Same here. UF is yet to apply, it is a super reach but the decisions will come out only in late February! That’s his 1st choice, so we have to wait till then to decide.
USF is our (family’s) 1st choice overall and it will only release acceptances in mid December.
On light research, FAU dorm availability is limited it seems and now we are in this dilemma.
This whole process is stressful and needlessly complicated. We are so used to guaranteed admission to public K-12 schools that makes this so much out of the ordinary!
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desert
D24 got an email today from UNM informing her that she’s received their Freshman Arizona Reciprocal Tuition Waiver, which gets her the same rate that NM residents pay. So it’s worth $22,219/year!
Does she WANT to attend UNM? No.
Am I sad about this? YES!
Why? Because this makes UNM only $21,476/year (tuition, room & board).
U of A right now will be $21,850/yr w/the $5000/yr merit award she got.
Still waiting on NMSU’s merit award info.
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S24 submitted his applications today! 
The confetti celebration on each one was fun. Even though admissions suggested test optional during the tours, he decided to submit his scores. I think it was the right decision for him. Now for the hard part…waiting. He thinks he will hear back from one school within two weeks. I’m going to have a hard time waiting until January for all the decisions and then March for the financials. UGH!!
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Yesterday, we had a chat with DS24 and came up with our acceptance strategy.
FYI, he has applied to FAU, FIU, USF, FSU and going to apply to UF ( it is in the order of safety to reach).
He got admitted to FAU. We are fine with him attending FAU if it is the only one. The strategy is mainly to get housing application sent in early.
We also expect decisions coming in the same order as we applied. FIU in mid November, USF & FSU in mid December and finally UF in March.
If he gets into FIU, USF and FSU (or not), we will wait till March before putting in housing for any of the acceptances.
USF is our overall 1st choice, if he doesn’t get in to USF, he wants to put in housing for FIU/FAU (depending on if he gets in FIU) in mid December.
Please correct us if there are any drawbacks in our housing strategy.
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I’m not familiar with the details of all of those school, but generally speaking, if on campus housing at a college is hard to come by, AND if you can put down a housing deposit WITHOUT having paid your enrollment deposit (U of Arizona is like this), then put down a housing deposit for whatever your #1 backup school is.
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Even though it maybe different with other universities, looking at FAU housing policy it won’t work:
Do I need to pay my Tuition Deposit before signing a Housing Contract?
Yes, your housing contract will not be considered for processing if you have not completed your Tuition Deposit with the University.
Just got an email on housing for FAU, the application opens only on January 10th! Phew!
We got 2.5 months to figure out.
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I am pleased to report after visiting his freshman college sibling at family weekend, S24 is now working on finishing his own college applications. I think he’s starting to imagine his life one short year from now. This is good.
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D24 is meeting w/the counselor at school today during her lunch period to do another review of her essays. D24 said that her plan is to hit the submit button a few days before the 11/1 deadline. Hurry up, kiddo!
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D24 got feedback from her English teacher on her essay - minimal editing needed, so she’s ready to complete and submit tonight 
We were in Boston over the weekend visiting D20 and as we passed by Wentworth D24 admitted she couldn’t remember why she ruled it out after touring last year…and since she has a code for fee waiver she’s going to go ahead and apply. :shrug: If she gets in (I’m nearly 100% certain she will) and the financials work (I’m less certain of that), she can revisit it in the spring and see what she thinks. It is certainly the weakest of the schools on her list, but the city of Boston is a huge draw for her.
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Hi there! Parent from last year’s thread. I was reading the posts and wondering if I should chime in but your post mentioning Wentworth sealed the deal. For everyone getting into safeties right now - sometimes they really grow on the kid! D23 got into all the schools she applied to. She was deferred from EA to RD at her #1 choice, the College of Charleston. By the time they admitted her in March, she felt like she really saw herself at Suffolk University in Boston. They gave her a very nice merit scholarship. Their communication was good, they made her feel wanted and at home. We just came back from parents weekend and she’s doing great. It’s not a competitive school, so supportive, and it feels like she’s been able to really get involved. Just saying that the safety school can also turn into their number one!
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Very nice to hear that you daughter likes her safety. I can see that. I went to grad school that was more welcoming and the professional approach compared to other schools helped making the decision.
Like everything in life, there are lot of factors that would seal the deal.
I was curious, and so gave Wentworth the retired engineer once-over:
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Very career-focused, with employment rates which back that up (in part because of the high take-up rate from undergrads’ co-op employers). Students know why they are there – academics seems to be at the forefront.
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~90% admit rate, yet over a quarter are 3.75 and above GPA. So some self-selection going on: They do admit a lot of the applicants, but that includes many very qualified ones.
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It’s part of the Colleges of the Fenway, allowing students at one to take courses at any of the others (from experience, transportation is simple in that part of Boston).
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Housing is guaranteed the first year, though as with many places now (but Boston/Berkeley for a long time) off-campus arrangements might be tricky/expensive if in subsequent years they aren’t in the 1/2 of student body which lives on campus. But I haven’t researched that lately.
All in all, looks good for someone who knows what they want to do for undergrad vs
trying out different majors for a couple of years. It may happen to be someone’s safety, but it also looks like they do a perfectly good job of teaching (engineering) – perhaps better than many.
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I appreciate this perspective, thank you. My D20 is at a COF school (Simmons), which is what brought Wentworth on our radar in the first place.
My wish for her is to have a few (or 5) good choices to pick amongst come spring. 
One of the schools that S24 applied to, requested personal (family) recommendations and he put us down. I have two drafts so far. I really feel for these kids and the essays they have to write, so much riding on them.
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D24 received word from ASU today that she’s been given a merit scholarship for $5000 per year off tuition.
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D24 officially submitted two EA apps last night! The relief I feel is … immense. She is polishing up the supplemental question responses for two more today and they should be ready for submission tonight.
Question for anyone who might know: For one of the schools, the AO told D24 that they don’t look at the common app essay, just the school-specific supplemental prompts. The prompt is the same as the common app one, except it just tags on a " How does new understanding contribute to potential success at (school name)?* So, D24 would like to use her common app essay with a slight modification toward the end. On the school-specific app within common app, it lists the common app essay as “optional” - I’m concerned that they will see essentially the same essay in two spots, since there doesn’t seem to be a way to take it out of the common app (without taking it out for all schools). Am I overthinking this? Will they just ignore the main essay field and just look at theirs?
She has one to two more apps that she’ll submit for RD (due in Jan/Feb). One of them does not require supplementals, so it is really ready to go at this point. I’m going to encourage her to just send it off tonight when she’s doing the others.
Good to think about, but probably not to worry: If they said they don’t look at it, then they shouldn’t care what if anything is there, and are proably used to seeing such a repetition (if they even ever look). If you can’t find an FAQ regarding that (it must come up a bunch), then maybe double-check with the AO?
1 college came off the list:
she just got home from this college fly-in:
- while she loved the college, it is entirely not diverse enough for her.
She and a few fly-in students interviewed a few POC students and got the real scoop: the college tries but it’s failing miserably in the diversity aspect.
Plus the dining hall food was terrible.
“It’s even whiter than our high school!”
That’s 1 less supp essay to write.
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