Congratulations to your S22! It’s so exciting to see their hard work come to fruition.
As Greatpyrmom mentioned, we are Georgia residents so my daughter’s tuition will be covered by Zell. We are not expecting any aid beyond that, but it would still be much appreciated! My daughter was grateful to be an auto admit to the Honors College because she does not have to write another essay.
My daughter heard from her last public school today - Georgia Tech. She was accepted into CS!
She should hear from her final 5 schools this week. I really wish that we had some idea when her final schools will be releasing their decisions. For the time being, they are all mid-December. I had been completely chill throughout the process, but with all of the decisions due in the coming week, I am getting very antsy. My daughter, on the other hand, is very relaxed.
Congratulations, looks like your daughter has nice options. My daughter too so calm but I am little antsy. Glad I don’t have access to any log in information.
It’s been an exciting 36 hours in our house.
My daughter was accepted into her small liberal arts college yesterday. Her merit award will be arriving with her acceptance letter. Praying that it comes tomorrow or Saturday. I really think that this school is a dark house for her, and I also suspect it’s why she doesn’t want me to name it.
Tonight, she was accepted into TCU and was invited to interview for the Chancellor’s Scholarship. The interview weekend is in February. This was a very unexpected and nice surprise!!
Last but not least, she was accepted at Notre Dame a few minutes ago! Notre Dame holds a special place in our family’s heart so this acceptance was extremely meaningful.
She should hear from MIT on Saturday and then SMU next week. And then we just wait to hear about merit awards.
My daughter received her SMU acceptance and Provost Scholarship last night. We are hoping she will be invited to the President’s Scholars interview, but we have to wait until February to hear.
My daughter also received an annual scholarship from UGA last night, I was not aware that in-state students were eligible for scholarships on top of Zell so that was a very unexpected surprise!
When we started her college search, our goal was to target and find schools that would give her a full tuition scholarship or better. At this time, she has five schools that fit that criteria:
UGA
Georgia Tech
University of Alabama
Mississippi State
UCF
She has also been invited to TCU to interview for the Chancellor’s Scholarship, which fully covers tuition and fees.
And we still have several schools that have not fully announced their merit awards. She’s fortunate that she will have several great options when it comes time to make a final decision. And now we wait for the MIT decision that comes out this afternoon…
Congratulations!!!
Congrats! We also chased merit. My D was invited to and attended SMU’s Presidents Scholars Interview weekend. If your D gets invited, feel free to reach out to me.
Thank you.
My daughter received a full tuition scholarship from her liberal arts schools today! This is very exciting news, and we will be doing a college visit there this spring. We decided that we would wait to visit any schools that require flights until after she received an admissions decision and financial aid/award.
On a less exciting note, my daughter was deferred by MIT. We both understand that this is likely a rejection since MIT accepts very few deferred applicants. On top of that, I am confident that she will have moved on prior to hearing something definitive by March 14.
I don’t think MIT Is being polite with a deferral. They only accept a small percentage EA
It is great that she has so many wonderful free or close to free options at this point.
I am sorry to hear about the MIT deferral, but at least they are transparent about how they pull from it. We appreciated that last year when we were along for a similar ride. As you said, by Pi Day my D21 already had lots of other great options and then did get a few more wonderful surprises in the weeks that followed.
I appreciate your updates and the research you have done with her. I hope others will follow your path to consider many scenarios instead of focusing on one.
Thank you so much. She really does have so many wonderful options, and she’s excited about all of them! Having heard back from all of her schools, she is in a fabulous position. She still doesn’t have a clear frontrunner, but I think some of these large merit scholarships/interview weekends will provide some clarity. I feel confident that she will end up at the perfect school for her.
She was a bit disappointed by the MIT deferral, but it hasn’t taken away from her excitement about her other options. She always knew that it was stretch, and she’s content moving on. While she is not going to withdraw her application, she is mentally moving on and closing that chapter. She has absolutely no regrets about applying, and I am so happy that she did!
I am going to give a quick update. My daughter is getting closer to a decision. I am hoping that she has a decision by the middle of March.
So far she has eliminated the following schools:
GT
UGA
Clemson
Notre Dame
MIT (was deferred so they may technically eliminate her!)
That leaves her with the following schools:
UCF - Cost of Attendance package
Alabama - Close to COA package, Randall Research Finalist, a leading contender
Miss. State - they were near the top of her list after our visit but are likely near the bottom of her remaining contenders, Scholarships cover at least all of our direct costs
Liberal arts school - full tuition scholarship; invited to Top Scholars weekend but declined due to a conflict at her high school; a dark house
TCU - Will be interviewing for the Chancellor’s Scholarship
SMU - Very generous merit right now; waiting to hear about invite to Provost Scholars weekend
At the end of the day, I think that the interview weekend for Randall Research Scholars at UA will play a huge part in her decision. If she goes, connects with the students, and is given a spot in the RRS program, I think that she will end up at UA. If not, there are three other schools that are strong possibilities, and she is attracted to each one for different reasons.
Good luck! thanks for the updates! keep them coming. so many options 
@Dis3456 Congratulations to your dd! I’d love to ask you some questions, we’re a year behind you and your daughter.
How would you and she compare UCF and UA? Were you able to visit both? You mentioned some concerns when Luke left his NM position; how did you find his replacement? And the NM package? You mentioned an NM cohort at UCF- did you get more details as you were hoping? Would you share?
Honestly, I do not have a good sense of UCF as we have not yet visited. Mentally, I have kind of crossed it off our list, but my daughter still wants to tour. With her being offered an interview for Randall Research Scholars at UA, we may let that process play out before deciding if we want to visit UCF.
With respect to our tour, we contacted UCF about visiting around Thanksgiving. It took them a while to reply, and then they did not have any availability. This was around the time that Luke left his current role so I don’t know the reason for the delay. If we end up touring, I will report here.
I can see how that would be disappointing. I read such wonderful things about Luke!
I did talk to the new NM person. Luke is still at UCF, but in a different department. She said private NMSF tours for my kids’ year would start in July. They were focused only on current year kids.
Thanks!
Congrats to your daughter on so many acceptances and scholarships.
Can I ask if the need-based aid she was awarded at Notre Dame (assuming she got some) was close to what you had estimated using the net price calculator for Notre Dame? If it was significantly different was it higher or lower.
thanks!
Thank you.
We did not get any need-based aid from Notre Dame, and we were not expecting any.
Thank you.
Also, if there is any interest that remains in MIT I think she may consider sending a letter of continued interest to them mentioning any new information since the time of application.