common app has been submitted . Just in time, I thought EA deadline was 11/15, it turned out it was 11/10, oops. Luckily S26 was on top of it. He ended up eliminating one school, as it was unlikely to come within budget and he wouldnāt have chosen it over the other schools. He has now applied to four schools. 3 safeties and 1 high reach.
Now on to honors college essay and applications for department scholarships at the school heās already been admitted to. and for me it is on to FAFSA and CSS.
And, since itās come up, all are in driving distance, 45 minutes, 1.5 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours.
We are very spoiled right now because S23ās college apartment is about 15 min drive from our house. Part of me loves the idea of D26 launching herself in some wonderful faraway city full of new thingsā¦ but I have to admit that my clingy mom side canāt help thinking of how nice it would be to have her at the same great school as her brother. My kids are also really close and love spending time together.
I think I missed the post, but was someone asking about how far away the schools on your kidās list are? Iāll play! In order of driving distance, D26 applied to the following seven schools ā
45 minutes
4 hours
8 hours
11 hours
12.5 hours
14.5 hours
16.5 hours
For a kid who originally said she only wanted to go driving distance, this is eye-opening!
D22 is about 13 hours away, but we have actually done that drive many times now. (She normally flies, of course.)
And S25 is about 2 hours away. It was really, really nice to be able to easily go see him for an event a couple weeks ago, and equally nice that he can just get in his car and drive home for breaks.
Oh gosh, I forgot C26 had originally said this too!
That said (flight disruptions aside), door to door is about the same flying to Boulder as driving to socalā¦ of course Pitt etc are further. But weāve already done this rodeo with D19 on the opposite coast. The only school that potentially worries me is the one with either a connecting flight to small local airport or an intercity train or bus ride from closest large airports. Anything with a direct flight is not such an issue.
Speaking of long drives to colleges, D was looking with interest at pictures of Dalhousie University tonight. I just looked it up and Google says we could drive there in about 54 hours āwithout traffic.ā I guess that is technically driveable
When she started looking at colleges, D26 really wanted to go far away, preferably south like Florida. The spouse said āno way!ā. But as we get closer to decision time, she is definitely seeing the benefits of closer schools. The farthest one she applied to was Columbia Chicago, which is a 10 hour drive. The others are 4.5 hours, 2.75 hours, 2.5 hours, 1.75 hours, and 45 minutes. (There is one college 20 minutes away that sheās applying to to make her dad happy, but the chances of her attending are slim to none.)
We have this issue with two of the schools on D26ās list. Both are more than an hour from the nearest airport.
For the second one, she could connect through LaGuardia to the tiny regional airport, but I donāt know if thatās better or worse than flying into Boston and then taking a train and a bus.
Speaking of traveling, I am holding my breath and watching whatās happening with flights ā D22 is booked on a Tuesday evening flight home during Thanksgiving week. A friend of hers is on the same flight.
If it gets cancelled, she does have her car there ā I guess they could start driving the 13 hours home? With sharing the driving, itās feasible. Friend lives about 2 hours from us (she could drop him off and continue) ā but I really, really hope it doesnāt come to that.
We have tickets to go see a show on Wed evening, so Iām hoping she makes it home for that. Priorities!
(But for real, I havenāt seen the kid since August, so Iām gonna be sad if it doesnāt happen at all.)
The potential issue school is a reach so Iām not going to worry too much until and unless it becomes a decision. But I do know many Bay Area kids go there and it seems to be ok, so.
We are booked to go away for thanksgiving and D19 is meeting us at the destination, all flying. I am a little worried. Our flight has a connection, hers is direct.
Well, S26ās school will be a 14 hour drive. The plus side is that it is 0 min from S22 and 2.5 hours from D24. It makes visiting easier.
@SpreadsheetMom Iām in the same boat for flights. Iām actually planning to fly down to UAH/UA and watch a football and basketball game and then D24 and I fly home the Monday of Thanksgiving. She goes back the next weekend. Iām making plans for us to do something else in case I end up driving instead.
D26ās schools are mostly within train distance. That was one of the things that she wanted. That said, one school is definitely a plane flight away. Itās a crazy reach, so Iām also not too worried about it. And one other school, Pitt, is a long train ride away (9 hours). If she ends up there, I bet she starts flying.
One thing she did manage to do was not pick any schools that required driving. Even though some of her schools are pretty suburban/rural, sheās trying to avoid needing a car. Weāll see how long that lasts!
The closest school on D26ās list is 5 hours and 45 minutes drive away without traffic (which never happens), short flight though. Closest school sheād likely go to is similar distance. Both in state.
The furthest school is a 45 hour drive, so basically 2 days of driving. The furthest sheād likely go to is a 42 hour drive.
In short, flights are basically a certainty for us. Our kid is going away no matter what.
Ugh. D26 is actually supposed to fly to DC on a band/chorus trip the Saturday-Monday before Thanksgiving. I was already fretting about it because sheāll be at an away game the night before and wonāt get back until at least midnight, and she has to be at the airport at 5 a.m. ā not a great way to start off whatās supposed to be a fun enrichment trip.
But now, who even knows if theyāll get flights for such a short trip, and who even knows if museums and monuments will be open. Crossing my fingers itās not a total debacle.
Mine doesnāt have a bf at home, lol, but boy does she miss her cats! Our boy cat is losing his hair on both flanks ā from the stress, I think. (Yeah Iām about to book a vet visit.) She is definitely his human.
Mine didnāt have a car the first two years while she lived on campus, but she needed one the third year when she moved to an apartment.
But even though she moved back to campus this year, she now canāt imagine not having her car ā and itās helpful that senior privilege means she doesnāt have to park in the Shire, lol. But she actually drives quite a lot for all sorts of things.
(Bonus is that she used to be a timid driver ā but driving in Houston, plus making the 13-hour drive to and from several times has cured her of that!)
I know there were a handful of us traveling over this last weekend for campus visits and other stuff.
Hopefully everyone made it there and back with limited interruptions.
We made it to RIT with no problems at all.
Getting backā¦ we did eventually make it home- but over a day late. Hardly any sleep and now we need to recover. (Emotionally and physically )
For anyone traveling right now- just have a plan B (and C,D,ā¦). The airlines have been pretty good at letting travelers know which flights are getting cancelled ahead of time- but it is still unpredictable. Throw in potential bad weather that likes to roll in around this time, and it will be getting worse.
Make sure your kids (and you) know how to use the airline apps so that they can be among the first to grab an empty seat on the next available flight. There are slim pickings and the faster you can be- the better your odds of getting one of the few empty seats on another flight.
Also have a general idea of which hotels that you want to stay in (some do not like younger occupants checking in so be ready to advocate if needed for you kids- we saw a few younger groups having to have a parent call in to get them rooms ) at you connecting airports so that rooms can be booked if needed (again- slim pickings in certain areas because lots of people are getting stuck)
And just be prepared for it to be an adventure!!!
Canāt wait to hear the updates for anyone that had a visit this weekend!!!
We missed a few info sessions, so we need to see what they have recorded for later viewing and what they have for upcoming zoom sessions. And what info we need to contact someoneā¦
We are giving her a few days to recover from the trip and to let everything settle before we get the debrief of her thoughts on the overall visit. But she has already said that as of right now- it is coming down between UL and RIT. Mines has been bumped from the previous 3-way tie.
We are still going to the Mines open house this weekend- just to give it one more go- she has had this one on her list for years- so even though we are fine with it dropping off- just want to make sure that she has all the info possible before officially doing so.
She has until early December to let UL know if she will be accepting her admissions offer or not. We are going to be reaching out to see what is takes to extend that.
One positive- RIT said that those who attending this Open House could get a 2-week extension on applying ED1 (or EA if you missed the deadline).
So, if she does decide that RIT is her absolute first choice- she can hopefully make that switch from EA to ED1 and find out in the next month if she is accepted or not. That way- we would only have to find a way to delay the UL reply by a week or two while waiting for the RIT decision to come through- which seems possible.
If she just canāt make that decision in the next week- we will figure out what we can do to secure UL while waiting for RIT as an EA decision.
(Worrying about this scenario later- I have a gut feeling that she knows what she wants but is yet wanting to say it- high anxiety kid having to make a high anxiety inducing decision )
Just for fun:
Drive times:
RIT- 22 hrs
UL- Requires planes, trains and automobiles
Mines- 40 mins
(the crazy thing- we can many times find cheaper flights to Ireland than we can to Rochester )
. Just in time, I thought EA deadline was 11/15, it turned out it was 11/10, oops. Luckily S26 was on top of it. He ended up eliminating one school, as it was unlikely to come within budget and he wouldnāt have chosen it over the other schools. He has now applied to four schools. 3 safeties and 1 high reach.
) at you connecting airports so that rooms can be booked if needed (again- slim pickings in certain areas because lots of people are getting stuck)
)