<p>With my son admitted to three colleges and likely to be admitted to one or two more, one of my favorite obsessive pastimes is to speculate about where he'll actually end up, and for what reason(s). My son plays along nicely if unwittingly, carefully avoiding any indication whatsoever of where he might be leaning, and carefully counterbalancing yesterday's compliment of a given school by disparaging it for some other reason today. What fun!</p>
<p>I half-expect him to announce on April 31st that he is going to attend the school that I was certain he would never attend if he had any other options, and he will give a reason that I never anticipated. ("I'm going to a junior college in Noam, Alaska, because if the pictures on Google are anything to go by, their sidewalks are paved perfectly.")</p>
<p>This leads me to wonder, how many parents have been surprised, even shocked, by their kid's college choice? What did they choose, and for what reason?</p>
<p>Tell him he might want to make his mind up by the 30th…April doesn’t have 31 days!! and he doesn’t want to miss the deadline on this one!! </p>
<p>We set a deadline for the decision of April 28th for DD. The 30th was on a Saturday and we didn’t want to have any internet snafus. GOOD THING we did. She made up her mind and we went to log on and pay her deposit and confirm. Well…her university does NOT accept Visa and guess what the only CC we had was?? You got it…VISA. We really scrambled. In the meantime, we realized our debit was a mastercard and we used that…but we weren’t sure the school would accept a debit so we overnight mailed the response too…with a check.</p>
<p>OH…DD had two really good top choice schools. Her second choice was significantly less costly due to a terrific merit award. She chose the OTHER school. I never asked her a thing about it until we were on the plane flying to deliver her to her school. She told me…“my school was my number one choice all along. When I visited, I felt like I fit in. Kids seemed friendly and knew one another. At number two school, I felt like I would be a number.” Number two school was four times the size of the school DD is now a senior at.</p>
<p>after being accepted at Chicago, Dartmouth, Brown, Wash U, and a bunch of other higher ranked smaller colleges, he decided to go to USC. He says it was because it had great strength in the programs he wanted, which it does, but mostly for him it was because it was here in Calif [ there’s no place like home I guess] and a lot of his friends would be going there or at other colleges in LA. He said the scholarship he received from USC was not as big a factor for him as it was for us, but it did help justify turning down the other colleges.</p>
<p>Ooh, good catch, thumper1! Although, come to think of it, it would be just like him to wait until “the 31st” and end up missing college entirely because of it. So maybe unconsciously I was right. :D</p>
<p>Well, geeps, my son is indeed attending a surprise institution. We didn’t know he had applied until app season was over. </p>
<p>The surprise was magnified when the school offered him a full tuition/fees/stuff merit award in early March.</p>
<p>The surprise was ultimate when he accepted the offer over his top-choice EA-acceptance school, on April 29th, following two visits to the surprise school and a final visit to the much-loved EA school.</p>
<p>Since I’m hardly paying anything (as it turns out!), and it is a very good private institution, I’m not complaining. BTW, it has turned out to be a fantastic choice for him, in every possible way. </p>
<p>I feel deep in my heart that if he gets into one school in particular, he’ll be headed there. I heard recently that at a party he told one of my friends it was still his first choice. If he doesn’t get in there, I really have no idea where he’ll end up, and it will mean spring travel is in our future.</p>
<p>Why should there be a surprise? Unless you as a parent totally missed the boat. To think my kid would waltz in to tell me, “Oh, by the way, I know we never discussed about me going to this school, do you mind just writing a check for this school?” I don’t think so. Where is the power point presentation?</p>
<p>Perhaps you are fortunate to have a communicative teenager full of self-knowledge and clear direction. But then there are the rest of us. Kids change their minds for strange reasons.</p>
<p>I guess I should make it clear that I don’t think a surprise would be the end of the world. It might actually be kind of pleasant, depending on the details. Predictability is overrated.</p>
<p>We didn’t require any power-points, or long-winded explanations for school choices. The particular son I wrote about above is extremely competent and independent (a useful combination), and he was given free rein to make his choices, with the understanding that he would have a good deal of skin in the game if he chose a pricey option. All but one of his applications went to schools with the possibility of significant merit awards. His hs record was superb, so he was not being unrealistic.</p>
<p>My parents don’t post on here, so I’m going to post for them lol. I was supposed to go to U of Michigan. I had all U of M stuff and we were huge U of M fans. U of M was financially perfect. U of M was this that and the other thing. Plus, I got accepted. </p>
<p>Then I told my parents I was going to Michigan State- a school I had never discussed with them, never told them I was applying to, and a school that I had long said that I was not going to attend. </p>
<p>I liked MSU better. I realized that really the only thing I liked about U of M was the name, but I wasn’t going to be attending the name “University of Michigan” for four years, I was actually going to the school, and I just didn’t like it. </p>
<p>My parents have come to peace with my decision. The extended family has not.</p>
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<p>My parents just didn’t really care where I went. They wanted me to go where I was happy and they figured that they would just interfere if I talked about every aspect. Who makes a ppt for colleges??</p>
<p>Like mantori.suzuki my son is accepted to three colleges and is waiting for response from three others. I think two of the ones he was already admitted to are strong contenders.</p>
<p>But I too wonder quite frequently where he will end up (hoping it will be the right one). My son who is usually very gabby and talkative is keeping these thoughts very much to himself. I suspect he is still waiting for the clarity- that “this is the one” moment?</p>
<p>daughter was accepted to two of her “dream” schools (one which she had been talking about since she was 10)…ended up attending a completely different one; didn’t shock her father, but it certainly surprised me…then again, I seem to always be the last one to know…</p>
<p>currently in the middle of the process with my younger daughter; I have now learned not to be surprised by anything…</p>
<p>It did not change my Son’s decision but a month before he was to start school another college (that he never applied to) offered him a full ride scholarship. That was a big surprise.</p>
<p>No surprise. Each was admitted to and chose to attend his/her number one school. There was suspense about whether that would be the outcome, especially after DD was deferred ED, but all was well.</p>
<p>I could have wished for a bit of wavering so I would have known all factors were considered, but each had a great love, and each followed it.</p>
<p>Neither was the absolute best FA we received, but the differences were small enough that that wasn’t a consideration in our deliberations.</p>
<p>I had made my criterion that the school be possible for us, not the best bargain.</p>
<p>One has graduated and I can see it was a brilliant choice for her (her college, I mean.)
The jury is out on the second, though there are many things he has loved there, there have been a few issues as well.</p>