information until April. The other knew her athletic award in November (required if signing a LOI), but no merit or financial aid info until late February. We could guess at it, but nothing until long after acceptance.
Good lord! April? Honestly, cost is a major factor in our decision. Don’t want to fall in love with an unaffordable choice.
^^ This. I can attest to this being a major source of spring term stress for many of my D’s schoolmates last year. A number of them were admitted to their reach/dream schools, only to find out in March or April that they were not awarded enough FA to make it affordable for their families. They ultimately had to attend schools that were their lesser choice. It was a tough time. ‘Dream-crushing’, I think they called it…
S17 was accepted to Ursinus today with a 24K scholarship. The notice did say that the financial package for FA should arrive soon and separately so that is good, not drawing it out until Feb or later. The 24K is under what the NPC predicted however the NPC did not break out scholarship versus FA and it is a school that implied he would get a small amount although I am a bit skeptical as with the scholarship it is under our EFC (EFC is of course not affordable lol). Really truly a bummer he couldn’t get that ACT up but it is about what I expected given that. There is a leadership scholarship he might have a chance at but the service hours are pretty nuts, he thinks he could earn more working and he is likely right.
The whole idea of not hearing on FA at these schools till late is super stressful to be sure.
Mixed bag on the UPS interview today.
It was a student interview! I assumed it would be someone from admissions if we made the drive down and did it live. For that we could have done an alumni one locally and saved 3 hours in the car. That said, he found it quite an enjoyable chat and it reminded him that he really liked the school and yep, showed interest lol.
@inthegarden it is a lovely school. I think S forgot just how pretty it is, the minute we drove on campus he was like yeah…I could go here. LOL!
Congrats on Ursinus. Good school. I think our kids will have some nice choices.
Congrats @eandesmom on Ursinus. I have to admit I have never read anything about that school because the name bugs me, ha. So shallow. Who is Urs and why is he in us?
I keep looking up a lot of the schools mentioned in this thread. Almost makes me wish we still lived out east. Son didn’t want to be too far from home so staying in the midwest was a must. Really he had plenty of options, but some mentioned here look really nice.
@eandesmom Congrats on Ursinus, that’s terrific! I wanted D to consider UPS but no dance program, so that didn’ happen. Glad he had a good interview and visit.