<p>please also remember that landing meaningful summer projects and internships is not all that easy even for our best students in any college. This is recession and many Dukies my son knows and many law students we know in other realms had their summer offers WITHDRAWN due to recession, bank failures, cuts, freezes, letting go of wonderful middle aged employees so they have no room for the new kid.</p>
<p>If you are offered a program that will place you in career exploration summers or meaningful summer service work or work abroad..by all means recognize that hundreds of people with your test scores are unable to find such positions in droves right now. I know what I am talking about as I know many kids with perfect HS stats at Duke who are still "looking" for a niche...anywhere...right now grad school can make more sense than employment for many
My son was not a Robertson but he had to knock himself out to find summer jobs that were career related...and I could tell you stories of stacks of rejections and extremes he went to in order to find a workplace that would have him. </p>
<p>His summer internship last year...had four interns...and hired only one for a real job post graduation..our son. Personally, I think he will discover when he gets there in June that the forty year olds that apply in droves for his position who are more qualified than he is will resent him..and that his salary will be slashed, but he will have to experience all this on his own to get a clue at how many people are scared to death right now.</p>
<p>"I did apply to H, Y, P, and M. So i will wait to see their fin aid packages. But based on what S gave me (~20 k) I don't expect to get much more more. (I would have if i completed CSS this month rather than last!!)."
I still think that the Robertson scholarship, if you are lucky enough to get it, beats HYPS. HOWEVER, if you are accepted at any of those colleges AND you don't get the Robertson, don't hesitate to ask S or any of the other top tier colleges to "review" your FA package, if there is a noticeable difference between any of them, but never use the word "negotiate'" in your letter. Yield, and losing top kids to HYP, is a big deal to S, and they might "sweeten" your package in light of better offers, in order to get you to say yes. In addition, if your financial situation HAS changed, don't hesitate to contact the FA office at Stanford NOW.</p>
<p>wjb, i will visit S before I say yes to Robertson, if offered, first week of April. BTW do you know if I MUST attend admitted students week, if not I can plan on being there early?
Faline2, I didn't realize the situation was so dire. i better be very careful.
menloparkmom, you made good points. Thanks. that will help a lot. Can I ask S to have my aid package adjusted citing other offers form comparable schools , even if they (HYPM) are not making better offers?
thanks to you all.</p>
<p>Something about this whole scenario is bothering me. I just checked NACAC's Statement of Principles of Good Practice. Under Mandatory Practice II.B.3, "Postsecondary members agree that they will permit first-year candidates for fall admission to choose, without penalty, among offers of admission and financial aid until May 1.” (Students admitted ED are a recognized exception to the rule.)</p>
<p>How is Duke getting around this rule by requiring Robertson Scholars to make their decisions by April 14?</p>
<p>wjb, I'm assuming that the 4/14 date only pertains to acceptance of the Robertson scholarship. Of course, that begs the question as to why one would decline, yet choose to enroll at Duke....</p>
<p>Last year, some ABD's asked for an extension till after admitted weekend at Harvard and Yale and were granted that extension. What happens is several of these scholarship winners end up getting accepted at the ivies and then they are scrambling to visit those ivies at the admitted weekends which last year was close to the end of April.
Also, HYP has started giving better fin. aid, so all this gets a bit confusing toward the end April.
Some kids were very sure they were accepting the scholarship offered to them and others were still trying to convince their parents or negotiate with the other ivy where their heart was more set on.</p>
<p>Because a lot of the recipients are very well off, so cost becomes a non-factor.</p>
<p>I knew one person at Harvard who turned down a Duke full ride (don't know which program). He had a sibling at Duke, but cost was such a small issue for his family, he just picked where he wanted to go.</p>
<p>More information: Per NACAC, colleges that request a response prior to the May 1 National Date must let students know that they can request an extension until that date. If a student is being asked to accept an admission of scholarship offer before May 1, that information should be conveyed to the NACAC Admission Practices Chair Committee Chair of the state or regional affiliate where the institution is located. The identity of the student and his/her high school will remain confidential. </p>
<p>itsme -- I encourage you to take this information to your GC. It sounds to me as if you can get an extension from Duke until May 1. I bet your GC can simply request it on your behalf. If Duke says no, I'd take it the matter to NACAC.</p>
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wjb, i will visit S before I say yes to Robertson, if offered, first week of April. BTW do you know if I MUST attend admitted students week, if not I can plan on being there early?
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<p>While I do not have anything meaningful to add to the Stanford versus Duke+Robertson debate, allow me to confirm that you do NOT have to attend the admitted student weekend. For the record, some students have found it fascinating but others have disliked it so much they decided not to attend. I would actually encourage you to visit both schools during NORMAL operations and try to visit the departments that interest you. This would be extremely difficult during the admitted weekends. </p>
<p>Fwiw, I firmly believe that you will discover the differences between the two schools as soon as you step on campus. If there might be a debate about academic --or athletic-- equivalency, do not believe that the students are cut from the same cloth, or easily interchangeable. Stanford is Stanford and it is NOT Duke. </p>
<p>PS To be clear, if the Robertson becomes a reality, pick Duke. However, you should not expect Stanford to upper their financial aid because of a merit scholarship. They will only review your need-based package, which should be better than Duke without the Robertson. Without the financial incentive, the choice will be dictated by your own ... heart!</p>
<p>FYI - Though Stanford prefers that admitted students attend admitted student weekend, you are free to visit at any time. If you contact the admissions office and advise them that you'll be visiting, they will arrange to have you stay overnight with a Stanford student. My S did this and had an opportunity as a result (contrary to a suggestion in an earlier post) to meet a number of the students and to attend several classes that interested him. He also was able to meet and talk to faculty during his visit. [By the way, this is not meant to express an opinion on your original question, just to provide information in case you choose to visit Stanford.] Congratulations and good luck to you.</p>
<p>^^To clarify, I did not say the OP would not get to meet students if he visited during normal operations. I said he would not get to meet some of his future classmates, the vast majority of whom will visit during the admitted students event.</p>
<p>"Can I ask S to have my aid package adjusted citing other offers form comparable schools , even if they (HYPM) are not making better offers?"</p>
<p>The ONLY schools that S would be likely to "match" FA awards are HYPM. They won't match a merit award. However, I was under the impression that YOUR financial situation had changed for the worse in the last month. If that is the case, that that alone is a good enough reason to send S a FA "appeal letter", with supporting documentation- citing unexpected medical payments, parents recent loss of job, etc. etc. But you probably should wait until April to send any appeal letter, after you hear from your other schools and Duke.</p>
<p>The Robertson asks you to get back by mid-April, but they make it clear you can request an extension to May 1. This is an acceptable practice per NACAC guidelines.</p>
<p>They do this because they keep one or two students on a waitlist, and the longer other people wait to accept the Robertson, the more chaos it causes for all schools -- I remember someone posting a few years ago who was waitlisted for the Robertson, so accepted Yale's offer, but then got the Robertson after all and accepted it - so she had to tell Yale she wasn't going to enroll even though she had already accepted their offer.</p>
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The Robertson asks you to get back by mid-April, but they make it clear you can request an extension to May 1. This is an acceptable practice per NACAC guidelines.
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<p>Thanks, thoughtprovoking. If this is accurate, then yes, Duke is following the NACAC guidelines. Problem solved, OP. If you are offered the Robertson, just ask for an extension to reply until May 1.</p>
<p>itsme123, don't take this the wrong way - I know you had a disclaimer initially about presumptousness and all - but do you have inside information about your candidacy? It sounds like your pretty darned confident of landing one of the 18 Duke Robertson slots. I assume you're getting your ducks in a row just in case, which is certainly smart. I'd just be afraid to jinx it if I were in your shoes!</p>
<p>^not at all. is that even possible? i know that my odds are about 2 to 1. 90 finalists about 45-50 offered for 36 slots. i want to get the question out there now so i get useful feedback and comments to consider. come april 1 it gets real crazy with so many frantically scrambling to make decisions etc. i felt having a hypothetical considerations now will draw most responses, and it has.
by the way, i see you are a finalist for Robertson (?). good luck to you.</p>