My S25 got into Whitman this week with 30k in merit. It was the school we toured first and both loved. We both felt like it was his favorite safety and the school he might end up at if everything else fell through. It’s his first west coast decision too so it feels good to have a school that doesn’t feel too far away- although it’s still two states away and a pain to get to.
I think Macalester might beat it mainly for location. The Minn/StPaul location is a big draw for my son. But we’ll see if we can swing an admitted students day at Whitman.
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Does anyone know of pros or cons UConn vs UDel Honors vs URI honors. Speech pathology/communication disorders. All about the same price with scholarships.
One totally anecdotal data point - My older son applied to UDel and URI, my S25 applied to UCONN. I think UCONN and UDel are seen as “better” or more rigorous schools than URI, but that could be a function of them just having more students so more options. We live in VA, and people around here apply to UCONN and UDel but not URI, so it could also be that it’s just not as well known.
S25 had been deferred from the honors program at Clemson, last night he found out that he was waitlisted, and will hear after May 1. This is a bummer as it’s the one school that he applied to honors that he REALLY wanted to be part of it, and the one that he didn’t get in to (he got honors at VT, Pitt, JMU, UTK, forgot to apply to it at UCONN). He REALLY wanted to be in the honors dorm and program, so he’s a little bummed. It can’t be his stats because, frankly, they couldn’t be a lot better. His gpa is a 4.0UW, our school weights a .5 for AP courses, so with his APs its 4.3, he’s got 11 APs, his academic courses have only ever been honors, on the five AP exams he’s taken he’s gotten four 5s and a 4. His ACT is a 35. He’s an Eagle Scout, a four year two-season varsity athlete and team captain. So it can’t be those paper requirements, it has to be his essay. I guess it just really didn’t speak to them. What’s particularly funny about that, is that he used the same essay, with only minor modifications, to apply for the Stamps scholarship at VT and he made the cut of 30 out of more than 1500 applicants for that.
So, that was a big disappointment for him this morning. It also makes me nervous for him re: merit money. I really thought that he had a strong application at Clemson, and could potentially get amongst the higher amounts of merit aid. But this is really making me wonder.
We all know that I have a preference for VT, but if he ends up there I want it to be because he WANTS to be there, not because his other choices were precluded by cost.
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A lot of it doesn’t make sense this year. Mine got Honors for Purdue, but no merit money. Finally was offered Honors for South Carolina a couple weeks ago, but was initially admitted EA with the largest OOS scholarship in the admit letter (not counting Top Scholars) while others that had much lower scholarships were offered honors right away in December.
Clemson may still come thru with a higher scholarship. But I’m also not holding out much hope on that one (and don’t know that we can really wait until the end of March before a decision needs to be made). Sometimes you have to go with the one you have in the hand, or else you might lose out on housing (for those schools where you have to commit before registering for housing). And I can’t keep paying housing deposits to schools that she may not even go to just to “hold” her place in line.
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EXACTLY! I can’t decide if I should pay the housing deposit at VT or not. Clemson seems to be his top choice. Housing there depends on the date you submitted your application, so I don’t need to put money down there. But at VT, housing depends on when you accept and put money down - and they will let you accept and back out by some deadline, but that seems like a lot and I don’t want to do that if I don’t have to. Of course, I also don’t want him to have a poor housing choice if I don’t, and I can’t tell how bad it might be if we wait. Sigh.
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Syracuse definitely wants you to show interest and yield protects. My DD with very high stats, top 10 boarding school, multiple acceptances to 10-15% admit schools and full tuition scholarship to Pitt was waitlisted at Syracuse. She didn’t visit or attend any virtual events.
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On the “quality of student pool” at MIT question – all I really have to draw on is my experience 30 yrs ago at Caltech. I’d have to say there was ararely a “checked out” kid in class. But there were a lot of kids who had been used to being “top of the heap” who were having a lot of issues adjusting to being “middle of the pack”. And people who had pretty much always just listened in class and did the homework and got A’s, but now had to take extensive notes, do a lot of reading, ask for help from peers & TAs, and still were only just kinda low B students.
So, no, the problem at Tech was never “Some kids are just here to party”, but it was much more “Well, I’m not the smartest person in this cafeteria, or this dorm room even. Who am I if that core part of my personality no longer applies…”
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Congratulations! My D23 goes there and LOVES it so much. Let me know if you have any questions or go visit and want to meet up with a current student. She has applied to be a SOAR Leader (orientation) next year and will probably get it. She also just got a job for next fall as a Student Instructor for Calculus (they sit in class and run tutoring and test prep classes). She is on dance team and dance company and is majoring in math with an engineering concentration.
The warmth and caring you sense there is real. There was a zoom meeting this week for parents with the president and their legal counsel to address some issues and concerns parents might have with the recent political climate and executive orders, and their concern for their students is real.
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I’m in New England and agree with this take.
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One of my friend’s children applied to Clemson (it was their first choice) and was accepted but given no merit aid and to add insult to injury - would have been required to do mandatory summer school to start (which was a huge additional cost).
This student was a honor student, great GPA, high SAT (like a 1450, iirc) and a varsity athlete. Clemson can be really weird with OOS applicants. I don’t know why.
My friend’s child ended up at UCONN with merit, loved their experience and competed in their sport all 4 years.
Your son has several awesome options, sending positive vibes your way as y’all figure out best options for him.
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I will second this! We have had some great acceptances and scholarships (yay!) and a couple of outcomes where I’m like…“Really??? You have got to be kidding me”. I’m now decisively in the camp of “holistic admissions is a myth”. If you consider holistic admissions to mean that some kids get a second look because of a variety of factors/institutional priorities, then ok sure. But for an AO to say with straight face that every one of the 60,000 applications gets a thorough and attentive read and is deeply considered? Color me skeptical. If they mean a “thorough read” by AI or another type of bot screener to help them narrow the field, I’ll buy that. I’ll even agree that it’s necessary. But I’m coming out of this process annoyed at all of the earnest insistence on the sanctity of the application review process that was conveyed during all the info sessions last year. {Insert major, teenager-level eye roll here!}
We didn’t experience this at all schools, mind you. Some are very transparent in what range of scores/GPA/rigor they’re looking for (UGA for example). But the ones where we did - well, I’m annoyed at them for doing it (because my taxes support them) and I’m annoyed at myself for falling for it.
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D25 popped in today. She was able to see her dad in person for the first time since making her decision (been divorced her entire school years). I know he worries and has concern I am pushing her in her school choice. She showed me the little photo announcement she was asked to make for her dance banquet this week. As usual, the seniors get a little slideshow to show their future plans. She is still a bit shy talking about college choice. She has always been more of an introvert and quiet with her thoughts. But then she said something and it totally made sense. “I hope Dad likes it, he hasn’t seen it yet.” Although he has told her that he will support her no matter where she chooses, she wants his approval and she wants to see him like the school too. When her brother chose Syrac use after admitted students day visit with me, his dad knew of the school so it was easy for him to get on board. I think because her final choice does not have name recognition, she feels her dad needs to see it to believe it so to speak. He is taking her to admitted students day in a few weeks. I was going to meet them there but have decided to stay back. She needs that time with her dad to feel good about where she will likely spend the new couple of years!
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Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of. Thanks for weighing in!
This has been the case for quite a while.
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Sorry about your son being deferred from the honors program. He sounds like an accomplished and outstanding young man.
Re: what I’ve quoted here, anecdotally I know lots of students who have ended up where they ended up because of cost. And they’ve all flourished and enjoyed their experience. Cost is a factor for most parents now. There is no getting around it. And kids who have been raised right know to be grateful for their paid for college education.
If your son ends up at VT because of honors/price, he will end up LOVING it there. And honestly, sometimes moms know best where their kid will flourish. Trust your gut instinct about this.
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From what I can gather, Clemson places a lot of weight on legacy status for out of state students.
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Thank you! You’re right, I know he’ll do well wherever he ends up. It’s just… we planned to allow both our kids to go to any school they wanted within a set budget. And he’s been very understanding and only looked at schools within that budget. It just feels yuck that we might have to change that budget now when we let his brother pick whatever he wanted (again, within the budget).
And I fully admit that part of this is just my general stress and anxiety about work right now. I’m having a hard time not panicking and trying to figure out what makes sense and what doesn’t in an area that has been generally predictable for years, and now feels like one earthquake after another.
Sigh. The kid is doing fine, great even. I’m the one perseverating because I want control over something when I have no control over everything else.
Well that’s depressing. I’m gonna go for a walk. Thank you guys for being part therapist these days!
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there is a phrase for this “if you want something done, ask a busy person”
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Similar anecdotal sentiments in my area too. UDel, UCONN, UMD, UMass seen as roughly equivalent then URI for the less academic more party focused.
UCONN honors isn’t a separate application, admissions considers every applicant for honors, but it seems like lower % get honors than at other equivalent schools.