D25 got her official acceptance today to Redlands with max merit! She got a preliminary acceptance at their Discover Redlands day in November. She liked the personal touch in the acceptance letter mentioning details from her essays. Nice way to start the Christmas break!
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UDel gave D25 a $50k UD Provost Scholarship.
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Despite requesting his apps be pulled due to an ED acceptance, my S still received decisions from two EA schools. He was accepted with a paltry scholarship at Miami — Farmer School of Business and received a very generous scholarship offer at Centre College. Hard to see that one from Centre!!
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Y’all, Macalester came through with merit, despite missing the damned interview. We are feeling so lucky right now.
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I’m so so happy for you guys! Been rooting for you.
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In at Macalester!! So excited for S25. It’s one of his top choices and I love it for him. Dewitt scholarship was nice too. Pressure feels like it’s off. Phew
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Congratulations!! Happy for you guys, & love to hear about colleges who are understanding that we can’t get through this process without some missteps.
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Yes!!!
But, in a few months time, will the tables flip? Meaning that when RD decisions come out, will the ED kids have buyer’s remorse seeing all the excitement of their friends deciding which of their options to choose? Unless the kids are comfortable with the path they are on, it will alway seem that the other path is better.
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Yes. It’s recency bias.
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I think this could be the risk of doing a very safe ED strategy. The kids who shot the moon will probably be just fine. 
Mostly I just wish that it were possible to massively simplify this process. It’s incredible to me to contemplate how much money/time/energy/angst goes into school selection. Imagine if we put this much energy into any other life decision (e.g. who we marry! where we end up living! etc.)
I’m also hearing anecdotally that kids transfer way more frequently these days…which is also intriguing. Is this generation just less predisposed to be satisfied?
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I’ve heard that about transferring, too. I wonder if anyone has actually studied if young adults today are viewing/approaching college or other “commitments” differently than previous generations.
So we just got back from a trip to the lower 48 (for one of my older kids graduating from college!), and C25 found a FedEx envelope from Hofstra waiting with an offer of admission (not a surprise, already known) plus admission to their honors college (not already known, a nice plus), and a pair of socks (the only wearable swag received so far), and…a full-tuition scholarship (big surprise).
So that was nice, to put it mildly. And the kid seemed more excited about Hofstra than I’d expected.
So, going into winter break admissions office closure season C25 has the following:
- Still waiting: Pitt (kind of surprising not to have heard back yet, honestly), Syracuse, Rochester
- Obligatory in-state applications, but unlikely to attend: Alaska Anchorage, Alaska Fairbanks
- Accepted, but the scholarship offer isn’t good enough: St Joseph’s, Oregon, Binghamton
- Accepted, no financial offer yet: Western Washington
- Accepted, competitive financial offer: Hofstra, Fordham, Washington State
- Accepted, astonishingly good financial offer: Nevada Reno
So there will be options.
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For the vast majority of applicants, it is simple. They apply to the publics in their state. It’s the folks that are willing and able to consider a wider range of alternatives (and yes, we were committed members of that club!) who have all of these balls in the air for most of senior year. And yes, it feels really unsettled.
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Wow! Thats fantastic. Congratulations. Nice to have those offers in the bank before the holidays!
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I agree. I wish it were more like the UK process- maximum 5 schools and the requirement to meet minimum quals to even be allowed to apply to certain schools. Then Clearing in July, allowing kids to apply to schools that have openings left in their major. The crazy low acceptances would disappear and it would become a bit more of an ‘applicant’ market. Less reliance on ECs too.
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I would LOVE this approach for so many reasons. But I don’t think we would ever do that in this country as we try to level the playing field etc etc.
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Congrats on the full scholarship! That would be so amazing.
I’ve made another tab on the college spreadsheet for costs. By my math, if D25 goes with her top choice, we need less than our current monthly savings for her and we could earmark the new top savings amount for D30. Maybe her top choice is now my top choice, lol!
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So a Christmas re-evaluation is underway. Applied to 10 schools, 5 acceptances so far. As a result 4 are eliminated (got into a school liked better, even if C25 don’t have response from them yet). So, the selection is down to 6. 1 will come out Jan. 10, but the other 2 we will need to wait until March. So mostly more waiting…but also try to downselect amongst the 4 in the meantime…and think about an admitted student visit strategy for 2 of them. We are torn between admitted student days so we can meet others and doing a personal visit with classes, etc to try to get a better feel of the day to day atmosphere. The March schools are very high on the list; however, we are also expecting the price to be too much…all depends on the merit (and acceptance, of course).
The remaining choices (in cost, or expected cost order):
Allegheny
Ursinus
Marist
Union College (pending Jan. 10)
Dickinson (March)
Lafayette (March)
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That’s why ED should not be used as a blind strategy. IMO, ED should be exclusively reserved for ones top choice.
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