I’ve just gone down the rabbit hole of hotel options for 2 of my S25’s likely school choices - oy!! Expensive and/or limited options. I will be making some bookings so we’re not caught out. Glad I saw this chat on here today!
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well, C25 is 10 for 10 on acceptances, but why am I the only one that seems thrilled by it. They don’t seem to be the least bit excited and the stress of deciding is killing them (plus the current school work). I wanted this to be a happy time. UGHHH. To be honest, they ruled out 3 and 1 ruled themselves out but not giving any aid at all…so there are only 6, but I think C25 only sees the problems with each. 1 is great, but far away and not close to transportation. 1 is in a town that doesn’t like. 1 was great, but didn’t like the most likely (almost certain) advisor, 1 is too expensive… Trying to get them to look for the positives, not what to eliminate it for.
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It’s funny – this is kind of where I am with S25’s choices. Personally, the closer we get to his decision, the more anxious I am about him making the wrong choice, and the more I seem to fixate on the negatives (gender ratio! terrible weather! what if he falls through the cracks? what if he doesn’t want to be an engineer after all? what if the Seattle freeze is REAL!? what if the government…(we won’t even go there; it’s too bleak.)
I think this could just be a preemptive form of mourning, maybe? the same thing we were describing earlier, of closing off avenues? For most of our kids, this is the first real decision node that means something to them (as opposed to the time they categorically refused to practice their violin at age five, thus eliminating a future career in chamber music before they were even aware this was a thing…)
Just a thought.
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Y’all, I am sort of frozen here right now.
I need to plan a trip to Seattle and I’m anxious about how to time it. The kid is scheduled to get his braces removed right in the middle of spring break, and my church choir needs me just about every Sunday between now and Easter, and the kid also needs to finish his gov/econ courses before April 17 (yikes).
I think that absent any other inputs, he’d choose UW Seattle, sight unseen. But given the schools he’s gravitated toward after visiting (and the ones he instinctively rejected), I’m worried that a big state school in an urban setting really might not be his jam. And of course I’m scared about all the other stuff that I’ve already discussed ad nauseam (the falling through the cracks…lack of intellectual stimulation in giant chem and calc lecture courses…what if the next two years of courses feel like an extension of his high school grind and he never really engages intellectually? etc.) I’ve already mostly let go of most of these schools in my mind but WPI and Case are going to be really hard to mentally relinquish.
In the meantime, the California state schools bloodbath continues. The kid was waitlisted at Cal Poly Pomona, which was a huge blow to the ego. I want to write a memo to every rising sophomore in the Bay Area who is flaky about homework – want to stay in the golden state? get thy act together forthwith, or prepare to buy a parka and a sunlamp!
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Well Clemson merit aid announcements are out. And S25 got exactly what I predicted - $10k. Which puts this RIGHT in the slightly more than i think we should spend but not so much more as to make it a poor choice area.
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S25’s waitlisted at Brandeis, which they would have been pretty okay with except that their best friend got in. Apparently, they shared a secret fantasy about going to school together.
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I would try to get up here soon if you can. If you wait a few more weeks you’re going to be at higher risk for “sucker weather” when the flowers are in full bloom, the sun shining, and the people are smiling. If he’s coming to UW he should experience a real Seattle day in the Big Dark.
Obviously I’m trying to be a little funny but the PNW is hard for a lot of people and there is nothing more beautiful than the PNW on a sunny day, but they don’t happen during the school year much at all.
About your anxiety about choice. I am the same way and I remember it from D23 as well. This kind of underlying nausea that they’ve made a terrible mistake or will make a terrible mistake. I do think it’s a fear of change and losing our day to day with our kids. And maybe a little PTSD from college ourselves, remembering how scary it was at first etc. It all turned out great for D23, and I feel more optimistic with S25.
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I would make that trip happen! We live in the Seattle suburbs and both my very different kids were hard no’s on UW. It’s a great school but not for everyone. As someone else mentioned, the weather is a big consideration. At UW you end up in Seattle for the 9 months of grey, gloom and rain. Yes, there are some nice days sprinkled in but they are too few and far between if you ask me. Both my girls went South and East. They both were astonished at how lovely it is to see the sun on a regular basis in the Fall, Winter and Spring. They also now understand why we had plans to move after they finished high school.
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We’ll be at Admitted Students Day at UDub even though we visited last March (just slight drizzle). It is a gorgeous, gorgeous school and very walkable. (Honestly, I found the school buildings much better kept than the UCs I’ve visited.) The urban edge is not downtown LA/SF rough. It has too many college kids, so there are restaurants, coffee/boba, and clothing shops. Look at Google street view for a better feel or Youtube video.
I think out of all the kids that we know who are already at UDub or who are going are smart, smart kids. I feel like it is equivalent of my Bay Area kid’s APs classes. Her classmates who also got in, also got into UC Davis, WL at UCSB & UCSD, SLO, and great out of state publics and privates.
Sorry about Pomona, but I bet the prioritize Southern California kids.
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South Carolina has been the most communicative (at least with parents) of all my son’s acceptances. It makes me feel bad he will be turning it down.
He is visiting his current number one pick for an overnight tonight. The United States Merchant Marine Academy.
Still waiting to hear from USNA and USAFA (and could be for over a month as they very selectively and slowly build their classes)
He did very well with his civilian college acceptances going 4 for 4 and earning an NROTC scholarship.
Pitt - engineering
VA Tech Aerospace Engineering 3k merit 
given to all who do Corps of Cadets
Rensselaer Engineering with $36k/yr merit
South Carolina Aero Engineering $16k/yr merit
NROTC - full tuition to Pitt
USMMA - US Merchant Marine Academy, where you graduate with a 4 degree, a Coast Guard license and a commission in any branch of the services, you can go reserves and become a Merchant Mariner, or go active duty. He wants to be a pilot and often pilot slots go unfilled because of the starting salary as an engineer in the Merchant Marine (1k per day). They will spend 2 semesters at sea (where they get paid) so have to do a 4 year degree in 3. So intense academics. I think even if he gets into USNA at this point he may choose USMMA over the prestige.
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As someone who’s lived in Seattle area for 30 years, I agree. The weather is a big challenge, really the gray and damp for weeks and months on end, more than rain. Also, I can confirm the “Seattle Freeze” can be real. UW is a great match for some students, but should be seen in person, in my opinion.
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haha I have only been to Seattle once, for 10 days. It was sunny and 65-75 each day. 
It was truly glorious… I never heard that term “sucker weather”
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Probably between July 4 and September 30? The most glorious time of the year and makes us all “almost forget” the other 9 months.
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I lived in Seattle for a summer in college. Subletted near UW in the mid 90s. I have gone back a couple of times, always in the summer. It is ideal weather for me. Such a beautiful place. But the winter would kill me. I will take a sunny 20 degree day with snow on the ground over dreary, damp, chilly weather any day.
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My daughter has been to Seattle many times (I have family out there) and she recently commented to me that it’s always been sunny when she visited, even during the worst months when it is never sunny. But she’s definitely been very lucky in this, I’m in hard agreement with the comments above about the reality of Seattle winter. The other thing is that it gets dark really early there. It’s the same latitude as northern Minnesota, the tippy top of Maine, etc. The dark + the rain can really be something else.
(By the way, she has been to California only once, in April, for a week. It rained the entire time!)
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First rejection for D25 tonight. Hamilton College. She had already decided that New York was too far from home after all, so she just shrugged her shoulders at the news.
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When I went to college in the area, I got used to the bottom couple of inches of my jeans always being wet.
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correct! it was in that window:) I was ready to move - it was sooo glorious.
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I feel the same way.about UDub. My son loves it. We visited it a couple of times. My friends kids had great experiences there too. Seems to get high marks for student experience overall.
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Wow, amazing that he is so focused on what he wants!
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