I probably won’t, but I have toyed with asking S24 to write down his current order for his final 3 (could be privately), to later compare to his final order after admitted visits.
I probably won’t, because I am really trying to avoid interfering with his process. But it would be a fun experiment.
Your idea of “fun” might not be the same as S24’s 
Good luck!
So true! I love a good pro/con list when making decisions, S24, not so much!
He might well agree with you . . . .
My kid is also having a hard time choosing. Her top three choices are Brown, Duke and Penn. She got waitlisted from her absolute first choice (Cornell) and now she cannot decide on which school she wants to attend. We have been attending the admitted student day events and it is not making her decision any clearer unfortunately. I think she is hoping she gets off the Cornell waitlist but she still needs to make a decision before May 1.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Well - Cornell is larger and then in Ithaca where Brown is in Providence and Penn is in Philly.
What does she like about Cornell? Which other of the three shares those traits?
You might put two of them up together - you have to Choose Duke vs. Penn. Which is it?
If she can make a decision, then you’ve eliminated one. Then you do the next match up, etc. Sometimes it’s easier to look 1:1 vs. multiples at once.
But if you can dive down into what excites her about Cornell…
What major? Any cost issues or differences?
Thanks. She wants to do engineering and economics. There is no real cost difference among the ones she has gotten into in terms of financial aid received etc.
I think she is leaning towards Penn and Duke more than Brown but then flip flops because she likes the open curriculum at Brown.
When she received her decisions last month she spent the first week mourning the fact she didn’t get into Cornell. I think this is why she is not moving on and making a decision with the acceptances she has, which is painful to watch because she has great choices in front of her but she is pining for the one she didn’t get into.
Brown has several combined degrees with economics, although not engineering.
https://economics.brown.edu/academics/undergraduate/concentrations/combined
Brown also has both an BA and a BS in engineering, which might be appealing for a combined major (Brown calls them concentrations) with Econ. The BA is not ABET accredited, however.
The open curriculum is very appealing, IMO.
Feel free to DM me if you have any specific questions about Brown. My son is a junior CS major there who has also taken a couple of engineering classes.
Thanks very much. I’ll discuss with her.
With oldest it was totally crazy. Covid spring. She came of one waitlist. But we needed the other one. She was ready to commit somewhere. I said wait. We truly were ready to pay two deposits because couldn’t figure out what to do…1 day before deadline she came of waitlist at Gatech and commited in 15 minutes there without ever visiting.
Wow! What a story. Can you pay two deposits for the May 1 deadline? I didn’t realize you could do that.
Did she do anything to come off the waitlist? It’s so unpredictable.
You are not supposed too. But given Covid, no ability to visit etc…
You’re not supposed to and, if found out, can get rescinded from both.
But of course, you can deposit at one and then withdraw if you get off a waitlist that you want.
Yes she did. I was sharing with friends our dilemma and we were pulling our hair not understandings what to do.
She had CMU not affordable, UMICH not affordable, CASE affordable but still expensive, and UMD - affordable but not really her major (she wanted Biomedical Engineering and they had only recently established Bio Engineering- nothing to do with medical…)
Someone suggested to share her acceptances (that looked good on paper but were not that good in reality). So she wrote email to coordinator that she got into CMU, UMich, Case and UMD but all her life was dreaming about GaTech because all her immediate and extended family graduated from GaTech( that is true!) and she will commit to GaTech even after depositing to other school. She got off waitlist in 2 days…
Here’s the link to the engineering curriculum
Concentrations | Engineering | Brown University
And here is the link to the courses being offered next fall. It is for all departments, but you can limit them via the search boxes to just a specific department
And I’m not pushing Brown over her other options! It’s just the one that I know!
Can she go to accepted students day at the three schools?
You can try our strategy. Write them her acceptances and say that she will switch to Cornell if accepted even after depositing…
That’s a great strategy. We don’t have any family who attended Cornell but we can definitely let them know it’s her top choice. Fingers crossed
She has been to two of the three admitted student day events and it hasn’t made things clearer unfortunately.