A related question for you - What is it about the 2 schools that’s making it hard for your student to decide between?
Thanks everyone. very helpful. Its the preferred school is 6 hours from home and hard to tell how he’d do vs in state school less than 2 hours from home. Prob will do the OOS school but just trying to review the options.
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Thanks to all for the answers related to playing a sport in college for a premed track student.
I should have clarified that S24’s college has only a club level facility for the sport, and that they play tournaments only on weekends. So while the time commitment is not as big as say for a D1 sport, would it look less favorable to Med schools because it’s just a club sport?
In relation to double deposit…what if kid commits but then gets off WL after commitment deadline and chooses the other school?
A bunch of random stuff to share for no particular reason:
- Chatter on the FB parents group for D24’s college died down about the state of dorms & dining hall food. Now I know why the college mentioned to parents on BOTH of our in-person visits that parents should NOT call professors & such to complain on behalf of their kids…that parents should guide their kids to ADVOCATE FOR THEMSELVES. Holy cow. (my commentary is not meant to be derogatory in any way toward families whose students have disabilities)
- Learned that students on campus have successfully used Door Dash & Instacart to get grocery & drug store deliveries when needed, when/if they don’t have access to a car and a friend isn’t able to give them a ride to the grocery store, Walgreens, or whatever.
- My sister-in-law & niece are talking about visiting D24 at college this fall. I’m hoping that maybe niece could spend the night 1 of the nights w/D24 in her dorm room. Niece is on the Asperger’s end of the autism spectrum, is in same grade as D26, and I’ve been hoping that at some point, she could get exposed to a smaller college to see what it’s like. Right now, SIL & Niece are planning for Niece to go to community college first & live at home for that and then transfer somewhere.
- D24 said she’s really not going to miss seeing or hearing Rude Braggy Pants Student anymore after graduation day. Rude Braggy Pants is the kid who for the past year and a half has boasted regularly how she was going to go to an Ivy League university because of her 1580 SAT score. Same student who told my kid & another student at school that they weren’t allowed to be in the ‘cultural heritage day’ seniors’ picture because D24 is white and stood there and said nothing while another student said, “Yeah, white people have no culture anyway.” Rude Braggy Pants sure devoured the special ethnic Christmas bread that D24 made for all the seniors…same recipe my great-grandmother used.
- D24 is also glad that she won’t be attending ASU with half of her graduating class because it means she won’t have to accidentally bump into Rude Braggy Pants while walking to class.
- D24 is looking forward to a fresh start with new adventures and meeting new people.
- I can tell that D24 has matured a bit compared to the start of her senior project in early Feb. She sounds more grown up now when she speaks.
- Ordered a graduation cake from Costco yesterday. Their cakes are cheaper and taste better than the ones at our local grocery store!
- D24 apparently needs a red shirt and a pink shirt for the NYC choir trip. She is not happy about this because she doesn’t like either of those colors.
- D24 is apparently irritated w/me that I haven’t taken her yet to eat at El Antojo Poblano in Tucson, which has the best Mexican food you’ve ever had in your whole entire life. I have been requested to take said child to dine there over Memorial Day weekend.
- Last choir concert is tomorrow afternoon!
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Coming off a wait list is not double depositing because you would withdraw the first commitment and then accept and deposit at the WL school.
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In case you & S24 haven’t done this yet, consider:
- making a list of the pros & cons of both schools
- flip a coin. Heads = school 6 hr from home; tails = school 2 hr from home. let’s say if the coin comes up as Heads and S24’s gut reaction is, “Nah, I’d rather go to the other school,” then put a deposit at the other school and don’t look back.
- remember that the entire rest of your adult life is NOT DEPENDENT ON THIS ONE DECISION!
- follow Harlan Cohen on Instagram or watch some of his Youtube shorts.
- remember that not making a decision IS a decision. Also, the risk of double-depositing could be that you end up not getting to go to EITHER college because of the reasons other people mentioned above. But now is the time to decide. Poop or get off the pot.
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love it! thanks. Will decide on 1 school!
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Yes, precisely because the time commitment is less.
A club sport is viewed as just another EC done by a student. Like being involved in a theater production or being a member of fraternity/sorority.
A student won’t get any slack at all w/r/t GPA. grades or missing ECs.
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Wait, I thought Rude Braggy Pants went to MY child’s school! 
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RBPs are everywhere!
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2 hours or 6 hours - he’s still away from home.
Yes, access is a bit harder but day to day it shouldn’t matter.
If he’s homesick, as an example, he will be at each.
But that’s what facetime is for…or mom/dad might have to have a weekend trip, etc.
But if he prefers the OOS and it’s affordable, then I’d pick it and not look back because both are away from home and yet both are reasonably close so I wouldn’t let distance stay in the way in this case.
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S24 made it safely home, no bail required. And no senior prank accomplished. Apparently the kids slept through their alarms!
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yes, thats what we’re thinking. And the one 6 hours away has quick 1 hour flights several times a day (and campus is very close to airport).
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I’m curious how parents here are dealing with waitlist considerations?
I know that the conventional wisdom is generally to accept a waitlist position, submit a LOCI, and then mostly forget about the waitlist school because the chances are slim. On the other hand, the next week or so seem like prime waitlist activity, and it’s hard to 100% commit to the current school when there’s even a small possibility of coming of the waitlist at another school. It makes things like buying plane tickets a little fraught—e.g., Do I buy the cheap non-refundable tickets or do I get the more expensive refundable tickets? FWIW, as much as we are thrilled with D24’s school (Swat), I suspect that there’s a better than even chance that D24 would go to her sole waitlist school (Pomona) if offered a spot, although it’s certainly not automatic.
Buy an airline ticket that’s changeable if you have concern - Southwest for example - tickets have zero limitation if cancel - you get a credit that is reusable with no expiration…or even a Delta…if you buy the next class up (usually $30) you get one year to re use the credit.
Or wait.
You can’t really plan for the what if but the what - but you can certainly hedge in airfares if you are unable to wait - but waiting might be smart too. Or if it’s Southwest, buy tix to both - so a ticket to LAX or Ontario and if Pomona happens, then cancel the first and get a credit and if it doesn’t, cancel Pomona and get a credit.
In this case, assuming fares are similar - use Southwest which is perfect for this or a Delta who for $30 you’d get a credit with one year to use it. Not sure if United, AA, etc. have the same type thing.
Or simply wait - if you get Pomona, there are airport galores in LA so whether Ontario, LAC, Burbank, Long Beach, John Wayne…you’ll find something reasonable. Heck, you could even fly to Vegas and rent a car there - and it’s not that that far. Or similarly San Diego.
Good luck.
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With Philly and LA, I’d probably just wait to buy tickets, unless it was not much more to buy refundable.
But generally, I think the fact there are typically some unrecoverable fixed costs to switching to the waitlist school is just part of the equation. Presumably the waitlist offer is seen as having enough marginal benefit to outweigh those costs.
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Re: wait list schools -
My general philosophy is to follow the proverb of ‘a bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush.’
Emotionally invest & start to get engaged in the school you’ve deposited at. Don’t count on a wait list spot opening up. If a spot for your kid opens up for enrollment at the wait list school AND, at that point, your kid really wants to switch to that other college, then deal with it at that point.
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If you want her to get off the waitlist, buy the non-refundable tickets. She’ll probably get the call the next day once you do that!
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I like this logic!
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