Struggling with this, too, particularly the if/thens. Currently scheduling April trips to choices 3 and 4 where the kid already has acceptances while waiting on ED2 and choice 2 (RD). If ED2 comes through, we’re done and can put the trip jenga behind us. If ED2 doesn’t come through but RD choice 2 does, will definitely cancel trip to choice 4 but might keep the trip to choice 3 (and squeeze in a trip to choice 2, I guess; fortunately it’s driveable).
And of course the younger kid has two out-of-town tournaments in April.
I’m starting to think I’m so invested in ED2 coming through just so I don’t have to think about this anymore!
I hear you. We have visited all the schools except for two and like you one is in the mid-west and one on the east coast. It is really hard to do them both on spring break. I wish they were closer together then I could drive from one to the other but they are not.
We need a trip nanny. Like all the kids from our state get one nanny who will take them to the east coast to visit their school
Right there with you and have to work around a commitment around one of their activities in April as well. In general, I’ve tried to prioritize the EA acceptance that they are seriously considering where the school is not easily drivable/furthest distance from home. I figure we can cancel if an offer comes in that makes a different school the clear choice.
Our approach to this with our kids has been to tell them: we have money available to you. We can give it all straight to a college, or we can give some of it to a college and the remainder directly to you in the form of a down payment on a house, grad school tuition, etc. It definitely changed their mindset in the process. When they’re just spending other peoples money, it doesn’t really matter how much it costs, but when they think of it as their own money, they realize that budgets matter and maybe there’s something they’d rather do with that money themselves.
I love this. Also playing this game. Mostly in my mind though - we’re not making any firm travel plans until as late as humanly possible so as to have as many avenues clearly in play (or not).
Yup. I paid a little extra for refundable airfare on one of our trips. For another, I’m waiting until the ED2 decision comes out because even non-refundable airfare for our dates is crazy expensive.
We just purchased airfare for a revisit…holy moly it was expensive. And now I’m grateful for what we bought* because the flights have already increased in price by $400!
*One of those - one flight a day, Embraer 170 kind of flights…I was pretty sure it wouldn’t look better price wise the later we waited.
We will have only visited one. Having to pass an audition as well as be academically accepted is proving to be difficult. D24 does not want to tour anywhere she has not been “artistically” accepted to which makes sense. So depending on how long it takes to hear results of auditions it will be a few trips in March or April.
Today is D24’s 18th birthday. Hard to believe that my “baby” is a legal adult. The time has flown by, but I’m excited to see where life takes her even if I’m not quite ready for an empty nest. At least she let me hug her a bit longer this morning.
Well, I for one am NOT comfortable with this extended Jenga metaphor, because I am terrible at Jenga. I inherited from my Dad this condition where my hands tend to always have at least a mild shake to them–so surgeon was off the table–and my family likes to force me to play Jenga just so they can laugh at me as I inevitably fail.
Now if the metaphor was Tetris, that I could live with. I got quite good at that eventually. Actually, come to think of it, it almost ruined my freshman year in college . . . .
I remember making several hotel reservations, in order of preference (my preference , but an educated guess on my part) the idea was if she loved it we wouldn’t have to bother with the others.
We only went to the one and I saved myself a few (lot) $$
Yep guilty of that here too. currently holding five hotels at two different weekends in April. Hope I don’t get hit by a bus or my family will have to pay for a lot of random hotels.
One aspect of college budgeting we have also been very mindful of is to ask ourselves about each big $ decision “will our child likely be able to offer the same opportunities to their own children”. So the amount we are making available to them is intentionally quite a bit below the amount we could pay. If we told our children (which we could financially) “you can go to whatever school you want irrespective of cost” we worry they would feel like they had “failed” in some way if they are not able to offer that to their own children in the future. It is also the reason our kids went to public school, we live in a house far below what we can afford and drive very normal used cars. We want them to have the chance to replicate their own childhoods; living in a way that necessitates a huge (likely unattainable) income sets them up for feeling bad in the future.
I think they are straightforward enough and mama bear has positive reviews. In the end we asked a family friend who connected us with someone in his office.
, but an educated guess on my part) the idea was if she loved it we wouldn’t have to bother with the others.
currently holding five hotels at two different weekends in April. Hope I don’t get hit by a bus or my family will have to pay for a lot of random hotels.