I’m afraid I messed up and gave my son bad advice but then again, his goals and desires have shifted slightly over the last six months–imagine that! He started out thinking of himself as a music major with a secondary interest in Japanese/Asian Studies. So he settled on a list of 7 LACs with a good combination of both. In the final stage of whittling down his list (and with me starting to believe that applying to more than 5 was excessive and silly)–he replaced Beloit with Wooster, believing the music program was stronger (and this does appear to be the case). But now, after being accepted at Wooster with his highest merit aid offer yet (26k), the tables have flipped and he’s thinking a major in Japanese is a better fit. Dang it! Wooster does have Asian Studies but the focus is on Chinese, while Beloit offers a degree in Japanese language & culture. He still has time to apply RD to Beloit, but I’m afraid his ability to be competitive for merit aid will be greatly diminished by that point. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
This is my first child in college and I went to state schools myself so I have never been through this process before. He received a full aid package from Willamette but merit aid there was only 18k and they weren’t willing or able to do much in terms of getting anywhere near filling the gap between the COA and our EFC, which is only between 3-4K. He was offered 20k in merit from Lawrence and although we’re hoping they can do more for him than Willamette in terms of the need-based aid, all of the stats I’ve read indicate that they can not or will not be able to offer as much as Wooster overall. I foolishly did the net price calculator for Colorado College a while ago, believing this would give me an idea what to expect from ALL of the 50-60k LACs and not realizing the calculator was school-specific. Yes, CC gives great aid, but the acceptance rate is in the teens. They are also not need-blind and my kid is great and unique, but he is no rock star. He is planning to apply ED2 there if he really determines that he is willing to commit, but in any event I am not counting on an offer there. They only have one Japanese teacher at CC, which would raise a flag for me, esp. since students seem divided about this particular prof. Anyway–I digress. Meanwhile it’s a real nail biter as I suspect Earlham may be the best fit for him all around but they are taking their time getting those EA notifications out! I’m just curious about Regular Decision and if he should bother with Beloit. I wonder if there’s a good reason to consider Beloit over Earlham for Japanese if it came to that but I suppose that’s a discussion for a different thread. Thanks!
Your son applied to all,expensive private universities…which are not affordable. I don’t believe any of the colleges you have mentioned guarantee to meet full financial need for all accepted students.
What schools are your son’s sure things? These are schools where he has. Very strong likelihood of acceptance, would attend if accepted…AND are affordable.
Did he apply to any public universities in your state?
Yes, he has a state school acceptance but does not want to go there except as a last resort. He wants (and needs IMHO) a small setting. He is on the spectrum and has ADHD/anxiety. I did not expect for college to be free, and I realize we will need to take out some loans. I overshared. In a nutshell I am just curious about the difference between EA aid offers and RD aid offers.
And actually, I did read that Wooster meets 94% of student need? It’s just that now–that school is not the fit (program-wise) that it was a few months ago.
These are the compromises that have to be made when selecting schools and majors. If Wooster is the only affordable school, he’s going to have to focus on the Asian studies or pick another major/minor. Some kids can only go to a school that offers mechanical engineering and not specifically aerospace engineering. Some have to take French and not Italian.
I’d advise him not to be Goldilocks - this school is too small, this one too big, this one has no Asian music classes, that one no pizza on Sundays. Look more at the big picture.
Some feel the best aid is through ED, others feel the schools don’t offer as much because mentally you are already committed to the ED school. No one can tell you if Beloit will give more, or Lawrence will match Wooster. It’s worth asking. The NPCs are pretty good. Did your award from Wooster match the NPC?
I only ran the NPC for Colorado College, which was my mistake. Gosh, whatever you do don’t judge my son by his mother. He may be perfectly happy at Wooster. There’s still a lot we don’t know yet so we’ll see. No schools but Willamette have provided any numbers re: “need based aid”–I expect the most promising outcomes in that regard may be from the schools who required we do the CSS Profile. We’ll know more by Feb.
Not judging him or you, just pointing out that if his attending college depends on the money offered (and it seems it does), he may not get to design a perfect academic life at the perfect school. Money matters and it often doesn’t make sense that two similar schools offer such different amount, but we’re still stuck with making a choice between a school that has everything and costs more and a school that is within budget but doesn’t offer tuba lessons. If he really wants Japanese, he may have to pick a school that is bigger (and bigger doesn’t mean he won’t get individualized attention), or not as highly ranked, or that doesn’t have as much music. If he really likes Wooster, he may have to give up Japanese.
@Basbleu I think many read CC and conclude that everyone finds the school that’s a perfect fit of academic area of interest, prestige, location/setting, and cost. In reality few do and they have to make sometimes significant compromises. Don’t beat yourself up about how you’ve approached this - it will work out in the end. But from reading here for a while, the common theme - and most oft made mistakes - are not being open to trade offs and not being realistic about finances. And students this age do change their mind about what they are looking for :). At this point imho your best bet is to run the NPC’s, put a stake in the ground about how much you will pay, and help your son decide his priorities. Good luck!
I did a quick look on Beloit’s website and as far as I looked it doesn’t say that a student will be less competitive for scholarships in the RD round, they don’t have a stated deadline for scholarship consideration that I can see so if it’s really a consideration for your son it would seem worthwhile to apply. You could also call or email the financial aid office and ask. Good luck!
Schools “meeting 94% of need” does NOT mean you will have 94% of your costs covered.
As an example…if my need was $5000, it could ALL be met with a $5500 Direct Loan. Things like this are included in that 94% of need being met.
Did your son discuss college options with his school counselor? If he has ADHD, does he have an IEP? Will he require accommodations from the disabilities office? These can include anything from academic accommodations, to dorm types.
Oh…and a safety isn’t a safety unless the student WILL attend.
But remember too…your kiddo thinks he wants to major in Japanese now…but he has already changed his mind about his college focus…and he isn’t every THERE yet. The vast majority of students change majors at least once during college.
Thanks, all! Yep, I have already been talking to him about the possibility of his changing majors (by choice) at some point. It would definitely be painful to accept some sort of painful debt like a parent Plus loan…solely to open up the option of a major he later abandons. From what I can tell, Wooster is a great school and if all we had to pay was our EFC + $5500 direct loans, that would be fine. As for his “special needs”–he is adamantly opposed to any accommodations and always has been but he will probably get a prescription before he goes. He manages, but would probably have better stats if he’d accepted some accoms. Thanks again for helping me to look at this from another angle. My S actually seems fairly open-minded about schools, although we are both naturally more attached to the ones we were able to visit in person this summer (wouldn’t you know it, Wooster was 4th on our list and after driving from Colorado to Wisconsin to Indiana, we were done and cut it in the 11th hour.)
Ursinus college in PA has a nice east asian studies major with Japanese language and nice travel aboad programs. It is one of the CTCL.ORG schools, Colleges That Change Lives. If your son has a minimum SAT CR +M of 1260 or a 28 ACT, and meets certain HS curriculum requirements, he would be eligible for their new Gateway Scholarship, $30k per year, info here:
Thanks, @mamag2855! Ouch. My son’s combined SAT is only 1240 thanks to his unremarkable math skills/background. He has been homeschooling for the past 2 years and although he’s taken many classes at the local community college (including honors English, history, economics) that he would have been taking in public high school at the APish level, he is once again, light on math & science.
Speaking of community college, he will actually be taking his fourth Japanese class there this spring so I’m starting to realize that with that under his belt already, Wooster’s Asian Studies program could actually be somewhat comparable to the others since they do have study abroad to Japan & some Japanese culture courses–I believe these are offered through departments such as film, art, history. He seems to have a gift for languages–Japanese is hard and he’s got a 4.0 in his college classes. He also won a national award in French his freshman year in HS. As a side note, I just got an encouraging (if vague) email from our admissions rep at Lawrence, who has been communicating with the financial aid office on our behalf. Sounds like we will get a full aid offer from them sooner rather than later. Fingers crossed.
Prescription? From whom? His doctor can certainly give a diagnosis of ADHD or whatever, but any accommodations would need to be determined by his levels of performance, and usually current accommodations. A prescriptionfrom a doctor for accommodations will not likely get you what you think it will get you.
Contact the disabilities office at one of his colleges. Ask them what they require if a student will be requesting accommodations in college. In every case I know of, the college requires current assessments and evidence of current accommodations that have been used and are necessary.
Like I said, he’s never had and doesn’t want accommodations so he’d be super-angry if I contacted the disabilities office and requested some. He’s been diagnosed, tried adderral and hated it but could probably stand to try something else. He’s managed ok without.
We looked at a lot of East Asian Studies, specifically Japanese, for my daughter who just did ED to Oberlin. Other great options with merit included Knox, Dickinson and Gettysburg, in fact gettysburg had the best Japanese program and my daughter enjoyed the vibe.
