DS is registered for freshman orientation at Louisville in mid June. They have eleven sessions and I think he is in the fourth out of the eleven. He has tentatively picked the courses in the time slots he wants to take them for the first semester, so hopefully that is early enough he won’t have issues with any full classes. He showed me the outline of what he would take over the four years with a biology major. He is going to have an insane amount of open electives because of AP classes and dual credit. Over fifty credit hours of wide open space. With the Brown and GEMS programs, I don’t see him graduating early so he is going to have to eventually figure out what to do with those extra hours. Double major or something. Seems like a good problem to have.
Good luck to all in reaching the end of this part of the process. Still love reading and following your updates.
Good luck to everyone with the last decisions today and throughout the week. We have had a very interesting last few weeks–4 acceptances (at 3 reach schools–one being a huge surprise), 4 waitlists (including one that I thought was a match, but oh well) and 1 rejection. We have one more decision coming via mail which has all along been D’s number one choice, but things have turned somewhat after getting into surprise reach school. Trying to plan visits to the top 3-4 (one is easier than the other 3).
I am thinking of all of you…fairly new to this forum, but love reading about all kids and your updates.
A little last minute good news here - after submitting a cost analysis to Pitt, they have raised my D’s merit award from $15K to $25K, putting it right into range for us. D is smiling at this news. This may be a game changer, but D’s not saying at this point. But it’s always nice to see the college that your kid loves love them back! All of our interactions with Pitt to date have been pleasant & efficient.
Ivy Day was eventful here!!! S got rejected by Princeton, his top choice, but was accepted into Yale Class of 2022!!! WOO HOO!!! We are SOOO happy for him! It still doesn’t feel real! It’s not really a tough choice at this point, although he got into some amazing colleges! He was accepted into Colby College, Hamilton College, Boston College, UDelaware Honors, and WPI. Rejected from Princeton and MIT. Waiting on Tufts but at this point, it really doesn’t matter. He is SUPER THRILLED though very sad for many of his friends who had nothing but bad news tonight
DD was not selected to attend Brown and Princeton. No real surprise. Daughter handling it well. Now the issue is whether to hang onto the Vandy wait list and pay deposit at Clemson or just push the chips all in to Clemson. The visit next Friday will probably make that decision.
@bughdad Thoughts with your daughter. I have a feeling she is going to love and embrace Tigertown. We had a rough Ivy day last year but my daughter is now thriving (and working epically hard) at UChicago. D2 is down to UVA, Colgate, Clemson and UConn. My daughter’s lips are sealed but I have a suspicion that there is going to be an orange paw on the back of my car next year.
@burghdad that is tough…read Vanderbilt took 178 of the WL year so a real possibility but I think being back in Tiger Town might make it an easy decisions…Love the One who Loves You! Also when the numbers are released this year she will see what an awesome accomplishment Clemson is for OOS.
We head out today to travel to the last school of the top three schools under consideration. Tomorrow is the day of events and while we could drive home after I am keeping the hotel for the second night and my husband, daughter and I will be on a mini-college retreat to discuss everything. I am giving her permission to make a decision and be happy. If a WL comes in we will deal with it then but I am going to tell her in her head she needs to accept the WL as as a compliment and gently close that door. I suspect we will come home with a decision…just in time for Easter which will be very fitting as I need us all to get into the light.
I think the school that has dragged her through the ringer these last few weeks will weigh in tomorrow and I would be almost relieved at this point if it is a denial. Time to dance with those who want to dance.
Well, we got all of the local scholarship apps done. I am proud of S to power through and write a different essay for several of them, rather than reuse one.
Short Easter break coming up. He informed me that he is joining jazz band too.
We had good news yesterday! My D18 won a local news station scholarship from their Project Weather program. She’ll get to tour the studio, do some publicity photos. It’s $1000 but that will help pay the housing deposit at UMiami. I thought she would win it for our county but the judging criteria was skewed more towards kids that had done a lot of science research already instead of actually enrolling into a Meteorology program. She wrote the heck out of the essay to convey how much she loves weather and becoming a meteorologist and apparently it worked.
We haven’t been able to decline any of her schools because we can’t find a button…other than FSU. I told her to write Thank you (but I have to decline) notes and send then to the admissions office. It’s all I can figure to do.
We have Spring Break coming up and D18 looks like she needs it. She had Pit Rehearsal all last week and then 4 shows to perform, youth orchestra rehearsal, a recital and a performance at school yesterday for Grandparents Day. I think she may lay down tonight and not get up for the next week.
Congrats to everyone getting to end of the road! Whether we had good news or bad news, we made it this far in one piece. This forum has been invaluable.
@S18D20mom, sorry for the delayed response, I haven’t been on CC much lately. Yes, definitely contact CV and try to set up some honors visits. When we took S to visit, we met with a CS professor and a CS advisor and found both meetings helpful for understanding the major. So if you are able to meet with people for your S’s major you might find that useful. Definitely be sure to see the dorms, they are fantastic! My introvert S was so happy that he would always have his own space to retreat when he needs time alone.
@mrminsky I think it’s going to be harder than it seems. While yes, Yale is definitely a shoo-in, he’s going to be releasing some amazing schools that have bent over backwards to make him feel welcome and part of their community. It’s especially hard bc he’s already gone to a couple of accepted student events, and since we thought Yale and Princeton were SUCH long-shots, he had already started to “lean” toward a particular school and was beginning to refer to it as his school. Then last night happened and it just hasn’t fully sunk in yet. Once it does, I think his choice will be clear. Yale was his absolute top choice from the get-go (until he found out he wasn’t fast enough to even meet with the rowing coach for potential recruitment), and they have the specific major that he wants to study, whereas the other schools do not and he would have to either major/minor or double major to reach his goal. Plus no school can possibly beat Yale’s FA package! It almost made us fall off our seats when we saw it! It was THAT generous! So yes, it will be hard to say goodbye to some schools, but I do think the choice has been made.
UPenn was a reject, as expected. Duke is up this evening and expecting a rejection there as well. D18 hasn’t heard about anyone at her school who was admitted to an Ivy. One of her friends was WL at Harvard but rejected at all the others. That friend has four or five WL! Talk about limbo land.
Here are my new odds for D18:
80% - Bama
10% - GT
5% - Clemson
5% - UGA
Bama and GT are the only ones she talks about anymore (Bama is her clear favorite). My analysis:
Bama - pros are the excellent NMF package, opportunities with UFE and RRSP, built-in friend group right off the bat with UFE and RRSP, excellent dorms, very nice campus, not a difficult school so she won’t be buried in books, excellent football to enjoy. Cons are that it isn’t in a big city and that it isn’t prestigious.
GT - pros are that it’s in a big city that she knows well, prestigious. Cons are that it is notoriously difficult (which isn’t good for a procrastinator), less freedom to choose classes (all degrees are BS with a large set of defined classes), and the dorms are poor.
I think she should choose Bama and take advantage of all they offer (and have some freaking fun for a change). She get get an MS or PHD from a higher ranked school later.
@droppedit How come no UGA or Clemson which are a little more selective than Bama and fun schools as well. you must be from GA as well… Good luck with Duke tonight
DD has accepts at Tulane (honors, with merit), NYU, St. Andrews & UCSC. WL at Barnard, Wesleyan & Hamilton. Barnard is her 1st choice & Wesleyan her 2nd, so she will pursue those and see what happens. Overall she’s pleased with her results, mostly because she really likes St. Andrews and Tulane and would be happy to go to either. Looking back on this process, I feel extremely fortunate that she found matches/likelies that excite her. By all accounts this has been a disappointing year for lots of kids and their families, and my heart goes out to them.
Odds assuming no WL movement:
St. Andrews - 45%
Tulane - 40%
NYU - 15%
Congrats on the good news on this thread from yesterday and so sorry to those who had disappointments :(. It’s such a rollercoaster. My daughter received her disappointing news…no additional merit from Pitt. If a kid could get money for the sheer love of a school she would have earned it. Despite her stats being top notch for Pitt; they are keeping her at her initial merit offer. She’s all in regardless, it just stings a little. She is committed to the College of Arts & Science and Honors College to study Russian and Economics!
