DD is now in at 5 of her 6 schools. She has some great options! Still waiting to see how scholarships come out which will greatly impact her final decision, but until then the research to compare specific courses required for her major, dates for admitted students visits, housing options, timing for signing up for housing, etc has begun in earnest.
The 6th school is an academic and financial reach so none of us really see it as an option to be researched further.
DD found out yesterday that she got into the honors program at UCF. Her ACT score is good but not amazing (31 composite, but 34 in math and she plans to major in actuarial science) so I was glad to see her get in. Still unsure about going so far away for school (weāre in PA) but of course itās a great feeling to have the honors acceptance.
Congrats to all with your acceptances and the nice merit aid.
@barefooter - I am sorry about the UIUC results. I saw your sonās stats. Heās amazing; and I can only imagine that bewilderment.
your kid is ātippy topā; my kid is āaverage excellentā ā and while my DS thinks heās going to apply to some T20s in the next week, Iām not quite sure what to say when I see this. No advice on it all to you; but well done to your kid for his accomplishments.
@Barefooter Congrats on Umich! Everyone I know OOS got deferred from there this year.
That is so surprising about UIUC, I think it just shows what a crap shoot this whole process is. Your son has great options and I know heāll end up some place great!
@bgbg4us and @NYC2018nyc - thank you for the kind words. Yes, this whole process indeed seems like a crap shoot. But, it somehow must work out for everyone in the end.
@Barefooter Friendās daughter got deferred from UIUC but accepted to Cornell.
Everyone has to just keep chugging along.
These UIUC deferrals for super strong kids sound like yield protection? (Happy to be told why that is completely wrong for this institutionā¦)
First of all congratulations on the rare Michigan acceptance OOS. You rightly deserve to be proud of your child.
However,I am beyond bewildered that an instate student with your studentās profile would be rejected at UIUC, despite its obvious excellence, and accepted to OOS Michigan and deferred to MIT.
The sad thing is the extra expense (despite how fantastic Michigan is) considering uiuc was a first choice school.
Itās beyond words. And Illinois has enough of its top students going out of state to Alabama and elite private schools.
Not a good way to protect the state from brain drain, considering the economic problems seen there in general.
Sorry. But this makes me angry on your behalf.
Seriously, DS kept scratching his head what couldāve gone wrong, and we couldnāt explain the reason. At least a deferred status would be somewhat explainable. But, an outright rejection seems a bit harsh. All along we were told UIUC cared mostly about GPA and test scores. But, DS did invest a lot of time on the essays which I thought were fantastic. UIUC was his first choice because it checked off all boxes for both DS and parents.
Itās truly disappointing indeed. DS was set on going to UIUC, and was devastated with the rejection. I wish they provided some sort of an explanation for these rejections. Yield protection, if true, would just be an awful reason to reject kids with high stats.
S20 is so upset by his deferral from Wisconsin. He was so completely in the green dots on naviance that we considered this a match!
Any tips on how you cheered up your kids? The other rejection and deferral didnāt bother him since they were reached. This is much more upsetting. Any ideas on what to say and how to handle would be appreciated!
Wowā¦ I would ask your GC to call the local UIUC rep and find out what happened. This type of situation warrents an explanation.
@NYC2018nyc - Sorry about UW. Iāve been lurking on that thread and man, it sure looks TOUGH for an OOS to get in there this year. DS was on the fence about applying there, and in the end decided not to. Iām glad now because I donāt think he would have stood a chance despite all the research saying it was a match.
Hopefully your son has some other schools heās excited about too.
@Barefooter I agree with @suzyQ7 ā this definitely warrants a follow up by your DSās GC. It sounds like a ridiculous error to me. A few years back, my DS was not accepted to UT Austin (in-state) for Computer Science, which was extremely competitive that year (still is). Kids accepted early to MIT and the like were also rejected. However, my S was still accepted (later) to the university for an alternative major (he had already committed elsewhere). Your sonās case smells really weird, though. So sorry.
Anyone else starting to freakout? DS20 is either deferred or rejected from three schools. He is still taking it fine but we the parents are starting to feel concerned 
We thought his stats are in the range for the schools (1580 in single sitting SAT; 800ās in 3 subject SATās; top 5% of the class with 15 APās most with 5ās; decent ECās with leadership roles). He did not apply to Ivies but one high ranked private and others are OOS publics. Results from OOS publics is making us rethink the strategy for RD - he increased the number of schools to apply. The results so far in his school are a bit random. We always knew there is an element of luck but kind of bummed by the rejections/deferrals. Fingers crossed for RD.
PS: he has a safety acceptance at in-state flagship (though he didnāt get in honors college - he got in the preferred major).
It just sounds like itās even less predictable this year! More EA apps received everywhere, or what?
Congrats on all of the acceptances everyone has received. What a great way to head in to winter vacation! DS20 has applied to a total of 11 schools and has heard back from 7, all acceptances at this point, including his reach. Weāre so proud of him. We all have lots to think about. Weāve been upfront from the start about our budget, so some schools will come off the table if thereās no merit $. He seems to understand that ultimately he will have a choice, but it will be a managed choice.
Most of his schools are large state flagships in the Northeast/Mid Atlantic. Heās not having trouble evaluating those in comparison to one another. However, he fell in love with a small, private school that gave him an amazing scholarship, and he can play his sport there (D3, actively recruited). On paper, itās not as strong as the others, but it will be comparably priced to our instate flagship with the merit $, and he loved it. Advice on decision making process when comparing apples to oranges?
I donāt know if these will be considered āwords of wisdomā for helping children get over the disappointment of rejection. Rejection really does stink. Wallowing with ice cream, or a Star Wars marathon, orā¦shuddering just thinking about this but Iāve heard lots of people love itā¦taking a long run outdoors to blow the cobwebs away can all be good ways to process a rejection or deferral before choosing to move on.
I might remind them (and myself) of the studies that show success after college correlates more strongly to which schools the student applied to rather than where they matriculate [meaning the success comes from the student, not the school].
I might remind them (and myself) that each student can only attend one college and the colleges know this during application season which means the priorities of the college and student donāt always align. Students want as many choices as they have selected to apply to, colleges want to accept students they are sure will attend.
I might remind them (and myself) that colleges are looking for āfitā as well as credentials and being accepted and rejected [past certain base lines of competitive] doesnāt reflect on the value of the student at all - it reflects whether the admission office thinks the college and student fit together ābestā.
If I was feeling particularly masochistic, I might remind myself (and them) what a sub 10% or sub 5% acceptance rate [to school or to specific major] means mathematically. 90% to >95% of all application get rejected. It truly isnāt personal. Getting rejected from those types of program is like not winning the lottery. It stinks (weād all like to win millions$$) but we should realize our chances were never that good no matter how awesome we are personally.
The last thing I might remind them (and myself) is that a year from now, neither I nor my child will be thinking about the schools they didnāt get into/go to. We will be seeing each other after the first full semester of college and [hopefully] getting to enjoy a wonderful holiday break together.
@beebee3 - wow! Great post! As a 2019 and 2020 parent, I can confirm that it all works out as it should. While I hope S20 gets his desired result, I really do know that it all plays out for the best even if we donāt realize it at first. I will be rereading your post numerous times as we await word on merit from current #1.
@mountainmomof3 I want to hear all your words of wisdom having gotten through the rest of a senior year of high school and getting a child off to college!! That is the stuff I am quietly stressing about nowā¦while trying to remind myself to stay present in the moment and enjoy this last Christmas holiday before our oldest heads off to school.