Parents of the HS Class of 2017 - 3.0 to 3.4 GPA

Parents Forum
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I just emailed Case Western with a short request to inquire after any additional funds. I said this isn’t a request to match other offers because I know that schools have specific criteria, and that TacoSon was honored to have gotten in EA. Nothing ventured, nothing gained – and I’m pretty sure this falls into the “nothing gained” area as Case has plenty of high stats kids whose parents can pay, or are OK with lots of loans!

I think I’ll do this with Pitt as well. I know from the CC threads that TacoSon’s ACT is high enough for some merit though his GPA falls short. In both cases, we’re more than OK with our in-state options if it doesn’t work out.

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@tacocat333 Pitt actually has a form where you can submit competing offers. IF they are peer schools I would absolutely do that! Nothing to lose at all.

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@eandesmom – thanks! Unfortunately, comparing offers isn’t a huge bargaining tool in our case. The privates’ COA with significant merit is still higher than Pitt’s, and since they’re LACs they aren’t really peer schools. A little love from Pitt would get it closer to in-state numbers, which would be great but I’m not holding my breath.

Life would be so much easier right now if we were OK with taking out big loans.

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@mamaedefamilia With S15, I had access to portals, and he WANTED me to look at them–one less thing for him to deal with. But S17 wants to do everything himself, and has since pretty much forever. It’s a good trait for him, but I sometimes wish I could hop on and check FA or deadlines without asking him to log on for me…

@mdcmom Congrats on the Provost at Buffalo. I love that the SUNYs are giving at least some merit to instate kids, even though they’re so affordable to begin with. And S17 has a few other “stalker” schools that he never applied to–Kings College kept emailing him about his $12k/yr scholarship while mentioning that they hadn’t seen his application, yet, and S had never, ever shown any interest…

@tacocat333 I hope the mental health day was productive–for both of you. Good luck with the extra merit requests!

@klinska Good luck with the solo flight–you’ve gotten great advice.

@93pilots The American mentorship program does sound ODD…

@techmom99 I like Fredonia–have fond memories of a hockey tournament there for both my guys…

@smakl70 I think that’s where my S17 is on the decision process–he knows he has 2 good options and is almost afraid to give either of them up.

It must be “show love to the good grades with mid/upper-level scores kids” week at the schools that S17 applied to. He got yet more mail from “stalker” Buffalo. :wink: Plus, on top of the Honors College acceptances with additional merit from MSU, they called him–which he claims moves MSU up to “uber-stalker” level. B-) But then he added, “That’s ok, they can stalk me because I like them.” :smiley: It sounds like the call was just to gauge S interest in MSU and answer any questions. S said that he was still very interested and was visiting later this week. S said the guy “sounded like an administrator” but of course he didn’t get the guy’s name or department. Anyway, I hope this is all a lead up to more news from Albany, too. :)>-

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Final results in: Rejected from Stony Brook, while Binghamton has accepted him for Spring '18 with a waitlist spot for Fall '17. I’m surprised because generally Binghamton is harder to get into than SB; my only guess is that a lot more kids from our school go to Bing so maybe DS’s lack of course rigor didn’t matter as much to Bing since they know the quality of our school? Who knows, but DS is excited.

Apparently Bing is still at the top of his list BUT he never contacted their track coach (despite my nagging) because he assumed he’d never get in. Since track is hugely important to him, this may throw a wrench in the works if the Bing coach has run out of room on his roster, but DS is contacting him today to try to explain the situation. In any case, he’s got some decisions to make but it’s a good day here :slight_smile: .

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Bing has increased the spring admit program over the last few years. Keeps their numbers up, keeps their dorms full. The coach may be able to move him to the fall admit list.

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@MSU88CHEng I think it’s harder because one school started as his #1 but he has realized the other school, which initially wasn’t even really on the radar, is better for his major and possible even for his “tribe”. I think the school he’s letting go of was where he figured he’d be for a long time. It was his first acceptance etc…

Honestly, right now, I’m more concerned about the calc packet they are supposed to be working on over Spring Break that hasn’t left the backpack.

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@mdcmom fingers crossed for a positive contact with the track coach and congrats on the desired admit!

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@mdcmom Congrats on Bing! It’s a very popular school in my area and most kids have a great experience there.

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For those following along here are my D’s updated results:

Major: Undecided
GPA 3.7 (4.3W), no SAT, ACT 30 (31 superscored) - I know I technically don’t belong in this thread :slight_smile:
Other: 6APs, 11 honors, 2 varsity sports only Jr. and Sr year, Paid job at Kumon, few volunteer hrs, Student Council cabinet member Sr. yr only (really no activities, sports, or job in 9th and 10th grade)

Accepted (from least expensive to most expensive option total COA - merits and grants included)

  • Truman State Kirksville MO
  • Drury University Springfield MO
  • Pittsburg State Pittsburg KS
  • Westminister Fulton MO
  • Mizzou Columbia MO
  • Rhodes College Memphis TN

Waitlisted (I didn’t even know this was a thing this time last year!)

  • Sewannee TN
  • Lafayette College Easton PA
  • University of Richmond Richmond VA
  • Wake Forest Winston-Salem NC

Denied

  • Colorado College
  • Boston College (after deferred EA)
  • Vanderbilt (technically not yet but this one is such a longshot)

So she was essentially wait listed at all our target schools. With the exception of Rhodes all of the other acceptances were expected.

She has no idea what she wants and I thought having more decisions would make things easier this spring, but now I am not sure. All those waitlists…ughh.

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@stlarenas , congrats on your D’s fine results! Bummer about some of the rejections and waitlists stink.

In our high school there are tons of kids that have been waitlisted. My son was waitlisted to 2 schools. I told him to blow them off for some schools that really want him, even if he wanted to keep a glimmer of hope. I didn’t think it was worth it, when he had another choice that was just as good if not better.

I would only have my kid stay on the waitlist if they did not get into top choice and they really wanted to hold out a bit. Fortunately my son had a good opportunity so it worked out. But it was close, and at one point I thought we were going to be waiting until May/June. Glad it’s done!

good luck!

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@stlarenas anyone who wants to be here belongs!!!

I am so sorry about all the waitlists, that’s definitely UGH. Deciding is hard. Sending hugs and hope for some clarity. Even when it gets narrowed down a little it is still hard!

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@stlarenas I have heard about so many waitlists at presumed matches this year, your kid is not alone!

I have heard terrific things about Rhodes and Truman State!

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So it turns out TacoSon actually has no clue about which of his affordable choices he’ll go for. My head hurts.

Accepted students day and shadow day scheduled at 2 of the schools for spring break, another is local so easy to fit in, and the most “affordable unaffordable” – meaning $10-$15K over state school costs – still intrigues him.

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@stlarenas the wait lists are a pain, we are in there with you wondering if worth it. I too have heard good things about Rhodes. I hope she gets a chance to visit and get excited about her choices, they are good!

@tacocat333 i feel your pain too as our S also has no clue. He has eliminated a couple but that’s it. Trying to work out visits. Even though it is not even April yet I feel like we are running out of time. It’s going to be a long month.

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@techmom99 My son also thinks he doesn’t need us to help move in. We will see where he lands before he decides. I plan to attend either summer orientation or move in. I’d like to send him with his bike and really that will take driving. Two of his options are at least a 14 hours of driving. But that’s better than his sister who was across the country.

My son should find out within the next week if he gets the job he wants for the summer and that will affect things. If he gets the job & decides on one of the Oregon schools I’m going to end up driving him to summer orientation. What I might do then is drive most of his bulky stuff, pick him up at camp and go to orientation in mid July. We would then find a storage facility for his stuff for the next 6 weeks.

If he choses an Oregon school it would be partly to join marching band and he would need to show up 2 weeks early. (And could only get into the dorms 1 week early… the band finds him a place to crash for the week.) So he might get his wish… he’d get two weeks at home and then I fly him back on his own and skip freshman parent week…

But his other two top options I’d probably just drive him at the start of school. I’m trying not to obsess about how we are going to handle this till all his ducks are in a row. But I can’t plan anything for myself for the summer till it’s all figured out.

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@starlinas Sorry about the waitlists. Sounds like a difficult choice. And know things might move around in May? Are the WL schools affordable? Because I wouldn’t expect any merit from them.

@tacocat333 Good luck choosing.

And we all thought it would be all downhill from here. We are just waiting till my S looks at Boulder and then it’s decision time. He doesn’t want to re-visit anywhere else.

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@stlarenas You have some great acceptances there. I’m a Mizzou alum and I had Rhodes on the “possibles” list for D17. Good luck with the final decision!

@curiositycat333 I also strugged with feeling like my life was on hold during the college admissions process. I am an extreme advance planner, and not being able to plan my August and September until we knew where D17 was going was stressing me out! D did choose a college in Oregon which is a 30 hour drive one-way. D wanted to fly out and move herself in alone but as @techmom99 said, DH and I decided it would make us and younger brother feel better if we could move D in and be able to picture her dorm room, etc. DH came up with the idea of flying Southwest because we are each allowed 2 checked bags at no additional cost. So that’s what we are planning to do, and then no trip to family weekend this year and D says she’s not coming home for Thanksgiving, so we may not see her until Christmas!

@LilyMoon and @techmom99, DH and I have been saying for years that if we can get DD and DS to settle somewhere nice, we’ll move there, too. With D17 having chosen a school in Oregon, we have our fingers crossed that she’ll stay on the West Coast, LOL. DS says he wants to go to college in Canada so I’m researching schools in British Columbia.

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Techson17 has officially taken Adelphi, the first school to accept him, off the list. I will be emailing this morning to take our names off the list for the scholarship dinner and the accepted students day so that those spots can go to someone else. My son doesn’t understand why someone would pay twice as much to wind up 20 minutes from home!

He also decided after comparing, that the SUNY program, which has about 3 times as many total students, is preferable. The two schools are about the same size. I thought he’d be more nurtured in a smaller program but he thinks there are more opportunities in a larger program, which puts on more shows. It’s academic anyway, because we can’t afford Adelphi. I am of the no loan philosophy unless it’s for an Ivy level school, a goal which none of my kids felt the need to work towards.

Techson17 decided against going back up for the host program. He is doing 3 shows coming up and wants to use the time to do that instead. So, we now have to pick an orientation trip.

@NolaCAR - H doesn’t want to leave NY or our boring, pedestrian, way too expensive unless you have kids in the schools town. I HATE it here and have for the entire 20 years we have been here. There will some major renegotiating as the kids move out and I get closer to retirement.

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@MSU88CHEng - Wow! Congrats on more $$, especially that nice big increase from MSU Honors, which puts it back into contention w/Albany. Making the cost differential lower seems like a good way to focus more on fit - and if they both fit - well, that’s great news too. Ugh on waiting through the drama of your Son going back&forth, but Yay for having good affordable choices!

@smakl70 - sounds like your son is also experiencing the stress of making the decision - thanks for sharing “definitely, probably #1” :)) for Valparaiso. If the decision is mostly made, I too would be worried about the dreaded Calculus homework.

@93pilots - that American “mentorship” did sound like an intriguing new “yield management” strategy for the school.

@stlarenas - hugs on all those waitlists and denials. I’m glad your D still has many good choices (I too have heard good things about Rhodes) - but in some ways the waitlists are the most disheartening news.

@techmom99 - sounds like Fredonia is really shaping up as the number 1 choice - I think overnights are great for deciding, but if his mind is made up, then focusing on the here and now is great! Congrats on the almost done decision!

@tacocat333, @curiositycat333, @Snoozn and really probably everyone on this list - I totally agree about finding the kiddo’s “tribe” is both the “Holy Grail” and takes a leap of faith. I am hoping that our kids can find at least a few friends at any of their school choices - the size of the “tribe” just increases the odds.

Tacocat - Fingers crossed for more aid from schools; even if they say no, at least you will know that you tried.

Thanks to @twoinanddone and others for helpful tips for kids traveling on their own.

Here at CoyoteDen, we decided that son can miss a couple of days of school to attend one of the accepted students overnights at Carleton, and those travel plans are booked. Yay!

He’s also signed up for accepted student day at ConnCollege - waiting to hear back on his request to stay overnight before we attempt to add on a “make-your-own” overnight to WheatonMA - their accepted student day conflicts with Carleton’s. Hoping we can combine ConnColl + Wheaton in one 3 day trip over spring break, which will keep the make-up high school work to a minimum.

Have officially taken 5 schools off the table by declining waitlists, and withdrawing at both Allegheny and UVM. So CoyoteSon has five schools on his short list, two re-visits are done and three to go. Hoping the “vibe” will provide the clarity and help eliminate more schools.