Yes we have lots of kids. Finances aren’t all that complicated but I think the FAFSA changes threw some NPCs for a loop. Especially for families with twins. The rule change regarding families With multiple kids in college muddied the waters a lot. Several schools told us ahead of time not to even bother with the NPC because it would be wrong.
We also saw that several schools that were very affordable to families like ours over the past few years ended up being some of our worst options financially. And that schools they never would have considered ended up being affordable.
We’re still getting tons of emails from schools promising that there’s still time to apply. These aren’t Ivies, obviously, but schools with good regional reputations.
I guess they could be just trying to gin up apps to help with their selectivity ranking. But I dunno. Kind of sounds like they still need kids.
Im curious how many will hit the panic button and start tossing around unfunded aid.
It’s largely a fixed cost business. And empty dorm rooms are a really bad sign.
We are back from Cleveland for visiting Case for the second time. S24 will make the decision by this Friday and it looks like he will go there. He doesn’t think Cleveland is that bad Likes the grad-and-go food more than the one served in the dinning hall. fully aware that there is no AC in freshmen dorm but he is okay with it. Not impressed with the business school presentation but doesn’t think that is the deal breaker either.
We are back from the 8 days and 4 college tour and it was a hectic time but we made it on time to all the events planned. It was good we went to these events and based on that S24 has more of an idea what he likes and what he does not.
S24 asked for 2 days so he can think over all the stuff once before he commits.
Thanks to everyone who helped plan the logistics for making the trip. We ended up driving between the colleges. The NY traffic was not as bad, as we avoided the peak times to enter and leave the city and we found parking before we went. We did not use the car in the city once we parked until we were leaving the city.
The only tough part of the driving was actually driving from NY to Cleveland where we ran into a thunder Strom and Tornado watch while we were driving. We had to pull over for some time so we could get the worst of the rain out of the way. We have driven in the rain many times but this was something else and pretty scary.
We attended the admitted student days at Bowdoin on Thursday and Friday and had a great time. I don’t think S24 regretted his choice of ED2 school. Bowdoin put on an impressive show, and the scheduled events were very comprehensive. S24 attended a class, we all ate at the dining hall, there were parent and student receptions, tours of two residence halls, and various panels with students and administrators. There was also an academic fair where each department had a table with one professor and a couple of student majors, and the admitted students could ask questions about placement, major requirements, study abroad programs, etc. Bowdoin also offered bus rides to its Coastal Studies Center, which is a very impressive (and beautiful) research facility, especially for a school this size. S24 particularly appreciated that he was able to connect with some students to play a pick up game of his sport (which is not offered as a varsity sport at most colleges).
The facilities are outstanding, as we already knew. But more importantly, the students and staff were uniformly genuine, friendly, and caring. For example, at one of the dorm tours we were heading to the room that was open to visitors when some students spontaneously invited us to see their room as well so that we could get a better feel for the different configurations. At one point, I stopped briefly on a path to send a text, and someone immediately stopped to ask if we needed help finding anything. During one of the panels, a parent asked about concrete examples of Bowdoin’s much advertised commitment to the common good, and all of the students and faculty on the panel gave genuine, specific, and vivid examples of what the common good meant to them.
All in all a great visit that made us more excited about things to come.
D24 enjoyed her 36 hours at Swarthmore for Swatstruck. I think she now has a pretty clear-eyed understanding of Swarthmore’s culture and its advantages, and disadvantages. She gave high marks to the campus, current students, and professors. The art facilities were not as nice as some of the other schools like Williams or Dartmouth, but there are definitely advantages and opportunities in Swat’s art program that aren’t apparent from the outside. Naturally, I’m concerned about Swat’s reputation for “intensity,” but it sounds like that intensity is student-driven rather than being imposed by the school itself. And, while D24 is social and likes to have fun, I’m realizing she kind of fits the Swattie stereotype. Example A: She left for Philadelphia on a redeye 24 hours after arriving home (we live on the West Coast) from a week-long academic competition in Washington DC. Example B: She and another couple Swatstruck attendees decided to study in the library together when they had a couple hours of downtime during Swatstruck. She said that she could definitely see herself at Swat. In sum, while recognizing its limitations, Swat gets a thumbs up from D24.
So Swat is the frontrunner . . . but D24 has still not decided. She hasn’t completely ruled out WashU and is doing a flyout to Dartmouth next week. According to D24, Dartmouth has to really wow her if she’s going to pick it over Swat. (She visited Dartmouth on a glorious sunny day last summer, so this will be more of a people-oriented visit.) She’s scheduled to arrive back from Dartmouth on the evening of April 30, which means she’s definitely going to make her ultimate decision on . . . alas . . . May 1.
I love hearing a student having a difficult time with their decision because their options are so good for them. Best place to be as a student; there are no bad choices.
S24 committed yesterday after admit days last weekend. First, we traveled to Cornell where it was a change from NC, cold and rainy. It was his favorite academic program of all options and he was excited to see in-person. I grew up close to Ithaca and hadn’t been back in decades. There was minimal programming with an informal meet and greet at his college. The campus and natural beauty is unreal, food incredible, and it exceeded his expectations.
Then we went to Notre Dame and frankly I can’t imagine more for an admit weekend, it was so personal from the safe travels email from AO, personal letter, and greeting him on arrival. The programming was incredible from start to finish with unbelievable school spirit. The kindness from people unaffiliated that came up to speak to us was amazing. It’s clear everyone is very, very happy there. He wanted to commit before leaving, but I wanted neutral ground and a couple days to confirm.
After getting home he found out he is one of 100 Glynn honors scholars. He’ll have his own Glynn advisor in addition to a pre-med advisor, 12-15 person seminar classes with best professors, and research, summer opportunity funding. They have their own deluxe space to hang out or do work which Glynn professors also use. He’s going to be able to build amazing relationships.
Many people would think we’re nuts for giving up a full-ride elsewhere and UNC in-state, but it just seems to be the perfect fit.
We’re confident he’s going to have an amazing student experience in all ways and their pre-med advising is so well done, they are on the pulse of everything happening there and creating minors to address changes and be proactive to climate.
He’s on the waitlist at a couple schools, but I don’t think they could sway him anymore. The small seminar classes and community completely won him over. Now the bad news, I have to do this again next year with youngest.
D24’s senior project presentation is in 2 weeks! Found out yesterday that she’s bringing both service dogs to her presentation (her project is about how service dogs are trained). That’s going to be a fun day. Learned today that each school in this group of charter schools has a ‘founders scholarship’ where they give a $5000 scholarship to ONE senior at each high school and the scholarship is awarded to the best senior project presentation.
And your GPA is not a factor in the decision making of who gets the scholarship.
…which is good because it means that D24 has a chance to win it.
She’ll find out by the end of the month if she won 1 of the CTCL scholarships. Need is one of the decision factors, so I don’t think she’ll be awarded that one.
I still need to buy her ticket to the prom. Keep forgetting to do that.
She’s looking forward to graduation and to the adventures afterwards. And is tired of some of the girls in the senior class who are passive-aggressive and catty. One girl in particular spent pretty much the 1st two thirds of senior year humble bragging regularly about her GPA and SAT scores, bragged about all of these top colleges she was applying to and how she was sure to get in because of her 1560 SAT. D24 said that these past few weeks, that student has been very quiet and hasn’t said a word about where she got accepted. D24 thinks that the student is maybe having to eat some humble pie.
…which is why D24 doesn’t talk about GPAs or test scores w/people at school.
Anyway, D24 said something else interesting a couple of days ago…that at ASU, students who graduated from our group of charter schools have developed a snobby reputation around campus. D24 thinks it’s because of 2 particular HS campuses which are higher ranked than our school (those 2 campuses have an extremely competitive & back-stabby culture; our HS’s culture is a lot more collaborative); and other ASU students think that grads from our group of charter schools go around thinking they’re better than everybody else.
It’s a stereotype, of course, and it’s not true of all of those students. But D24 said something else interesting…“I’m glad that I’m going OOS for college, where I can meet new people and have a fresh start and don’t have to deal with anybody from my high school at the college I’m attending.”
Meanwhile, D24 has also shared with me her preferences in boys’ hairstyles and mullets are not on the preferred list (I’m so relieved by this! LOL!). I think that mullets should have died back in the 80s when Hall & Oates’ “Maneater” was a big hit.
So S24 was inducted into the Cum Laude Society yesterday (whohoo!). It is basically top 20% by grades but only junior year and first two terms of senior year, so no ninth/tenth grade. You also cannot have any honors violations.
We don’t know where all those kids are going for college but the ones we do know about are all pretty selective (including a WUSTL-bound kid, and we were chatting with her Mom at the reception). However, it was interesting to me that the Ivy-bound kids I know about were mostly NOT on the list (except the one Yale admit who was also admitted to some others but is weighing them all against the Morehead Cain at UNC).
Now, the Harvard kid we know about was an athletic recruit, and one of the other two Yale kids we know about was a legacy and one of the top people for her instrument in the country. So there may be more such stories. Moreover, the GPAs the kids applied with were over a different window, and of course I have no idea about test scores.
Still, it was an interesting illustration of how the Ivies are not necessarily just strictly picking our highest-number kids.
Anyway, meanwhile S24 is really, really struggling with actually telling colleges he is not coming. So far of his 9 admits, only 1 knows he is not coming (St Andrews), and that is because he simply did not take any action by their deadline (which they said they assume is a rejection of their offer). I have told him I think it would be a courtesy for him to let at least a lot of these colleges know at this point, but I don’t want to do anything more to pressure him and stress him out. Still, it is interesting this is such an issue for him.
My son is also struggling with notifying his 9 schools that he is not coming. I don’t understand why since he is thrilled with his choice and not second guessing at all. I am guessing it is more due to the fact that it requires actually “doing something” and he is so far gone from school at this point. Dragging himself in for his AP class and spending the rest of his time doing senior project. Anyway, I feel you and I too am staying out of it but it hard when I really think if he just sat down and did it it would take maybe 10 minutes and it is the right thing to do.
On May 1 or decision day, they’ll go away - but yes it’s a good lesson of life to do but if it’s overwhelming, perhaps spacing it will be easier for him.
D24 is about to do her road test this week and she is confident that she will get her license after pushing it off so many times in the last year or so. In the same boat about getting her added to our auto insurance
I think for my S24, it really isn’t a practical burden, it is more like a type of conflict avoidance. And maybe a bit of anxiety about the reality of the big change which is coming.
Still, I’ll pitch the idea of doing a couple a night, because once he gets going he might find it easier to continue.
Opposite problem here, S24 is chomping at the bit to decline and I have asked him to hold off. It’s scary to to turn down a couple that remain including the full-ride. We’re all happy and nothing is changing in a week, so I know I need to let it happen as it is the right thing to do. The finality is scary even when you’re content.
Maybe we need to work out some sort of exchange where like-minded parents and kids can be matched!
I did suggest to my S24 he could hold onto maybe a couple particularly attractive extra backup options just in case, but he didn’t need to hold on to all 9 (now 8) of his offers.
To which he responded something like, “Did I really get 9 offers?”
Sigh. I didn’t really have any specific mandates for his side of the process, like I didn’t make him do spreadsheets and such if he didn’t want to. I am beginning to question (for the millionth time) my preferred light-touch approach.
Like you, we had a light touch and I’m not sure I’d replicate that with D30. If it weren’t for you, @NiceUnparticularMan , I would not have know about the Vassar supplement, and had my daughter do it. When I asked her about it, she said, it’s optional. No, nothing is actually optional and she did a fantastic job with it in the end (she withdrew her app due to getting in ED somewhere else, so outcome is moot, but it’s an example of how a hands-off approach isn’t always the best.). There is definitely a balance / I never knew the logins to ACT/college portals, and I feel great about that - but I do feel like I learned a lesson.
Likes the grad-and-go food more than the one served in the dinning hall. fully aware that there is no AC in freshmen dorm but he is okay with it. Not impressed with the business school presentation but doesn’t think that is the deal breaker either.
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