<p>My D and S got in! Yay!!</p>
<p>Congrats SDonCC :)</p>
<p>My daughter just accepted her admissions offer. Since Brandeis was her first choice school, and she received a full-tuition scholarship (Justice Brandeis scholarship), the Lerman-Neubauer Fellowship, and a small scholarship for being a national merit finalist, she decided there was no reason to wait until hearing back from her 2nd-5th choice schools in May.</p>
<p>Anyhow, I am very proud parent and extremely happy for her.</p>
<p>BTW, She said she heard that you get better housing the earlier you send in your deposit–does anyone know if that is true?</p>
<p>Congrats 8805card! Nice when everything is settled and that she got in her first choice with scholarship to boot!</p>
<p>haha a bit late, haven’t been on CC in a while. </p>
<p>Anywho, I’ve been accepted as well! 
surprised and happy, even though I more than likely won’t end up atending.</p>
<p>You guys make me pretty nervous for RD since so many people have been admitted through ED I and II</p>
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<p>at least when my student was a first year (few years ago now) that was true, can’t say for sure if its still true though i would assume it is. also depends what you mean by “better” – all first years are generally housed in one of two first year quads - massell or north – (there may be a few sophomores in those quads in singles) – so “better” doesn’t mean a better type of dorm. but within massell and north, there are a handful of singles, doubles, designed triples, and forced triples (ie rooms designed as doubles with 3 people assigned to them) as well as a choice of coed or single sex floors. my understanding of how it worked was that the sooner you got in your housing deposit, the less likely it was that you would end up in a forced triple and the more likely you were to get your choice of type of floor (coed or single sex). but, given the fact that brandeis is planning to increase the size of its classes, i don’t know how easy it will be to avoid tripling these days.</p>
<p>8805card, congrats on your D’s acceptance and welcome to the Brandeis family!</p>
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<p>this is how it worked last year. D was accepted ED and I checked with the housing office - early deposits from ED admits (and I would assume expedited app admits as well) virtually guaranteed that you wouldn’t be in a forced triple.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. This is very helpful.</p>
<p>My daughter’s desire is to avoid these “forced” or “lofted” triples. She is looking forward to having a roomate or two; just wants it to be in a room that is designed for the actual number of applicants.</p>
<p>I have an ethical question I was hoping folks could advise me on. As mentioned above, my daughter received a great merit based scholarship (Justice Brandeis), as well as a fellowship, offer from Brandeis. Since it was her first choice school she has already formally accepted it–she sent in the form and sent her $500.</p>
<p>She is “curious” to see what the other schools she applied to offere her, even though she is fully committed to Brandeis. </p>
<p>The question: would it be more appropriate for her to let the other schools know of her decision now, instead of after receiving acceptances and probably scholoarship offers from them in April? Could she potentially be taking a scholarship offer away from a student at her other schools, or do they offer more scholarships than they anticipate students accepting (like they do with acceptance letters)?</p>
<p>She wants to be fair to the other schools, and not negatively hamper the possibility of a student at one of the other schools not getting a scholarship. But on the flip side, she paid the full application fees to the other schools, jumped through their hoops, and is just “curious” to see how they rank her and the level of scholarships they end up offering.</p>
<p>Any advice or suggestions?</p>
<p>Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>wow, that’s a tough one. I think my curiousity would get the better of me! It’s certainly not required that she withdraw her application, as it would be with ED. It would be the nice thing to do, but… </p>
<p>On another note, i’d love to hear what makes Brandeis your D’s first choice, if you’d be interested in sharing that.</p>
<p>SDonCC,
Every student is different in what they are looking for, so things she likes about Brandeis may not be the same as what your student likes. </p>
<p>My daughter was primarily looking at small liberal arts colleges, preferably ones which offered merit based scholarships. She was not interested in the Ivies, did not want to take classes from teaching assistant, and preferred small class sizes taught by high quality faculty members. She is interested in the sciences (Neuroscience and Biology), so high level labs with the opportunity of participating in faculty research early on in her academic career was important to her. Academically, Brandeis met all of these criteria. An important factor was the fact that Brandeis operates as a small liberal arts college within a first class research university, giving her the best of both worlds. She probably spent 40 hours reviewing the catalog, looking at all the options and possibilities that Brandeis provides.</p>
<p>My daughter plans on going for a PhD right after college, and she felt that Brandeis had a strong reputation was most of the top tier science graduate programs.</p>
<p>She also liked the students she met at Brandeis, and the culture and feel of the campus. She enjoyed the multicultural (and international) mix of students. She wanted to avoid “party schools” (which Brandeis is certainly not) as well as schools with a strong drug and alcohol culture. After speaking with several students there she felt that she “fit” in socially. Some of the schools that turned her off had a large percentage of smokers on campus, strong Greek life influence, or students who told her they work hard during the week so they could party hard all weekend. I am sure there are plenty of Brandeis students that do this, but she didn’t feel like that group was the majority, and there would be plenty of places for her to “fit” in and be part of the campus community.</p>
<p>The interview helped to reinforce her beliefs (stated above).</p>
<p>Finally, Brandeis made a strong offer to her, making her feel like the school really wanted her to attend. They offered a full-tuition scholarship (Justice Brandeis scholarship), the Lerman-Neubauer Fellowship, and will offer her a small scholarship for being a national merit finalist. I am sure it made her feel good to be “in demand,” and the level of money offered alleviated all of our family financial concerns. </p>
<p>The schools that she applied to met many of these elements, but only Brandeis was strong in each area that was important to her.</p>
<p>So SDonCC, I hope this answers your question. Have you son and daughter decided whether they will attend? What other schools are they waiting on?</p>
<p>8805card:</p>
<p>Firstly, congratulations to your daughter.</p>
<p>As to your question: You should withdrawal her applications to the other schools immediately.</p>
<p>This is part of the ED agreement. If she really wanted to see the totality of which schools would accept her, then she should not have applied ED.</p>
<p>She will be taking slots and scholarship funds away from other students and it’s in violation of the ED agreement to keep the other applications in effect.</p>
<p>Hi soze,
She did NOT apply ED. She was part of the cadre of students who were invited to submit expedited reviews, and that is NOT binding. However, she did accept the offer from Brandeis already.</p>
<p>I do agree with your statement regarding the possibilty of taking a slot or scholarship away from a student at another school if she doesn’t withdraw her application. (On the flip side, schools do offer many more slots and scholarships than they actually expect to have accepted.) That is why I was asking the question regarding the protocol involved and whether she should inform the other schools now.</p>
<p>8805card, I would say you’ve given voice to the qualities that make Brandeis attractive for my kids as well. They are waiting on almost all of their schools – mostly LACs, and a few mid-sized universities. They really liked everywhere they applied, and did not have a number one choice. Brandeis was one of three schools they both applied to; the rest were all different. We will have alot of mail coming in this month!!! </p>
<p>It is really wonderful that your daughter got her first choice and all that financial support to boot!</p>
<p>8805card,</p>
<p>Congratulations to your daughter! I do not know how scholarships work, but the real question is… Is she really just ‘curious’? Or will she consider any of the other offers? Because if she is just curious, and already 100% about going to Brandeis then I would think it would be ethical to withdraw applications. If she is willing to lose the $500 deposit and consider other options that might offer other forms of scholarship, then it is perfectly ethical to not withdraw her applications.</p>
<p>Hi Eliyahu2123,
She is just curious. She will not change her mind on Brandeis; if she was at all unsure she would not have sent the acceptance form and deposit in yet. Not only was Brandeis her top choice, but none of the other schools have a scholarship as generous as the Justice Brandeis scholarship is. She applied for small (~5K/year) music scholarships at some schools (which also had merit based scholarships) that she had to send in audition CDs for and I think those are the ones she is most curious to hear about, just to see what they thought of her music performing skills.</p>
<p>Right now I think she is leaning towards withdrawing her applications from all of the schools she hasn’t heard from so that she doesn’t take away a spot or a scholarship from another student. She thinks that is the “right” thing to do.</p>