Last day of school/graduation here is 29 May. I haven’t done the number of days calc!
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D26 graduates on May 23 (at 8:00 AM!). Senioritis in full bloom - gonna be a long two months.
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Sorry about the illnesses. I feel like everyone’s sick around here. Am also empathetic about the overzealous enforcement of the absence policy. It was never so strict at our school but this year they are sending out emails threatening loss of credit after missing a certain % of any class in the semester. we just got one for my daughter because she is getting close to missing too many Psychology classes due to cheer travel. She previously had a 100 average in that class (for the year), but dropped down to a 98 because she got a 95 on one test so I was joking that her “chronic absenteeism” was really affecting her learning. Hoping she doesn’t get sick in the next two weeks so she can complete 3rd quarter without missing any more classes.
I hope your D26 can rally and has a great visit to Auburn this weekend!
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Graduation here (MA) is early June, but I remember when my NJ niece graduated it was late June and I was surprised by that.
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D26 got her first rejection today (RISD), she’s not really surprised, but it’s still humbling. Luckily, it wasn’t one of her top choices.
In the good news category, she found out she is officially one of the top 10 in her class. Plus, she leaves tomorrow to revisit one of her top choices (UTK).
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Funny that my D26 is also 8:00 AM on May 23 – and then our older kids sync up time/date, too. 
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D26 accepted to Mount Holyoke but the financial aid is…underwhelming. It’s one of her top choices, but COA is close to $50k. All other schools so far are coming in far below that. I thought there was a chance at TE, since she’s received it at several other schools and she had the support of the equestrian team coach. Even her older brother, at one of the most expensive universities in the country, has a COA $15k less than that. Just such a bummer, she has other good options but still - that price tag is so disappointing
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Hm. I know a number of public schools have tuition locks, but I’ve just discovered UIUC also freezes the cost of room and board at your entering rate, as long as you stay in dorms the whole way. (If you change the type of dorm, like single to double, or type of meal plan, you would pay the new one at the original 2026/27 rates). I’ve never heard of this before. Do many colleges do this?
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That’s amazing! I don’t know the answer, but I know D22’s school and others locked in tuition, which was very helpful!
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Is she considering appealing for more? I have a colleague who has a child who was admitted to Haverford and it was their top choice. Their financial aid offer was significantly less than every other school they had been admitted to. They ended up appealing and telling them that if they could match X they would attend and were offered a much better package. They are attending now. Might be worth a try if she is sure she wants to go to MH.
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That’s a great perk! Of the schools D26 was looking at, only Miami Ohio specifically said they freeze cost of attendance for four years – including tuition, food, housing, etc.
But I don’t think kids typically live on campus for more than two years, so unclear exactly how the housing cost is frozen – I didn’t dig further into it.
Yeah I don’t know that practically it would be a 4-year freeze, no idea what C26 will do after freshman year, but still worth noting. D19 stayed 3 years in dorms.
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I’m sorry 
I do agree it might be worth negotiating -worst they can say is no.
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Thanks, we are planning on contacting the financial aid office to see if there’s any room for negotiation, DH said maybe they didn’t see our revised CSS form. We’ll see what happens over the next week, but the schools with good merit packages so far are looking more & more appealing!
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S26 has only 21 school days left! It’s nearly 6 weeks but with spring break and a testing day that he gets off, it drops fast.
He has finished a few more scholarships. I wish we would start hearing from them. Well, only if he wins one. Haha. It would be motivation to do to continue, I think. There are a bunch of local ones due in April after spring break so he will work on those then.
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I asked S26 to see if he was offered any merit aide, he looked and UCSC offered 20k in Federal Parent Plus Loan, I was curious what the interest rate was.
For Direct PLUS Loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 2025, and before July 1, 2026, the interest rate is 8.94%.
That’s insane. We are waiting for the rest of the UCs but I am glad we won’t be going this route no matter what.
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We’ve been advised to avoid parent plus loans entirely if possible.
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Better than credit cards. If you’re in a bad debt situation, they are helpful.
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We’ve got two seniors this year, our own son and a classmate who’s joined our household after his folks passed away. Both are having good admissions seasons tempered with some rejections from reaches. We’re still waiting to hear from some of the most selective schools (Yale, Vassar, Wesleyan), but for now they’ve narrowed the choices down to:
Son: Kenyon, Tulane, St. Olaf
Friend: William & Mary, Washington & Lee, Berea, Harvey Mudd
Since we waited to visit a lot of places farther afield only if they got in with doable aid packages, we’ll be spending a lot of time and money this month seeing the country. So far, have hit KY and OH; next week, Lexington, Williamsburg and possibly New Orleans; the week following, possibly Claremont and Northfield.
Very grateful for the generosity of some schools with fly-in vouchers for students in real need. Our friend (we’ve settled on that word; housemate or ward seem ridiculous) is dependent on SS survivor’s benefits, and they (A) end the month of high school graduation and (B) total less than what he needs for basic expenses if he weren’t living and eating with us.
We’re grateful too to the schools who’ve committed to 100% needs met. Feeling very fortunate in our house right now. It’ll be lonely around here in a few months, but there’s consolation in knowing that both boys have great options ahead of them. We’ve loved almost every campus we’ve visited, including the ones that have fallen out of the running.
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I love hearing all the visits, decisions etc. since D26 applied ED she’s been committed since December and I forgot about all the craziness that goes into decision making. With S24 we were visiting Ann Arbor in mid March (and it snowed!)
We are limited on scholarships as Duke will only accept scholarships to cover loan/ work study. Any more reduces the need based grant so she’s eased up on that. She was awarded one scholarship on the national level through USASF which is the governing body of all star cheer. So it was a big honor to see her 14 years in cheer result in something. They announced it at a large competition where there were about 10000 people in the building so that was really fun and meaningful. A great memory to carry with her.
Today she did another “adult” thing and applied for her own TSA precheck. Spring break is soon and with the current t airport shenanigans I want to be prepared. Showing up at 3 am for our 6 am flight already sounds awful. A 2 hour security line would be miserable.
Can’t wait to hear all the final decisions!
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