@booajo. Same here, no update from USC. I have begged and pleaded for D to visit the schools where she has been accepted, but cannot get anything accomplished.
@ollie113 difficult days. Maybe next week we will make some actual plans to visit.
I just saw that we can prepay 8 semesters of tuition at Syracuse, locking in freshman year tuition for all 4 years. Of course, we had the bad luck of DD matriculating the year tuition had a “supplement” in addition to a 3.9% increase! Why couldn’t she have been class of 2017 instead, LOL.
In any case, we are mulling over this option to lock in for 4 years and have requested more information from the bursar. Also need to talk to our tax guy. Has anyone ever done this? Thoughts?
@2014novamom, if your D transfers or graduates early, is the prepaid tuition fully refundable?
Personally I like to pay things early and in full whenever possible so if it were me I’d be all over the prepay option, assuming I could get it back later if my student didn’t stay for eight semesters.
@traveler98 That is definitely one of the things we need to look over when we get the paperwork from the school! Other big questions are what are the tax consequences and if we think we can make more by investing the money than prepaying tuition. We need to look at historic tuition increase vs. the returns we could get for the declining balamce of the college funds over 4 years. I’m a little leery that this bull run in the market is coming to an end and we’d be better off prepaying.
@2014novamom I had the same thoughts about whether the money might get a better return in the market that would cover all the potential tuition increase…and also the same thought that this market could be headed for a major correction. Very difficult to guess right now.
How does this work with a 529 account, when you pay qualified tuition expenses that have not been incurred yet?
We’ve been hedging a bit in the market the last few months and moving some assets into cash because of the fear of a correction. This run is just not sustainable and the market has been on it for a while.
@mommdc – a question for our tax guy. It might take a few days to get an answer from him because he is now in busy season. We have time since we don’t need to commit to the prepaid plan until the first semester is due.
I wonder if other colleges do this. I have heard of some locking in tuition for all 4 years, but not with the prepayment option.
Got the official “no scholarship for you” from USC, and no scholarship to Richmond. Richmond eliminated for sure, USC just moved way down the list. Not quite NFW, but NFL at least (not financially likely
@Booajo sorry about the lack of merit money for your son…
Urgh! Sorry to hear about all of the unwished for news. Hang in there, 18ers. This isn’t over yet, and better things will come.
@2014novamom we too are moving some things to cash - the assets for DD’s college will all be cash by the end of next week - her 4 years of funding will be sitting in savings. I’m with you, the market is volatile and while we are keeping longer term things there, the college funds are a “now” and are now cash.
No love from USC here either. I think D was more interested in the location of the school than the school itself, fortunately. That girl wants to learn to surf! 
A friend of mine who is a UVA graduate and interviews for their Jefferson scholarship just emailed me that 2 of Western Pennsylvania’s Jefferson Scholarship nominees got rejected.
@booajo and all the others without their merit needs met…so sorry. It’s really hard when your child has done their part and it’s just not financially feasible. DH and I had an evening of self-pity when DS got the Chancellor rejection from TCU (and we will likely go through it again with Baylor). We just felt really guilty for not having enough college savings, not making enough money, wondering what we could have done differently financially over the last 17 years. And the self-pity that we are middle to upper middle class which leaves us with not enough money to pay for college and too much money for aid. After briefly wallowing in our guilt and disappointment we have moved on and are embracing the schools that are showing us merit love. We are all lucky to have kids with options and they are good students who can make the most of their college experience wherever they end up.
This prompted the most cynical and incredulous laugh from me. Unbelievable.
Add D18 to the list of those denied merit scholarships at USC. However, if she gets admitted RD in March, she’ll get the automatic half tuition scholarship for NMF. It would have been nice to get the early notification of admission. Now we’ll need to do all the work remaining to prepare the backup list in case it’s needed in March.
No love from USC here, either. It’s my D’s number one choice. She told me last week she feels like all of her hard work in HS means nothing. DH and I know everything will work out, but trying to convince D is very difficult.
@ollie113 that’s definitely the part that is the worst - not feeling like all the hard work was worthwhile. As adults we know that we are splitting hairs between all these great schools - our kids can succeed at any of them. But kids need to see the correlation between hard work and success. Remind her that her hardwork will translate into doing well in college. Loads of kids who get into these schools are not as prepared. She hopefully has good skills and work habits which will take her far, and doing well in college and life is more important.
OK, tough times are upon us!! My D got no love from USC either & perhaps that’s a harbinger of things to come from her other reach schools.
Let’s face it: we all know that there are just too many of our kids with the stats & intelligence & talent to get into just about any school in the country. Too few slots for them. But take comfort in the fact that the studies show that these kids will thrive no matter where they wind-up!! They are the hard-working go-getters that will land on their feet and keep pushing forward in the game of life. In the end, our country will be much better-off when this huge cohort of scholars enters the working world in just a few years.
My D just loves the wording of those rejection/we don’t want you letters that basically say: Please don’t feel in any way that this rejection lowers your worth as a human being…
So, let’s dust ourselves off & start giving a little more love those match & safety schools that we all wisely included in the overall plan.
For those that have won (or still may win) a place in one of those lottery schools – CONGRATULATIONS, you have earned it & we all share in your celebration!!
<:-P