@educationfan From what I read about asking for more merit aid, you should send a letter to the director of financial aid. Now through early April is the recommended time. If you have a higher offer, enclose a copy of it. I poked around on the websites of the schools that offered D merit aid and was able to find out that one of them will not negotiate. This is emphasized several times and even highlighted in color, so we did not send a letter to them. I was able to find out on another school’s website what the highest amount of merit aid is that they offer. Since they offered $2,000 less to D, we did send a letter to them under the “why not?” theory. Point being, you might be able to find out whether it’s worth asking for more, and how much more you can hope to receive, from the schools’ websites.
Jmek15 i think that is pretty much where we are going to end up. Paying about 15k extra for USC if he chooses it over UCLA which I am certain he will. Or at least i hope it will just be a15k difference…keeping fingers crossed.
@NolaCAR and @educationfan --we just did this and had good results. Got another $8,000 total from Ds school. AndI even made the fatal mistake of letting her commit first!
@letsshare If you put the at symbol ‘@’ before a users name, they will be notified of your comment and be sure to see it. Thanks for the input, good to hear other viewpoints.
@carachel2 Big congratulations to you and your D on Pitt! It feels so good to be done, doesn’t it? Thanks for sharing how your merit aid appeal turned out - I forgot to mention to @educationfan that you’re supposed to send the appeal before you commit.
@youcee you bring up a good point. I knew someone who went to UCLA just graduated last year. The student started off as a sophmore and graduated on time mainly do to ap classes.
@carachel2 – Congrats on Pitt!! I have heard so many good things about it. And kudos on the additional MAC.
Last decision in! Accepted to Wellesley. Now waiting for a bit more financial aid information from a few places. So far she’s been accepted to 15 and waitlisted at one (weirdly, by Colby, which tbh was a last minute, no essay, no fee, why not, deal).
Congrats to all of you with good news and many hugs to those with disappointments.
@NolaCAR --yes, probably pretty important! Honestly when we let her commit I didn’t think we had a chance of negotiating. Historically they had not negotiated with Bama offers (someone had messaged me this) and then the other offer was with a similarly ranked school but their scholarship amount was the same and their tuition was actually MORE $$. So based on that I had dismissed it.
But when I sat down and ran the numbers again, the amount for room and board was about $1800 lower at the comparison school so I thought “what do we have to lose?” and sent it in!
Are we the only ones with not a single regular admission result? Have two EA acceptances including one D is pretty happy about but waiting for all eight regular admission results…
We are done!!! Today DS committed to UT CS. Total 7/8 acceptances (GTech rejected). UT is his first choice and 30 minutes away from home:)
Band: It’s not D17 (she might join a vocal performance group), but my oboe-playing D19 wants to go someplace where she can continue music performance, but marching band? That’s just a no.
@ACT2017 Congratulations! That’s a great school and just far enough away from home.
@stem2017 It’s this work thing that keeps me away from the board. By the time I catch up, everything is old. But I have periodically been reading in spurts, so I don’t feel like a stranger. Well, not stranger than some others, anyway. :)>- But thanks for making me feel included. 
@ACT2017 – awesome! So glad he got that UT acceptance-- than one was crazy hard!
@picklesarenice Can you tell me about the FB page and how to join? Sounds fun.
@IABooks - Who are you calling strange?!? Speak for yourself!!
@youcee and @letsshare - I would pay the $15K premium for a smaller (but still large) institution with additional handholding, more opportunities to double major across disciplines and engage in interdisciplinary studies, good research and study abroad opportunities, and a greater focus on undergraduate teaching and research. There might also be additional funding available for internships and study abroad that might not be available at a UC. And the Trojan family network extends far and wide.
Congratulations to all of you who have kids putting deposits down. I think we are really close. S17 wants to wait for all decisions to be in (2 to go) but I don’t think that really matters because he is leaning towards one school more and more each day. I predict we will be making a deposit 4/1.
@Testingearly I hope the transcript snafu was resolved successfully and here’s hoping your 1/2 becomes a 1 and makes all the decision making easier.
@firstwavemom Message @srk2017 to joing FB group.