Congrats to the recent acceptances, and I’m sorry about the rejections. Fingers crossed that it all works out in the end for everyone.
@crowlady Lol, my daughter is one of those that has already made the decision and is in red italics. I suspect there are quite a few more than the document reflects based on the number of early decision acceptances listed. She’s confident it’s the perfect match for her, and I agree. We’re still excited about it!
I can not figure out how to change it to red italics or edit at all for the life of me. And I’m younger than all of you. =))
I’ll do it for you @readingclaygirl. Then I’ll come back and explain, for the next time you might need to do Google Docs. I have to see what my fingers do, I don’t even think about it!
Okay, done. You highlight the text you want to change, go up to the menu buttons at the top, select the A with the black line under it and then click on the red square (because you want to change the font of the letter to red). Then, with the text still selected you click on the slanted I (for italics) two buttons to the left of the A button.
Thank you! @crowlady
DS just received a likely postcard from William and Mary, the only instate public he applied to. He is also in the running for a scholarship from the University of Richmond, so that is another likely admission.
We still have a long list of schools to hear from.
My D received acceptance at University of Oklahoma on 12/22/2015, via rolling admission. As a National Merit Semi-Finalist she was accepted by OU’s McClendon Honors College on or about 1/06/2016. She is also applying to the OU Medical Humanities Scholars Program, which is an extremely selective 8-year BA/MD program. Only 5 to 8 students are accepted each year. First step would be in March if she is asked to go there for an interview. We have our fingers crossed.
Just found this thread. My daughter was accepted to University of Alabama (with scholarship offer), University of Alabama-Birmingham (with scholarship offer and direct admittance into their College of Nursing), University of Central Florida, Florida Gulf Coast University, Adventist University (with scholarship offer), and Florida Atlantic University (with scholarship offer and direct admittance into their College of Nursing). We are still waiting to hear from the University of Florida (this is her reach school) and decision day is February 12 after 6 pm. It is pretty much decided that she will be attending Florida Atlantic University (FAU) as we all agree that this will be the best fit for her. However, it would be pretty cool for her to attend U. of Alabama since that is where her older brother attends. FAU is three hours from home which is great for a nice quick drive home on weekends if she wants or we can drive to see her. I am pretty excited about her future but sad that we will experience an empty nest by the end of August.
My daughter was accepted to Northern Illinois University with a nice merit aid award based on her GPA and ACT. She was also just accepted to University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign. No awards yet. We’re very happy about the acceptance, but I’m nervous about the COA if we don’t get much merit aid. My EFC is higher than 30K (which, coincidentally, is about the COA at UIUC for in state students!)
@scylla What were her stats?
UIUC is awful at merit. I don’t think you can expect much/anything unless the scores are very high…and even then, maybe nothing.
@Scylla We were naive and ignorant with kid #1 (had not yet discovered College Confidential). We were awarded 100% loans from UIUC. The saving grace was that kid #1 was going into UIUC as a junior, transferring from community college, so it was going to hurt for two years, not four.
Do you have other good options, financially? Congrats on NIU!
@mom2collegekids 27 on ACT, 3.7 GPA. She has been admitted to LA&S in the Spanish program and plans to double major in Education. Yeah, I thought that might be the case with UIUC and merit. Her stats are not that great and she was lucky to get in–I’m sure it was just because of the major. If she wanted to get into a more competitive major there would be no way she’d get in. If we’re lucky we might get a departmental award, but probably not much more than that.
She is in the top 10% of her class and could go to the local community college for free, but she does not want to do that. Her younger brother, bless his heart, says he fully plans on going to the community college for the first two years so he doesn’t get saddled with $$$$ in loans. Pretty smart for an eighth grader! (and like your kid #1, @Midwest67 ).
We don’t have a final award letter yet for NIU, either. but they offer automatic merit aid based on GPA and ACT scores, so it looks like she’ll be getting at least 5K. Nothing to sneeze at!
So now we’re left wondering whether the cachet of UIUC is worth us paying full board for that or if we should “settle” for the lesser regional university (at a considerably lower price). What would you do?
@Scylla Everyone’s financial & family situation is different. We are not comfortable stretching ourselves or taking on large amounts of debt to get either kid through college. We are in our early 50s, our jobs are vulnerable to recession, and our income flucuates; it can go up, but it can also go down. We are on our feet again, but 2008 is still fresh in my mind when H lost his job and then was underemployed for an extended period of time. Shudder.
I’d suggest you take a hard look at the numbers and how you, parent and student, will pay for everything. If tuition is not fixed for four years, be sure to add in 3-5% price increases. Don’t forget indirect costs such as books and other expenses. Don’t just look at the first year, which might look affordable. Get nitty gritty and look at the four year COA.
Kid #2 is disappointed we cannot afford to send her to her top pick(s). Some would say we should not have let her apply in the first place, but we were clear we thought it was going to be too expensive (without taking on insane debt).
These are really big numbers and there is a lot of emotion involved. It’s not going to be the first big ticket item your child buys and it’s an opportunity to discuss how to make good financial decisions.
Is UIUC worth it? Depends on the other options, course of study, strength of student, and what you can reasonably afford etc etc…
Good luck!
Is anyone else’s kid feeling upset about having to narrow down a list? I think there’s so much excitement generated with each application and/or acceptance, that it’s hard for teens to realize they have to settle on gong to just ONE college. I’ve noticed this among my students applying to a wide variety of places, and also here with my DS. Obviously it’s a “good” problem to have, but there’s this “fear of missing out” that I think teens today have more than we did.
@BAmom1996 “We are still waiting to hear from the University of Florida (this is her reach school) and decision day is February 12 after 6 pm.”
Even if University of Florida is your reach school, since you are Florida residents and got scholarships elsewhere, I bet your DD will be accepted. I went to UF for law school and loved it. Good luck. Go GATORS!
UF would be ideal since DD has serious health issues and is already being followed at Shands but there is no direct admit to the nursing program for incoming freshman and that might be a deal breaker. My husband got his master’s from UF. Plus UF is just two hours from home and we are there two to three times a year for D health issues.
@RayznHELL UF would be ideal since DD is being followed by Shands Hospital for serious health issues. However, there is no direct admit for incoming freshman into their nursing program. My DD has been focused on a nursing degree since her high school freshman year by enrolling into the schools prestigious Academy of Health Sciences. She will graduate with honors and as a Certified Nursing Assistant. Not having a direct admit for freshmen might be a deal breaker. My husband got his masters from UF and UF is two hours away from home plus we are at UF two to three times year due to DD health issues.
@Scylla – I don’t think the specific choice in majors justifies expending a vastly amount in tuition for 1 university over another. If this were a case of choosing the UIUC College of Engineering that may be a different story because the return on investment would be vastly greater. That said, I’d also steer away from a CC since her grades do justify a higher level of learning. That said, why not consider NIU (if accepted) and then a transfer to UIUC in 2-years. That way, she can mitigate the costs and still have the experience and obtain the degree from UIUC.
@fretfulmother My D isn’t exactly feeling “upset” about having to narrow down a list. She ended up applying to only one school that she visited, and six schools that she didn’t visit. Actually, I think I’m the one experiencing the “fear of missing out.”
She was accepted at Colorado State, UMN-Twin Cities, Indiana - Bloomington and three Cal State schools and is waiting on Eckerd College (seems kind of random, I know). She loved Colorado State (the one she visited) and thinks she will probably go there, but I feel like she needs to visit one or two others. When this whole thing started, I thought she would be lucky to get in somewhere, so it feels kind of overwhelming to have this much choice!
An acceptance letter from Rollins came for DD today. So, that is another one to visit, along with Eckerd and Willamette, and Gustavus. Loyola New Orleans is the only one she has seen in person. It is going to be hard to choose, I think. I shouldn’t say that I didn’t think she would get in to all of these schools, because that seems (to my daughter anyway) to imply that she is somehow not good enough or something like that. But, I did think her stats were borderline for a couple, so nice surprise. Rollins was ranked prettiest campus or something like that, and it does look very pretty on the website. That is something that probably would sway me more than my daughter, but we’ll see. Looking forward to seeing these places. That’s my vacation trip this year, I guess. College visits. 