Congratulations on CMU. Its a great school but a bit of a fit school so if you S24 likes he will be happy. One of my friends son is there and loves it.
The UC’s have not been great for us also. He has UCR, UCSC and some some great CSU options but he does not want to go to them now based on his other acceptances.
It is what it is I am now mentally prepared that he will most likely be going OOS.
Proud momma here!! So far clean sweep of UC, pending Cal. Today was amazing. UCSD and UCLA. Kiddo finally broke down when she got into UCLA. Four years of guaranteed housing. Now we wait for Ivy Day.
Loved this. Our oldest is a sophomore at Bates and loves it. This post by them is really in line with the culture there. Love that school.
I love this message, but they probably do what every other super exclusive school does to lower admission rates which kind of flies in the face of this sentiment.
My neighbor is at Haverford and LOVES it. She is a sophomore and is thriving there.
D24 received her acceptance yesterday to UGA Honors College. I have one nephew who graduated from it a few years ago and one who is in it as a current junior. (And I was in Honors there 30 years ago.) I’ve closely followed the improvements they’ve made to it over the years, and it’s truly an excellent option for strong students. Plus, you still get big SEC football. 
She received a large scholarship at Sewanee, and she is waiting for a 4/1 admitted students’ day to make her decision.
I’m thrilled she has strong (though very different in atmosphere!!) options.
Good luck to all the families still waiting on final word from their schools!
We’re back from our overnight to UGA. Best visit yet! D24 has now put it at the top of her list, although she still has 3 reaches to hear from. She would be happy to go to UGA, but she won’t make a final decision until the rest of the results come in. Here’s what she did (we were trying to simulate a real college experience as much as possible): she went on a special collections library visit with a professor’s sophomore American Lit survey class. One document they examined was written by a UGA student at the time of the Civil War, trashing “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and arguing that slavery was a good thing. Eye-opening! And no one does anything like this in Georgia high schools, so it was a great experience. We drove all around Athens neighborhoods and discovered a micro-zoo that is really a wildlife rescue center. They had an alligator! Then, she met up with her friend who is a first-year performing arts student. They hung out until 2:30 a.m. in her dorm, with other arts students, doing karaoke and just chillin.’ Guess who drove from the hotel to pick her up at 2:30 (but I had expected that). I was surprised to see how walkable a lot of UGA is for first-years. When they take you on the grand tour, they bus you everywhere to show you the whole campus, so it doesn’t seem as manageable as it really is. At night, I sat in the hotel room and devoured a novel and a whole bunch of Cheez-its. These are the best of times. I’m glad to hear good news from many of you in the last couple of days!
Some mixed emotions at my house the past few days. D24 got in to Dickinson and Richmond! but D20 got waitlisted at Duke Law and UCLA Law. D20 has other great options, so I know all will work out but what a rollercoaster of emotions for this mom’s heart.
DS24 was accepted at CMU for CS last evening. Unexpected since it was a high reach and it seems to have upended his decision making algorithm🤷♀️Need to plan a visit since we do not know anyone who did their CS undergrad there.
We call that place “the tiny, weird zoo” 
I have an 11 year old and have spent a lot of time in Athens trying to entertain him over the past few years, between his brothers’ college visits and all-state band, so I’m very familiar with it! Glad the visit went so well!
Official UGA music acceptance last night (and a tiny music scholarship, but better than nothing!), Middlebury rejection, and a Bates waitlist this morning. So mixed bag, but neither school was high on his list anyway. I booked hotels last night so we do back to back to back visits to Grinnell, St. Olaf, and Lawrence over spring break. We will be exhausted! (trying to fit it all in to half the week, since his dual enrollment college doesn’t have the same spring break as everywhere else).
Congrats - how does the student feel about the massive vs. LAC environment?
It’s awesome you get to see the three schools. And at least there’s a somewhat proximity to them. Hopefully one “pops” (and of course is affordable).
UGA is only on his shortlist because of the music school…when we did the regular tour awhile back he told the tour guide he was probably going to a small college. She was like, “I admire your honesty” But then he did a visit to the music school, had lessons, sat in on rehearsals and all that, and was won over by the “small college within a big college” thing (his brother is at the music school at Vanderbilt, so it’s a model he’s familiar with–he ED’d Vanderbilt but didn’t get in). But my biggest worry about UGA is that he’ll get there, decide the music major isn’t for him after all, and then just be at a giant state school.
As we enter the final stretch, admission officers are staring down at yield management through the RD round. How do AOs assess the likelyhood of an admit actually attending? How does it impact their decisions?
Is it an area where legacy is about a higher probability that the kid actually joins, which partly drive the legacy hook?
Well - I think even at a big state school, you can make it smaller through various programs - but totally understand.
I’m sure after your visits - you’ll either know the others are too small or they are perfect (just one needs to be) and affordable!!
I look forward to hearing about your spring break trip and hope it goes well.
It’s a total mess this year because usually in the EA rounds they would have people who already made deposits and could thus judge yields and how many more to admit. But with the FAFSA delays people are waiting to put down deposits which means its a mess and much less predictable.
All good questions - they likely have some sort of software- or data that drives these decisions - but - this is why schools load up Wait Lists. I looked at Bates stats this AM - their WL is double who they admit - so they are taking no chances. And Case Western waitlists 30% or so of applicants.
So there’s likely science behind it - but not accurate science.
I’d imagine on legacy you are correct - and it’d help in two ways - most legacies at top schools are likely wealthy. While schools may be need blind - they do like wealth.
We love Bear Hollow Zoo! It’s owned by the city-county government, and you can also walk around this small lake at Memorial Park. The new, expansive dog park will open soon. Also, that Spanish style pink building now houses an acting troupe and other community events, but it started as a Sanitarium 100 years ago. And you can visit the pool in season for $1 per person. A definite hidden gem of Five Points!
The algos are actually extremely sophisticated, with tens of thousands of records (accepted applicants over the years) and many millions of data points. However, as pointed out above, the FAFSA situation may throw things for a loop, at least temporarily. But schools will push back the Enrollment date later than 5/1 as needed (as many have already done) both to give applicants/families time, and for the yield to shake out, if they feel the need to do so.
Basically, the AOs do a pass where they admit the class they want using prior average yields (e.g if it’s 50% then they ‘admit’ 2x the # of people they actually want), then run those accepted applicants collectively through the algorithm, which then spits out e.g. we will probably be over/under/exactly enrolled based on this pool of acceptances, and then they adjust as needed/desired from there. It’s iterative of course and they do it as they go along, but this is the gist as I understand it.
FAFSA algo trying to disturb the admission algos and hack yield stats….lol