<p>All the letters aren't even back yet and my son says he would have done it all differently if he had it all to do over again.</p>
<p>He would apply to his dream schools and then pick the best LAC and Universities that offer lots of aid, merit scholarships, etc and apply to them.</p>
<p>He would forget about safety schools and all the kind of random things that drove his college selections (Harvard, Northwestern, Univ. Chicago, UPitt, Brandeis, Fordham, BC, Cornell, WashU, UPenn) and instead pick the first four and then the money schools.</p>
<p>I’m not clear on why he didn’t follow the strategy he now espouses in the first place. Presumably schools that would have offered lots of merit aid would have been safeties for him, or at least safe matches.</p>
<p>Give your kid some credit for growing and maturing over the course of the past year. His new ideas may come more from that than from the economy!</p>
<p>If he hasn’t accepted any college yet, isn’t there still time? Maybe he couldn’t get in the fall quarter/semester, but maybe some colleges will let him enter in the winter quarter if he applies?</p>
<p>Your son has an interesting variety of schools on his list. Despite the fact that he thinks he would have made different choices, he will probably have a good selection of schools to choose from come decision time. Any kid whose credentials are good enough to make him a realistic candidate for Northwestern, U Chicago, Cornell, Wash U, and Penn will almost certainly be admitted to Pitt and Fordham, and probably BC and Brandeis as well – several quite different colleges in different locations.</p>
<p>I can understand this. The application process is a real learning experience. I think it takes a good amount of self-awareness for him to say “I would do it differently.” </p>
<p>I see how my son has evolved during this process. I say evolved because although he may have applied to mostly the same schools, what put one school at the top of his list or not has changed over the last 9 months.</p>
<p>It is a moving target and your child is shooting from a moving vehicle in the application process. There are ever so many changes. For all of my kids, there were schools on the list that were duds, and schools that should have been on the list that didn’t make it.</p>
<p>What would your son’s list look like now? It seems to me that he did pretty much what he says he wants to do now. He has an number of schools that are need blind and meet 100% of aid, and some schools that have merit money. Don’t know why he would dispense with a safety school as that can be the most important choice. I think he chose a good spread of courses. I hope he has some nice choices.</p>
<p>He actually already is in Pitt with a full scholarship and up for a full ride, Fordham full scholarship up for full ride (he finds out for both next month) and Brandeis with 25k in scholarship. </p>
<p>He originally went for schools that were good about meeting financial need but didn’t factor in that with our income he isn’t eligible for grants but we also cant fork over 25k a year for school…hence rethinking that a place with LOTS of merit aid is what he would need to shoot for…</p>
<p>Kids do grow up. It is amazing the clarity with which he is starting to see “real life”.</p>
<p>He picked well, in my information. CHicago, BC and Wash U do have merit awards, but getting anything substantial is truly difficult because of the competition. But why not try? As far the no merit schools go, it is not unusual that it takes a while for most folks to find out that there is no such thing as a full ride on merit to Harvard. I believed all the talk about athletic scholarships, merit scholarships to the ivies once upon a time too, until we actually entered the arena. </p>
<p>Our son should have been done with his college apps as soon as the EA deadlines were met. But a the time, we did not know and had to ride out the process. There were additional goodies and surprised in wait come spring, so it was wise to do so. Though he still went with his first choice school, he was able to negotiate a little bit more money.</p>