S still has one public school high on the list (the others are all CSS schools that we have FA packages from), and we haven’t heard a peep from them about costs. I think I have a very good idea based on online info, but I am nervous about trusting it until I see it on paper…particularly since it depends pretty heavily on the numbers his FAFSA is (finally!) showing us being accurate. So I do have some sympathy for parents who haven’t done this before and are trying to sort out what college costs will look like for the first time THIS year of all years!
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Yep, and this group is a high-information group. For many, they wouldn’t even know where to look or what to look for, especially if it’s their first run through.
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I have twins. Between the two of them they applied to a lot of schools. The NPCs were almost universally inaccurate. And dramatically so.
If I had relied on them for anything I’d be completely screwed.
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Interesting. The net price calculators were quite accurate for D22 and D24. Out of all of their schools, only one FA package came in over the original NPC estimate, several came in under, and the rest were bang spot on (within $500). Maybe your finances are more complicated than mine or it might just be the particular colleges. But that must be incredibly frustrating for your twins as well as difficult to figure out how to estimate the cost for your younger children when they enter college (I believe you mentioned having several).
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If you attended admitted students days, what sort of questions and topics came up most frequently at panels and events? I am just curious. There were two topics that came up unexpectedly in the in person and virtual events that I attended at D24’s admitted days. 1. Mental health supports and wellness activities. The deans brought these up at each college even before parents asked. 2. Also, at each event, at least one parent asked about freedom of speech and how/if the college is able to foster respectful dialogue between students with very different stances on social and political issues.
Both of these topics make plenty of sense, but it wouldn’t have occurred to me to ask about either issue so I was a little surprised that they came up everywhere. What other topics did you all hear discussed multiple places?
This whole decision making process seems hard. I have no idea how she’ll decide. She keeps waiting for the magic piece of the puzzle that will help her figure out where to go. But there are no magic puzzle pieces. Each place comes with pros and cons. Personally, I just want D24 to choose a college where she will make friends and enjoy herself while stretching her academic and social muscles.
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I feel like I saw a lot of parent questions about internships and other career services. Also quite a few nuts and bolts questions about housing and dining. This made sense to me as people are really getting down to choosing their actual college and thinking practically.
My S24 is in a similar frame of mind, although I do like to remind him at this point he is down to choosing between different versions of great-for-him, so he can really do no wrong. But he is clearly struggling a bit with the finality of it all, the permanent closing of doors he found so appealing to look through.
I think NiceUnparticularMom and I are more or less giving him the same sort of framing as you, though. Academically and career-wise his final choices will be great, so we just want him to think about the whole college experience and where he will really be happy all around. We can’t answer that for him but we want him to feel supported in whatever he decides.
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D24 has been struggling with making the “right” choice and giving up on the “alternate realities” of the road not taken. We agreed to not talk about it at all this week, and last night she announced a decision. She does not want to go instagram live with her choice just yet, but I am thrilled that a choice has been made!
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Available school funding for unpaid summer internships came up at the admitted students’ days we attended. Internships were the hot topic across colleges for parent sessions (one I must admit I was pretty uninterested in, but then my two older kids haven’t had issues finding internships so my sample is probably pretty skewed).
Mental Health came up in a somewhat sideways route during parent questions at one school. A parent asked what the school would do if their child got to October at the school and hadn’t made friends. The parent was asking what supports would be put into place for that child’s social emotional needs. I will admit to being a bit nonplussed by the question, but the school took that opportunity to discuss housing supports (the RAs) as well as counseling supports.
S24 was having trouble between his top two choices for months. It finally came down to a really cool first semester option at one school that put it over the top. If that hadn’t emerged as an option, I think we would still be in the “well, there are 10 more days until a decision needs to be made” mode because both schools had some awesome things and some obvious drawbacks.
The insta page of admitted students was actually quite helpful as well. At one school, S24 felt like he was seeing ‘his people’. At the other school, he thought the other students seemed fine but maybe not the same level of match.
Our merit offers were pretty inaccurate, but in a good way. Both schools’ offers came in significantly higher than the NPCs predicted.
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Why would someone do that when deposits aren’t even due yet? I can see doing it if financial aid numbers didn’t come in by the commitment date (most are 5/1 or 5/15) but we aren’t there yet so it seems especially unethical.
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Seems like it to me too. I certainly never even thought to do that.
I believe it was because of housing?
Some schools are still May 1st. I have also seen May 15th and then June 1st.
Also I guess if they are a school that requires a deposit before housing then maybe I can see it.
There are a number of limited resources that go up for grabs before deposit deadlines:
(1) housing,
(2) orientation dates, which may be when you pick classes (so you want an early slot before all the best times/profs/classes are taken),
(3) living learning community admission (some schools require deposit before you can apply)
(4) other special programs (e.g. orientation enhancement programs that start before the rest of the students come to campus).
S24 deposited at school #1 to have access to orientation dates and special programs before he made a decision because the admitted student day at school #2 was so late. At school #2 he would need to deposit to apply to the LLC (and that LLC is a big draw for the school for him). Luckily both schools extended housing dates to match the newly extended deposit dates.
We still don’t even know the tuition for next year at school #1! They have not yet released the tuition and fees info nor the academic bulletin for next year (even though we were told there was a revision to the program).
I can see why kids deposit at multiple places.
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That could certainly mess up yield calculations this year–maybe the waitlists are longer than usual?
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Judging by the number of “if you change your mind, you can still accept admission” emails/calls/texts we got after D24 hit the “decline” button for the schools she’s not going to, I get the impression this year is going to be a mess for schools.
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The panel from basically the student affairs office addressed:
- Housing and Diversity
- Research
- Academics
- Wellness
- Internships and funding
Parents asked about:
- career opportunities for those not going grad school
- Safety, Swarthmore gets really dark at night and because it’s on an Arboretum lots of visitors unrelated to the school, plus Crum Woods hiking trails.
- Additional questions on research and internships with funding through the school.
Nothing on protests or speech issues. It having a Quaker ethos, I’m guessing they are open to all voices.
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re: deposits. We have a housing deposit down at UGA, because it’s my understanding that depositing earlier means a better chance of getting the housing you want. And it was something like $50, so it made sense to do it unless he was almost certainly not going there. But his older brother had a school high on his list that wanted something like a $300 non-refundable housing deposit, and that was more of a “sorry, kid–if you get stuck in crappy housing because of it, that’s just how it will be.” Because that was ridiculous (we very nearly lost a deposit there anyway; we only avoided it because he came off the waitlist at the school he ended up at before May 1)
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I am so happy he has two wonderful choices where he can picture himself thriving! And I think it’s great that these choices have distinct differences so he can reflect on the type of environment he really wants. Your family has done an excellent job navigating admissions to wind up with uniquely wonderful opportunities for your son
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Thank you! Reflecting on all this, I think we made a good team in the sense I was good at generating ideas, but then he was good at identifying what was or wasn’t working for him, and then I could generate more ideas, and that back and forth seems to have landed him in a great place.
But also–there are just so many cool colleges! Many offering merit, special programs, and all sorts of other stuff as they compete to get the students they want. So I am definitely convinced that at least as long as you don’t just get stuck looking at the same lists as all your peers, you can find some really special opportunities for you, whoever you might be.
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This was our process as well. Kid(s) would give some ideas of what they wanted, I’d research and present, they’d review and give feedback. Rinse and repeat. And repeat. And repeat.
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I mostly heard about housing, research, academics, internships as well. I personally asked what tour guides and student speakers were doing next, in as respectful a way as possible.
The most common answers were: grad school, looking for a job, had a job after graduation lined up.
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