wow I am very interested what your daughter ends up choosing… My resemblance to her is uncanny. I looked at all the NESCAC schools, Vassar, etc etc… however, I ended up at BU. Definitely missing out on the tight knit community, but love being in a city and the diversity of the student body.
@samantha827 She applied ED2 to Hamilton! She was accepted - but as a Jan. If she was a fall accept she would be thrilled. She’s exploring the London program, but its very expensive and we are a financial aid family, and it is not covered by aid. Since it was a Jan admit that releases her from her ED commitment, so Vassar is back in play!
Good luck to your D. This is such a stressful process! Is Vassar still her next choice after Hamilton? My D is a freshman there. Keep us posted.
@elena13 Thank you for your kind words. Yes, Vassar is still very much on her list. Today if she was admitted to Vassar for Fall it’s my guess (but her choice) that she’d take it in a heartbeat. There is a lot to like about Hamilton but some of the London program attributes give us pause.
Crossing fingers for you.
Both such great schools! After reading up on lots of colleges and touring 21 of them, both Hamilton and Vassar were among the five colleges my son weighed for early decision. He went with Williams, but he loved both Hamilton and Vassar, and, if he had applied and gotten into both RD, I honestly am not at all sure which he would have chosen.
My husband went to Vassar back in the day, and he loved it.
If I were your daughter, in a choice between starting in September at Vassar and January at Hamilton, I personally would choose Vassar, just to be starting college at the same time as everyone else. I remember thinking to myself, in a theoretical scenario, that if my son got into Middlebury as a Feb, and to no other top LAC, maybe he would have an easier time with making friends and with the adjustment to being away from home if he went to wherever else he got in, even his safety, instead. I thought that, even though Middlebury and Wesleyan were the other two colleges in his top five. (Hamilton’s Jan program wasn’t on my radar, for some reason… maybe because Middlebury is so much more explicit about their Feb program.). Sharing the period of adjustment to college with your peers seems like such a great source of emotional and social support.
I think some kids might do just fine with a midyear start, especially ones who already have been to boarding school or something and are used to being away from their parents and would be unfazed by starting in a foreign country. Or if they are extremely outgoing socially and would jump right in in January. Your daughter needs to consider if it would suit her personality and developmental/maturity level, and if she would be comfortable. And, knowing her as well as you do, you can share your insights with her as she weighs her options.
A good freshman orientation program, and a lot of community building in the dorms, were among the factors my son considered when choosing his college. Coming in midyear sets you outside that, I think, even with Midd’s Feb orientation and special Feb traditions, which seem to be more developed than Hamilton’s Jan program.
I also think your financial considerations need to weigh into this. Using your whole 529 just on the London program, as you have mentioned as a possibility, seems like a big financial decision. Is it worth it? Does she like Hamilton that much more than any other college?
Good luck to her! Congratulations to her on her admission to Hamilton, a great accomplishment!
Hello @4junior ! Just weighing in on this as the mom of a D21 who loved both Vassar and Hamilton as well (gee, am I sensing a trend? haha.) Our family was not faced with the decision between Jan start at Hamilton vs. fall start at Vassar, so I’m not sure what to advise there (although my D, now a happy to the point that I never hear from her (sob!) frosh at Hamilton does know some Jans and they do not seem to have any trouble integrating into the student body whatsoever.)
For us though, as a small business family, the financial factor wound up weighing for Hamilton (who offered us something) vs. Vassar (who offered us zilch) in need based aid. I think that really does wind up being a YMMV situation, because finances can be so widely varied from one family to another. There really is no bad option as far as the schools themselves are concerned. My D also heavily considered Smith (the STRIDE scholarship she was offered was a pretty nice incentive!) but wound up feeling like she liked the vibe at Hamilton best. If the FA had been equal between Hamilton and Vassar… well, I’m not sure what she would have decided, although it’s hard to picture her anywhere but Hamilton at this point.
Good luck to your D (and you!) through the waiting and decision making process over the next few months! Feel free to ask me (here or DM) if you have any questions about Hamilton or our experience.
@thermom From a financial perspective the Jan start date has significant financial consequences - we would be paying at least 10k+ more for the first year as a Jan admit vs a fall admit.
I just don’t see how this gels with this statement from Hamilton:
"For this reason, according to Monica Inzer, Vice President of Enrollment Management, maintaining need-sensitivity and [awareness] in January admissions is necessary, because the College doesn’t want to “[admit] students for an option and program that they might not be able to participate in because of family finances.”
I think they looked at my private school kid and assumed she was not a FA candidate. Our CC was very very shocked that they would offer a Jan position to a family in our situation.
Even after a week of letting it sink in it just seems really unfair.
We too have a small business, (two actually) and as of now we are appealing our award. 4 days prior to the decision release the FA dept contacted me asking for detailed 2017 info on the businesses that we do not have yet. I said lets hold off until I can provide it accurately and they were happy to do so. Can’t tell if they will be more generous or not at this point!
^ Yes, an odd statement from Hamilton. Schools know from years of experience what percentage of their ED admissions don’t matriculate, and plan for it.
@vonlost I don’t think Hamilton’s statement was about yield, as you note they already know that. I took their statement as empathy in not extending an offer to a family that the family could not accept for financial reasons.
I’m confused, so, the extra $10,000 you mentioned above is for the London program? And, not participating means possibly not graduating with her class? Is the rest of her FA satisfactory?
@circuitrider All of the options available that allow you to graduate on time (a must for my D to consider Ham, and I think a fair one) do not provide aid and are not eligible for Pell grants, 529 usage etc. The 10k figure represents forgoing aid for a semester for us with our current award. Plus finding a way to pay for it that does not involve 529 or regular college loans.
The London program - tuition, travel, food etc - is at least 5k+ more than a traditional Hamilton semester as per what we are hearing from past participants. There is no dining plan and they give you a budget number for food of $900 for 3 1/2 months. Can you imagine a teenager in a foreign country feeding themselves three meals a day plus snacks for less than $10 a day? It’s a joke. So actually the cost of being a Jan is actually more than 10k for us…
Plus we hear that most weekends the majority of the Jans take 3-4 day side trips throughout the Uk or other countries, and it would be pretty sad to stay alone in London while the rest of your classmates are off traveling. It’s just not a program geared towards kids on significant FA.
As I mentioned in #27 we have a tentative award at this point. We expect the award to be larger based on 2017 figures and the business data that we were not able to supply on such short notice, which only makes the Jan admittance more punitive financially.
@4junior Best of luck with the FA appeal - I hope they come to understand your situation and make an adjustment.
I have to say, when we were going through this last year, I was unprepared for how differently (read: unfavorably) colleges across the board determined our small business FA situation vs. what the estimates were from running NPCs on the various sites. I knew from being a CC member that the NPCs were probably not going to be accurate for us as a small business family, but it was still a bit shocking just how inaccurate they were.
I think our FA award will be increased if only on the data that shows lower income in 17, as in 16 D’s dads mother passed away and he received a small amount of money from the estate.
I find it amazing how different schools view FA for those who have their own businesses. I filled out the CSS school by school so I could tell who had the Supplementary questions. Many schools asked little about businesses, and some asked a whole lot (Bowdoin seemed particularly aggressive in what they needed to know). Usually they back out deductions for home office, travel, depreciation, meals and entertainment and add it into you top line income. I fully understand that many people abuse these deductions. But I run 2 businesses out of our home (no other office), and attend 8-10 trade shows per year that are each a week long so we have a lot of truly justified business travel. I wrote a supplement letter explaining this but have no idea how it was factored in (or if it was even read, from my conversation reiterating some of these points it seemed as if it had not been.)
Yes, it can definitely be an exercise in frustration if you are trying to figure out what matters and what doesn’t when a school considers all your finances as institutional need-based aid is awarded. I don’t have any personal experience with reporting business assets, but I can tell you that from our perspective Hamilton was much more generous with need-based aid than some of its peer NESCAC schools. Hamilton appears to more closely follow the federal methodology than many other schools. In Hamilton’s case, this means among other things that primary home equity is not a factor. For those who perhaps live in a high COL area and have substantial equity in their home, this can make a big difference in the school-calculated EFC.
@BelknapPoint Yes, for us in a high COL city and with a lot of equity in our primary residence Hamiltons formula was certainly a point that was considered when applying ED2. When speaking with the FA office I did feel that they were caring and open to hearing back up information to adjust the award. She spent at least 30 minutes explaining to me the kinds of documentation needed; I get the feeling that the goal was to work things out fairly.
My comment above was somewhat general in that given the shift overall to more of a ‘gig economy’ I feel a larger shift in how income is defined will soon be in order. While I am not at all a fan of the new tax cuts (for a NY resident it is crushing) I think the shift to favor gig workers is telling.
@4junior - the amounts predicted/budgeted were completely on target for our London student. He actually spent hundreds less. First of all, his books cost was almost nil - the classes he took used mostly free online materials and handouts for the readings. The 2 trips our student went on were local one day affairs that cost about 40 dollars each. He also chose to go to Greece, used his own money, and the whole 4 day trip cost him 370. Food was surprisingly affordable. The biggest expense was travel - taking the tube every day to and from school. Whatever you think of the Jan program to London, you should know that the expenses predicted were right on target.
@MomInSB I based my comments off of conversations with Jans and parents with other Jans. Perhaps they had a different experience, I did not inflate things at all. Honestly your news is good news, as we are still considering the program!
You are saying that your son spent less than $900 on food for over three months? Do the students cook, as eating out on less than $10 per day is expensive even for fast food. Even cooking on less than $10 per day seems like a remarkably organized student!
The mom I spoke with said her daughter took 8 weekend side trips while in London and that her D enjoyed them very much - but that the costs did add up. She also felt that the day to day costs of hanging out were higher than on a college campus; there were just more temptations to have a coffee in a lounge, or go to a movie, or go shopping, or to a pub. Maybe it depends on your friend group, or the group of kids at the program that year to determine how much additional travel is done. I am very glad your son had a great time and that the budget numbers worked out for your family, truly
@MomInSB I now realize that my comment in #31 was unclear. The London program (tuition plus estimated costs) are not $5k more than a traditional Hamilton semester for a full pay student; they are 5k more than our cost of a semester at Hamilton with aid. Plus we have been told by past families to budget 5-10k more than the numbers on Arcadias site, hence my 10k+ numbers. I did not mean to misinform or speak poorly of the program, I was just myopic in my analysis.
@4junior - No worries. I was very surprised that the expenses were even less than budgeted. Of course, my student wasn’t much of a beer drinker (legal in the UK for 18+) or even really a coffee drinker, but he did often eat sushi. He was careful with the money he had, and (sort of) learned to cook. Perhaps some students had to actually use the “Books Budget” for books? 
Cellphone service was also amazingly cheap. He participated in lots of events, but not the more expensive options. Guess it depends on the student! He knew that if he spent less than the expected budget, that money would roll over to him for the future. Just our experience - can’t speak for others.