<p>I am not familiar with ASU in particular, but the honors programs we looked at made it a point to connect students with faculty mentors, have well-vetted faculty teach intro classes that serve as gateways to majors in small sections, and even provide enhanced advising and grants for undergrad research. This would preserve much of the atmosphere of an LAC for admitted students, especially in the intro classes. Students might enjoy other perks such as special seminars and housing, enhanced advising for students seeking internships, research experience, or admission to graduate programs and fellowships, and priority registration for classes. </p>
<p>Many of these programs require an honors thesis and it is often possible to look at the topics that students have chosen in recent years, along with professors who sponsor them, to get an idea of the breadth of majors that students choose at a particular school. </p>
<p>From OP’s second post in this thread:
“He has a lot of interests but doesn’t know what he wants to do. He likes science, art, literature, politics. He could end up in med school or with a PHD in Philosophy, or?”</p>
<p>People are operating under the assumption that this student has declared a desire to pursue a PhD in philosophy and go into academia. According to OP he is a renaissance kid and doesn’t have a clear direction yet. It doesn’t seem exactly prudent for us to virtually shoehorn him into graduate school at this point. That seems to be one of OP’s concerns. What if he wants to do more exploration? What if he changes his mind a few times? Can he graduate in 4 years or afford to go 5? Will his school have the range of options to change if he finds a new, unconsidered path? Again, maybe one of the LACs is the best fit and he thrives there and everyone is happy but it isn’t wrong to consider those questions.</p>
<p>Fit is important. It isn’t necessarily 220K important. If the family can really afford it, why not? I’d rather spend lots of money on the best college experience possible than on a car, vacation, or dream wedding (or all of the above). But if spending 220k is going to hurt, I’m really not sure that the opportunities, peer group, or prestige value available at Wesleyan trumps what sounds like a very attractive offer from ASU. 220K is a heck of a lot of money to pay, if you don’t have copious amounts of it, because a kid liked the small school feel. </p>
<p>Since Wesleyan doesn’t have the deep pockets of a Harvard or Stanford, it is quite possible that OP didn’t get any aid from Wesleyan, but is still in an income level where 220K is really not a responsible amount to spend when a viable alternative is on hand.</p>
<p>It sounds like the kid did not get aid from Wesleyan… sounds like they did not apply for need based FA anyplace, and Wes does not offer merit aid.</p>
<p>I agree, @dietz199. I think it has something to do with parents looking at the final college choice as the ultimate test on how they have done as parents. If you did a great job, your kid gets in everywhere and you can afford to pay for it. You have scored an A on parenting. Anything less–either not being able to afford the “premium” choice or the kid not having the credentials to get in–gives you a B or C, at best.</p>
<p>Just wondering, there are also decisions left by Grinnell and Whitman aren’t they? </p>
<p>Grinnell might come through with FA; and Whitman might offer an attractive merit scholarship. At this point, I don’t see how the decision is between either Wesleyan full pay or ASU full ride. </p>
<p>FWIW, when my kid entered college as an undecided major, philosophy was his strongest academic interest. Five years later, he’s in journalism school. NOT a field where most people are funded! (Although <em>I</em> thought this was a possibility for him, <em>he</em> had never considered it.) The sticker price at Columbia is about $80K for the degree.</p>
<p>You never know what a kid who is bright and multi-talented will decide to do. All you can do is try to keep the options open. In this case, ASU keeps the options open without debt. Wes keeps the options open in a different way, but would probably require debt for something like J-school, since all of the money would be used up.</p>
<p>I never considered a school like ASU for my kid, because it seemed like an intellectual mismatch. Maybe I was wrong, I don’t know. I thought that he would be able to get into one of the “meets need” schools, and I was right. We went for the brass ring. We got it.</p>
<p>I would tend to assume that this kid chose to apply to ASU because it was a safety with a big money possibility, quite likely without really thinking about finding himself at this decision point. (There are plenty of other low match/safeties he could have applied to that didn’t have this kind of automatic money offer. PNW state flagships, for example.)</p>
<p>For <em>my</em> kid, Wes would be the choice. (He didn’t apply there.) For the OP’s kid, who doesn’t seem to have a burning desire for any LAC, ASU may make more sense. (I would rather stretch for Wes than spend a lot of money of Lawrence.)</p>
<p>On 2/4 OP posted that his son was accepted to Grinnell, Whitman and Lawrence, with large merit awards at both Grinnell and Lawrence. I believe this is not possible as the son would have had to apply ED to both Whitman and Grinnell to know admission status that early. Or am I wrong? I’m not very well informed about the ED process. So while OP may be honest in his need for advice, he is not truthful in details. As others say, CC is not a place where people like to share all details of their lives. I know of one parent who posts sometimes that her 2014 child is a son, and sometimes a daughter. She does not have twins. I understand the need for privacy. But to lay out misleading info about college acceptances and aid makes it difficult to advise, wastes our time. Have to say outright, though I was already implying it earlier, the son likely does not have a true full ride at ASU. Even with departmental money. </p>
<p>Also, judging from the chatter on the Weslyan forum, the only RD applicants who have heard anything yet are a handful of early writes. If son is ED there, well that’s a lot of ED apps.</p>
<p>I thought he said they were waiting on Grinnell and Whitman still. I don’t remember the exact date but a couple years ago Grinnell came out about this time - maybe a week later. Grinnell was out 2nd to last envelope.</p>
<p>“yes, in fact he got $16,000 a year at Lawrence which would bump up to $18,000 because he’s a NMF. He’s not excited about going to the Midwest but it does seem like a very nurturing place. From what I’m reading on these boards, Barrett might have a brighter more diverse student body than Lawrence. He’s also waiting to hear from Grinnell and Whitman. His grades are not great so I’m not holding my breath for merit aid from them.”</p>
<p>I don’t see how this is ambiguous or falsifying data at all. It seems pretty straight forward to me.</p>
<p>a. How secure the family finances are relative to the $160,000 to $220,000 difference.
b. What the family previously discussed and agreed to back at application time, and how the application list was made (some small LACs and out-of-state giant ASU).
c. How strong the student’s preferences are between the schools.</p>
<p>Different responders appear to be making different assumptions on these questions. Different assumptions can easily lead to the very different conclusions being written here.</p>
<p>@celesteroberts is correct. On another thread, the OP posted on 2/4 the following (sorry, I don’t know how to link to a specific post):</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Lawrence has EA, so that is kosher. But both Whitman and Grinnell only offer ED (two rounds of ED, but it is ED and it is binding). So the OP seems to have fudged on the 2/4 post on the other thread (assuming he is not playing games with ED acceptance and now trying to play that off against better offers instead of withdrawing other applications).</p>
<p>Uh… these are the OP’s own posts. Not speculation. There is no “legal” way for the Feb 4 post to be true. The OP is still reading… he posts every once in a while (carefully avoiding answering the questions that have been raised). One other question he hasn’t answered is the one @celesteroberts raised about how exactly he has gotten to zero cost at ASU.</p>
<p>intparent, Hunt, your intuition is impeccable. I thought he was serious and real, but not understanding his
situation correctly. Somehow you immediately divined it. Why do people do this ? Are they kids, playing games to see if parents can catch them in contradictions? Like, you say you are accepted to Wesleyan, and it’s before their RD decisions, so you must be ED and should have withdrawn your other apps some time ago in good faith as you say the money is there to pay. Or in the earlier post, was he seeing if anyone would notice that? Or are they just trying to get engaged in the college discussion and making up scenarios that they imagine might happen to them in the future without realizing they’ve set up illegal situations?</p>
<p>Well, I am not convinced he is a student. I do think he plays loose with the truth, and I also think there is some issue with his spouse not agreeing or he is an ex who does not want to pay. He may have spun out what he hopes will happen in the 2/4 post with acceptances, not what really had happened at that point.</p>
<p>I must say I do think it is very tiresome when people don’t tell the truth here. You don’t have to–and probably shouldn’t-- tell people everything about your family or your kid, but what you do tell should be accurate, especially when asking for advice. People here try to be honest with each other. It is a major part of the value of the conversation. If someone wants to explore a “what if” situation, they should just post it as such. People will be happy to talk about it anyway!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Most likely he isn’t posting on the thread because his, um, <em>creative writing</em> is catching up with him.</p>