Thanks everyone. We still have Tufts and Lafayette to go on her list. Don’t think Tufts will be a yes. @MWolf as for my screen name, I don’t know? It’s just what came to mind when I signed up for my account?
@liska21 the money helps in a way, but those kids still need the top scores/gpa and other things. Just like not having any $$ helps in a way, and those kids need the scores and other things. The schools are taking the best kids they can find at BOTH ends of the financial spectrum, and who meet their institutional goals. And usually, one of their top institutional goals is to not break the budget, and have to resort to using their endowment. That’s why the ratio of full pay students at some of these schools is around 40%. The Huffington post link that @4kids4colleges posted sheds a light on that. It doesn’t’ just magically happen. The schools know which kids are full pay because they don’t check of the little box that says they are applying for aid. People don’t check that box because if they are smart they run the NPC and see XYZ School is not going to give them any money. If you check the need aid box and they clearly see that your financials prove that you can pay the full amount, they think you really don’t want to be full pay and are less likely to accept an offer of full pay- so waitlist or reject pile! It’s pay to play, or go elsewhere. The kid being full pay might give them an added edge , but then they are competing with all of the applicants in the full pay bucket, and that bucket is filled with many excellent students because many of them have been fortunate to attend good school districts, pay for test prep, access to EC’s etc. A lot of these full pay kids come from schools come with excellent relationships with admissions, so if your full pay kid comes from a school outside of their network it makes it even harder to gain admission.
The schools don’t come flat out and say to the full pay people that their financial contribution helps the school offset the costs needed to bring those in the lower income brackets to campus, but that’s how it works. They just politely say we have determined that you are not qualified for any need based aid, and please pay the full amount or go enroll somewhere else. There is no negotiating going on. And they go out of their way to find every possible dollar that you might have utilizing the CSS Profile so that you can pay the full price.
The kids in the middle income bracket have the hardest time, because they probably still require financial aid in order to attend and their parents might not have any equity or savings built up and don’t want to wreck any retirement accounts. The schools don’t consider them lower income enough either, so it doesn’t look as nice on press releases.
That’s reality.
Congrats to all for the new acceptances! It’s the home stretch now…
D got into UCLA, so I think it will come down to UCLA, UCSB College of Creative Studies or Georgia Tech (a great scholarship put this at a UC price for us–we’re instate in CA). I’m sad that I think one of her early favorites, Grinnell, is probably moving off the list but my pragmatic girl said she can’t see justifying +15K per year for it compared to the other schools
Still waiting on Yale, Brown and USC but even if she did get in (which is really what she wanted to see), we’ll be priced out, which she 100% knew going in.
Really proud of her hard, hard work these past 4 years and all the time she took with her apps. It has really paid off putting her at 11 for 11 with a tough decision to make.
We should all be proud of our kids getting through this crazy admission process!!!
Can’t wait to hear where everyone says YES! to : )
Bummer about Midd and Amherst. 2 crazy hard admits. Midd is definitely a place for the well connected, more so than the other Nescac schools. I’ve told you before but places like Tufts and Bowdoin are more open to kids from all over, Midd is the place for CT/NY rich kids from prep schools that are smart. The NY/CT kids that are OK students go to Trinity/Wes/CC. I don’t know who goes to Williams/Amherst, total mystery.
I said that Tufts and Bowdoin would be the best fit for your S. It’s good that Bowdoin likes him. Your visit definitely helped for sure. Bowdoin is the best overall fit for your S anyways, so don’t stress the others. Who cares.
Congrats on Carleton too, that’s great. We knew he’d get in there!! It will be interesting to see if he gets into D. I think he has a better chance there, than some of the Nescac places. Another week and you’ll be done!
Great news from everyone, some very nice acceptances. Good luck with the rest!
Sorry for any rejections and watlists, bummer. But one week to go for most of you, Onwards!
@lemon drop the Lafayette decisions are on the way. I received a text that a package is coming from their area.
Congrats to all the acceptances! I appreciate your analysis of the NESCACs @RightCoaster even though we haven’t applied. Not much engineering there for S19 and D20 is bent on a city location so tufts might be the only fit. We had hoped to visit tufts this week did her but there were no tours due to spring break.
Congrats on the many acceptances.
Wow! Such news! Congratulations to all!
Waitlist and deny decisions are painful!! So let’s celebrate our terrific kids, who worked hard to get to this point.
For all of us that are heading to the finish line this week, keep breathing!
DD has her last big one, Duke, coming up. So far, NC has not completely swung open their doors to my wonderful, bright, kind kid from Texas.
We just got back from a short spring break trip and I have missed so much! I actually kept up with the posts but it is a pain to reply on my phone so I am way behind. Congratulations to SO many of you with acceptances - sounds like our group is doing so well so far! So sorry to those with waitlists and denials, it is so hard for the kids even though they all seem to have lots of god options. I am hoping for the best for all of you.
Our college search journey for D19 is finally over!! She heard back from her final college this week - an acceptance to Boston College. In the beginning her two favorites were BC and Tulane but after weighing out her options she will be in the Tulane Class of 2023!!
It was a hard decision, especially because she LOVES Boston and my whole family is there but Tulane seems to be the better fit. The pros were distance (2 hour flight vs 3 hour flight), weather (I don’t think being in the hospital up there this winter helped), ease of taking lots of classes outside your major, no religious class requirement (she didn’t mind that but it was nice to not have to do it at Tulane), greek life (thought she didn’t want it but is now more open to it) and probably the biggest pro was the price - she got a scholarship at Tulane and nothing at BC and it was hard for her to imagine BC being worth $88,000 more over 4 years. There is probably more that I’m not thinking of now, basically she just really felt like she could see herself fitting in at Tulane and I agree.
I am super proud of her - she was accepted at every college she chose. She had a moment of wondering if she should have shot higher but I reminded her that I mentioned adding a higher reach or two just for fun and she said no way, had no interest in applying just for the sake of it and she couldn’t even find a school that she liked that wasn’t a super reach anyway (Ivy types that were a definite no.)
@momtogkc Congratulations!!!
I agree with @RightCoaster’s assessment on the NESCACs, except for Wes. That school is a pretty tough admit at RD. ED is easier, but you have to be pretty strong to get in RD. Amherst is mysterious for sure ?
@momtogkc Great choice! Congrats. I liked my visits to Tulane and think it’s a neat place. Definitely a different vibe there vs BC. Both good choices, and saving 88k is certainly a solid consideration. I think she made a very wise choice and I’m sure shel’ll be happy there.
@momtogkc Congratulations on your decision!!
Congrats @momtogkc!! How wonderful to be DONE!
D19 in at Middlebury and S19 in at Connecticut College with merit. They’ll have decisions make!
Congrats @momtogkc
Congrats @momtogkc
@ifer67 and @coolweather Congrats on UCSD, and @gzza73 and @crknwk2000 on UCLA! As an east coaster, I have to admit to mixing up many of the California schools, but I can figure out which cities those two are in 
. Love the library at UCSD—looks like a space age Japanese temple.
Congrats to lemon drop and @homerdog on Carleton! (W&M’s president is a Carleton graduate and former ultimate frisbee coach.) From the Carleton alums I’ve met, it must be a unique and terrific place, and D19 would have been interested if she weren’t a warm weather athlete (sailing), who wanted to be closer to home.
Lol, @RightCoaster:
In the dark here, too. I do know one recruited athlete with top GPA/rigor/scores who got in to Williams from our public HS a few years ago. That’s it.
YAY @momtogkc !! Being so sick and hospitalized would put me off Boston, too. Go Green Wave 
@momtogkc congrats on Tulane! I keep hoping my D20 will consider it.