Hold the phone…
If she has a GI Bill, there’s no need to chase merit. Either stay in state, or go to a private school with a healthy Yellow Ribbon offer. That was the whole point of why my kid had so few colleges. He was able to apply ED to the school of his dreams b/c we knew well in advance he would go for free (or nearly). He ended up with no loans, and our out-of-pocket is less than $1800/yr for a Top-30 LAC.
I just… wow… !!
Yes @ChaosParent23 but then she wouldn’t have racked up impressive acceptance trophies and been featured on the news.
Not sure exactly how the GI bill transfers to dependents and how much it covers. I have been reading several things, and seeing different info. Anyone know? Not sure when mom retired front he military, but the GI bill transfer to dependents changed after 9/11
Many students/parents know very little about applying to colleges. Most of what they know they hear from others who may or may not know what they’re talking about. The rest they get from those multiple mailers telling them how wonderful their offspring is and showing them how perfect their college would be. Just apply!
I’m not at all surprised when I hear these stories. Many students could have 65 acceptances if the amount of work/cost or someone more knowledgeable didn’t stop it.
Folks you should research the common black app before you judge. I am no expert but my understanding is it doesn’t work like the common app – once you enter your information any one of the 53 participating colleges can offer you admission, even if you have never heard of them. They even tout a student with 22 acceptances on their home page. Am I correct about that?
https://commonblackcollegeapp.com/
But I have to admit, even if it were not the result of the CBA I don’t know why anyone gets angry about what other kids and their families choose to do.
Ok… here goes.
IF it’s Post 9/11… meaning military would have had to be active & serving in the post 9/11 era
-About $25k per year from the VA for tuition for private schools.
-For public schools in state of residence. Full tuition equal to the most expensive public school of that state.
-BAH for housing equal to to Sgt WITH dependents for zipcode of college
-$500/semester book stipend
- If a school participates in Yellow Ribbon. The school puts up anywhere from $2000 to unlimited funds (school’s choice, but it’s the same $$ for every student at that school). The VA then kicks in that same amount back to the school. So say University of XYZ puts in $15,000… that’s $30,000 in tuition, per year.
As long as you signed up your dependents in the post 9/11 era, they have access to the full 4 year funding. You can break it up, 2 years & 2 years between 2 students if you want. Whatever, your choice. But usually people give it to one person, fully funding them for 4 years.
GI Bills before the Post 9/11 are not anywhere near as generous but I don’t have those numbers in front of me.
“But I have to admit, even if it were not the result of the CBA I don’t know why anyone gets angry about what other kids and their families choose to do.”
I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me, I don’t care what the families do, it’s the news stories glorifying these supposed accomplishments that bother me. I wouldn’t call it anger either, more like (mild) disgust.
I don’t think ‘most’ parents give it to one child. The ones I know divided it among their children equally. The one case I know pretty well, the two girls got 1/2 each (step brother got his father’s) so 18 months of housing and since one was at an OOS public and the other at a private school, they didn’t get full tuition. They still needed loans and work and other scholarships (one had an athletic scholarship). It’s a very nice benefit, but not always full COA.
You definitely still have to do your homework. Especially for the Yellow Ribbon, which can vary wildly. But this is off-topic
This student should be shamed instead of glorified.
@Postmodern - People get outraged (not angry) because this kind of misdirected glorified publicity feeds the application frenzy which is horribly unhealthy for students and parents. Teen depression and anxiety is now a HUGE mental health problem. If they explained in these articles that with one keystroke a student’s application goes to 53 HBC’s at once, that would be very helpful. But they don’t because it doesn’t sell papers, as they say. And many of the schools she apparently applied to are not on this list anyway. Take a look at her list - many schools like penn state, Michigan, Oklahoma, Fla southern, college of Wooster, Louisville, Indiana, etc are not on the HBC list.
The original comment was speaking to the impact this has on glorifying this massive “throw them at the wall and see what sticks” huge application strategy on other kids applying in the future. Its unhealthy, IMO. And, she says she missed out on many of the normal HS senior things— sacrificed time with friends, parties, etc. Thats a shame.
Not clear if the list of schools in her handwriting in the middle of this video represents where she considered applying, where she applied or where she was accepted (and it looks like she wrote the full COA next to each school name) but this is not just a list of HBC schools https://www.wjbf.com/news/csra-news/local-student-earns-a-million-dollars-worth-of-scholarships-and-50-college-acceptances/1876994567
And well said, @TheBigChef (post#27)
We all seem to agree that 50 schools is too many. When I was a kid, 10 schools would have been seen as far too many.I know two families in our town whose kids applied to 20 schools. I thought that was crazy, but others don’t seem to. Especially given that it isn’t just about being admitted but about the quirky awarding of “merit” aid. Those families have near full tuition at some places and almost nothing at others. None of that was predictable with the NPCs.
Every year, more and more schools that were matches become reaches and schools that were safeties become matches. Kids with high stats are being rejected from schools with greater than 50% acceptance rates. I have a 7 year old so in 10 years I will be back doing this all over again. I hope and pray that 50 schools won’t be the norm. I hope that even if she isn’t a super genius high stat kid with ten national awards and 1000 hours of community service, she’ll have a place to go that I can afford.
To be honest, this thread makes me more sad and worried than outraged.
I sent a screenshot to DS#1 of this year’s acceptance rate for the college he attended. He said, in part, “as a parent I don’t have the urge to celebrate”. His child is 18 mos old!!! Heaven knows what this process will be like when the grandkid is looking at colleges.
Every year more students apply to large numbers of colleges. This makes acceptance rates go down. This means that next year, students need to apply to even more colleges. This means acceptance rates go down even further. I don’t see the end of the cycle. Someone mentioned above maybe one Ivy app with ranking the schools. That would certainly be good if the financial aid was uniform.
But even if you want to go to Brown or Cornell, you’re crazy if you don’t also apply to Harvard and Princeton if they are realistic so you can get the financial aid match. At least for my family the projected numbers for financial aid are all over the place. That also feeds the problem.
My first 2 were able to avoid this mess. But I have a sick feeling that my sophomore will be applying to 20 colleges. But for an average excellent student wanting a selective school who needs financial aid I don’t see a great alternative.
I agree, @gallentjill -Sad and worried are appropriate descriptors. The outrage to me is the news publicizing this as if applying to 60+ and getting into 50+ schools is a good thing. I don’t happen to think it is.
Yeah, let’s not.
Shame the newspaper if you’d like, but this student is just a kid and was doing what her mother was advising her to do.
Ofc 50 schools is too many and these kinds of stories don’t help but let’s not “shame” a young person, jeez.
@jym626 thanks for the thoughtful reply. I agree the article is badly written on purpose to be sensational, but most posters here are shaming the poor kid and not the author. You’ve known me long enough to know shaming kids is an issue with me, and for reasons which include the epidemic of depression and anxiety you rightfully reference.