<p>Boychild spring break started today but the poor kid has his college physics class he needs to be at and it’s an 8am class. The only day he doesn’t have it is next Tuesday which is good since we have to travel to seder Monday and won’t get home until late. </p>
<p>Happy b’day to the tax day babies!</p>
<p>@momofboston: the rule I used in the past was that once you leave, you don’t come back in.</p>
<p>A question about our voyage on the SS Indecision…</p>
<p>My daughter will probably make her decision in the last few days of April. She has some great choices, and is still visiting and gathering information.</p>
<p>Sometimes I get the impression on this thread that I should be going nuts about this. What is the advantage of deciding before the end of April? Why do some parents impose their own earlier deadline? Do parents feel that their child is stressed out and that after they decide they will have no regrets and will be done stressing?</p>
<p>I know that each family operates very differently, and I hope this is not seen as a criticism of others’ styles…I’m honestly curious about this. If a kid has a choice between a school which has great advantages A,B and C, and another school which is fantastic for X,Y and Z and kid is still thinking hard about the weight of these factors, would you insist they decide before May 1st?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t, and won’t, insist the kid decide before May 1st. The one thing I do regret is that my son won’t get home from his last college visit weekend until May 1st! I wish there was more time for him to mull on his decision after the weekend ended, but so it goes.</p>
<p>It could be that parents who insist on an earlier deadline know it gives kids a bit of breathing room to change their mind if they make a decision but wait a bit before officially responding.</p>
<p>Good question-I don’t take it as a criticism at all.</p>
<p>In our situation our son is leaving for Spain tomorrow on a class trip. He won’t be back until late April 24th-and he will have that week to get as ready as he can for AP exams. In addition, we needed to notify NMSC IIRC by April 27th-so as far as we were concerned he realistically had until today. </p>
<p>He is also the kind of person who makes a decision last minute so I felt he would never reach one in time without a bit of prodding. In the end, those are the reasons. He had already visited his two final choices and had actually done his research and had solid reasons for his choice. We visited Saturday at where he ended up choosing just to make sure-and on the ride home he said this was where he wanted to be.</p>
<p>He had already decided what factors were the most important to him-so why wait?</p>
<p>I think it really does depend on the schedule and the child.</p>
<p>I get such a kick out of catching up on all the great news here–college decisions, happy kids, scholarships. I feel like you are all friends and I’m so happy to share your adventure.</p>
<p>50isthenew40, we will most likely not have a final decision for a while. I’m okay with it. So is S2. It’s his friends who seem overly eager for him to commit. (heh) They’ve decided on their school choices and want to KNOW his already!</p>
<p>For our part, S2 miraculously cleared the first hurdles–getting admitted to so many good programs and school on his list. But we always knew the next hurdle–cost-- would be rough. We’re trying to see what schools at the top of his list might be affordable (on appeal–what a process!! OY!) and weighing that hope against how much faith we can muster in the UC system which had been our financial safety–in theory. But will a UC really be viable in the face of threats to double the tuition? Will S2’s programs, major, production budgets get slashed to the point they are no longer as wonderful as we might hope, or he might not graduate on time or will have to attend summer school every year to make up classes? If our financial safety is, in fact, unsafe, it’s a dilemma!</p>
<p>Anyone else worrying over this? Any advice?</p>
<p>madbean,
Graduation rate, concern over getting classes scheduled, etc., was a major decision point for bluejr. There was a distinct difference over these in his top two schools. Nothing is ever perfect, but schools that clearly graduate a larger percentage of their students are a great advantage.</p>
<p>50isthenew40-the primary reason I wanted my d to decide is that for some of her choices the earlier decision would effect orientation date choice availability and housig options.</p>
<p>I guess some of the “anxiety” people have posted is just letting off steam, dealing with teens who procrastinate and then freak out at the last minute. If you look at past years, there has been a lot of crazy late-night rushing to post offices and trying to get online, and I know most of us want to avoid that.</p>
<p>For us, I don’t mind if D goes until the end to send in a deposit - and she doesn’t typically go to the 11th hour, will probably want to mail it on April 28th or 29th. I’ll admit it’s been hard dealing with the indecision at times, for the small reason that a couple of schools’ schedules would make for extremely different summer planning (one she has decided against has them come 3 weeks early for a freshman mini-course), and for the larger reason that she has quite a large cost differential which impacts our planning for the next 4 years. But we always could wait for a couple more weeks.</p>
<p>I think families that have had their answers for several months understandably would like to move on, but many kids (like mine) have only had a couple of weeks to mull this over. We haven’t had the opportunity to do visits, etc., so in some ways it was tempting to imagine her figuring this out a bit faster. In her case she has some pretty significant program questions to settle once and for all, and she needed to put time into that.</p>
<p>The only thing I’ve felt pressured about has been my D’s waiting on her waitlist paperwork. I do think she should have done it as quickly as possible - but as with all of her apps, she needed to take the time to research, think, and do a good job. I was afraid she thought the “deadline” for that was also May 1, and it’s been hard convincing her she does herself a favor by getting it in a bit earlier than that, to show interest.</p>
<p>I’m getting my wish on that one - we’re mailing the letter of interest tonight, and she’s preparing the e-mail they requested over the weekend.</p>
<p>In our case housing and orientation wasn’t such a big deal. Actually at her current #1 school we might hold on the housing deposit (which isn’t officially due on 5/1) because it would be several hundred dollars we wouldn’t lose if the WL comes through, and she really doesn’t care so much about her dorm choice there.</p>
<p>I am so,so, so happy! My husband got his assignment and it is Huntsville, AL. Since the only two schools left on d’s list were in AL, that means she will be fairly close to us, just a few hours away. It is also the place where I have wanted h to retire for a long, long time (not him retiring but where I thought I would be happy for him to retire and where he could get another job after retiring from the USAF). </p>
<p>It makes one school more affordable- she now would get a full tuition scholarship and the other school would just have less transportation costs (since she would be using the GI bill there). So cheap and cheaper (room and board or only some room charges if using GI bill). No worries about d driving thousand miles home.</p>
<p>Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!!!</p>
<p>Hooray for MilitaryMom and her family! What a relief; not only do you FINALLY know, but it’s the best possible outcome. I cannot imagine how hard these last few months have been with all the uncertainty you have had to face. I hope you will CELEBRATE tonight. Woo Hoo. Doing a happy dance in your honor…</p>
<p>FWIW - we have some (now retired) military friends that love Huntsville.</p>
<p>Big cheers for Military Mom!!!</p>
<p>excellent news, mm. Glad it’s all falling into place.</p>
<p>What wonderful news, MM! I’m so glad that things have worked out so well for you and your family.</p>
<p>MilitaryMom - Wow, wow, wow! Everything is working out so nicely for your family! I’m thrilled for you. You must be soooo relieved.</p>
<p>Congratulations MM! Very exciting news -</p>
<p>50isthenew40 - I echo Holliesue’s sentiment - I was mostly concerned about housing. It is my understanding from a number of 2010 people in my community that it is likely to be assigned “supplemental” housing if you wait to the last minute (i.e. triples, off campus, etc.).</p>
<p>Such great news for militarymom! So happy and relieved for you. That’s just awesome. I hope you all go out and celebrate as a family this weekend.</p>
<p>MM - wow!!! that is fantastic news and I am sure a big relief for you to finally know and be able to plan! Didn’t your dh also have to mull over a civilian offer?
50isthenew40 - If my ds had his way, there would be nothing decided…ever. In fact, having more time for my ds to mull over this big decision still would come down to him not doing anything (except xbox perhaps) for as long as he can and then deciding at the last minute, last second based on nothing. We are polar opposites and yes, he drives me crazy. Ds and Dh are happily touring Pitt as we speak, meeting with the band director in a few minutes (cross your fingers people!) and it was SUNNY all day - something the forecast did not lead me to think was possible. I am hearing faint sounds of angels and a glorious sunbeam that finally shines down on his non-pointy but very rounded head.</p>
<p>Thanks all for the encouragement and support you all gave me over the month.</p>