<p>If you are in the enviable position of having several acceptances to choose from, I urge you to be kind and considerate to the students who might be enduring the agony of a wait list. Don't turn down any school that you are still possibly interested in attending, but if you absolutely KNOW you are not going to accept a particular offer, let the school know your definite decision.</p>
<p>That’s a very kind thing to do for both the students and the schools.</p>
<p>Does anyone really know yet? My S can’t chose until he sees the final cost. We are pretty sure PPU is out due to cost but he could commute there which would save a lot, he is pretty adamant against commuting. Its hard as a parent who is going to have to work 2 jobs to help him through this to not try to lean towards the cost. As mature as he can be he’s kinda like “college is expensive” well…some are much more expensive than others. I’m really struggling with this, sigh. </p>
<p>I’m so glad you started this thread. My daughter is not currently on any wait lists, but we all understand the agony of waiting and if she gets more offers, we will try to move as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>It is a great thread. However, to @MtMajorCook’s point, if you don’t know, then don’t feel any pressure to pull any triggers until you are ready. My son is the poster child for undecided. (You all can breathe a sigh of relief he is not my theatre kid.) He will not know until he knows and the pace of that process I cannot predict and neither can he. But the nanosecond that he does, he will respectfully send all of the “I’m out” emails whether it is May 1st or weeks before. The situations that I find annoying are the ones where people have already accepted an offer, but sit on the “I’m outs” just for the sport of seeing where else they get in I suppose for bragging rights. It’s a personal choice and it is their right but to me, it’s poor form. </p>
<p>My child is not auditioning this year, and while I can certainly sympathize with the students still hoping for at least one acceptance, the only way we would be able to turn down any schools at this point in the process would be if my child were offered a full-ride to the top choice. Anything less than that would still leave most all of the other schools in contention until the very end. I hate that it has to be this way for everyone, because I know so many have their hopes up and were expecting they would have THE answer by March. However, I think we won’t really know where everyone will end up until sometime in May. So, I have decided that May should actually be the time we all look forward to :)</p>
<p>D’s number one choice is also our number one choice for her (especially because we know that we can afford it, albeit painfully, with the aid that she already has). So as soon as she gets a word, she can definitely pull out from the others (she still has a couple of auditions left and a few accepted students’ days scheduled, so it is to our benefit for her to commit ASAP).</p>
<p>Great thread!</p>
<p>I basically intended this thread to be a reminder to everyone and I’m going to BUMP it shamelessly just to keep it in everybody’s mind.</p>
<p>As MTMajorCook notes, financial aid can take forever, especially if you decide to appeal. (You’ll be surprised how soon most of the threads here will turn to financial aid woes.) Absolutely do NOT write off a school until you know for sure you won’t be going there. </p>
<p>Another related reminder, though. If you are on a wait list for the school you consider your #1 choice, it is absolutely acceptable to make sure the school KNOWS it is your #1 choice if you are accepted there off the wait list.</p>
<p>This is a great point to make, but I do want folks to know that in many cases including our own, finances are a critical factor and this can take a while to figure out. </p>
<p>Prodesse great reminder about communicating with the school. Keep them updated, also, and send them along an additional letter of rec of you have one. So important.</p>
<p>Adding to what connections wrote…the financial aspect of THE decision does take time and there should be no pressure. With our experience last year, there was final negotiations up until the last week of April. Most schools extend offers with an expected yield in mind, so they over-extend offers. Just because you might reject an offer does not necessarily mean they turn it over to someone else on a waiting list. Very few schools do this and most often if they go to their waitlist pool they are considering types of individuals in the pool. It is not always sequential list. </p>
<p>@MTMajorCook not to be all “nebby” but as another 'Burgher who went thru the same process, don’t give up on PPU until the last wag of the hammer. I don’t know what they offered as far as a talent award, but once you get your son’s complete financial aid package, call immediately and appeal for more. Maybe call before that. They might not want to lose a talented kid from their own backyard to another program. Also, keep travel costs in mind when you are figuring out how much this is truly going to cost. If he goes to Point Park, what you will save in gas, tolls, trains, planes, MegaBus, whatever, over the next four years is significant. Also, when the PPU kids move off campus after freshman or sophomore year, you can count on saving quite a bit of money (maybe half of the cost of on campus room and board), even if you still buy a commuter flex meal plan. Off campus housing at another school will save $ too, but you won’t be within driving distance for trips to Gint Iggle or to deliver a few meals. Just food for thought…pun intended. Easy for you to get to COPA shows too.</p>
<p>And yes…I am making an unabashed sell for Point Park!</p>
<p>Thanks @CollegeSearchDad - they offered nothing as far as talent, we did get a grant but not nearly enough to make it reasonable. To be perfectly honest no one can believe they didn’t offer him any talent money, they are notoriously generous and most all his coaches are alumni they can’t figure out why.</p>
<p>That is perplexing to say the least, especially since they accepted him quickly, right? Still, don’t give up the ship just yet. It takes a while for everything to shake out.</p>
<p>Talent scholarships are sometimes viewed almost as a recruitment tool - a way of sweetening the pot. Maybe they figured with a hometown boy, that wasn’t necessary to sell him on the program.</p>
<p>^^^^sorry about my many grammatical errors above! writing on a phone without reading glasses on the bus…not recommended!</p>
<p>We just got a letter from CCM - the fin aid will not be published until March 31</p>
<p>After two months with only rejections, son was accepted to his two top programs on the same day. We are in Northern New England and one program is in Ohio and the other So. Carolina. So in addition to the FA, there is no way in my mind that son should make a decision before he visits (even though the wallet is screaming!!). Our April vacation is the third week of April and I would guess there are other folks out there who need to visit schools before they can make final decisions.</p>
<p>Congratulations Entertainersmom and son!</p>
<p>! Remember, everybody who is reading this, that everyone gets rejections. Absolutely everyone. You can only attend one college, and all you really need is one acceptance, if that is one you love.</p>
<p>I would never suggest that anyone say “No” to a school if you still aren’t sure. My original post here is intended as a reminder that if there are schools you know you do not want to attend, you should let them know promptly instead of waiting until May 1 so you can do them altogether. It may or may not affect someone on a wait list, but you can’t know that. For auditioned programs, it just might.</p>
<p>We have begun narrowing down our crazy list of acceptances. (I realize that most will have no sympathy - but it is difficult to make these decisions - we never in a million years expected to be in this position.) But she has released several now - and is continuing to review the remaining. She is still waiting on word from a few schools as well- further complicating things. We have scheduled one visit for sure - and have another in process. Some schools we’ve visited enough already. We need the FA packages to come in to help inform this decision further. She had a huge scholarship come in that put a school she was on the verge of ruling out - back into consideration. I just want to assure those waiting that we are sensitive to not holding on to a school she is sure she will not attend.</p>
<p>Yep we released one. Waiting on Otterbein’s FA package before we release a second and then after a second campus visit he’ll make a final decision. His high school musical is pushing back campus visits until after 04/12…ughh.</p>