Nothing in between? Really? There are over 3000 colleges in the US. Your D applied to 4, 2 of which are uber-reaches for pretty much everyone. Were you expecting them to send their private jets to whisk her to their red-carpeted hallowed halls?
Start by getting real. If she wants to go to college, there are plenty of places which will be happy to accommodate her. Since finances are an issue, start with retaking the SAT and the ACT and looking at your in-state options.
Perhaps she didn’t want to go where the “nobodys” go, eh?
I really feel for the OP. But as others have said, there is a choice to be made at this juncture. Either wallow (but remember your role in this situation, you can teach your daughter accountability and how an adult would handle it) or find some solutions to the disappointment.
It sounds like the OP is from Illinois. I am surprised that your daughter was not admitted to UIUC…unless she was applying to engineering and would not consider DGS (general studies). Acceptance/rejection was communicated online so I don’t understand how Illinois ignored her. But that’s beside the point.
If your daughter would still like to attend UIUC for engineering and does not want to take a gap year, she should consider the Pathways program through various community colleges.
http://pathways.engineering.illinois.edu
I really wish you and your daughter a great outcome. I hope you continue to share your story. It may prove to be an inspiration to others in the future.
She is a very good student and can get admitted to better schools, or probably get a better financial deal. It is true that colleges have gotten more competitive, and students need to work through the application process very thoughtfully. The process has changed a lot since you went to college.
We could really use a bit more information to be more helpful to you in moving forward from here.
It’s surprising the boarding school didn’t do more to identify a reasonable list of great yet affordable colleges. They want to be able to show prospective students and parents that all of their graduates go on to great colleges. Oh well. Whatever happened there is done and over.
Looking forward, I would suggest you and your husband become her college admissions coaches. First, make sure she’s aware that she will get into a great college. Second, she either gets a job or volunteers (maybe both) or explores something new. Make a plan together. Do the web searches on colleges, visit them, talk to students, attend a class, and find out about institutional scholarships and grants. Third, it makes sense to take the SAT/ACT again after some prep. No one should take it cold once.
She’ll learn a lot and grow a lot this year if it’s framed right.
OP, clearly, your daughter did not get proper advice in her college application process. Time to regroup.
Please hug your daughter. Reassure her this situation is not her fault. Tell her that her hard work WILL pay off. And that you will do everything in your power to help her.
Then get to work. Read this forum. Reach out to the many posters here who know the academic scene and the realities of financial aid. Research schools and merit aid. As someone else wrote on this thread, there is more than 3,000 colleges and universities in the US. With your daughter’s stats, she WILL get in to some good ones. Likely with good aid. They may not be schools with the renown of University of Chicago, but still excellent schools that will offer an excellent education.
Chin up.
Unless I’m reading this incorrectly, there are financial considerations in this family. Yes, UIUC is expensive as an I state school, but the other schools listed here are even MORE expensive for out of state students. How would this family pay those OOS costs?
I would have thought a boarding school would have kids prep for psat & sat! And the list is unbalanced. Sounds like the BS dropped the ball.
This student applied to the wrong list of colleges. Just wrong. Two of the four are highly competitive. If the student is from Illinois, there are other Illinois publics that could,have been on her list as well. Denver is expensive…and that should have been easy to see from their website.
To the OP…do you own your own business? Are you self employed? Do you own real estate other than your home? If NO, then the Net Price Calculators on each college website would give you an decent estimate of what your net costs would be.
Regarding your income. If you are earning a lot more now…then you have lived on less for many years. Could at least some of the new higher income be diverted to college costs?
How much CAN and WILL you pay annually for your daughter? That is the single most i portent questiin for you to answer. She needs to apply to affordable schools…where she will get accepted.
She isn’t the first or last student who has been disappointed in college admissions outcomes. Maybe her job will give her clearer direction on her future goals. You never know.
I know you are angry and disappointed. It might help if you looked at an old thread about Andison. After disappointing results when he applied to college, he took a gap year and ended up at MIT.
It may just be that you didn’t want to give too much identifying info, but I note that you say nothing at all about extracurriculars. For most people, strong ECs are essential to get into schools like Columbia and UChicago.
You haven’t told us where a 3.75 put her among her classmates. If she wasn’t in the top 10% of her class, that also made it extremely unlikely she could get into either Columbia or UChicago. I may be wrong, but I think I’ve figured out where she went to high school. It requires students to complete some classes that aren’t part of the standard high school curriculum. Many colleges would not include those classes in her GPA for admissions purposes. This may be irrelevant, but if I’m right, make sure you calculate her GPA WITHOUT those course.
And her test scores were below the median at both. If she’s a white or Asian kid with two college educated parents who was not a recruited athlete, that also hurt.
Now, University of Illinois was more realistic, but something may have gone wrong with her application. In fact, I’m prety sure that something did go wrong. You say that the University doesn’t notify you of a rejection; you have to call them. Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt that. I suspect that your D didn’t get an admissions decision because some part of her application wasn’t submitted or wasn’t submitted on time. If I were you, I’d call the University’s admissions office–better yet, have your D call. Ask whether written letters of rejection are sent to freshman applicants. If they are, THEN say that your D didn’t receive one and ask for an explanation as to why one wasn’t sent. This could have been a bureaucratic error by EITHER the university or her high school.
If it was an error, knowing that may help your D feel better about herself.
@Thumper1 I don’t have a lot of information yet. I am not sure what interests the student has or the state of residence. At a minimum these schools could establish a better option than they currently have where she could get an excellent education, even if it is not the least expensive option.
I think it would be easier to identify low cost options once we know the state, determine whether the student is willing to take a gap year, and the student’s willingness to work to improve her ACT.
Much2Learn- and the most important fact not in evidence yet- what the parents are willing to pay out of pocket. My idea of low cost isn’t going to do the OP much good if their budget maxes out at half that…
OOPS!!! I’m wrong. U of Illinois uses an on-line portal for admissions decisions. Only those admitted get letters.
“Our official admission notification date is February 5, at which time you can check your admission status in myIllini. If you’ve been admitted, we’ll also send you an official notification letter.”
I note that to be considered for priority admissions, all materials, including test scores, have to be in by November 1. If hers weren’t, she might want to reapply and get them in by then.
@jonri In our experience, that’s the norm. My daughter applied to a number of schools, both public and private. All had on-line portals, and she only received letters from the acceptances, not the rejections and WLs.
What were her ECs?
So really…assuming the UIUC application was complete, all,the student needed to do was check online.
To the parents…you knew that your kiddo was only applying to four colleges, and two were highly competitive for admissions.
Did you have a plan to pay for UIUC (which is not cheap even for instate students) or Denver?
@LostParent you sound a lot like me two months ago…I was really worked up because my kid did get into long-desired colleges but we were unable to pay for them. Then i calmed down and took another look,.
First of all, I offer you sympathy. She sounds like a great kid…just the arabic alone…insanely hard to master that.
Honestly, I’d start over. I’d have her work a year. take more tests (tutor, if need be) and frame it as a gap year. Then I’d carefully craft a list of 10 to 12 colleges (we’ll help you with this), keep good relations with 1 or 2 of her teachers, and try again…she’ll be what, 18 or 19? It’ll work out great…and she would have saved some money for that year too.
Good things are ahead for your family.
Thanks @hs2015mom . I was just surprised by the OP’s statement that you have to “call” to get results. I couldn’t imagine a school that would put itself in the position of having thousands of kids call to find out whether they got in.
So, I thought the fact the kid had to call meant something had gone wrong. It still may mean that if the D’s results were not posted on-line.
When you start looking for colleges for next fall, take a look at Colleges that Change Lives. That’s where my cousin found his college. He was looking for a lost-cost school because he’s responsible for paying for his education. He had a 29 ACT and got merit aid bringing the cost down to 5,000 per year, and he’s really happy at his school.
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She continued working hard and graduated with high honors, and good but not stellar SAT/ACT scores. Her ACT was 30 and the SAT was in the same range (I’m told by the school). She took each test only once, with no special preparation.
Her GPA was 3.75. This was high honors because this school doesn’t award GPA’s over 4.0. In the end, I think this probably handicapped her as admissions offices don’t know or don’t care about where the GPA number comes from. No way to know for sure but it probably would have been a 4.3/4.4 on a 5.0 scale.
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It is unfortunate that you found this CC forum after a bad application season. I am certain that if you had been on this forum a year ago, your DD would be happily preparing for college this fall.
In another thread you said something (don’t remember the exact words) along the lines of this application system that throws away good students.
-----that is not true…not at all. Every year, millions of kids with stats that are well below your DD’s enroll in college. Your D just had a lousy app list. And, it sounds like you didn’t run the NPCs.
Ok…that’s water under the bridge.
For this next year, do NOT let her take ANY classes.
@lostparent Once you tell us:
Her intended major and career goal
How much you can pay each year
We’ll be able to better help you.