<p>Has anyone from the admitted class of 2015 gotten their financial aid package yet?</p>
<p>May I add on and say if you rcvd merit money - would love to know the amount and your stats if you don’t mind.</p>
<p>Okay. Looks like no one else has bitten on this one, so I do not mind. Son received $17,000 in merit money. Unfortunately, we do not qualify for other financial assistance. Son’s stats include: GPA-3.8 unweighted, 5.250 weighted; ranked 35 of 325 students; 7 AP courses (all A’s and either 4 or 5 on exams) and a boatload of regional and national awards for his creative writing (short stories). Also involved in school organizations/activities on multiple levels. Susquehanna, again unfortunately, offered the least merit money of everywhere we applied, but naturally, is where son would like to attend.</p>
<p>My goodness - he must have rcvd amazing merit awards from other schools if $17,000 is the lowest! Any thoughts on going back to Susquehanna and explaining the other offers and seeing if there is anything else they can add?</p>
<p>Yes. There are accepted student’s days at the three colleges under consideration within the next three weeks. We will be talking to Susquehanna as well as the others to see what else, if anything, is available. Evidently, this was a highly competitive year at Susquehanna. I am told that there were 3400 applicants for 660 freshman seats, so I am not very optimistic.</p>
<p>singledad - I still think you may have a reasonable shot if you let them know it is down to 3 schools and were the other award amounts look like. Schools like to brag about their increase in apps - they all do it - I’m not knocking Susquehanna. But historically - they accept about 74% of the applicants and have about a 28% yield - which is not highly competitive at all.</p>
<p>PR shows that for a recent year (not sure if this would be last year or the year before) SU had 2954 apps and accepted 75% of those - with a 28% yield.</p>
<p>The national Naviance shows that for a recent year (again not sure if it was last year or the year before) SU had 3032 apps and accepted 73% of those to fill 624 seats. Which is again a 28% yield.</p>
<p>So - I still think you have some hope here - more so than at a school with a higher yield. Good luck.</p>
<p>PS - Please post about how you like the accepted students day. This forum does not get a lot of posters and I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts.</p>
<p>Singledad, congratulations on the great merit awards and on the great accomplishments which earned them. You and your son seem to be conducting a very painstaking andvery successful search and I am sure you will reach a good conclusion. I am never one to spend others’ money, but I think your son is an outstanding applicant to these schools and may receive some additional funds (perhaps contingent on his agreeing to come if he receives the offer) and that your implicit willingness to pay somewhat more if needed for whichever school he prefers is a wise investment in your son and reward for his great efforts to date.</p>
<p>My son last year almost went to Susquehanna. It was between them and Florida Southern College. I faxed the offer letters to both schools and both schools offered up $2000 more. And my son didn’t have near your son’s stats. I would send them the other offer letters and I bet they pony up more. I love Susquehanna, it is a very special place! But I love Florida Southern more…since they got my boy!</p>
<p>We have received our Financial aid award and it was very generous. We are waiting until accepted students day to make the final decision, but my daughter will probably attend SU! She is choosing it over: Elizabethtown, Hood, Ursinus, McDaniel, Gettysburg, Muhlenberg and Dickinson. She LOVED her overnight and day visit at SU and she says there is something about the school that makes her feel at home. She hopes to major in Education.</p>
<p>Wow - that is fabulous. Do you mind if I ask when she applied and when she was accepted? I have seen conflicting things that they start releasing acceptances in December - other places say not until January.</p>
<p>Did you get any kind of preliminary estimate on FA - or nothing until today? If you would care to share approximate EFC and package details that would be most helpful.</p>
<p>Swatmom–congratulations! And also please accept my admiration for the way you are a great cheerleader for your kids as both a Swatmom and a likely SUmom to be; I have encountered many parents, in my town and on CC, who clearly favor their top 30 achieving child over their other children. I wish your daughter a great 4 years and am sure that her future pupils will be lucky to have her as their teacher.</p>
<p>Singledad and Swatmom, if your children do accept SU, feel free to PM me if you need any advice about dorms; hotel reservations for Family Weekend; etc.
One caveat: I have never been brave enough to admit to my son that I have been in contact on CC with other SU and parents and kids.</p>
<p>Rockville Mom: My daughter applied around Nov 15th. She applied regular decision, as she had several schools that she was interested in. She received her acceptance letter -dated Jan 7. We were on pins and needles all of Dec, because we thought we would hear sooner. She got all her other letters, with the exception of Gettysburg, by Christmas. Shortly after, she recieved a letter offering her a merit scholarship for $10K. That was it for financial aid until a couple of days ago. All in all, they offered her approx $28K. We also have a daughter who is a student at Swarthmore, so I am sure the aid will be less once our middle daughter graduates. (she is a jr now) All the aid offers from the other schools were near the same. My daughter just LOVES SU and she has ruled out the schools that only offer secondary ed, as she has decided she wants to major in elementary ed or early childhood. (That took out Gettysburg, Dickinson, Ursinus and McDaniel, even though she did not make this switch until after she submitted her apps) For her, that narrows it to Etown, Hood, Muhlenburg and Susquehanna. I am sure she would be happy at any of those schools. (although Hood is 5 miles from our house) She just REALLY loves Susquehanna. We are going to the remaining accepted students days at SU and Muhlenburg before sending in the deposit, but are pretty sure it will be SU. It is 2 hours from us, so not too far. </p>
<p>We are really supporting the PA schools. Our oldest went to Etown, our middle daughter is a jr at Swarthmore and now it looks like our baby will attend SU. </p>
<p>Yabeyabe2: Now that I post for 2 kids in college, I wonder if I can change my user name. I never considered that when I made it. I did not know about CC when my oldest was at Etown. You know, we first learned of SU from one of the deans at Swarthmore. My daughter works in the admissions office there, and it is really becoming more well known in the academic circles as a great institution that is very caring and nurturing.</p>
<p>And on an interesting side note - the head of admissions at SU - Chris Markle - reads CC. I know this because he told me when we visited last fall. He led our info session - and he asked how we had heard about SU - and I told him from CC and he acknowledged that he looked at it as well.</p>
<p>swatmom - thanks for the date and FA details.</p>
<p>Swatmom, having picked my CC name on a whim, thinking I would be a 1 time visitor to CC, I have often thought of changing it to something intelligible.<br>
I trust your oldest enjoyed ETown; I have only heard good things about it but it somehow has zero visibility in New Jersey.</p>
<p>Went with son to Susquehanna’s Accepted Student’s Day on Saturday. Well organized, pleasant and relaxed day. Son was able to meet and talk to multiple members of the English faculty as well as several students. Also met with faculty and students from Creative Writing Department. Have to say that the atmosphere at Susquehanna feels exceptional. The faculty I met was extremely engaged, gracious, down to earth and informative. Students were universally enthusiastic and friendly. Atmosphere was very upbeat. Remains son’s #1 choice. Final visit this weekend to Washington College. Then decision time.</p>
<p>Similar experience for us. Going to Muhlenberg on Saturday, but daughter is 99.9% sure she will not be swayed. SU remains her top choice.</p>
<p>Best of luck to both your kids.
I note that dorm preferences are awarded in order of receipt of deposits. I believe Smith and Reed are the most popular dorms, but my son feels the differences between dorms are slight.</p>
<p>My daughter hopes for Aiken.</p>
<p>What makes Susquehanna so attractive? Why are you going there?</p>