<p>Congratulations to your d on having such strong choices. You mention your d having a large merit offer at W&M congrats again, because those are rare, and are reserved for truly outstanding students. Are you in-state for W&M? Tuition has risen appreciably over the past 10 years, and VA continues to cut funding. So one aspect to consider is whether your ds scholarship will absorb those inevitable tuition spikes over her time there. </p>
<p>Im a W&M fan, and the right kid will find much to love there. The environmental science and policy program at W&M is very strong. A student who really wants an urban experience is not going to find it in Williamsburg, though. How important is the big-city atmosphere to your d?
That’s a good question, blueiguana. The Murray Scholar semi-finalists at W&M have recently been notified, but no decisions have been made. Some schools do notify scholarship candidates and recipients early about acceptances. Perhaps the OP can clarify?</p>
<p>A few months ago I was watching a youtube video about a kid trying to figure out how he would pay back 100k worth of loans from graduating from NYU. His parents even sold their house to afford the first year. I would definitely cross NYU off the list and go to a one of the other schools. I also would really encourage your daughter to really explore and find out all she can about St. Johns.</p>
<p>Perhaps this sort of perspective explains why graduates of these schools tend not to seek jobs in flyover country.</p>
<p>I live in the DC Metro area. If you graduate from William and Mary and try to get a job here, your prospective employer will know and respect the school you graduated from. William and Mary is not Harvard – and nobody is claiming that it is – but it will open many doors for you in our region of the country.</p>
<p>I’m from NY, and I can tell you that a lot of NYU is the hype. The experience there is more like a grad school in many ways than undergrad. In fact, I didn’t even consider applying there. In another fact, I fell in love with William & Mary when I visited there. Definitely visit if you haven’t yet and give it a chance.</p>
<p>I don’t understand how the OP’s D has an acceptance to BU if she applied ED to Columbia - she could have only applied to one of them. BU has binding ED and regular decisions are not announced until March. She could have applied to NYU ED II, but now she’s bound to go - so the questions are moot at this point. </p>
<p>This is my sense of it too, that she can have a great experience and get the education she needs at any number of schools. Thanks for the reality check! :)</p>
<p>■■■■■? Could have applied ED 2 to NYU after ED rejection from Columbia but that would be that. BU is binding ED only and no ED 2; I don’t know about the others.</p>
<p>This does not help much if your friends have decided to do something on a Saturday night that you cannot afford. You may be able to find an alternative activity, but you won’t be able to do it with your friends because they’ll be off doing something else.</p>
<p>ED is Early Decision? Daughter applied ED to Columbia and was rejected just before Christmas. Applied “ED II” to NYU and got an acceptance last week, but after reading all of this I think it’s a pretty easy call to tell her we’re not going that route. </p>
<p>BTW, the poster who talked about taking emotion out the equation was absolutely right, and intellectually this is a no-brainer. But it’s still hard to disappoint my kid on something that feels so big to her right now.</p>
<p>As for the others, St. John’s has something called “rolling admissions?” We heard back from them not too long after she applied. W&M is one of our VA state schools – we live close to DC – and we did not expect to hear from them until next month, but got an award letter from financial aid that we assume means she’s in. (They wouldn’t give her a scholarship and then reject her would they?!) Clarified with DD that she has NOT heard from Boston yet, but EXPECTS to get in, as BU is less competitive than some of the others she applied to. Does that help, everyone?</p>
<p>Oh, and Haystack? If all you’re going to do is be snotty and snide, please don’t respond to my posts. I was looking for parents who have advice and experience to offer me --a total newbie at the college process – and you clearly are not here to help.</p>
<p>I don’t think that people here were trying to be snide or snotty. Instead, I think they had two concerns.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You might have been a ■■■■■. People here get angry about devoting a lot of time and attention trying to be helpful to people who turn out to be trolls.</p></li>
<li><p>Your daughter might have applied to colleges without a full understanding of what she was doing. This actually seems to be the case. NYU’s ED II is BINDING Early Decision. This means that she is obligated to go there and should now be withdrawing all her other applications and turning down the other schools that accepted her.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>It is possible to get out of the obligation to attend an ED school on financial grounds, but I don’t know how it’s done. I think you need to find out – right away!</p>
<p>@ DeskPotato: No. I did mis-speak (mis-write?) and she has not heard from BU yet regarding either acceptance OR financial aid. Merit scholarships are for St. John’s and W&M only.</p>
<p>Having read all of the comments above, I now have a new concern. The wording on NYU’s acceptance seems to say that it is binding UNLESS we cannot afford it. Is this wrong? </p>
<p>The way I read it, if she accepts @ NYU then we are committed and she must withdraw all other applications. But if she can’t go to NYU due to finances, she is not still expected to reject the other offers, is she?</p>
<p>" guess the news hasn’t made it out to flyover country yet…the College of William and Mary is not a brand name university."</p>
<p>Wm. & Mary is the second oldest college in North America. It is a very highly respected college among those who know what one is. NYU (other than Arts, Business and Law) is not on the same level.</p>
<p>A ■■■■■ is someone who posts a fictional message on an internet message board with the sole intent of stirring up the other participants.</p>
<p>Your initial post said
which is how we got the impression your daughter had been offered a merit scholarship at BU. </p>
<p>You should speak to the admissions office at NYU promptly regarding her obligations under the ED agreement. What I believe you cannot do is to hold that offer, as financially unattractive as it is, in your hand while you wait for responses from BU and W&M.</p>
<p>*However, she has been accepted by NYU, Boston U, William & Mary and St. John’s. The latter three have offered her significant merit based scholarships, while NYU offered us only a boatload of loans. *</p>
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<p>the advice you can get from CC is only as accurate as your information.</p>
<p>Btw how did she get merit aid from William & Mary? The only substantial scholarships they have are for first generation kids or full tuition scholarships for just 4 incredible applicants. And the finalists are only being notified starting this week.</p>