Depending on where S25 ends up I may seriously consider moving out of NYC. I was born and raised here, but it’s too competitive for my oldest and I am tired of city life. Vermont sounds lovely.
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If he decides he wants to explore I can give you a list of places to check out. Most higher end restaurants.
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My S25 has 2 great options so far- 2 of his top favorites- UMich and Macalester. They could not be more different schools, it’s laughable! Michigan is an interesting option for him because of the Residential College, which feels like a small LAC within the large Uni. He could not decide if he wanted a LAC or a large public so it really checks a lot of boxes.
We both love Macalester though so he will go to both admitted student days- unless for some crazy reason- he gets into his number one choice - Brown. It’s a massive reach and he’s not expecting to get in but if he did then that’s where he’d go.
He’s also waiting on Vassar and Carleton- both reaches- but I think he might prefer Macalester over both of those b/c of location. He doesn’t want to be in a rural or small town but he really did love Vassar when we toured. The location is scaring him but I think he’d find his people there though. My gut tells me he’d get into Brown before he’d get into Vassar tbh. His Your Space for Vassar was really not good- he kind of rushed it- one sloppy collage of a bunch of art/jewelry. It looked like an afterthought.
He decided not to do the video for Brown b/c he wasn’t prepared and I told him not to stress over it so he just left it. I personally don’t like the videos- it feels like an audition and the kids have enough stress on their plates.
He’s got way more options than either of us expected at this point. In the beginning of this journey I was just keeping my fingers crossed that he’d get into his top ‘safety’, Whitman in WA, a wonderful small LAC, but it is a bit in the middle of nowhere. That one is still to come but I think others have eclipsed it.
I would like to sit down with him and go over the financial ramifications first too. There’s a big range of scholarship options that we need to consider.
Your kiddo looks like he has solid options too with great merit aid and a free ride if I remember? My son doesn’t have any free ride options- that would definitely shift the conversation- that’s a pretty big deal!
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Love those options and S25 is in the same boat with wildly different acceptances. Right now Union and Muhlenberg offered free tuition. Kid likes Pitt, but it’s just too far (we finally agreed on no plane rides). Clark is also in the running now. Vassar is one of their RD reaches along with a few other SLACs, so no decisions for awhile for us. Or maybe they won’t get into any others and we have Union, Mule, and Clark to choose from.
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All fantastic options-especially with free tuition!
I wish my son had picked some CA schools b/c I’d like him to be a little closer to home. He was not interested enough in the UCs to do the separate app- it’s kind of a pain and he wasn’t excited enough about them to do it. It would be nice if he was just a car ride away.
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Same here! None of the UCs had the major that my son wanted to pursue and the application would have really been a pain for a second choice major. This was a bitter pill to swallow since we have been paying CA taxes and always thought “Well at least we will get instate tuition!”
He may be off to Boston next year, which is so far (and not an easy plane connection) 
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Those are great options! My D25 also has Muhlenberg, RIT, and Hobart and William Smith tuition free as well as a couple of SUNYs. The ones in the RD pool are her preferred choices, but even if she gets in some they may not be able to offer as much aid or merit.
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After a ED rejection and a huge number of RD apps, D25 (step-daughter) received an unexpected gift with a response from McGill much earlier than expected given she didn’t complete the application until early last month- ACCEPTED 
Has she been to Montreal? No. But regardless taking this as a huge win for a US student and we are thrilled for her to have a piece of good news to hold her over until the RDs start rolling in towards end of March. Yay!
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Montreal would be such a fun place to go to college! Congrats to your daughter. If nothing else, I hope you get to visit. Great excuse for a little vacation.
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We’re unexpectedly finding the thought of the distance (and travel time) more and more daunting as the days roll on. D25 is our youngest so perhaps that has something to do with it, but I was expecting that the experience with her older siblings would have prepared us.
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My future Red Dragon is 18 today 
. Man did this sneak up on me!
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Same, for some reason I assumed (wrongly) that the private schools he may potentially get into would be so high that it would push him to our instate flagship. But then he got into Georgia Tech which was within the price range we quoted him that wouldn’t involve loans/lifestyle changes. So now I’m in a swing between panic and denial that my baby is going away.
Although a semester later my oldest will be coming home. The empty nest will be fleeting.
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Happy birthday! D25 is also 18 today!!
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Yikes, that’s a lot. My kid wrote like four main essays, and then I showed him how to repurpose those main ones to cover a lot of the other and smaller essays. Not perfect, but seems to have not been an issue for him. He had a handful of essays for scholarships but mostly repurposed what he already had. And, if it required a significant new essay he just skipped that scholarship. So many $500 / $1000 scholarships with long applications and asking for multiple essays, multiple direct LORs, etc, and then want an interview or a video. It’s a bit over the top.
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Happy bday! 2/13/07 was a snowstorm in central NY. Very appropriate for my wild child 
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My kid had been deferred from a school EA, which wasn’t really a surprise.
EA 2 for that school came out today and they are in! (I checked portal for the heck of it, didn’t expect to hear until march and RD).
Adding more complexity to their decision… I thought we were down to a very few, but this probably got added to the mix 
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S25 heard back from Rose-Hulman today. They said that if he doesn’t get an outside National Merit Scholarship that he’ll get $2000 a year from Rose. That takes us up to $27,600 a year in scholarships from them. They also said he can submit an appeal with scholarship letters from his other schools. I have no idea if he can get a letter showing the full national merit scholarship from Alabama, but we’ll give it a go. Excited to be slowly whittling down the cost!
He’s at All West Honors Convention for band today, tomorrow and Saturday. Heaven forbid he would have practiced the music before hand…Hopefully it will go okay for him.
Hope everyone has a good evening!
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same thing here…
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Slightly off topic but wait until they are IN college and applying for summer REUs- I swear D23 has written more essays in the last month now than she ever did applying to 12 colleges, certainly more than her B25. 
Just when you thought it was over
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Well, the admitted student trip starts this weekend. Still struggling with the cost of Union over our other options (+26k per year), but we really like it…and of course, still waiting for Dickinson, which is probably #1 choice at the moment (if money isn’t factored). This weekend will tell us if Union is still worth considering at the extra cost.
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