<p>My DS did not apply to enough schools. Thought that an ACT of 33 would get him in where he wanted. Nope! (I think there are many "smart" kids out there.) He got accepted to 2 out of 5 schools applied to. A difficult choice--an in-state university where he truely does not want to go. An out of state university that is very expensive. Probably won't quality for FA. Now a difficult choice has to be made.</p>
<p>Perhaps he can start at one of his current choices and, after a year, transfer to someplace more pleasing.</p>
<p>here are some comments on coping with fewer choices than hoped for:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/678183-heartbroken.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/678183-heartbroken.html</a></p>
<p>Gee, my son had a higher ACT and would only apply to 3 schools (2 elite and top state U) despite our pestering him- he’s happy at flagship U, we could have afforded any U. Sigh. They may be academically smart, but they won’t listen to parents and you couldn’t have made him do the applications. He will have to accept the consequences of his choices made last fall.</p>
<p>Can he take a gap year and try again? </p>
<p>There have been several anecdotes on CC about students who, after a disappointing admissions season, take time to mature, think about their future, do some meaningful activities, work to build up the college fund, and then reapply in the next admission cycle with better results.</p>
<p>Somebody said it somewhere on this board, and it bears repeating:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>OP, I know this doesn’t help your son now, but if five more non-seniors read this, there will be five fewer heartbreaks a year from now.</p>
<p>wis75, I see you are from Wisconsin. Is your son going to University of Wisconsin Madison? Very good school. I assume he didn’t make it into the elite schools? You know what, if he is happy and gets a good education that is what really counts. Am from the Chicago area-the two schools my son got into are UIUC and UC-Irvine. My son loves california!</p>
<p>I think there’s a certain amount of confusion here. If I’m not mistaken, your son is interested in computer science, which certainly ought to color the UIUC decision somewhat, since it’s an out-of-state dream school for many in that field. And, on the other hand, would Irvine be meaningfully more expensive than the colleges that rejected him? What did you plan to do, money-wise, if he had been accepted everywhere he applied and was over-the-moon happy about it, but still didn’t qualify for financial aid?</p>
<p>What exactly is the difficult choice? High-quality, more affordable in-state school vs. a location he would prefer? How to tell him that you weren’t ever really going to be willing to pay the premium to let him go to college in California? Or how to tell him that you might have been willing to pay that premium only if you were more impressed with the schools that accepted him? None of those seems like a difficult choice to me. Especially not the last – telling your son THAT is not really an option, even if it’s what you are thinking.</p>
<p>(Next time, however, you should make certain your son also applies to University of Illinois - Chicago, the University of Iowa main campus, and Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis, so we could have a thread about UIUC/UCI/UIC/UIIC/UIPUI. I’m up for that!)</p>
<p>He always could take a gap year and work or volunteer (Americorps could be a good option.) and then apply again to colleges, making sure that he’s applying to some match and safeties that he would enjoy attending and that you can afford.</p>
<p>This isn’t a “love-thy-safety” kind of situation, really. The OP’s son got into his two safeties, and he’s perfectly happy with the more expensive one. He’s not going to find a better tradeoff between affordability and quality than his in-state flagship that is world-class in his field of interest. His choices now are fine choices, and it’s far from clear that he could do better. Maybe he could get a substantial merit scholarship somewhere, but he would have to take a BIG hit on the quality front for it. Given the existing evidence on how competitive his profile is, it doesn’t seem worth waiting a year for that.</p>
<p>There’s an indication that the school he got into and likes best costs too much, and he doesn’t like the alternative. Consequently, taking a gap year and applying to schools that he knows he can afford, would like, and would likely get accepted to could be a good alternative. He has good stats, and is male ( a plus at many schools) so may be able to get excellent merit aid at some second tier private schools – if he’s willing to go that route.</p>
<p>When we write on these boards there are always things we don’t tell. My DS has multiple interests. He did not go looking for a computer science school. He put a different major down for every school. Loved the election this last year-so he put political science down for one school (USC). Was rejected. One of his big passions is music. He wanted ICAM (integraded computing for the arts and music) at UCSD. Was rejected. UC-Irvine has a similiar program as a masters of fine arts. That is attractive-have to look into preparation for this. He put computer science for Irvine. In the case of UICU I think he just applied to the Arts and Sciences college. I am sure my kids aren’t the only one that have some passion in the arts but have been encouraged to find something that is practical and provides a pay check. He is 18 and doesn’t know what he really wants to do. This was a prior post concerning my DD. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062040256-post39.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062040256-post39.html</a>
She started as a dance major and now has accepted an offer for graduate school in psychology at UCLA. So she landed up some place different than expected. Oh, and I do have another son majoring in computer science/engineering at U of I.</p>
<p>UICU is not that inexpensive. COA is about $26,000/year. If you are one of many caucasian white males coming from the Chicago area there is little chance of scholarship money from the school.</p>