You got me with the 2 concussions that took 6 months to heal. D24 is at the 2 month mark with her concussion and it’s only in the last week or so that we’ve seen enough improvement to feel confident she will heal fully. It’s been so scary! Thankfully she’s been done with the college decision process since December. Not sure we could have handled that stress on top of the concussion. Best of luck to your C24 and may neither of our kids ever have to deal with concussions again!
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Yes. The first thing I said to my kid when he got rejected from his ED1 school was that I was so proud of him—for trying, for doing his best, for being willing to risk disappointment, for being a great kid.
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Thankfully, we are no longer waiting over here. D24 committed to her target school a week ago and withdrew from the reach where she was deferred. She also declined the acceptance and merit scholarship at her likely school. She applied to just three schools that she would be happy to attend and we visited them all last year.
She could have waited until the end of the month for the reach decision, but the result would either be a rejection or an acceptance that she wasn’t sure she wanted any longer. Her target school is in-state and offered her everything she wanted at half the price.
One thing I made sure that D24 understood during this whole process is that getting accepted at a very selective school absolutely involves an element of luck. Far more qualified students apply than could ever possibly be accepted. You can have a 4.0 and a great mix of extracurriculars, and one year you might fit the student profile they are looking for and one year you might not. You’re still the same person who has so much to offer and the ability to succeed wherever you may go.
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Love this. I had this conversation with S24 today because several of his friends who are in AP classes with him were discussing how they were rejected from this school and that school. I congratulated him on his acceptance to the most selective school that all but one of his classmates has been admitted to so far (the one ED applicant who applied to a highly selective school that did not interest S24).
I also talked to him about what is important to him and how he should give more weight to those things rather than USNews rankings. H has been taking him to admitted students days and these events have been very helpful so far in helping him prioritize his choices. If he gets in anywhere else, we will figure out how to attend those, too.
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Got an email from Southwestern this afternoon about financial aid. Some interesting things to report from that:
- the deadline to submit a financial aid estimate request has passed, so if you didn’t submit one (we’re in that category), you’re out of luck and you need to wait.
- there’s apparently an appeal process for your merit scholarship.
- if you anticipate needing to do both a merit scholarship appeal and a need-based financial aid appeal, you need to wait and just submit 1 appeal later on after you’ve received your financial aid package mid-April.
Also, Southwestern stated in previous communications a couple of weeks ago that they have no plans at this time to move their 5/1 enrollment deadline to a later date.
So that means that admitted students will only have 2 weeks to decide?
Oh, and they have a mandatory 2-day new student orientation in June which the student & a parent need to attend. But why would one go and purchase plane tickets for all that if you don’t even know yet if it’s where you’ll end up attending? It’s no big deal probably if you live in the Houston, Austin, Dallas, or San Antonio areas and getting to that college isn’t a big deal. But for us being OOS? Frustrating.
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Wow, that is all harsh. I hope they are an outlier. I also would think their total inflexibility would be a concern of students considering them- unexpected things come up over 4 years and its not a great example of things to come. When they say “submit a financial aid request” was this just referring to FAFSA or was there some additional request they needed? (wondering if I have to panic and check all my schools portals!)
they, like some other private schools, quickly put together an online form that a student could fill out in order to get a financial aid estimate before the FAFSA results came out. D24 dragged her feet and didn’t get around to it. So you snooze, you lose. This was separate from the regular FAFSA submission which we already did…this special form (not CSS profile) was to give you an early estimate of what you’d get financial aid-wise so you could make an earlier decision before FAFSA stuff came out.
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S24 was accepted at Rochester and Haverford today–whoohoo!
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D24 also admitted to Rochester tonight with merit money - am v impressed by the admissions letter linking her scholarship and admittance to her essays etc
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Down to 8, maybe? Down to 13 with a yes at Notre Dame. Very happy and then second thought after is…but you’re such a pain to get to. 
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My son got into UCLA today.
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So S24 got a notification that he was admitted to Pomona. He had e-mailed them to withdraw his application when ED2 came through, but I guess they didn’t properly process the e-mail. (They were one of the few schools that did not have a “withdraw” button on their portal.)
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Congratulations to all the admit today! Here’s to these kiddos finding the perfect home away from home for the next four years.
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Still 10 total, 9 reaches, but progress!
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S24 got $8k scholarship from U of Minnesota (Twin Cities) yesterday. Today, while visiting U of Mn for Admitted Students Day, we learned that he also got into Purdue for Biological Engg, after being deferred. He is super excited for both! Purdue is his top choice, but he really liked the department at U of Mn on account of the research opportunities and personalized attention they offer due to their small size.
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Last of D24 top 5 decisions came in today as a waitlist. Awesome news for a very competitive BFA Acting program. She toured her tie for first today and loved it. We will visit the other in a few weeks. Just so happy that she has choices and picked the schools she did for the whole college experience. I am excited to see where she lands 
vs 
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Rejected at UCLA and adjusting probability of being accepted to one of 5 remaining reach schools, international oos full pay
50% chance for at least 1 additional admit (schools w 10%/10%/10%/10%/5%: 1-(0.9x0.9x0.9x0.9x0.95)=38%
Best of luck to all as the end of season nears
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It was eventful 24 hours for admissions for S24 last 24 hours. He got 4 decisions: UCSC (accepted) UW Seattle (Wait list) UCSD and UCLA were rejects. UCLA and UCSD were reaches for him so not surprised or upset by them. UW Seattle we had higher hopes and was one of S24’s top choices so he was a bit bummed.
But with 4 more decisions coming out he opened up a bit about where his mind is at. No where near making a choice but some progress.
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4 decisions for S24 today as well. CMU (accepted), UCSC (accepted), UCSD (waitlisted), UCLA (rejected). S24 is very happy with CMU result. UC results have been terrible so far and unexpected. He is waitlisted on all UC schools that we thought as target - UCD/UCI/UCSD. Oh well, it is what it is.
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