D25 was waitlisted at U Chicago and then accepted at UC Irvine yesterday. She was excited about the waitlist because she didn’t expect much from Chicago in the regular round. My parents both attended UC Irvine when it first opened in the 1960’s. They’re very excited about it as an option, D25 may need to revisit the campus. She wasn’t feeling great ( pre celiac diagnosis) when we visited and that may have influenced her impression.
She’s away all weekend for a robotics competition and I’m so relieved that she didn’t get a flood of rejections in the van with the whole team. She still has several decisions to go. March is such a long month!
I feel this. D25 just got waitlisted twice. Two of her friends got in to one of the places she was waitlisted, which made her extra sad. She has good options. One where she was accepted she liked better than the waitlist schools anyway. I’m trying to encourage her to focus on all the things she liked there. We know someone who goes there and I’m hoping they’ll hang while she’s home for spring break. That might help her feel more excited about it.
Are there any colleges of the acceptances group that your kid could get excited about?
Yesterday evening started out stressful - waitlist at UCSD followed shortly by a waitlist at UCI, which felt a bit surprising. Soon thereafter there were tears related to all remaining decisions. But, thrillingly, she received an acceptance from Cal Poly SLO - her top choice. This time is so stressful for all of these kids. Waiting on three more decisions in the coming weeks, but at least two have lesser interest - maybe because she sees them as long shots (UCLA and USC, which without merit is just too $).
D25 isn’t done with results, but she’s 90% done mentally, as she has one BFA outstanding (from UCSB–she knows she’s in because of a Chancellor’s invite, but won’t know for sure about the major until Tuesday) and the rest are schools that are super reaches that she doesn’t think she’ll get into and don’t have BFAs regardless. She regularly says things like, “But I want to go to school for dance, Mom!” even though she’s the one that insisted on doing these high reach apps that do have dance, but not at the level she wants. It’s enough to make my head spin at times, and makes me realize that while her top filter is dance, she really does value the academic piece. Her top choices in some ways make no sense: who has WashU, UCI, UCSB, Dominican/Lines, and St. Olaf as the ones they are whittling from? (Us, subject to change by my 18 year old!)
Honestly, she has an embarrassment of riches, so I’ve asked her to let some schools go. I know that schools admit more than they yield, but most of the schools have given her some significant money, and maybe someone else can be pleasantly surprised with an additional scholarship.
I’m thinking about talking to S25 about letting some schools go. He dropped one that was pretty easy, it was probably his last or second to last choice based just on program, and it was twice as expensive as the other school at the bottom. But he has five left.
Schools 1 and 2 are obviously still on the list, because he needs to decide between them.
I have no idea what is school 3 anymore - could be Tennessee, could be Pitt, the other one is school 4 and school 5 is JMU.
We were requesting he keep JMU and UTK on the list because they are the least expensive. All five schools are within the budget, just some are at the top and some at the bottom. Since husband and I are both federal employees, it’s been a scary few months. We’ve been watching our friends and neighbors get laid off. But looking at the 529, we have enough in there to fund all four years of every school except Clemson (even with guesstimated merit aid) and Pitt. So even if we did lose our jobs, he wouldn’t have to pick JMU or UTK based solely on finances.
I know he really doesn’t want JMU, so I think we can let that one go. And I think he’s decided he’d rather have VT over UTK. UTK is cheaper because of the huge scholarship they gave him, but I think for what he wants, VT is a better program. So I think he can probably let UTK go too.
Pitt is in a weird category. Other than Clemson, it’s the most expensive choice left on his list. But it offers a program unique from all the other schools and I don’t think he’s totally ruled that out yet. I think it stays on the list just a bit longer, just in case he changes his mind.
We’ll see if we even discuss. I’m trying to give him a break from thinking about college stuff because he’s recently just gotten hammered with school work and he’s so behind. This is his last full weekend that he has free and track meets (which are annoyingly Wednesday nights) start this week, so his time is about to be even more compressed. He’s behind in assignments and he needs to not only catch up, but really should be trying to get ahead. It’s not good.
Thanks for asking! So far so good. He had some weirdness in the ligament that supports your knee maybe three weeks ago, but stretching and icing seem to have calmed that down, whatever it was. The hamstring injuries (what destroyed his junior year seasons) seem to be healed (crossing all fingers, knocking on all the wood). So we’re hopeful.
I’m really proud of him. The other night as we were driving home from the winter sports awards (he knew he wouldn’t be getting any, went to support his friends) he was just talking and said some things that made me think - this kid is going to be ok. He knows he’s lost his spot on the relay team. It went to a younger student and it’s unlikely he can get it back. It hurts, because the relay team is now three seniors and the sophomore, and when these four seniors (counting him) started running together as freshmen they all envisioned racing as a relay unit their senior year at States. The team will probably go, but not with him.
Anyway, as he’s telling me he’s realized that there’s probably no realistic shot of getting his spot back he said “and you know what mom, I’m upset, but I’ve come to peace with it. I know I am a leader on the team and I can help even if I’m not the fastest. I have the best form off the blocks and the best form at handing off and accepting the relay baton. I’m just going to spend my time helping the freshmen and sophomore runners with technique. They aren’t intimidated by me because I’m NOT the fastest. I may not be able to run on the relay team this year, but I can do a lot to help make sure that next year’s relay team is the best it can be.”
And while my heart hurt a little to see him realize that one of his dreams just isn’t going to come true, and there’s really nothing he can do about it, it made me so proud of him for finding a way to pivot that makes him feel useful and that contributes to the team.
He can be a serious PITA sometimes (see: all the overdue assignments he’s working on this weekend) but he’s a good kid.
Rant/vent: Why can’t all schools make it super easy to decline offer of admission? Super appreciative of those who offer the “select Yes accept or No decline” boxes!
Not true for the audition-based BFA at UCSB (or many other schools where merit is an academic decision separate from audition decisions). My D18 was offered a Regents scholarship at UCSB but only BA not BFA dance.
Everyone at UCSB starts as a BA in dance, same with UCI, even with auditions. It’s only after the first year that they can switch to the BFA. At least that is my understanding. The UC app this year only gives you the option to choose a BA in dance at either of the schools; the parent presentation talked about how to move to a BFA once you are there.
Yes, this was 2018 when there was direct admit to the BFA for some freshmen but the rest only got offered BA with no certainty of a BFA admit in year 2. They changed it a year or two later. My point was just that the scholarship award didn’t guarantee your “first choice major” for audition-based programs.
ETA: having said that the Regents awards appear to be made individually by each college/school at some UCs when they admit by major (ie engineering is separate from L&S). It was like that at UT Austin too. However at UCSB it looks like dance is just in L&S not in a separate College/School of Fine Arts like at UCLA and UCI.
