I found that when I went to grad school after a 3 year period of working fulltime, I was much more mentally focused than I ever had been throughout my schooling. Part of this was maturity. The other part was that I was finally studying a subject that I had great interest in, and I had more appreciation for the cost of education than I had previously had even though I worked and took out loans for my undergraduate education.
So your son is the little ■■■■■■■ who took my spot at mit…
CONGRATS! 
Wow…this is very impressive. I am very glad that this great news reached my ears. It is true, that even during the hardest times in life, (those moments where all things go wrong…even when you knew they shouldn’t have) there is a way out. I applaud you with a loud cheer, and wish your son much success…you give me hope.
Sorry Yargg-- you’ll have a great time at Syracuse!!
Never lose hope yepunsarang. Crisis=opportunity.
I agree! As an older student myself (who worked much longer than 10 years, I might add :o ) I know what you mean. I think it would have been much harder to take a long break and then go back to try a math-related major, though.
not all kids are ungrateful for their teachers, though!!
(I <3 my teachers, they are wonderful and work harder than most people for less pay)
I hate to be a a-hole here, but can we see Andi’s full on stats? NM doesn’t mean much anymore, and the way people on this forum think is “2400 and Val? You MIGHT get into your state school”. Perhaps this is a case where the kid wasn’t that exceptional? Maybe he didn’t pick the right set of schools to apply to. Or maybe he made one “red flag” type error on all his apps. I’m not insinuating that any of this is true or trying to be offensive to anyone, but could we address the possibility that there is a reason this happened? The chaotic theory doesn’t cut it for me (it’s too scary for us rising seniors lol).
Maybe it was the hand of God (who must be an MIT alum)!
Trust me, the question of “why” was ALL hashed and re-hashed last year. Find the thread and re-re-hash all you want.
Basically, Andison didn’t pick the right set of schools to apply to. That is the one of the major points of the lesson to be learned. If his list last year had included some of the schools that he applied to this year, he would have just been a somewhat disappointed kid who got shut out of his reach colleges but would be going to another great college in the fall.
Your kid wasn’t qualified, that’s it. Maybe his GPA and SAT was good, but the admissions officers could see he hasn’t been socialized beyond learning how to memorize a textbook or play a musical note. This seems quite obvious from the personal essay: the kid lacks personality. Instead of taking his hand and pushing him through life, let him be more independent. In the future he can’t have mommy asking people online if he should hire a new employee. My dad made the same mistake of not socializing me – he pushed me to do well in school and punished me when I didn’t succeed. Thankfully I recognized there are greater things in life other than books. Perhaps, one day, your son will realize this too.
Please don’t feed the ■■■■■. (Just click on the ■■■■■’s name and read the posts. You’ll see there is no benefit to be gained.)
Agree, Cur. BUT- I’m sure glad Andison developed so much personality and socialization during his gap year that he got the awesome acceptances he did!
Perhaps you should try it, DreamWeaver. Please don’t ruin this excellent and helpful thread.
I haven’t read all 15 pages, so I don’t know if this angle has been covered. Also, perhaps I should post the question elsewhere, but here it is:
<pre><code> How much impact did requesting merit/financial aid have on the number of waitlists received? The OP makes a point that her NSMF son was not an URM and not from an UR geographic area. I understand that the OP needed to request financial aid, that the family could not choose not to do so.
My question is whether you take a risk of not getting admitted to a very selective college if you seek merit aid but don’t really need it to attend.
Just anecdotally, a friend’s D is a star student in every way and they thought they should see what kind of merit money might be offerred even though their EFC was over $50,000. The end result was that she got substantial offers from several schools she didn’t seriously want to attend, rejected at two super reaches, and waitlisted almost everywhere else.
Does seeking merit aid often = waitlist?
</code></pre>
"… can we see Andi’s full on stats? … Maybe he didn’t pick the right set of schools to apply to. Or maybe he made one “red flag” type error on all his apps.
drummerdude_07 -
While Andi, or those who have had contact with her can give better info, I have only followed this story from the history of posts – on this thread and others – but I think there is more than enough info. presented to “answer” the topics you bring up:
Stats: I couldn’t find her son’s stats list, but the following from andi contains most of the info:
“one of the top graduates in his competitive public high school graduation class, was a National Merit Finalist, had SATs of 1550, four SAT IIs with scores between 730-770, had a nationally recognized EC etc etc, and, no he didn’t have a personality defect, he’s a great kid.”
Right set of schools: I think that Andi’s main message is that her son did NOT have the right set of schools. Too many “reaches” – Ivy’s and LAC’s that are reaches for EVERY student, even the most accomplished.
“Red Flag”: In one of the threads, that I can’t locate, I think Andi said her son did not give as much effort to the schools on his list that were not among his first choice.
Continue to ignore the ■■■■■■. Andi and her son’s story is one of the most valuable on CC. There is a lot to be learned from her posts, and the responses.
jazzymom, mini and some others addressed the effects of applying for finaid in my original thread ‘picking up the pieces.’ But just for the record, in our case, he received merit aid at all of the schools in the second round, that offered it, however, the only school that he actually <em>applied</em> for merit aid to was Brandeis, because he had to audition for the scholarship. He did apply for need-based aid, and did receive it at the schools that offered that.
Said ■■■■■ has already been banned under one name, I believe - there was a WhetDreamWeaver stirring up trouble about a month ago. But I think we all know to ignore these idiocies by now.
Andi: Is there a link to the discussion that followed your original thread a year ago?
I’m trying to understand how the merit aid/ financial aid question might affect an admissions decision for a student coming straight out of high school. I understand that your son in the second round was a very different candidate in the eyes of the adcoms.
jazzymom here’s the link. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=47867[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=47867</a>
Hey mini… isn’t this one of your favorite topics? Now’s your chance to expound…
jazzymom, I don’t know if there is any way to prove or disprove how being a financial aid applicant or merit aid applicant would affect an admissions decision. All schools claim it doesn’t.
I can just give you anecdotal information.
D1 was a financial aid applicant (need based). We assumed all of her schools just offered need based (that is the case with a majority of the highly selective schools, many of which were on her list). She got need based aid at every school. Two of her schools on the “safer” end of her college list actually offered merit awards, though we didn’t know that until she received them. She applied to 8 schools. She got into six, waitlisted at one, deferred/denied at one. FA offered from all and merit offers from the two that actually give such awards. Didn’t seem to make any difference in her results.
D2 was also a FA applicant. She was applying to all highly selective reach BFA programs. We didn’t realize any offered merit awards though all apparently did and she didn’t apply separately for those. She was admitted to six schools, waitlisted at one, denied at one. The waitlisted school also offered a substantial aid package (she was “priority waitlisted” and so the package was made available as she’d have one day to enroll if offered a slot). All her schools gave her FA (need based) and all also gave her merit awards. Again, being a FA applicant appears to have had no bearing on her admissions.
Both girls had very good admissions results. Both got good FA. Both got merit aid from any school that also offered such awards.
If you think you may qualify for aid (we were not sure if we’d get it or how much, but put in for it), do so. I also now have two in college at one time and the FA awards and merit awards are quite significant and I have no complaints in that respect.
Jazzymom, I think you misunderstand the financial aid process. Merit aid is generally based on having strong academics in relation to the applicant pool; usually colleges don’t ask for any separate application for the aid, it is just something they decide to offer on their own to the applicants they most desire – it is always used as a way to entice students to attend the college. Sometimes the college will invite the student to submit an additional application or essay or interview to compete for a specific scholarship, and some colleges do have a specific application procedure that all students can use – but generally, any student who would be in the running for merit aid woud be one who is almost assured of admission. In fact, I would think that at least in theory, the failure to respond to an invitation to apply for a scholarship might hurt the student’s chances – it could be taken as an indication that the student was not seriously interested in that college and provide a reason for the school to waitlist rather than admit in order to protect their yield.
Need-based financial aid is a different matter entirely, because the financially needy student will probably not be able to attend without funds. So need-aware colleges might deny admission to weaker or borderine candidates because of financial need. Though I think it might be more accurate to say that need-aware colleges give preference to students who can pay full cost - but these college also generally use merit money or generous need-based packages to attract the most desired students.
My own anecdote: my daughter applied for need based financial aid at all colleges, and asked for application fee waivers based on financial need at most. She was accepted to several reach colleges, and she was offered significant merit aid from several match/safety colleges. She was rejected from a super-reach Ivy and waitlisted at 2 colleges that were less selective than 3 of the reaches which accepted her. She is not a URM or athlete. My son also applied for financial aid to all colleges, and was accepted to all but one, a reach which waitlisted him.
It is easy for parents to cast about looking for excuses as to why a college has turned down an applicant, but if a college is a reach that means by definition it is more likely than not that the student will be rejected or waitlisted. If the college is a match, it is harder to know – but if the student applies to many “match” colleges and is rejected/waitlisted by all, then it might indicate that the student simply misjudged his/her position among the competition – i.e., the colleges labeled “match” were really reaches for that student. Your friend’s daughter may have made the mistake of applying to colleges that were not particularly good fits and then not demonstrating significant interest in the schools – so what may be at fault is not the fact of seeking merit aid, but the overall strategy of choosing colleges by perceived likelihood of getting aid rather than whether they would be the best schools for her.