Fantastic news - congratulations to your son!
As far as I know, more the latter. The last really comprehensive discussion we had was when he decided not to ED2 anywhere, and he sort of committed to the idea of getting all his offers in hand, and possibly visiting/re-visiting, before trying to decide. So for now he seems to be just calmly positive about all the colleges on his list whenever they come up.
I think that is a very mature attitude and I am quite proud he got to that place. But I am personally much more like a kid running around a candy store. Every time I focus on one school, I am reminded why it would be great for S24. I also have some of my own feelings, which I acknowledge are completely irrelevant, and yet I feel them nonetheless.
Happy to share!
It sometimes feels to me like these poor kids are bouncing around in a pinball machine senior year. Oh well, not my fault!
Although I guess sending us to a different continent, and very different time zone, during peak decision season was a LITTLE my fault.
Thank you!
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We live in Florida, and UF releases decisions today, so itâs a big day for S24 and a lot of his friends, for whom UF is a top choice. I am feeling very conflicted; on the one hand, of course I want him to be accepted! Who ever wants their kids to be rejected? But, on the other hand, he is about 95% ready to commit to South Carolina Honors College and I really think it is a better fit for him. So, if he gets rejected, then we are done! But, regardless, we are almost there. This is the last school he will hear from and I do think he is just about ready to make a decision.
On a different note, it really is shocking to me how very little the average family knows about different college options and the whole admission process. Our S24 goes to a college prep school with a GREAT college counselor, and she hosts info sessions about colleges, scholarships, admissions, etc. Last year she arranged a panel of college reps from 5 different schools and only about 1/3 of the families showed up! It makes me sad for families who truly donât seem to realize all of the different types of fantastic programs and scholarship opportunities that are out there. WHY donât they do a little research? The internet (and CC!!) makes it so easy to discover cool options!
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This is us as well! We leave March 29 on a very long Transatlantic flight. For better or worseâŠwe shall see!
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That is a blessing! The average family does not go to or have access to a college prep school,let alone a great college counselor!
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Team Fleeing the Jurisdiction!
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Yes, it absolutely is a blessing, and I am so grateful for her! It just shocks me that so few families take advantage of this wonderful resource.
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March 22 for us!
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This is not hard data, but my feeling at our HS is a good chunk of the families really didnât need a lot out of our high-end college counseling office because they had a pretty straightforward case in the end. Like, the kid, family, and counselors all agreed a certain college was a great fit on affordability, admissibility, and other factors, kid gets in early, theyâre done. We also have a good number of recruited athletes, and the counseling office supports them but of course that is a process that really started long before, and ends (hopefully!) in a fairly simple place.
Another group of families, in which we fell, absolutely got a lot of value out of college counseling because our kids did not really enter the process with such a clear case developing, and the support we got for our process was fantastic.
And finally, another group of families really should have been in the second group, but they thought they were in the first group, and were not particularly interested in hearing otherwise. Maybe they had strong preconceived notions. Maybe some were working with private counselorsâI would not necessarily know. But for whatever reason you could sorta see them tuning out the counseling office and doing their own thing.
In the end, I know we get really good results as a whole, so maybe this is not such a big deal. I do wonder, though, about whether some of the kids could maybe end up with better options, or just feel better about the process, if they and/or their families were a little more receptive.
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This place is going to be dead!
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Today is an emotional day as we found out that D24 was chosen as a Richmond Scholar with scholarship covering tuition, room and board. There are still other options out there for D24 but as parents we are blessed with a child who has taken the single biggest parental pressure(figuring out how to pay for college) off of our shoulders. This has been a crazy ride and it is not over yet but I am in shock at the realization of a great achievement.
@NiceUnparticularMan I echo your statement about that going in to this we did not have a clear picture of what to expect and our counseling team did a great job of guiding us and for that we are truly fortunate. Congrats on the cypher letter, W&M is such a fantastic school and a great option, hopefully the scholarship offer comes next. I would also say that this community has been an unbelievable sounding board.
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Mazel tov to @NiceUnparticularMan and @GirlDad - incredible achievements!
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todah
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Thatâs amazing! We loved Richmond when we toured! So happy to have this incredible option for your family!
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D24 just received a very unexpected award from Arizona State via an email today. 5k for one year to be used for housing/dining expenses. She already received the Deanâs award of 12.5K for 4 years for the Carey Business School. Check your ASU portals! ASU checks a lot of boxes - she is concerned about tolerating the heat and the distance from home. Waiting on CP SLO, SDSU and the UCs. I am NOT good at waiting! I appreciate all of you 2024 parents for keeping me distracted with this thread.
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DS got admitted tonight to UF with Honors and URSP. I think I am more excited than he is. He has U Miami and UF now. So far Miami is leading 
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I just went and checked the ASU portal after reading this and my S24 also got the 5k additional scholarship after getting 17k before. This makes it cheaper than the UCâs for my son from CA.
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Fantastic! I was hoping this would be good news for others on here as well.
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Be aware that the merit scholarships remain fixed as tuition increases. $22K off ~$34K is cheaper than the UCs ~$15K at present, but UC tuition now remains fixed all four years, while ASU tuition is likely to go up by around $2000 per year (so net $14K next year, and cumulative around $68K for 4 years) which will be as much or more than 4 years of tuition at many UCs.
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True need to consider the cost of the 4 years total rather than per year. Will keep this in mind moving forward.
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