Great news for sure. I have been reading this thread from the beginning.
No surprise that she was accepted to Vanderbilt. I am assuming it was a likely letter. Has Vanderbilt not said anything about financial aid? She should get into most of her remaining schools - even at Princeton her chances are good.
Latina female with strong math skills and an outstanding boarding school record, she is a unicorn. Congrats, and I hope you are pleasantly surprised by the financial aid and merit offers still to come.
MOSAIC invites went out for Vanderbilt. I’m guessing she was invited to that. It’s a multicultural recruitment event for admitted students. Some of those kids might have heard about the big scholarships so there’s some overlap but not all 200 kids invited get a merit scholarship.
Miami sounds really nice, especially with the hockey.
Merit aid would be better than need based aid since it wouldn’t change if the other siblings doesn’t attend college and if income/assets change from year to year.
I want to congratulate not just his daughter but to him for being a dedicated parent. He has gotten enough flack on this thread but can’t imagine she would of gotten all this done without his dedication.
Yes, she got a letter telling her that she has been admitted to Vanderbilt and inviting her to attend the MOSAIC Program. The only big scholarship she applied for was the Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship, and so far I haven’t heard of anyone saying they’ve received it yet (a few others said they have already been notified of the other big 2). Without that one, Vanderbilt wouldn’t be a possibility.
Congrats to her!! She has had a phenomenally successful app season!! I hope multiple of the big awards are offered and she gets to choose her favorite. Kudos to her for being able to submit that many high quality applications! That is a feat!
I can verify some of this and add a bit more. Like you, due to our NPC, we knew when she applied that my daughter would only be able to afford to attend Vanderbilt if she received one of the two big scholarships she applied for (CV or Chancellor’s). My daughter was invited to Mosaic/received early notification of acceptance last year and attended, and a 2020 Senior she mentors received his invitation to Mosaic with Chancellor’s Scholarship notice over the weekend. Last year we were aware that Ingram/Chancellor’s/Cornelius Vanderbilt scholarship recipients were invited to Mosaic, but it was not clear to us that those had all been awarded and notified. We thought she might still have a chance. The full financial aid packages don’t come with your Mosaic letter, the aid notification comes when you get your regular decision notification with all RD applicants in March. Once she got to Mosaic weekend, that was made clear (or at least that was her understanding) that all those scholarships had already been awarded. With that knowledge, we were pretty sure the finances would not swing our way. While she had fun and it was her first look at Vanderbilt, if I had been more “aid savvy”, we should have said no to this fly-in program. Feb, March and April were an onslaught of scholarship weekends and diversity fly-ins and admitted students days like Princeton Preview and Stanford Admitted Students Weekend. She was exhausted at the end. In hind sight, if we would have known all the choices she would end up having, this was the one fly in we would have cut. Once we did get that financial aid package at the end of March, our expected contribution was $23,000, the highest of all the meets needs schools she was accepted to. To show comparison, Princeton was $10,000 and Stanford was about $1000 more than Princeton.
@Outlander - thanks, that’s very helpful information. Were you ever explicitly notified that your daughter did NOT receive either of those scholarships, or was the absence of any positive notification your only clue that she didn’t receive either?
I’ve been watching the Vanderbilt thread, and so far several have said that they were notified of the Chancellors, but no one has said they have been notified of the Vanderbilt yet, so perhaps there’s still a glimmer of hope.
Fingers crossed that she still has a shot at the CV. While financial aid would likely be the best at Princeton, you never know. Vanderbilt may surprise you. It was definitely the best FA offer my S received last year, much better than the award from Brown and other meets need schools. Even without FA, she seems like she will have some great options. Congrats!
@KevinFromOC As I pointed out in the Vandy thread, last year they emailed CV scholarship award notifications on or about March 8th. I have no idea if they let MOSAIC students know sooner or not. Though as you correctly pointed out, thus far no MOSAIC invitee has posted on the Vandy thread that he/she received the CV. In any event, I don’t recall anyone posting earlier than March 8th of last year that they were awarded the CV, so I am assuming that they send out all CV award notices at once (maybe with an exception here and there–not sure). So, it would seem possible that your daughter is still in the running for it!
No, unfortunately not. In fact it looks like the nearest ice rink is 80 miles away. They don’t even have a Field Hockey team, so my daughter would probably not play any sports there. Which could be dangerous, as given her rigorous workouts and practices every day, she currently eats like a 300 lb offensive lineman, and if she continues to eat like that without sports to burn it off she might become one!
^ That is an excellent suggestion in my opinion. Also gives you the opportunity to stress that the school is very likely a no go for your daughter unless they come through with significant aid. Even if she does not receive the CV, who knows whether the message might trickle down to the financial aid office. Sure, people on here will tell you it is all based off a formula so it makes no difference for need based aid, but do you really want to bet the chance to have some impact on that?
Don’t underestimate the value of female URM in a hard STEM. The one I knew most recently - who was in two very small math and science classes as a 12th grader with our kid as a 9th grader - chose between Harvard and Caltech (and a few other T20 schools). Lower objective achievements than your daughter, @KevinFromOC, by the way.
Posters on last year’s CV thread indicated that Vandy sent out both yes and no CV emails. I just looked at the old thread and posters stated that historically, Vandy sends out CV emails the first week of March, on either the Wednesday or on the Friday. As stated above, last year the notification date was on the Friday.
I have no idea when the MOSAIC weekend is, but as others have mentioned above, before going you could call to ask if they notify the MOSAIC invitees about the CV in advance of the regular March notification.
@homerdog
Unfortunately MOSAIC is March 12-14, and March 13-14 is the Rose Hulman Circle of Distinction weekend which my daughter will be attending, so she won’t be able to go to MOSAIC.
@OneMoreToGo2021
So far we have tried not to come across to schools as “you need to give her a ton of aid or she ain’t going to your school”, even though, in reality, that’s kinda how it is. But maybe an inquiry to her rep with a hint of the above might be in order.
I’m realizing just how much harder this phase is with her being 2000 miles away in a different timezone. Her communication skills are nowhere near as good as her STEM skills, and for me finding out important details she gets in e-mails or on portals is sometimes challenging. For example, she just told me today that two days ago a Princeton rep came to her school and interviewed her in person.
