Mine is waiting on 2 RD and without a great safety (to her) locked down and without an unlimited budget (for me) it is stressful. She is confident she will end up at one of those two, I am less so.
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We arenât talking about rankings or choices until everything comes in which should be in about two weeks. If #1 is a no the field is wide open. We will go to admitted student days and knowing my kid they will decide the day before decisions are due.
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In hindsight, I wouldâve had him choose atleast 3 schools that were a safety and a few more that were easier targets, maybe something between a safety and a match, for ea. And I wouldâve had him really try to love these places and not just look at them as failsafes. That way, he would have a few schools that he could actually visit and get excited about.
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We havenât turned any down. My kids only applied places they would go. They arenât picky. So without aid packages, weâre staying put. If thereâs a 10k difference between their first and last choices, they are going to their last choice. We have twins going at the same time, and 7 kids at home. They know thereâs a non-zero chance they wonât be able to go at all. So⊠weâre holding tight.
Today we got our first aid package from a CSS school. Between the two it rang in at three times what our EFC would have been last year.
Nope! Couldnât do it if we tried. Even if we borrowed against our house. So we are hanging on until⊠mid April?
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S24 withdrew his RD applications from 3 schools that he would definitely not attend over his 3 acceptances (well, 2 acceptances and 1 pre-acceptance). We have 5 left to hear from now (as opposed to 8) - of course, all but one of those is a reach and that group of 5 includes his top 3 choices so . . . Itâs not quite as stressful as it would have been without the very appealing choices he already has in hand but it will be very, very tough if he gets shut out in RD (which, unfortunately, is not outside the realm of possibility these days).
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My kid is also debating withdrawals - got selected for very compelling scholarship program from our state flagship - so eliminating everything else less interested in. One of withdrawals being debated is UNC- chapel hill, and i have a question related to that - what is the largest merit scholarship available to OOS students applying RD? He started looking at UNC late, missing opportunity to be nominated for morehead cain and deadline for robertson. It seemed like most other big merit scholarships listed on their site were for NC students. If there is no chance for any significant merit then most likely will withdraw, so would appreciate any information anyone has on any other possible big merit awards at UNC.
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Thank you for sharing your story. My S24 is facing a very similar choice and is leaning toward the full-pay option. We also are leaning that way but have told him the decision is fully his. He knows he canât go wrong, and I think knowing that the full-pay option is 100% fine with us (fit is what matters most to us for him) is allowing him to feel comfortable making the decision.
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Youâre welcome! Guilt over turning down the scholarship was a big part of my uncertainty, but my parents made clear that they would not have let me apply to any schools they could not afford.
It was truly a formative moment for me, being trusted to make such a big decision and knowing Iâd have my parentsâ support either way. Iâm sure your son is (or will be) grateful to you, as well.
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I am waiting for 9 days first and then another 19 days !
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This may be helpful Academic Scholarships - Office of Scholarships and Student Aid
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Yeah, I hear you on this one. It didnât do anything for me when we visited (maybe b/c it was raining? maybe b/c how they gamed the rankings? maybe b/c they throw so many options to the kids?) â but my engineering kid liked it a lot. Maybe it is because of the low acceptance rate and so many raving about it? Maybe Itâs Boston? He also likes BU a lot. I think he is enamoured with the idea of living in Boston or NYC but will probably end up in Cleveland or Pittsburgh or Philly, not as sparkly fun cities.
Since he was deferred, I know NeU is a long shot for him to get in and know that he probably wonât get much merit (heâs NMF, so itâs guaranteed but not the amount), so in the end, I donât see it as the final choice given the others heâs been accepted to so far with a lot of merit.
@bronzerfish Were you hoping for a lot of merit? and Boston campus? Does she think she may be switched to Boston campus at the end? If she does get moved to Boston campus with a fall start, I assume no merit will be included, and she knows youâre not paying full boat, whatâs the point of holding off the inevitable? Just some food for thought. good luck to yours, this is such a rough process for all our kids.
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Northeastern location decisions are final. If accepted to NUin, a student cannot be switched to Boston with a fall start.
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I donât know of any aside from the ones you already listed, but if youâve already applied and filled out the CSS, why not just let it ride to see if he gets in? (even if the merit is small or 0)
You could always decline the offer at that point. I would think it is a vanishingly small chance of a big merit award based on what you posted, but it will definitely be a zero percent chance if he withdraws.
Unless he is just done with Chapel Hill due to other offers and wants to move on without the chance of being rejected or having to say no to an acceptance due to $.
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Weird, I had seen posts here and elsewhere of people appealing decisions who got options other than Boston and getting moved to Boston after the decision date.
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To add to this ⊠I did not factor in the timing of rejections. It is very nice to get into a school or two you like through rolling admit in the Fall. But then waiting 4+ more months and getting only rejections is not a good feeling. I wish we had thought about having a safety or low target that would come out around the same time as the reaches.
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We would have made it work if she had been awarded an average amount of merit and Boston fall start. That was the deal. As @kidzncatz said, once you are accepted to NU.in, thatâs your only option. She has been quite practical throughout the process and understood that we have X amount for college (with some flexibility), and we want to get her through her masterâs degree with no loans.
The end result is inevitable, but I am trying to let her process it in her own time. Hopefully the bandaid can more easily come off after we do our spring break trip. It will definitely be before RD results come out, in the chance that would free up the opportunity for someone who could use it.
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I think there might have been some extenuating circumstances in those cases. Itâs not their policy, and we wonât be pursuing anything along those lines.
For us the timing is working very differently. Because of the situation with FAFSA, the rolling admissions were never real admissions. Kids got accepted at schools in November but still donât know if they can go. They were super gung ho when they got in the first 1or 2 and wanted to go visit, buy tshirts. But now they get an acceptance and just shrug. Itâs nice but it doesnât really mean anything.
Instead weâll get a bunch of award letters in April and then have to make decisions without being able to visit due to sports, senior commitments, etc. And if we do go some of the campuses will be wound down by the time we get there.
Itâs not like theyâre being forced to storm the beaches of Normandy. So we try to keep it in perspective. But HS started with Covid and itâs ending with this. All sorta anti-climactic.
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Correct. @sflawyermom, there was only one such case mentioned on CC last year and the student had well documented, extenuating medical circumstances (a serious condition that required treatment near her home in Boston).
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Yes, that was one, but I saw a few others elsewhere, whether or not they were true, who knows. What about if they go to the waitlist? What happens there?