Agreed! This year has been brutal - but applications were up at all the t100, maybe t200, and kids can only attend 1….so I’m hoping more potential WL opportunities than in prior years.
D23’s top 2 would be Case and Wesleyan - WL for both. Case slightly more than Wesleyan, but if either let’s her in she’ll immediately accept and withdraw everywhere else.
I was hoping we’d be totally done in the next week. There WILL be a decision but only 99%….still HOPING for a WL admission.
My son is 95% sure he will be committing to CWRU. It checks all the boxes and he just shined at the admitted student event-was truly in his element. He didn’t receive any of the extra scholarships he applied for, but did get the top merit of $43,500 and good FA which they even increased upon appeal. It is now in budget, albeit at the top end of our limits.
The sticking point is the unpredictability of year 2, 3, & 4. We will have 2 in college for his freshman year only so FA said they TRY to keep packages similar each year but in our personal case, COA could go up $10-$15k for year 2, 3, & 4. No matter what FAFSA and the CSS say we CAN afford, we know our budget limits and that’s NOT feasible. So if the COA was guaranteed not to fluctuate more than a few thousand each year, we’d be signing up right now. But a possible increase of $10-$15k? That is causing us great anxiety.
We could definitely send him next year at the current COA-fits pretty well into our budget goals. It’s $27k COA not including $2500 for work study. To put into perspective, our EFC (with 2 in college) is $16k and (with one in college) is $32k so they did not “meet need” but still came into our upper range of what we planned for. But what do we do if they really increase our COA up to $15k more? Have him transfer for his 2nd year? He does want to apply to be an RA so that could help, but there is no guarantee, which seems to be the theme here. And I just learned they may reduce the grants and federal loans in exchange for his RA perks of free housing.
His second choice school, U Albany is a SUNY so they did not give any FA, just merit, and it would be $21k per year all 4 years, no surprises. He liked U Albany and they have a great honors program and research opportunities, but he truly fell in love with CWRU. I wish they had a system like the Northeastern Promise where they guarantee COA won’t go up for all 4 years. I’m a planner and hate this not knowing and not being able to calculate the cost for all 4 years. I will probably be stressed all year thinking about it if he goes to Case.
I did write an email expressing our reasons for hesitation in committing, but guessing they can’t talk me down because they can’t see into the future as to what our packages might look like. He will be studying psychology with an end goal of PhD in clinical psych so he hopes to get a fully funded placement for his doctoral studies-but, again, not guarantees.
Any advice?
D23 has been out of town on her HS music tour. She was pretty much ready to push the button tonight or tomorrow for MHC, but yesterday morning got a note from CWRU, different than the weekly ‘please confirm you still want to stay on the waitlist’ emails.
It said they believe they WILL in fact have space to take kids from the WL, that the committee will be meeting Monday, and to please confirm if you want to be considered. She of course clicked on ‘yes’.
Tonight when she gets back we’ll be making a pro/con comparison list.
COA is going to be about even, with a slight advantage to CWRU - CWRU will be more in year 1, as they don’t reconsider for WL students based on income changes (but manually calculated so we know what year 2 would be). MHC did update their offer, but they define ‘need’ differently. So 10-12k more for CWRU in year 1, but about the same amount less in year 2, so a wash overall for year 1 and 2. Assuming income stays similar (likely but not a sure thing) then MHC will end up about 10k more per year for year 3-4. Not insignificant, but not enough to tip the scales unless all else really IS equal.
So it comes down to fit.
D loved both.
CWRU for the city vibe, the museum, the performing arts center, the research opportunities, the abundance of off campus food, the and more.
MHC for the east coast vibe, the cute town, still just 15 min to a mall, the all-women very tight community, the cool traditions, small class sizes, and still options for all the 5-college consortium has to offer.
She met current and prospective students at both she really likes. And professors at both she really likes.
Two VERY different schools. And CWRU is still a WL - but with that email, and May 1st approaching, if a last-minute offer comes in she is trying to weigh what she would choose.
Very different schools, they would be very different experiences. D can see herself thriving in either - and my wife and I agree. She can do physics and theater at both, and both would prepare her for grad school, and life beyond. With lots of options if she wants to change direction. That makes it a great problem to have, of course - 2 options D would love means there is no wrong choice!
I’m going to cross-post this on both college boards, as I suspect there’s not a lot of overlap with these 2 schools!
fingers crossed
Good luck! My son is waitlisted at Northeastern but no word on the waitlist status (in the past, very few were taken off) but he’s very close to committing to Case Western and couldn’t be happier!
After a long wait my D got off the waitlist at Case. She also got into UPitt honors. We all were starting to make up our mind for her to go to Pitt. Now with the pleasant surprise we are back to the drawing board. Any suggestions between UPitt and Case? She wants to pursue pre-med.
Both great schools!
Case is def strong for premed
I’d luck less $$
You can’t go wrong at either.
What kind of Pre-Health Advising is there at Case?
Case has a dedicated Pre-med Advisors
Health career advising is available through Post-Graduate Planning and Experiential Education. The pre-health and pre-medical advisors work with CWRU undergraduate students and alumni seeking careers in the health professions. Schedule an appointment using My Journey.
https://case.edu/postgrad/graduate-and-professional-school-planning/pre-health-advising
You will need to take the pre-med pre-req courses.
Info can be found here:
https://case.edu/postgrad/graduate-and-professional-school-planningpre-health-advising/medicine
You may want to get involved in research.
Info is here:
https://case.edu/source/
You may want to volunteer at a hospital:
Case is literally surrounded by hospitals. For example:
https://www.uhhospitals.org/locations/uh-cleveland-medical-center/volunteer-services/volunteer-opportunities
You may want to get more info about applying to med school:
You could attend activities such as:
https://case.edu/studentsuccess/node/346
You might want to join a medically related student organization:
Explore CampusGroups (https://community.case.edu/home_login ) for the most up-to-date information about student pre-professional and health-related organizations at CWRU.
My D chose case over Pitt based on Fit - but both are great options - GL
For all Case admitted families, next year if you want to plan a visitto see your kid you may want to try and be in town on 4-8 - the total eclipse is passing through Cleveland - a rare opportunity and some lodging is already starting to book
hi congrats, when did your daughter get off the waitlist
update - D23 just got off the WL at CWRU!
also just posted on the MHC thread - choice is now MHC vs CWRU; and no longer hypothetical but real!
The net COA will end up about 36K less at CWRU over 4 years - not an insignificant amount; but not QUITE enough to make the decision a complete no-brainer. I built out a spreadsheet to compare the costs 
Given physics and theater (but with the desire to do a physics PhD, theater is more passion than long-term career objective - but still VERY important to her), input on other criteria to consider is appreciated…we’re going to be talking this evening. And likely tomorrow, and the next day…
Hello,
I got into CWRU through Spring Admission. Compared to going to another college such as MSU (Michigan State University), would it be worth going to CWRU even though I would lose a semester?
This is all up to you!
Do you prefer a large school or a smaller one?
Do you like big-time sports?
What is the difference in price?
What is your major? If it is something like engineering, is there direct admit to Engineering school at MSU? You do have that at CWRU.
If you need to switch “schools” within the University…e.g., into Business or into Engineering, can you do that easily? At Case you can.
How is housing? Case guarantees 2 years and there is a good chance for upper classman.
What is the MSU surrounding area like? With Case you have the University Circle around you, free RTA passes.
What is your major? How strong is each school?
My question would be, if you start in the Spring when do you graduate? When will you need to declare a major? Will classes you need to take in a sequence be available the semesters you want them? (Ie. Chem 101 followed by Chem 102. Can you take 101 in the Spring and 102 in the Fall or will you be wasting time waiting for these courses to become available? I don’t know the answer at CWRU at some universities it can be difficult.
Thank you for this! Just made our reservations.
Very close to committing to Case Western.
Positives-pretty much checks all his priority boxes:
-diversity
-rigor
-didn’t want a party or “rah rah” school
-wanted small to medium school
-personal relationships with professors
-lots of research opportunities
-in or near a city
Bonus areas:
-He received $43,500 merit and was accepted EA
-He received a good FA grant but not enough to make CWRU affordable so we appealed with a goal of $7k more and they gave $5k more grant and $2500 work study to meet us where we needed to be (ends up being $5k more than his SUNY option which isn’t horrible)
-Only 3 hours from home (ok that’s a mom bonus!)
-Each student has a navigator to help them plan for long-term goals (my son is a planner)
-my son was invited to the unity banquet (a yearly banquet they have to honor accomplishments of minority and under-represented students) so they are clearly committed to diversity initiatives
-my son was invited to a diversity weekend if he commits which takes place 3 days before freshman move in so he could move in early (they do fun activities and learn about leadership opportunities)
-he plans to major in Psychology but found out he could have an double major in Cognitive Science which would only require 3 extra classes because classes “double count.” He also applied for a non-music major scholarship-which he did not get-but they said his audition was strong enough to invite him to be a music major. The main perk is taking lessons and classes in conjunction with CIM-which is pretty cool. So could be looking at 3 majors and it appears it’s fairly common for multi-majors or minors and students are able to make this work.
-CWRU is obviously for serious-minded students and study/work will be intense and constant, but they do seem to offer a balance with social activities, support systems and a collaborative (vs. cut-throat) environment
Negatives:
-Will only take 18-21 college credits from high school (out of 36 which his 2nd choice SUNY school would have taken them all!) Can someone explain why they won’t give ANY credits for CLEP Spanish exam? All his other schools would give him 9-12 credits since he is also taking the essay portion. His high school does not offer the AP option and the CLEP is extremely rigorous. He can’t believe all his hard work in high school will net zero credits in a subject area he loves and excels at. He would have signed up for the AP Spanish exam if he knew this would be an issue-we had no idea (mainly because Case was not on our radar as a realistic choice until they adjusted his financial aid package.) He really wanted to do a Spanish minor or major but they said they would just test him and if he does well he can skip the lower classes and start at 300 levels, but gets no credit for skipping those classes, still has to take the required # of classes for the major. So even proving his competency with a placement exam has no real benefit. This is a big negative and will probably result in him not doing a minor or major in Spanish. Very disappointed with this CLEP policy and have yet to have anyone fully explain the rationale.
-Although he landed a good FA package THIS year, CWRU is known for big yearly tuition increases and our FA package might change next year because we will have only one in college. I am a planner (like my son) and want to know exactly what we are paying each year, or at least a good estimate. In this sense, it was tempting to go with his second choice school-a SUNY-who offered no FA so the cost would be $21K per year, with minimal change, other than tuition increases. Northeastern offers the NU Promise where they guarantee the COA won’t go up each year. Wish Case had something like this. To be clear, we are VERY happy with our Financial Aid package this year but have no idea how much it will change for Year 2, 3, & 4. My son is hoping to be an RA when he qualifies to apply (I think only juniors and seniors can do this?) so that could help with the gap then and he will work this summer and next to be prepared for any gap for sophomore year. He did get a top scholarship of $43,500 so at least we can count on that yearly, but that becomes less valuable with big tuition increases.
We do think the pros outweigh the cons and he absolutely loves the vibe at CWRU and, as parents, it was amazing to see him shine and look so happy at the admitted student event. We know he will easily find his people. Just thought I’d list our assessment process (pros & cons) as he moves towards his final decision.
I don’t know of any selective schools that accept CLEP credit (pretty sure it’s considered less rigor than AP). CWRU is not an outlier among peer institutions here.
All we knew is that over 2900 colleges do accept CLEP exams and he really only applied to a few higher tier schools (Northeastern & Case) so it was just something we took for granted and overlooked. I think he understands that some schools might look more favorably on the AP exam but if his school doesn’t offer AP Spanish and CWRU already has a placement exam which is set up to allow students to skip lower level classes if a certain level of mastery is shown. But if he does really well on that, why can’t he get credit for skipping those classes? In other words, perhaps a minor require 9 credits of top level classes rather than 18 credits of higher level classes (for those who did well on the placement exam) if that makes sense. Just seems weird and he has little incentive now to pursue a minor or major, not because he doesn’t love the subject matter or challenge but because it will prevent him from graduating in 3.5 years, which was his goal. He did speak to someone in the Spanish department and they did kind of give a “maybe we can take a closer look and you can put in an appeal with your rationale when you come in as a student” response, leaving the door open for some wiggle room so that gives a tiny bit of hope, but certainly no guarantees. I believe his student ambassador did say they allow students to challenge a class that could count twice. For example, he took a music therapy class and it counted for both cognitive science and music but he did have to write a proposal with rationale. He also thought that students could do study abroad and take general ed classes with full immersion in Spanish and maybe they could double count for the gen ed class AND a Spanish class. So CWRU seems to be creative and maybe even liberal in letting classes count twice but students have to take the initiative.
Edited to add that Northeastern does accept CLEP for credit:
“Students who have successfully completed CLEP general or subject exams may receive college credit for this work. Please refer to the CLEP Transfer Guide for information regarding transferable subjects and minimum passing scores. The guide is available online or at the Enrollment Services center.”
Anyone accepted as a transfer student this year
At Northeastern, CLEP exams are only accepted in the College of Professional Studies, their division geared primarily to adult learners. CLEP is not accepted for regular full time programs in all other colleges.