I want to cry. She decided NOT to ED smith. She’ll still apply but she decided to keep her options open. NPC has most schools costing us 10k more a year. Or more!!. She said she wants to compare offers. She’s an above average student but not enough to get enough merit aid to go to most schools. Plus now I feel like we are back to the drawing board looking at dozens of schools. 
to top this off- completing the common app has been like pulling teeth.
Which tax year information did you use for filling out the Net Price Calculators for 2025-26 school year?
Agree that the housing thing is so annoying. When D22 was applying, we did put down the non-refundable housing deposit for UGA. It was her last resort in-state school, and she got her acceptance a good couple months before any other school. I made her apply because I wanted her to have a reasonable in-state option since she was otherwise applying to mostly reach schools, and who knew what would happen? But if she got into any other school, we knew we’d lose that housing deposit.
Another annoying one is Clemson – they assign housing priority by application date. So students around here are applying at 12:01 a.m. on August 1 when the Common App opens. No joke.
FYI re: Clemson - this year for housing it was first chunk was people who had identified roommates, then within that group in order by earlier application date. If, for example, your kid was stressed out during the time people were doing the weird internet dating of trying to find a roommate and decided to just go random - then that kid is after every single roommate pair, regardless of their application date.
Signed, someone whose S25 applied Aug 3 but didn’t commit to Clemson until late April because he was waiting to attend admitted students days at his top two choices then he was burnt out with last finals and AP exams and the whole try to identify a roommate from their mini bio was too much, so he had no id’d roommate and ended up with a crummy room selection slot.
So stressful. It may not be a fit for your daughter at all, but since she’s in the small minority of students interested in women’s colleges I figure I’ll mention this. You may want to take a look at Agnes Scott in Atlanta area if you haven’t already. It is a more affordable option for many (lower list price then many LACs and significant “merit” for everyone). Also higher admit rate, so could be a good backup for her in regular round. We loved it when we visited and it is now one of my D26’s top choices.
D26 made a swap to her list last night - when she went to do the supplemental essay for School X, she realized she has zero interest in actually attending there - so put a different school in its place. One that will be affordable and smaller size, which makes me a little relieved. Most of her list is otherwise huge state schools of varying acceptance rates and prices. I am glad she will have some different size options (hopefully - pending acceptances of course) in case she feels differently about which is her best fit come spring.
I’m so sorry. It must feel like a gut punch at this point in the game. 
It’s still early, she still has almost 2 months till ED application deadline(s), so may circle back around after assessing her other options.
Got D26 to add an EA school. No supplemental essay, so didn’t have to twist her arm too hard. She may or may not be able to continue her sport there, but, at least it’s another option.
The EA with no supplemental is huge, so glad they exist. D26 has one on her list that she’d be fine attending and should get in. Once she gets Agnes Scott done (which has 6 supplementals!), she can just submit the other one at the same time with little to no added work. She may do one other EA whose only supplemental is the “why do you want to go here” one.
S26 has been treading water on the college application front as he settles into his class schedule. The way his block days are split up this year means he has a very dense workday on Tuesday/Thursday (AP Drawing, AP Calc BC, AP Lang, Economics) and light days on Wednesday/Friday (just AP Chem and Peer Tutoring in math—he helps TA a freshman math class). This should work to his benefit eventually, as he gets out at lunch on Wed/Fri and can use the time to work on apps or catch up on homework, but what has happened so far is that he’s exhausted by the long days and he hangs with friends on the short days. Trying to convince him to use the short days to help balance his work load, which has come on fast and hard, but so far no luck. I know he needs his friend time too but it’s hard not to wring my hands over the impending deadlines.
Trying to remember that he does have 2 months to work through his ED/EA list. And another month for the UCs. I remember my D22 doing her PIQs over Thanksgiving break. And a flurry of activity over winter break when she got rejected from her ED. Deep breaths.
Yes, same for my S23. I remember talking about them over Thanksgiving dinner!
PIQs are why D26 categorically noped the UCs. She doesn’t care to go bad enough to subject herself to that much more writing…
I think my S26 would happily “nope” them too but since we are in state (he wants to go OOS), I have to insist. His shot at them is also low since they are test blind (he has a high ACT score) and they calculate only using 10-11th grade grades, neither of which bode well for him given his handful of Bs in 10th grade. But, they are such a high value for the in state tuition that it seems he has to take the shot. Sigh.
I’m originally from SoCal, so I get it. I applied to 3 UC campuses way back when, but don’t recall having to write 8 essays.
I just remember how much of a pain in the butt it was to apply to college before there was email. Having to request a physical application packet by mail since our counseling office only had UC, Cal State and local community college apps available consistently.
Same, same, all the same here 
My D26 is applying to her first choice ED, but if that doesn’t “work out” we’ll be hoping for a UC admission or two, although she too has a relatively high SAT but mid GPA in grades 10-11.
D26 shared a little more info about some college counseling stuff:
Took kid to her allergist appt early this morning. Everything’s normal there, no changes needed so that’s good!
Same! UC’s off the list because of PIQs. Thankfully we have an equally affordable out of state option she is excited about.
Meant to also add:
One thing that my husband has struggled with during both of our kids’ college app process is embracing the concept that this is the kid’s process, it’s the kid’s decision at the end of the day, and it’s the kid, NOT HIM, who will be attending the college.
With D26, this has resulted in a little more frustration than how it went w/D24. Since D26 wants to major in cybersecurity, Husband has become increasingly passionate about how he doesn’t want D26 to “end up in a useless job like being a cybersecurity policy puke.” Yes, his exact words. 
He REALLY wants her to major in computer science or engineering. That is absolutely not happening. Why? Because the kid doesn’t want to take 1-1.5 yr of Calculus + a semester of Linear Algebra + a year of chemistry + maybe also 1+ yr of engineering physics. She’s said, “Nope. Forget it. I’m not doing that.”
Cybersecurity majors are a mixed bag depending on what school it is, which department the major is in, etc. Some are in a school’s college of business. Some are in the computer science department. Some are multidisciplinary majors with classes that are a cross-section of multiple departments.
D26 & I have been able to find what I think are a good mix of schools that meet all of her ‘must have’ criteria:
Since H isn’t going w/us on the Tulsa trip (due to cost & work), D26 & I asked him if he has any specific questions he’d like to get info about, so D26 could ask about it on the visit. Answer was no.
Then H said, “Well, I just want to know that it’s not a program that is just full of useless cyber policy classes.” Ok, then here’s the list of required classes for the major. Let us know if there’s anything else you want to know.
$50 says that we’ll return from the Tulsa trip and he’ll ask, “Did you ask about this? Did you ask about that?” No, we didn’t because you didn’t tell us you wanted to know about those things.
Then at other times, he backs off and says, “this is D26’s process.”
D26 is also still a bit interested in the legal profession, so a non-computer science major that would allow her to minor in something like history, philosophy, or at Tulsa or U of A, minor in law, is really appealing to her. H has voiced his malcontent to the child with this idea and she gives it right back with “Well, I’m gonna be the one taking the classes, not you, so it doesn’t really MATTER if you’re not interested in those things. You’re not going to college, I AM!”
D26 is our youngest. At the end of the day, I think what’s driving all of this is that H knows that this next year is going to fly by in the blink of an eye and whammo, we’ll be at mid-to-late August 2026 moving our youngest kid into the dorms for her freshman year. And then overnight, we’ll be empty nesters.
And he’s not ready for that yet.
In the meantime, he’s driving everybody a little bananas with his intensity sometimes over it all. It drives D26 away a bit. Have tried talking to him about this. Spousal Unit won’t listen.
Given all of the schools she’ll be applying to, I’m really really happy with the options she’ll have on the table to choose from. And it’ll come down to, ultimately, which place does she feel is the best fit for her.
H, on the other hand, is still dealing with the reality that “best fit” for our D26 is different than what he would choose for himself.
Sorry for the long diatribe about this. It’s come to a head recently since college app season is in full swing. Thanks for listening.
Students just need to write 4 PIQs. Both my kids found this easier than the common app personal statement because the PIQs are relatively straightforward, more like interview questions or supplemental essays.
FWIW, you can let your husband know that it is a really really tough job market right now for the CS and CE kids - like struggling to get jobs, even with great grades coming from great programs. The cybersecurity folks, on the other hand, are getting hired. The cybersecurity person in my IT shop does spend a lot of time reading, and not coding. There’s a lot of work reviewing agreements, reviewing use policies, making sure that supply chain policies and routes are safe then there’s the not every day, the dealing with the random incursions and incidents into our system. Then if D26 is interested in the law enforcement field and less policy work, there are lots of “cyber cops” - lots of jobs for people looking into cybercrime, doing investigations etc. There’s plenty of work out there in this area, and there will always be bad guys to watch out for, mitigate against, or try to find and prosecute.