<p>Hello! I’m a timid poster, but I forced myself to ignore my shy side, and jump in here. I just want to say, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This is such an amazing community and, through your frank and thoughtful posts, you have helped me support my oldest through this whole random and emotional application process. There were times when I doubted my sanity, but when I’d read your updates, I felt so comforted knowing that there were others going through the exact same experiences and emotions we were, especially on the days my child would experience the highs of acceptance and then within 24 hours, receive a gut wrenching rejection. Thank you so very, very much!</p>
<p>OWM, phbmom & scoutmom: I’m so sorry you and your children have to deal with the bad news. Some day when they look back on this they will probably feel that the MIT door closing meant that other doors opened. Doors they might not have even known were there. MIT is a unique place and that is both good and bad. There are many other places in this world to be surrounded by bright, inquisitive students – and often they are better balanced socially. 
They are all great kids who are well prepared to succeed in college and in life.</p>
<p>That said, I <em>love</em> the idea of tossing that Boston Cream pie at the adcom!</p>
<p>OWM-I hope your son is able to brush past the MIT decision and enjoy your senior year.</p>
<p>Lately I have been tracking the undergraduate colleges of my peers at work and what I am finding is that it is rare that anyone went to an Ivy league or a top university. Majority went to local or state university and did well. This is a major corporation…</p>
<p>I had my son interview several of my colleagues last week regarding the majors they selected in college. He walked away with a greater appreciation of my advice regarding the importance of GPA in college. If the desire is to work at a corporation, the focus should be going to a college you can do well that has a good recruiting record. </p>
<p>I think he has resigned himself to our state university regardless of any decisions in April. He can go in with a ton of credits and could graduate in 3 years.</p>
<p>So MIT’s loss is Mizzou’s gain. He will do extremely well and can go anywhere he wants for graduate school.</p>
<p>Good Luck.</p>
<p>The best medicine for D2’s MIT rejection appears to have been amandakayak’s post about the bats. D2 reads this thread, and she said it made her laugh outloud in study hall today! Also 2education, D2 was very touched by your beautiful congrats about the WashU news on Friday. </p>
<p>There is good news here! D1 (college class of '12) found out today she has a paid PR internship in New York City this summer with a magazine she has loved and read for many years. But, she might end up missing D2’s graduation.</p>
<p>Welcome Its Complicated…</p>
<p>And we are happy to have you here…just so ya know…now that you are dipping in a toe, you will find the water is fine and the company supportive, encouraging and fun! :)</p>
<p>As for pie, we love Boston Cream,
so why waste it…just spread it around our coffee group for breakfast!</p>
<p>MOSB- So true that teachers & others expect so much out of high achievers and do not give credit for the amount of work it takes. My daughter sings and everyone thinks that she automatically makes All State & gets the solo and gets the part. She has taken voice lessons for years, has performed in over 30 musicals, and works very hard every day learning dances & practicing her songs. No, it does NOT come easily. In fact, anything that is worth anything does not come easily.</p>
<p>@fogfog - A warm welcome and pie - I like it here!</p>
<p>Itscomplicated~So glad you jumped in …may be others will follow Come on you know who you are…:D</p>
<p>Hey,Y’all don’t mind if I am having that last slice.;)</p>
<p>mosb: I agree with you on the high achievers. When D applied, she had chosen schools one tier below the top - these schools are those where I believe she will get an excellent education, but are also schools that we thought she could get merit aid. Her NHS adviser asked her why she was aiming so low - if she needed a full ride. Both the adviser and the GC said that she could easily make it to the ivy leagues.</p>
<p>Please - we’ve seen the lists at these ivys/top schools every year - last night, the MIT forum was so sad to read. Such well qualified kids (like our very own owm S, scoutson, phb etc) - and it’s impossible to rationalize who gets in and why. Last year, my friends’ son applied to several colleges - got into an amazing number of good ones, but was rejected at MIT. Another girl from his school did get in and my friend does admit to being a bit perplexed and a tad bit bitter about that. Who knows?</p>
<p>I am so glad we had the wisdom of this site to fall back on and not go with only the suggestions of the GC/NHS adviser. D is in a good spot now - is in a few colleges, especially a couple that she likes and while acceptances to the top reachy schools would be nice, they won’t completely destroy her confidence if she doesn’t get in. Oh, rejections will sting - but she will be able to move on, given that she has good choices.</p>
<p>Phbmom - Glad to have brightened d’s day, it’s the honest truth to boot, not just funny!</p>
<p>omg, I am so far behind. I will catch up Wednesday. </p>
<p>Regarding choosing which schools to apply to. We deliberately picked several schools that S would be above the 75% for SAT and above 50% for GPA. He has gotten some wonderful merit from several and great merit at one. The more I look at the school that gave him 3 different merit scholarships the more I am impressed. It is not a name that all will recognize, and to be honest I keep forgetting what city it is in when folks ask, but man it has a really nice business school that will offer some good opportunities and wants my S. And he may get additional merit from them at the end of the month. It is very likely my S will attend this school and graduate dept free. yipee! </p>
<p>OTOH, I am frustrated at one of the schools that deferred him. I see on Naviance that others from his school with lower stats were accepted. I know it is not all about stats, but lets face it a big part of it is. But, I am over it, because we picked schools S will gladly attend and get a great education with money left over for grad school. </p>
<p>I will shout out the mantra again “love thy safety”. Actually, love the school you can afford to attend.</p>
<p>Many grats to go around (which is nice after such a cruddy pi day).</p>
<p>To phb’s d1 on the super cool sounding NYC internship, to arisamp on her apparently psychic d’s once yearly fat-enevlope-yielding mailbox trip, to puma12 on s’s acceptance (but boo-hiss to lack of $$), to rom’s s’s acceptance (even safety-yes’s feel good!), and to Schokolade with an internetless 2 weeks full of acceptances and a prom dress (whew!)</p>
<p>Thanks to 325 for the foal break! And to owm’ for the good advice about not annoying the recently rejected with helpful comments.</p>
<p>Like EmmyBet’s d, mine also got an annoying and useless letter from one of her schools (not quite as bad as a false acceptance, but still pretty annoying). I think all the adcoms should visit cc at least occasionally to see the effect these can have.</p>
<p>itscomplicated, keep posting! I’m shy too, but the comfort-giving, sanity-keeping effects of this forum are actually multiplied when one posts from time to time.</p>
<p>And finally my daughter got accepted by her financial safety, our state flagship. She thinks it’s a really good school that she hopes not to go to!</p>
<p>I am way behind but I wanted to add my regrets for those who have had recent disappointments. My 2011 son isn’t in the same league as the MIT applicants but he hasn’t gotten the results he wanted either. Last year Purdue would have automatically given him a scholarship based on his stats. This year they don’t have automatic merit anymore and he may have high stats but he is apparently too typical for their applicant pool so they didn’t offer him any. He wouldn’t apply to any out of state colleges so his only choices are Purdue with loans or IU without since he qualified for merit aid there. Housing at IU is first come, first serve and you renew the same time every year so he could be stuck with crummy housing for four years because I can’t get him to make a housing choice. I’ve told him we’d forfeit the housing deposit at IU if he chooses to borrow $ for Purdue but he won’t commit. He is feeling snubbed by Purdue and resentful that he worked hard in high school “for nothing”. I can only imagine what it would be like to be in OWM’s shoes.</p>
<p>Hi itscomplicated. Good to read your post. Welcome!!!</p>
<p>Apollo 6: If I could give you our son’s merit aid at Purdue, I would do it in a heartbeat. We could call them and say “thank you but we’re not attending. We know this nice young man who deserves this money.”</p>
<p>Like you, we expected a bigger chunk–a complete waiver of out-of-state tuition–because that’s what all the literature we received last year indicated. What he was offered was very nice, but not nice enough to outweigh that he likes Mizzou just as well and likes the town of Columbia way more than the town of West Lafayette. And the OOS price tag was too high to move Purdue up on the list.</p>
<p>No rhyme or reason to any of this, is there? </p>
<p>On a upbeat note, I found the most beautiful shoe clips–ornaments to put on my plain black pumps–for the ball Saturday night. Makes this comfortable shoes as pretty as the 3-inch highs that I sent back!</p>
<p>Well, tonight was bittersweet. It was my S’s last winter varsity awards dinner. the coach pulled me aside and told me that my S has improved so much this year through hard work that he could probably try out for the varsity team at college and make it. that was a shocker. not sure I want him playing sports on that level in college because from what i hear, it’s a huge time commitment. he’s going in as a science major – the labs alone will take up a huge chunk of his time. of course, he first has to find out where he’s going!</p>
<p>when we got home, there was a UPS envelope waiting from WashU with a voucher to fly out for a visit in the upcoming weeks. wow, that’s welcoming! it made my S pretty happy. </p>
<p>congrats snoozn on your D’s latest acceptance. financial safeties are a very good thing to have in hand.</p>
<p>phb: congrats on your D1’s NYC internship – if she needs help with anything, or would just like a home-cooked meal while she’s here, PM me. I live right outside the city and love company.</p>
<p>itscomplicated, welcome to our coffee klatch. this thread has kept me sane this year, although my dearest friend and business partner claims it’s my “crack.” she went through this process last year w/ her daughter and we took a 4-5 mile walk nearly every weekday to discuss all her college ups and downs. this year, our business has finally picked up since the recession hit; we don’t have the time for the walks so I get my release/advice through this thread. Thank God I found it.</p>
<p>amandaK: You gave me my laugh of the day, which I really needed because i was so bummed out by our class of 2011 MIT news. it felt good.</p>
<p>OWM: it sounds like you’ll be the belle of the ball on Saturday! Good to hear your spirit lifting up. You are one heck of a lady.</p>
<p>Good night everyone.</p>
<p>Happy to hear that everyone has made it through the “Day After” relatively unscathed. None of D’s friends received good news from MIT, and I just read that MIT’s acceptance rate decreased to 9.6% this year. At this rate, by the time D2 starts this whole process, the acceptance rates may begin with a “.” and a “0”!</p>
<p>I wish everyone (and their kids) good luck with this long, tortuous “crap shoot” that we all find ourselves in.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear all the bad news from MIT. It truly is scary out there! And, I am steeling myself for plenty of emotional rocking and rolling before April 1. Hang in there you MIT applicants and moms. I have a feeling that good news is just around the corner…</p>
<p>A bit of good news for us today. D received a likely letter from Cornell engineering. (I’m pretty sure that engineering likely letters only go out to females and maybe URMs). Not sure we can afford it, so the verdict is out until we see the financial aid package. But, she and DH are pretty pleased!</p>
<p>my–just checked in</p>
<p>camathmom yay for the good news
and I hope there is much good news on here the next couple weeks along with the dissapointments</p>
<p>so far behind! </p>
<p>camathmom- nice, I hope Cornell comes through with money for your D!</p>
<p>Apollo6 - I am in same boat with my S. We have told him we would like to send a deposit to the school he is most likely to go to as of right now even if he ends up changing his mind. He just hems and haws. </p>
<p>snoozn - Hope you D see a few more big envelopes in the upcoming weeks!</p>
<p>phbmom- what a great opportunity for your older D! I love NYC. I took my 11yo D there about a month ago for the weekend. </p>
<p>itscomplicated - nice to hear from you. </p>
<p>rom828 - more choices, yeah!</p>
<p>aris - woohoo. Your D must be psychic. Good luck with merit money. </p>
<p>bovertine - unfortunately those of us in Boston cannot claim MIT as our own, it is in cambridge. I had to laugh at your remark, my son has a couple Boston Knucklehead shirts</p>
<p>[Boston</a> Urban Clothing Line | Boston T-shirts and Sweatshirts](<a href=“http://www.bostonknucklehead.com/]Boston”>http://www.bostonknucklehead.com/)</p>
<p>OWM - It sounds like missou wants your S and there are some good research opportunites for him there. </p>
<p>325- how different your world is from mine. foals. They must be so much fun to watch. </p>
<p>schokalade - congrats on D’s NMF’s status, college acceptance, and likelies!</p>
<p>Emmy - happy bday to your Japanese D. Hope she gets home soon, she is so lucky to have landed on your loving doorstep!</p>
<p>puma - congrats on admission news. And congrats to older S on job offers! My S who just got his license in Jan is all over the place in his car. He relies heavily on his GPS. H & I have told him that he needs to consult a map before he takes off to get an idea of where he is going instead of setting out blindly and assuming the GPS is correct or god forbid what if the GPS breaks? Of course, he answered, “I will just use the GPS on my phone.” duh, how stupid can we be.</p>