@Chembiodad Sorry I was speaking in the context of replying about Jan admission, my comment only applies to Jans. If you are offered admission as a Jan, they consider your start date at Hamilton to be Jan 2019 and therefore aid is not available for that first semester.
Hamilton takes the awarded Pell grant and applies it to the second semester, although their amount listed is different than what fafsa told us. They also have $2500 of loans applied to the second semester. So, taking on loans for the first semester would dramatically increase the amount of debt upon graduation. Another poster has mentioned that while she was able to obtain loans for the first semester she had to agree not to obtain aid from Hamilton for a period of 2 years, although I’m not really clear on why.
We had planned to amortize our 529 plan over four years, if she chooses Hamilton we will use all of that to fund the London semester.
It also means we need to speak with the FA office to get an idea of what a full 2 semester package looks like to determine the overall cost per year in subsequent years.
This has probably already been answered, but does Hamilton hold January admits to the ED agreement? If not, would they put your daughter on the waiting list for a fall spot?
If I were you I’d want to consider any and all regular admissions offers before taking a January spot. I can understand your frustration at this result.
@Sue22 You are indeed released from your ED commitment. They state that you cannot be waitlisted for a fall spot on their site.
D just wants some closure and to buy the sweats of the college she’ll attend and be happy about it. I’m for waiting and evaluating options. Not exactly sure how to thread the needle in this emotionally with her on all this.
@4junior, does she have sufficient AP credits to graduate with the London kids and the rest of the class, or would she be willing to spend the fall semester taking classes at home? * If not I’d counsel my child to think twice about accepting a January admission under these circumstances.
This is obviously a decision your family needs to make after weighing all the options, but here are my thoughts.
The fall admits will bond in the fall, the London kids will bond in London and will enter Hamilton with a posse. Your daughter would be one of a few outliers, and while I’m sure she’d meet kids at the summer orientation and her classmates would be welcoming she’d still have to play catch-up socially. Furthermore, I’m not sure I would want my child to spend time on social media looking at all the fun things her future classmates are doing at Hamilton and in London if she were feeling “stuck” at home. I think it would be too hard.
For most of the 4 years she would feel like every other student, but for January admits it gets weird again on the other end. January graduation can be unsettling. You have to watch your freshman year classmates graduate while you still have a semester to go, and you leave school at a time when no one’s really thinking about graduation.
My son took a semester off in the middle of school and graduated this past January. Because he wasn’t actually graduating he wasn’t invited to the official events for the class with which he entered. Some he had to skip, some he went to anyway with friends, but my impression was that even then he felt like a bit of a fraud or an interloper as everyone talked about their post-graduation plans. He couldn’t walk with the class of 2017 and he doesn’t intend to walk with the class of 2018 because, in his words, “They’re not my class.” Attending graduation would also mean taking vacation time from his new job to fly home.
We didn’t get to throw a graduation party for him because he finished exams less than a week before Christmas and with all the holiday parties the timing was terrible. Instead of going out with the bang he deserved he left with a bit of a whimper. He still made friends, he still has a great degree, but January graduation was not ideal. And this is for a kid who came in with the rest of his class.
*Be sure to check Hamilton’s policy on transfer credits. According to Hamilton’s website,
so she might have to take a heavier than normal course load depending on how Hamilton counts her courses.
One advantage of a Jan graduation is a jump on the job market…My son was a Middlebury “Feb” and that was to his advantage.
We couldn’t afford for him to go abroad etc before he started his “Feb” admission either, but he was just happy to be accepted.
Just seems odd that as a need blind, meets full need school, that they do not award FA to Jans for that first year. I know schools have to be sensitive to budgets, but really? I mean if they have 45 Jans, maybe 20 are going to need aid for that year and they can’t come up with that, despite the very big endowment? Any way you slice it, spin it, or alternative fact it, it’s just a bad look for the school, which is a shame, because there is a lot to like about Hamilton.
@Sue22 I am 100% with you on all that you have said. She is not at a school with AP classes, its a private where all classes are AP level but they do not follow an AP curriculm. One issue with the Arcadia program is for certain classes she would want to take (the theatre one sounds great, and shes an intended psych major so it would have been great to get the intro out of the way first semester) you need to have a 4 or 5 on the AP exam. I am not sure how that is possible for her but we will look into it if she goes that route. I feel that academically the London program will be a let down after her HS experience, but I feel if she embraces London it will be a learning experience overall. We would only do this if we can take all our 529 that we planned for 4 years and apply it to the first semester.
@OldbatesieDoc I do not think the Hamilton programs parallels the Midd Feb program. D applied ED1 to Midd and I have looked at that program in much depth. Midd has a larger Feb cohort and ALL Febs just take a semester off and start later. I do think she will feel too out of synch as a mid-semster start/end at Hamilton because they do not provide things like a mid-year graduating ceremony. While they do some things to integrate Jans I feel that missing the Jans in London program makes things socially difficult and is not a good fit for my daughter. I could see her choosing an alternate college experience such as St Andrews where she would really have a college feeling, but I do not see her choosing to stay home or take a semester off.
@wisteria100 I have to say I am in total agreement with you on this. Really seems odd to me. It also goes against what they said in their press release - that they take finances into account when choosing the candidates for the program. We don’t even have her final financial aid award yet as they asked for several forms that only our accountant could fill out. I had emailed the FA office after receiving the paperwork stating that i do not feel comfortable answering the extensive business questions and that my accountant was unable to take care of it in the tight timeframe, asking for an extension of when the award was given.They said that they would calculate the award later, what I see in the portal is marked Tentative. And its quite slim so I do hope that there can be a shift in it.
Can we switch things around and financially make it work. Possibly. Will be tough but I am willing to look into it if she wants to go. But it most certainly does not follow the spirit of meeting full need. They state that the maximum loan is $3500 per year and that the average max debt per student at the end of 4 years is 21k. If I take out a loan to pay for London her end of college debt will be far higher. Overall the impact of being a Jan admit is over 25k in additional costs for our family. That is not the spirit of meets full needs to me.
Thank you! She’s fine now. Fortunately she got into one of the colleges she really likes through EA last week & will be hearing from plenty of colleges next month. In the end it always works out.
The London program differs from Hamilton’s more typical – and generously funded – study abroad programs. These other programs are available to juniors and seniors, students who are fully expected to graduate from Hamilton. A funded first-semester London program would allow for a student to accept Hamilton’s aid, but, in principle, that student might then fail to matriculate at Hamilton for the spring semester. Though the College could indeed afford this if they were to allocate their resources accordingly, the precedent this might establish would not necessarily be a prudent one.
I am incredibly sad. I started this thread but never quite introduced my situation. I live in rural Hungary. My school did not have AP, or IB, or SATs, or the ACT. I had to travel 200+ kms to get to the closest testing center. My school didn’t have a counselor of any kind, so every time I needed guidance I had to travel across the city to squeeze myself into the tight schedule of a local EducationUSA Network Adviser. It’s 2017, my family spent an overwhelming amount of money for testing, TRANSPORTATION, and fees (as an int’l student, I had to take the TOEFL, which also cost about $80). At that time, my parents had an annual income of about $16-18k. Neither of them speaks English, which meant that at every step of the way, they had to rely on a 16-17 yo’s navigation with U.S. higher study. I filled out every single paper for financial aid and honestly reported assets because I respected that my acceptance depended on Hamilton’s generosity. I did not get in. (along with 4 other rejections)
So, this year, I reapplied. I work a 6-hour job, along with my past adviser, and advise kids choosing the path I did. Meanwhile, I rewrote every essay I had, in a language that isn’t even my mother tongue. I again traveled 200+ kms to have my interview. I got accepted with generous financial aid, and again, I had to fill out all the paperwork for it, which I happily did, on my own. I could not be more thrilled, although I never visited Hamilton, and the bookstore does not ship internationally, so I can’t even get a sticker of my future school.
I will wake in Clinton every single day, thinking that I could have been in the Class of 2021. I will not let this bother me, because I got in, and I can afford the education Hamilton offers me.
I filled out the CommonApp (I dunno about you), and it had an option if I wanted to be considered for a Jan entrance. I said no, so if you said yes and got a Jan acceptance, maybe you should have thought about it for a second.
Before you start butchering Hamilton’s programs that are clearly outlined on their webpage and you just forgot to read it carefully, please take a step back, because you obviously do NOT value Hamilton.I hope your kid(s) if accepted, will have a much more real sense of what they are offering you.
((I did not write this to be pitied or to in any way appear better than you or your children. I just want everyone to realize the value of an admission, because it is in no way granted, however hard/long you work for it. The admissions office clearly makes a puzzle of kids that will later become the best picture of a class, so if your kid gets in, they are clearly a good addition to the campus, even if they only join in January.))
@knwthyslf Congrats on your acceptance and your hard work and perseverance. All the best to you. @apple23 You make a valid point, but how would that be much different from someone who starts in the fall with FA and then drops out, gets sick, transfers before graduating? Why can’t the London program be treated as any other study abroad program at Hamilton? For all the talk about the Hamily, it almost seems as if they treat the Jans as a distant cousin no one wants to invite for Thanksgiving.
Idk if you guys realize this but the London program is not a Hamilton study abroad program; it is merely an endorsed suggestion for what to do with that semester. Why would Hamilton provide aid for a semester in which the student is not yet an enrolled Hamilton student? If you were accepted as a Jan, Hamilton is in no way obligated to meet your need for the semester preceding. Though I completely understand the disappointment. I would feel the same.
@knwthyslf I know exactly how you feel. I too previously applied as an international student with high need, didn’t get in and decided to take a gap year. My family then migrated to the US during that year and I was lucky enough to apply ED II as a domestic applicant and received my acceptance last night. I hope to see you on the hill!
If it helps anyone:
Gpa: 3.9 UW
ACT: 33
SAT II: Lit 700, Bio 770
Interview: with an admissions rep off campus, went well, very casual, we bonded over books and tv shows of all things lol. This is an opportunity for you to ask questions and find out more about Hamilton as much as it is for them to get to know you, perhaps more so.