@sekere62 you don’t have to accept until April. I can’t think of any advantage in accepting early other than getting in the cue for houseing. As you have you housing application and fee paid by May 1st you’re still in the priority application pool.
On the other hand, merit money is used as an inticement to get you to come to one university over another. If a university sees that you have accepted their offer they don’t have any reason to ‘sweeten the pot’. DS is applying for the McDermontt if he accepts UTD before decisions they might think yes he’s a great kid but he’s already commited to attend here so let’s offer our money to the kid that’s heading to MIT if he doesn’t get the scholarship. Maybe it doesnt work this way at all but I’d always wonder…
DD is a NM at OU and accepted early, she was planning to go to their National Merit weekend in Feb to ask some more questions and meet some other NM kids. OU pays hotel and meals for the weekend. She had been looking for the invite. When I saw people on CC posting about registering for this event I contacted OU’s scholars office and they confirmed that she was not sent an invite, I explained that we had been planning on attending this event and they quickly got us registered. I am 100% sure the reason she was not on the original invitation list was that she had already accepted admission.
What would the advantage be in accepting now and changing your mind later vs. just waiting to accept later?
@sekere62, last time I checked (maybe two weeks ago) the fall 2018 UTD housing application wasn’t even open. There’s been zero contact from UTD regarding housing or enrollment deposits, and my son accepted his offer of admission a while ago. So your D isn’t losing her place in the housing queue or anything like that if she waits on her UTD offer. Since she isn’t decided on UTD there’s no need for her to accept now.
I thought we were only able to accept an offer from one school, so our plan is to wait until much closer to May 1st to hit the accept/decline button unless DD is sure she will not attend a given institution. As someone else noted, part of that is to see what merit scholarships might be offered to her before the decision. When SD16 got offers of admission, they sounded binding, or at least that we would lose our acceptance deposit if he changed his mind. And, as soon as he accepted 1, he declined the others to open spaces for other kids who might be on the wait list or in the RD pool. We were a bit worried about what housing options might be available if he waited until April (like he did), but when room selection actually came up it he didn’t have any choices to pick from as an entering freshman anyway. However, since he was earlier than those who accepted after he did, perhaps the college assigned him to more desirable dorm than those who accepted later.
Hard to know, but I’d be concerned about having DD accept more than 1 college in case they had some regulations against it, resulting in her losing her offers at both.
We are waiting to move forward on anything until after the ED decision for the school my D applied to. If she isn’t accepted there we will probably move forward with the school she will attend if she doesn’t get accepted anywhere else since we want to lock in her choices for dorm assignments, etc. I wish there was a better system so you didn’t have to hedge your bets on what might be or what could have been if you don’t act.
I also don’t see the advantage in accepting an offer unless it is clearly the #1 choice, and the financials are set in stone.
I suspect D will wait until April to officially accept any offer. She may decline some if she’s sure she won’t attend, but we have a spring break visit planned to one of her top choices. Who knows what little thing could make or break a decision at that point.
I agree, for those who have more schools to hear from, I can see no advantage to accepting an offer now, except for housing. However, if you have been accepted at your top choice, or only choice, and you are not waiting on a financial aid package to determine if you will accept, I would absolutely accept, pay and enjoy the remainder of senior year!
For us, my DD2018 is literally all over the place. Last week it was: “I am just going to go to LSU”; yesterday, she asked me to do an in-depth review of the psychology curriculum and AP credit acceptance policy at Auburn, because she thought she would pick Auburn over LSU. Hubby, who spent multiple college tours asking the same inane question about % of students living in campus, because he feels that is important, does not want to accept the Auburn offer so DD can get in the housing pool, suddenly it’s ok if She has to find off campus housing?! DD would go to TAMU if offered a full acceptance, but I can’t seem to get her to consider a Blinn offer or alternative admissions path for TAMU. Yet, she will consider a PACE or CAP offer for UT because she was originally, independently, thinking about applying to UTSA?! It makes no sense to me. My fingers are crossed that we can be done with this whole thing by mid-February, but my goodness the wait is agonizing.
S has 4 EA apps submitted, two at schools he would be very happy to attend. I’m encouraging him to submit a few more by Dec 1, to give him more options. He may not and wait until he hears mid Dec from those already submitted.
If he gets into both top two, I think he’ll wait for FA and merit before committing. If he gets into one or none of those, all bets are off and we’re in the waiting stage until May.
@AmyBeth68 last year my D applied late January and she was given a generous merit scholarship so I don’t think applying now would prevent your D from getting a scholarship.
@MACmiracle My D18 suffered a double hit concussion during a soccer game her sophomore year. Although it took 4 weeks for the headaches and dizziness to subside, her brain function (her normal way of studying and absorbing information) took about 3 momths to get back to wear she was…she had always been able to just pick things up quickly but science and calc became difficult because she wasn’t processing the same way. Through a lot of frustration and tears, she had to develop new skills to remember tasks and learn new information. She used a lot of color coding with sharpies to tap into her other part of her brain. It is tough being a helpless parent which is how I felt…a concussion will test us as well…it takes a while to get their head back to normal. It is like a bruise so it will take time to heal and unjog the brain. The bright spot is that for tough chapters she uses the strategies she used while recovering from her concussion to learn the information.
Regarding housing at Auburn - I was one of those parents that couldn’t imagine my kid living off campus and my son was in the Honors College and applied early and got his preferred dorm, however, most of his friends did not and many lived off campus. My son wanted to move off campus after Freshman year and I wouldn’t let him. I wish I had, it is very safe, very convenient as the shuttle goes to all the apartments and I would have saved a TON of money. He moved off campus his Junior year and is very happy and I am too. She will fall in love with Auburn if she decides to attend.
Last XC race of high school was yesterday – she went out in style. Great to see a big smile on her face and the hugs from her teammates. After the race, she had to drive to her gym to shower and change for a college interview - which also went really well. A good day.
Never more happy to be wrong… My D submitted her apps to 2 CSU campuses today and sent her ACT scores as well! She is done with apps! :D/ Probably the best part was how excited she was, both to be done with this part and because these last 2 apps she did all on her own. She researched to find the schools, figured out a major, how to apply, filled out the app, submitted it, even sent her scores. Look out on the roadways for this newly licensed college-bus driver! :x Kind of a big deal considering less than 6 months ago she had no interest really at all and was happy to have me do the driving.
Total apps submitted: 9, acceptances so far: 1 (to a school she has completely knocked off the list at this point :-< )
S is working on his GA Tech Common App RD. He needs to get a teacher recommendation and write a short essay. I told him to get everything to me this week since he’s on break. I’d love if they’d let him know sooner than March if possible, like Georgia does. Georgia scans RD applications to see if they meet EA criteria, even if EA deadline has passed.
From admissions.uga.edu.:For Regular Decision applicants, the admissions office conducts an initial academic review of a student’s file to see if they meet Early Action admission credentials, and then moves forward with a holistic review of the applicant that balances the following primary considerations:
grades through the end of junior year,
the rigor of a student’s curriculum relative to the curriculum offered at her/his high school,
and, results of either the SAT I or ACT.
Also, from UGA admission blog: “From now until October 15, one of the most common questions for the admission office will be “Should I apply for Early Action (EA) or Regular Decision (RD)”? There is the perceived notion that one option is better than the other (NOT TRUE!). If a student applies RD and meets the EA criteria for admission, they will receive an acceptance in late February. If a student applies EA and is deferred, they will be shifted to the next stage of review and will be looked at the same way as an RD applicant who is not admitted during the February admission process. In reality, the only person that can answer the question of how they should apply is the student who is applying.
@apraxiamom , re: “the admissions office conducts an initial academic review of a student’s file to see if they meet Early Action admission credentials,” - what are the EA admission credentials? I checked their website and couldn’t find what would be different than RD admission credentials.
:x Kind of a big deal considering less than 6 months ago she had no interest really at all and was happy to have me do the driving.