summer storage is such a headache! Macalester had free storage available, and that was great (although sometimes things went missing…but I think that was covid’s fault–it was a mess with everyone having to leave unexpectedly)
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If you can, try to buy beforehand to pick up at the store. For our oldest, the Target closest to campus was very picked over on move-in day and out of stock for many things. Luckily for us, we were only picking up snacks and little things for her to have in her dorm.
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It is now part of my mom-lore that booking the refundable hotel in advance is the magic spell needed to make things happen. In the last year it worked for the Eras Tour (booked the day dates were announced and before hotels had adjusted for surge pricing, and just held on all the way through the ticketmaster fiasco - it worked), admission (booked for admitted students day when she applied) and then commitment (booked for move-in dates while waiting for final financial aid numbers to see if it would be feasible.) So now if we want anything the idea is to just go ahead and book the refundable hotel as a talisman.
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D24 said her BFF won’t be attending Univ of Richmond after all. Financial aid made it too expensive and she wants to go to law school, so it didn’t make sense to attend a really expensive college and rack up tons of student loans before grad school. She’ll be living at home and attending ASU. Poor kid is pretty disappointed. I feel bad for her. She’s a really awesome person.
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My money is on Tuesday, August 27th for move in day at Amherst. It was the last Tuesday of August last year. Highly recommend the Courtyard Marriott Hadley which is less than 2 miles from campus. Doesn’t hurt to make a reservation or two and definitely use the Marriott website (vs other sites like Expedia/Orbitz) which makes it much easier to make changes/cancellations. In situations like this, I’ve made separate refundable 1 night reservations so it’s easier to cancel individual nights if you are off by a day or haven’t made up your mind whether to arrive on Sun or Mon or depart on Tues or Wed.
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Understand but could she live at school or is that unaffordable too?
I’ll say this - it’s great she has her eye on the prize!!
Good luck to her.
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thank you–that was my guess, too. thanks for hotel rec!
That’s how I roll. My husband thinks I’m crazy. BTW- I love the Inn on Boltwood in Amherst.
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Is my kid the only one still having trouble committing today, on May 1? Probably! Every time he thinks he has his decision wrangled, good things get thrown at him. On Monday, he was named a Notre Dame Scholar which stacked on top of our FA offer to make our cost zero. Then, this morning Northwestern upped their FA offer by a lot to match the third contender, Harvey Mudd. I truly believed he would choose Mudd because his brother attends and they are extremely close - it was absolutely his dream until the last week of March and getting into the other two seemed so unlikely - but it’s hard and I am so stressed for him. I can’t in good conscience push him for purely financial and family ties reasons. Ack. Today is college shirt day at his school and just getting him to pick a dang shirt nearly put me over the edge so no idea how the next few hours are gonna go.
Back to stress eating, lol.
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The good news, though, is that there are no bad options for him. And by the end of the day, he will have picked one!
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Yes, I have told him that he just has to move forward with no regrets or it will eat at him. I hope he listens to me!
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If it is at all helpful… in my opinion Northwestern and Harvey Mudd are stronger schools for engineering. Unless Notre Dame is his favorite for other reasons, it won’t outshine the others in engineering. I mean, they’re all fantastic and he can’t go wrong no matter what. What are his 
vibes telling him?
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Anecdotally, the financial aid chaos this cycle is definitely causing some kids to delay decisions. Obviously the most common case is kids delaying because they have not yet received an offer at all, but I am sure your scenario is not totally unique, and it is obviously reasonable to keep considering new offers!
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S24 here is on the same boat. This last two weeks he has received more ‘sweeten deals’ from several schools that were very attractive (to my wallet at least).
He has filed for extension on several schools, so he is going to take his sweet time before making his decision.
The wait continues…
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Too many great choices is much better than the opposite–but it still makes for a tough decision! Hang in there–it will be over soon!
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Well, he ended up wearing the Mudd shirt in the end so hoping it’s a sign!
ND’s strong alumni network is such an advantage even with a slightly lesser engineering experience or so he says. And, you know, free is good. Otherwise, I agree with you.
His eyes just lit up when when we visited NU last month. I know he would do well there and, honestly, likely have a better work-life balance than Mudd. His brother works so hard (the workload doesn’t scare my HS senior, for the record, but he does care more about having social life).
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He’s got a case of analysis paralysis
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Absolutely!
Unfortunately, one of those schools won’t budge the 5/1 deadline. Sigh. We have definitely been affected by the FAFSA chaos. We never received full aid offers from a few schools but we decided it wasn’t worth continuing the process with any of them. NU told us pretty much immediately that there was an error in the original package but didn’t send the updated one until this morning so I thought it was off the table.
Anyway, congrats to all the students who have made their decisions! I heard talk of margaritas a little earlier. Definitely will have one later today!
A lot of people often forget that not making a decision IS a decision…a decision, in this case, that one won’t attend anywhere one got accepted to.