African-American HS Class of 2020

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That’s great news, Game! I hope you get the result you’re looking for.

This week, my son received acceptances from Clark Atlanta U and SMU. No word on the CAU finaid package, but the initial SMU package is promising. Also looking at a couple of others that accepted this week and waiting on a few more decisions.

Good luck to everyone.

@EconPop Your son is on a roll now. I know he must be getting a little anxious now that you are down to a couple of weeks remaining for most of his remaining decisions.

Well, my son got the scholarship offer (Morehouse) we were waiting for, so I will do a recap of his acceptances, scholarships/money offered and final out of pocket expenses expected.

Major: Applied as Computer Engineering or Computer Science Major at schools below:

Accepted: Howard University, Morehouse College, Tulane University, Tuskegee University, North Carolina A&T, Alabama A&M, Dillard University, and Clark Atlanta.
Denied: Georgia Tech

Money offered:
Howard University (Presidential Scholarship) Full Tuition, Fees, Room and Board, $950 per semester for books, and $1,000 per semester stipend totaling 46.8K per year.

Morehouse College (Renewable Scholarship) 30K per year, Zell Miller Scholarship for GA students is about 5K per year.

Tulane University (Distinguished Scholar Tulane Merit) 31K per year, (Tulane Donors Award) 10K per year, (Tulane Need based aid) 20.7K per year.

Tuskegee University (Distinguished Presidential Scholarship) Full Tuition, Fees, Room & Board, and $500 per semester for books, totaling 35K per year.

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (1 time 5K Merit award)

Alabama A&M University (Heritage Gold Scholarship) 4.5K per year and $500 per year for books.

Dillard University (University Scholarship) Full Tuition, Room & Board totaling 29K.

Clark Atlanta University (10K Merit Award)

Amount we would have to pay each school in year 1 (No books, transportation, or living expenses in the numbers below).

Howard University $0
Morehouse College ~$9,000
Tulane University ~$13,300
Tuskegee University $0
North Carolina A&T ~$26,000
Alabama A&M ~$28,500
Dillard University ~$2,300
Clark Atlanta University ~26,000

My son just shared with me that he is probably joining his sister, @havingfunyet, and @MomofThree80’s kids at Howard University. My son will share with Morehouse his overall package from Howard to see if Morehouse “adjusts” their offer, but he very much at peace with how things turned out. Since the last competitive scholarship virtual Selection Weekend is for a STEM cohort full ride at Howard, there is no pressure on him. He has also applied to some smaller outside scholarships and we will see if he gets any thing extra in the next 2 months.

I want to say thank you to those on this thread who have been very supporting and have rooted for my son during this journey. I can not wait to hear the final results for the rest of you and good luck. We are all almost done!

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@ChangeTheGame Congratulations! So exciting!!!

@ChangeTheGame Congratulations on the scholarship from Morehouse! I was wondering when you all would hear from them. It has been a roller coaster ride. And now with the Coronavirus, the roller coaster is still going. But yes! I’m a Bison Mom now?

Have any other parents on here heard from your high school if graduation will be postponed?

Wow Congratulations everyone! Such great news all around.

Thought I share this. D21 hs started a 4 week internship with a local medical center 3 yrs ago that only rising seniors could apply for. Now that she’s a rising senior she applied. The overview session was put on by both her class counselor and one of the Vice Principles. Sooo my assumption was she would be interviewed by these two individuals. Well, that was NOT the case. She was actually interviewed by her guidance counselor, another school administrator AND the Doctor that helped kick off the program. He is a surgeon and physician coordinator at the medical center. BUT the biggest surprise is he received his BS/MS in Mechanical or Chemical Engineering, I forget AND his MD ALL from no other than Howard University!

Nice surprise. However, my DD attends a PW HS and the first cohort had ZERO AA and the last group had all of 1. I’m sure it’s due to not many or any applying. My DD school is pretty rigorous and I’m sure the math and science classes there changes a lot of minds. She the only one in her Honors Physics.

So if she gets the internship she will be working with a Bison!! Very exciting!

@MomOfThree80, my DS20 is not in school, right now, until April 3. However, with the CDC eight week ban, that may go up until May 10th. His graduation is after that. We will see how things go.

@ChangeTheGame I’m glad you all have some leverage and you all are definitely in the sweet spot right now.

Loving hearing all this great news from everyone!

@MomOfThree80 Prom was just canceled today :frowning: My son is out of school until March 30 but today our state just closed dine-in restaurants and bars, so I see the kids being out longer.My son’s graduation would have normally been May 7th, we are assuming that it will either be cancelled or (hopefully) postponed.

My daughter came home for spring break last Thursday and was due to return to school on March 30th. The latest message that we received from the school was that spring break will be extended one week and Online learning will begin on April 6th until… She is due to graduate on May 23rd. We have purchased a Prom dress, an outfit for the senior breakfast, an outfit for the senior awards ceremony and an outfit for graduation. My daughter says that she brought home all of her outfits in the event that she does not go back and that she is going to wear those outfits and take pictures. As of right now I am low key planning an alternate graduation celebration (just immediate family) in the event that she does not get to return and her graduation is canceled.

@MamaBear2001 and @Sarrip We too purchased a prom dress, and I finally fessed up to hubby today on the price tag…It’s supposed to be April 18th and graduation is May 20 th. All of this still seems unreal. DD is starting to get a little bummed out by all the chaos as well.

This is definitely a moment in time that will never be forgotten. And some, including my daughter have some decisions still pending which adds additional stress. I was reading a different thread which was discussing parents being out of work and the financial impact that this could have on their students attending college. How grateful I am to have at least one acceptance for DD whereby we will not have to be concerned with her tuition for 4 years (whether it be her first choice or not). I feel like we are in a Twilight Zone episode.

It looks like my son may be in the minority. He was feeling some pressure (in his mind) to ask a young lady to prom and he now is feeling a sense of relief. I don’t see the prom happening with a mid April date for him.

My son never wanted to “walk” for graduation as he is ready to start his new life in college, but it has been a non-negotiable in our household as “Graduation days are for the parents” (My mom told me that when I complained about graduation tasks 26 years ago). I hope my son’s graduation isn’t cancelled, but it feels inevitable.

My S and his classmates have a joke going around that graduation will be online where everyone gets a cartoon avatar and presses a button on the keyboard to “accept” a diploma.
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In the event graduation does get cancelled, and not postponed, I would definitely try to get my son’s friends together to do something once this virus gets under control. Hoping that happens before the next school year starts.

In the mist of all of this sadness and disappointment about illness, fear, social distancing, graduations and other events being canceled, we had a bright moment tonight…DD was accepted to Swarthmore. Slightly over the budget we set but noticed the books are included in the tuition and no loans so it makes me say Hmmmm. Next week will be here soon enough with the last of the decisions and we will see where we will go from here.

Very nice @Sarrip. My husband’s uncle used to teach there many years ago. You all have some great choices ahead.

I knew it was coming. I didn’t know exactly when but I knew it. Every time there was a decision coming up I wondered if this would be the day. After a streak of 10 acceptances, the streak was broken. She was waitlisted at Barnard, #11. There was about an hour of sadness. I gave her her space, went into the kitchen made her a fruit platter (pity platter) arranged in a smiley face, took it upstairs, and gave her a hug. She told me that she’s disappointed but she had her moment and it’s over. She told me that she already completed the form to remain on the waitlist (this was one of her top choices). I told her that the moment may come back but it’s OK. She’s upstairs sewing and laughing at what she’s watching on netflix. They do recover, it was just a little faster than I though it would be.

@SatanFlower69
I have a response in regards to what I consider an unfair statement about HBCUs:

  1. Low graduation and retention rates are more-so a reflection of resources of students not the school. Many intelligent students drop out due to lack of funding, the cost of college grows so much every year … and it’s no secret blacks as a race have the lowest average income.
    And please note many PWIs (Predominately White Institutions) with high graduation rates have black graduation rates that largely lag behind the white ones. For example, it’s not uncommon to have PWIs with a white graduation rate near 80% and black ones near 60%.
    Read more here - https://hechingerreport.org/another-way-to-quantify-inequality-inside-colleges/
    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=4E6766707718243957E7555DD9C067A0&gwt=pay&assetType=REGIWALL

  2. It’s not fair to say the financial aid will be insufficient without actually applying for financial aid at any HBCU. There are plenty of HBCU students with adequate financial aid, I know of some. I mean Oprah donated $15 million for scholarships to Morehouse last year and the Karsh family donated $10 million for scholarships to Howard this year.

  3. Most people at PWIs self-segregate usually. Greek life on a PWI campus is highly segregated, class groups are highly segregated, social groups are highly segregated, dorm life is highly segregated … so I wish people stop with this unrealistic diversity fantasy. Having a bunch of people of many different races on a college campus doesn’t guarantee there will be genuine integration and a lot of social exchange between races … it’s never been a reality. Even racially diverse Harvard has black dorms, black graduations, black freshmen orientation, black student center, black orgs … most people feel most comfortable with people who look like them and share their cultural background and that’s not a terrible thing. Especially if they are not heavily represented. Also in Michelle Obama’s book “Becoming”, Michelle talked about the extreme isolation she felt at Princeton in the 80s mostly due to her race. Her freshman year roommate didn’t even return to the room once she found she had a black one. HBCUs are meant to be learning spaces for black students to “take a break” from feeling all the wrath of white supremacy and anti-blackness in the world.

See below - https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardvedder/2018/11/15/racial-segregation-on-american-campuses-a-widespread-phenomenon/#5bbb1a8c4455

@NuScholar honestly, I’m really not here to argue, debate or otherwise. I made a statement based on my research, after speaking to current students with similar socioeconomic status. My goal if at all possible is to graduate with zero debt and none of the NPCs for the HBCUs I looked into had that opportunity. This is based on my specific circumstances and not at all a blanket statement for all HBCU’s or even the majority.

I’m quite aware of self segregation and understand why it happens. I don’t subscribe to any “diversity fantasy” I’ve merely lived long enough to work with people from a variety of different backgrounds and prefer a school with the same atmosphere if possible. Sometimes the difference between segregating and inclusion is merely a spark of conversation and effort. Now lets please not discuss this further here, I’d hate to see such a positive thread turn negative. You’re welcome to PM if you like. Enjoy your day

@SatanFlower69 My DS is a Jr. at the University of Richmond, and my DD will be a freshman at UNC Chapel Hill next fall. Richmond is probably the most beautiful campus I have ever seen. It simply has everything. The President of the Univ. is African American, and improving diversity has definitely been at the forefront of his leadership. He mentors students directly (my son included) and is very active within the everyday community. My son says that faculty are readily available, and more telling of the success of the school is the job placement. My son earned an internship as a freshman that is typically reserved for Juniors. He continues his internship this summer, and is hopeful to have an offer prior to the start of his Sr. year next fall. There are a group of Richmond Scholars that also participate in the Oliver Hill Scholars program, and these students along w/ faculty advisors work towards improving diversity both on campus and in the Richmond area. I cannot say enough good things about U or R. It has received many prestigious honors of late, and that means that more and more are beginning to recognize it too.

UNC is also a great school. It is different for my D because she is an athlete, so her process has been very different than my sons. That said, I was very impressed w/ the academics, diversity, and athletic program. There is a lot of support for the athlete. Additionally, the Chapel Hill area is an ideal setting. Just beautiful.
Finally, I think I would encourage all students making their final decisions to look at how the universities handled COVID-19 very early on in the crisis . If you do not believe that their actions were in the best interest of the students, perhaps you should inquire as to their decision making. If you have any questions, about UR, please do not hesitate to ask.

@acke0815 all of this information is super helpful so thank you! Your son seems to be having a wonderful experience, especially with the mentoring and faculty interaction opportunities. U of R is definitely one of the most beautiful I’ve seen. Its the only YouVisit video that had an aerial view option and I was half in love watching it. ? Received an email that transfer admissions should be out Monday so keeping my fingers crossed but prepared for rejection.

You’re right about campus responses to COVID-19. Was keeping track on college websites and Instagram. Duke, U of R and UNC seemed to do a nice job keeping students informed and offering support. Vanderbilt not so much. Not a deal breaker but it definitely made me pause and think.

I’ll keep you in mind for any questions I may have later on, thanks again.

@SatanFlower69 -I’m crossing my fingers for you as well. ??