You can get a lot of swag for that money 
I donāt think it is a must if the decision is made. People go for fun, but cost is a fair consideration.
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Thx guys. Will probably have a chat with the wife and S24 about this.
*slowly open my wallet to check. it seems so lightā¦
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In your kidās case, the answer is no. Attending admitted student day is not necessary.
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He and you should be very proud he has great acceptances already. MIT and many of the schools releasing admissions in the upcoming weeks are all lottery. Iām sure youāve helped reinforced with him that he will thrive where they want him and admissions build a cohort that is different each year per school. It just happens that for MIT, he didnāt meet the community requirements they were trying to build and not a knock on his abilities.
My daughter is waiting on Ivy Day. She got rejected by Yale in EA so I told her to print out that rejection letter and let it drive her to be better and make Yale sorry they didnāt pick her some day. Show the world she doesnāt need a certain school name to be amazing. In the meantime, sheās keeping busy with friends on the weekend, regional finals MESA competition to defend her title for the 3rd time, and we celebrate everyday the schools sh s gotten into.
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So we are currently in St Andrews, ScotlandāSt Andrews is one of S24ās offers so far. A bit extreme but it is a fun attempt at a distraction.
And yet, in the modern world, S24 is still in communication with his friends about what is happening with their applications. And I would say he is mostly doing well, but maybe a bit tense about some upcoming decisions, and I remain uncertain how it would feel if he had a long streak of rejections in his future.
I guess my point is we really are powerless in the sense the process is what it is at this point, and our kids are just going to have to go through it. And we can support them as best we can, try to put everything in perspective, lower the stakes ourselves, and so on. But they are young adults who have put themselves out in the world to be judged, and many of our kids are in part aiming high and taking risks such that they very likely will fail repeatedly, and that is both beautiful and heart-breaking.
And so we are just going to have to go through it too.
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There is not point getting anxious about a decision on can no longer influence. Itās just a matter of letting the time go by, and once all the cards are on the table, then comes the real decision time.
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What a lot of adults, who arenāt in the weeds of this process and havenāt been for many years, donāt realize how much more difficult this is today. At a college admissions talk when DS was a sophomore, the dean of college admissions gave a us a stat to ground our parental expectations. I canāt remember the exact numbers but just to give you the gist, something like 30 years ago to top 10 schools got a combination of applications of around 100,000, today itās in the millions. All for roughly the same number of seats. And when DH and I went to college the lowest expectance rate was round 30%. It is a whole different world these days. Itās just brutal.
Hugs to your son.
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DS didnāt want us to go to his admitted student day but we are going to partially use the weekend for a slightly early 18th birthday celebration, so he agreed to let us go. Take him to a fancy hotel and fancy dinner and heās game.
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Hang in there, 2024s with a lot more unknowns left! This time last year D23 was in to two (uva and Wake) and still had 6 more wins to come by the time it all was over. It is stressful but it usually works out well with great options in the end, even for unhooked kids. They have to say Yes to someone!
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One kid got turned down at his Ivy ED, so his grandfather donated $15million in February, which should guarantee his admission to a T5 school "most other applicatants (excluding athletic recruits) consider ultra reachā¦ā¦maybe it should be renamed ultra rich.
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This is such an unusual world for us, and so different from the UK system (for UK applicants) - i fear D24ās hopes are rising with her first two acceptances and merit last week (had only a deferral in EA before that). opening a stream of noās is not great for the soul however level headed they may be
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The challenge at our house is the timing of the rejectionsāall clumped together and maybe (likely?) no admissions mixed in.
My son applied to 10 likely/match/low target schools and was admitted to all of them (mostly before Jan 1, but a few in Jan and early Feb). He applied to 2 high target/low reach and 3 reaches, and it looks like he will probably end his application journey on a string of rejections. Even though he is happy with his current options, it is a bit tough to end on a string of rejectionsā¦ 
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We were in that area last week. Your son is getting a good taste of the weather at least.
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Yes, the sequencing of mostly more likely to mostly less likely is, at the moment, feeling rather unfortunate.
Iām pretty much counting on Admitted Students events being a palate cleanser, however. I know I am already excited about the possibilities (and in fact we are doing Round One as mentioned here in Scotland), so hopefully that becomes the dominant feeling again in April.
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Is anyone else fretting about potential overlap of admit days? Do they all tend to be weekends? I am too superstitious to dig into timing if any have announced, but wonder if this will be an issue if he were to have any acceptances coming. We have one penciled in already, but I donāt want to buy flights until we have all the info.
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I was a little nervous but after looking into it, it seem like the most common pattern is to have one big Admit weekend event, but also other designated days to visit as an Admittee. So barring trying to visit more than a handfulāand I would hope we can narrow it down to no more than say 3-4 topsāit seems like you should be able to figure out something.
Now, might that bias it a bit in favor of the ones where you can do the full production? Maybe, but if so, maybe you just put the tentative favorites in that position and see if that gets confirmed that way. There would be worse things.
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With D23, we couldnāt make the admitted students day event at one school, but went on a different day. No panels, no throngs of admitted students. Instead - contacted faculty directly by email, and contacted students identified by admissions. Being an āadmitted studentā gave her the confidence to reach out and ask for time from faculty.
Attended two classes in areas of interest (and was the only high schooler in those classes). Met with the faculty of those classes. For the philosophy class, the prof arranged for her to go to lunch following class with the students in the class. Went to the orchestra practice. Went to a jazz band practice. Met relevant music instructors. Met students.
At end of the time (ended up lasting from Thursday morning to Friday lunch) told us that it was way better than an admitted student event b/c she saw the college āas it isā as opposed to spending lots of time with other high schoolers in curated events. Committed to that school.
All to say - for us, ended up being a very fortunate accident that we couldnāt attend that collegeās admitted student event.
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I was hoping for the full production at all. However, that is a very compelling argument for attending at another time if thatās the way it works out, thanks for sharing!
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My Jesuit high school has always done white dinner jacket tuxedos for graduation. I am partial but think its a great look.
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We had a bit of a good surprise this morning, but it may be throwing a wrench into S24s decision making. He had a reach school where he applied EA and was deferred. Mentally, we had put it out of mind. I knew the school was releasing decisions last Friday, but didnāt mention it to him, thinking it was a likely reject and, anyway, he was on a trip doing a second visit to his front runner and I was thinking he was ready to commit there. Well, this morning, his college counselor texted me to congratulate us on his acceptance to EA reach!
I have so many mixed feelings. We really loved this school when we toured a year ago, and have friends whose kids have had incredible experiences. We are, of course, always delighted by an acceptance, and this is the last outstanding decision, so itās great to end with a happy surprise. BUT . . . S24 was SO CLOSE to making a decision. And this one is a LAC so it costs so very much more than state flagships where he was accepted to honors colleges with scholarships. We have told him the decision is his, and there are pros and cons of all choices. I also feel guilty about hoping he will choose a less expensive option as his twin is already committed to a very expensive LAC. If S24 chooses his current frontrunner, we can move funds in 529s and cover both with no issue, and then be in a position to help him with grad school or a downpayment down the line to balance it out. Otherwise, we can make it work, but it is a little harder.
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