RD Decisions? Has anyone else heard back?

CAorBust
Mon, 21 Mar 2011 09:55:20 +0000

My daughter got her acceptance letter Saturday for midyear admission. She really doesn’t want to start in January, since she already decided she didn’t want to do a gap year, has no burning personal/sports/vocational/volunteer interest to pursue, isn’t one to want to do the Lone Ranger thing, and really wants to start when her friends do (she wanted to room with a hs friend who was admitted ED, but I guess that won’t be possible now.) She might want to do a semester abroad, but not before she’s discovered her specific interests and objectives for doing that. We also were completely unaware of January admissions.

On the other hand, it seems kids with higher stats got rejected or waitlisted. Perhaps it’s better she was definitely admitted? Maybe she got stuck with January because the admissions officer(s) figured Brandeis might well be the “best” or highest-ranked college she would be admitted to, and would be likely to accept Jan. admission? Also she was not offered any merit aid, as opposed to $9K in merit scholarships from an EA school, so I do wonder if she was a lower-priority admit.

I’ve looked at previous threads on January admits, and I have to concur I’m baffled why January admission is not a self-selected option. If it is such a great opportunity, surely they could find 100 candidates to fill the Jan. cohort? I worry she is/will be some sort of second class citizen and will not be fully integrated with her class. Also I’ve seen at least one poster assert that course selection(s) spring semester are not as numerous as fall semester. I suppose my daughter can take classes at another college for credit in the fall (she already has a summer job) so she can graduate on schedule, but it does seem to me that somehow she is being offered 3.5 years at Brandeis instead of the full 4 years, for which we will be paying full freight, in order to help Brandeis increase its tuition income and balance its student population.

Any thoughts or suggestions from others in the same situation?