Clemson was my daughter’s last, I believe, she didn’t tour until the end of April for this reason (12 hours away).
1 Like
My daughter received her UCF acceptance this evening. She’s excited!
16 Likes
I have another exciting update. We just found out that my daughter was offered an MIT (virtual) interview! This is really encouraging because the official line is that they will offer an interview to students for whom they have an available interviewer. I am sure my daughter will reach out when she gets home from school today,
9 Likes
That is exciting! I’m curious though, since your thread states you need merit aid and won’t qualify for need-based aid, if she got into MIT would you be willing to pay for her to go? I mean I could see doing that personally, so I was wondering if it was the exception to your goal of paying up to $20K/yr.
4 Likes
I addressed this at the beginning of the thread since many people were wondering the same thing. I think the odds of her actually attending MIT are extremely small, and for this reason, many people advocated for her not to apply at all. We will let the cards fall where they may, but our budget is still firm. This is the only school to which she applied that does not offer a full tuition or better scholarship.
MIT was one of 2 schools I was willing to go over budget on for our son for grad school. Congrats on the interview! If nothing else, it is super encouraging for results in general.
Our basic family rule on this is that we’ll pay the application test score and all fees for our kids to apply to one and exactly one college that we know won’t give enough merit aid to fit our budget, just for the “fun” of seeing if they can get in even though they know they won’t be going there. (For C17 that was Colgate, C19 opted not to, for C23 it’ll probably be American.) And hey, if your kid is inclined toward engineering, MIT seems as good a choice for that as any!
3 Likes
We had the same rule… although in the event my D changed her mind about having med school as a goal or her merit options did not come through as we hoped, we would have entertained her attending. Her choice was realistic for her stats (Vassar) and she was accepted. However, she still had med school in her long term plans and a full-ride scholarship offer so it was not a painful decision for her to let Vassar go.
1 Like
Ok, I went back to the beginning of the thread and see where you said that. Are you hoping for outside scholarships to fill in the gap then, if she gets into MIT? Or is it a “I got into MIT but turned it down for a scholarship to XYZ” sort of ego thing? Speaking as a person who turned down going to a T20 because I got a better scholarship to another definitely-not-T20 school, that “what if” question has bugged me ever since. Not complaining about my life at all, but that has always been a question in the back of my mind.
4 Likes
I do not think that there is one answer to this. Yes, she is competing for external scholarships, but realistically, that is a huge gap to fill. My daughter is very aware of this. Also, as another poster mentioned near the beginning of this thread, there is value in chasing the proverbial dream. I know my daughter, and this is something that is really important to her. I am certainly not going to deter her. We both know that the chance of her landing at MIT is extremely small, but the only way to guarantee she won’t end up there is to not even try. She’s never been one to let the odds deter her, and she often finds way to get things done when everyone around her says it is impossible. Plus, she actually has to be accepted!
1 Like
I also forgot to mention that we toured UGA this week. First, we were impressed by the Honors College, and the Foundation Fellowship is an amazing cohort experience. It’s extremely competitive, but my daughter is going to apply. The engineering department is small, which is both a plus and minus. The small size makes it more intimate than other schools, but it also seems to be lacking the resources of some other schools we have visited. Also, the engineering department is located on the outskirts of campus (and in the opposite direction of everything else), and that is a huge deterrent. UGA is massive. In terms of buildings my daughter would access, UGA covers the most physical space/area of any university we have visited by a long shot (one building is as far as 1.7 miles from another building). If she is not selected as a Foundation Fellow, I feel fairly confident UGA will not be at the top of her list.
1 Like
I’m not sure what the best case scenario is here. Hope she gets in (“Yay, got into my dream school! But can’t go after all my hard work”) or hope she doesn’t (“I tried my best and it’s so hard for anyone to get into MIT”). It seems almost kinder to hope she doesn’t, which seems all bass-ackwards. I will hope she gets in and gets enough external scholarships to make it possible for her.
2 Likes
In her case, there won’t be any “what ifs” because she did not apply. There is no bad option here. I know many will question that decision, but I feel that it is the right thing for her.
I’m confused….she is going on an MIT interview but is not applying to MIT?
Or was this in response to some other college?
Good luck to your DD with the UGA FFR app! My DD is a recent FFR grad. If you have any questions, let me know.
2 Likes
I think many would disagree that “there is no bad option”. Allowing her to apply and be accepted when you are not able to pay MIT’s tuition and will not receive sufficient aid can absolutely lead to a bad option. We’ve seen too many kids who turned down dream schools as their parent can’t afford them and seen the pain to not consider it as a potential bad option.
I understand that you have been clear that she must not just gain admission but an outside scholarship to pay for MIT - but she wouldn’t be the first teenager who didn’t consider just how tough it would be to get in and not be able to go because the extremely unlikely outside scholarship didn’t materialize.
I wish her nothing but success, but I wouldn’t be at all be cavalier about the potential pitfalls - it’s happened a whole lot on even my relatively short duration on cc and watching my own kids friends’ journeys.
10 Likes
I am sorry for the confusion. She won’t ever have to wonder “what if?” about getting into MIT. Since she is applying, there will never be any doubt about whether she could have gotten in; she will know because MIT is going to tell her (hopefully in December).
She has applied to MIT EA and has accepted an invitation to interview.
2 Likes
Thank you. My daughter is finishing up her application this week so I will be in touch if she has any questions. I am not sure if you know, but they recently did away with the Ramsey. The FF program looks amazing!
My DD told me that was the plan last year and I just went on the website and saw that they followed through. It’s a good move. The Ramseys always felt like underappreciated stepchildren. The fellowship is an amazing program. Good luck to your DD!
1 Like
Depends on expectations going in to it. If there’s a clear understanding of the fiscal limits, then any “pain” isn’t based in reality, and it’s probably worth being introduced into the real world at that point anyway. It doesn’t seem that that’s anything close to the situation outlined for @Dis3456’s kid, though, so I don’t see what the problem might be even at that level.
2 Likes