Congrats @eandesmom ! I bet it’s a relief, and I’m sure he’ll love UVM.
The SUNY thing could help us, but probably not until year 2 or 3. The 1st year’s income cut off is $100k, and we’d have to do some creative accounting with DH’s income (self employed) to be under that. And of course, when I asked S17 what he’s leaning toward today, he said MSU. @-) , But no official decision yet, and he still hasn’t heard about the Albany law program… Plus, S15 is at a SUNY, so it still could help us. We’ll have to see how it all plays out.
I am not sure which year they are using, but I would guess that for this fall, they will use the FAFSA already filed for 2017- 2018. For me to qualify, I would basically have to have H, who is self-employed, just not work.
As to Albany, Techson17 has a good friend going there in the fall. This boy’s sib is at RPI. I have another friend whose son is there as well and he loves it and my friend is very happy.
Yeah, I think the 1st year of the SUNY thing won’t help us…
And I met today with a friend whose son is in the Honors program at Albany and loves it. And they could be a carpool mate for S17 for breaks (and DH is talking about letting S17 have his car at Albany next year if that’s his choice–MSU doesn’t let freshmen have cars on campus).
I’m struggling probably more with the decision than S17 is. If I’m completely honest, my heart is with MSU whIle my head is with Albany. I SEE him at MSU, and he has the drive, personality, and passion to succeed at a big school. However I don’t want him to feel like he needs to go there because it was MY school. And financially, Albany gives us way more breathing room–if he can’t keep his scholarships, it’s not a huge issue at Albany, but it’s scary without the scholarships at MSU.
@eandesmom , congrats on E1’s decision! It sounds like he found his perfect fit, and all his consideration and weighing the various options really paid off. =D>
@curiositycat333 – my S17 was also at CU Boulder today. He went by himself, and I have no feedback yet. Anxious to hear what he thought compared to his other options.
S17 went to WashU for an event, and stayed in dorms with 11 other guys (!), and then flew up to the CU Boulder admitted students day. Am hoping he is getting some clarity.
I get the feeling. I could have maybe swung one year of the scholarship gap at Post or Adelphi for Techson17, but if he didn’t get hired as an RA or if he lost his academic money, he would have to move home or worse.
With SUNY, I have the knowledge that the first year is below budget. I have enough in his 529 to cover it entirely, but I could also probably cover half from current income, though my plan is to deposit money into the 529 and then move it immediately to the tuition payment, at least up to $10K, which is what NY allows you to deduct on taxes filing jointly.
As for a car, freshmen are allowed to have them and parking is free at Fredonia. We are toying with the idea of leaving him a car for use upstate but not letting him drive home the first year since it’s such a long drive.
@eandesmom - wohoo! Congrats to E1 on picking UVM - I noticed your avatar change this morning when I logged in!! Yay - I know you are happy he’s decided, and that UVM will be so good for Enviro Sci right from day 1. Thanks for providing this thread where we can all celebrate together!
@Hankster1361 - right with you on hoping our kids find some clarity with accepted student visits. Also hoping you get enough details on each visit!
CoyoteSon and I are driving up to start two more visits - Connecticut College on Mon-Tues and Wheaton College on Wed-Thurs. CoyoteSon will stay with me in the hotel Tuesday night to get a good night’s sleep between the two overnights.
Feeling nervous, fellow parents. H and S are doing admitted student days today and tomorrow. Son and I have different ideas about which school is the right fit for him. I guess I’m admitting that I’m having a hard time letting him make this decision… Trying so hard to let go!
@Hankster1361 Amusing both our kids where at CU Boulder Admit day. My son went on his own, he stayed with a friend. Whom I am very gra I won’t hear until he gets back tonight. Would love to hear what your son thought. How did he get there?
@eandesmom Congrats on the decision. Can’t wait to get a decision out of my son. Hopefully we will have one soon.
As for the SUNNY thing. Sounds like a great idea in principal but not sure about it’s implementation. Wonder how it works with current FA offers. It also bugs me that all the media says it’s something “NEW”. California used to have no tuition at it’s schools and only changed that 20-25 years ago. (Of course there were ever increasing fee’s.)
@curiositycat333 --We bought a Southwest Airlines ticket from St. Louis to Denver. My inlaws live outside of Denver, so he spent the night with them, and then drove himself up to Boulder in one of their cars. I was then able to change the return ticket to get him home rom Denver later today. It all fell together nicely after a bit of work.
How did your S get up to Boulder–his friend? Yes, let’s touch base on what the “reviews” are. So far we only have a brief text from S17 that says he likes it. Several friends’ kids have gone there, and mostly they all like it (but parents give a fair warning about the kids who may distract students with partying).
We are still in the throes of decisionmaking here at the TacoHouse. I didn’t mean to vaguebook about music a few days ago – here’s the rundown. One of his top choices has a large endowment for non-major scholarships for musicians, which got my attention. TacoSon met with the music dude there today, talked and played. Since the visit was on such short notice, TacoSon didn’t have anything special prepared so just played a few pieces he’s working on in band, did some scales and, I think, a little sight reading.
The music dude was very encouraging but said TacoSon is just not at the level for the top group, which is a pretty serious ensemble, and that’s where scholarship money is. This is not a surprise; TacoSon is good but not an elite musician by any means! (For the music folks out there, he’s a district guy but not a state guy.) He could certainly play in other ensembles, the music dude said, and it’s possible he could make it into the top ensemble in subsequent years – or even this year if he improves in a few areas before August.
So the extra cash potential that got my heart fluttering is no longer there (at least for this year) – picture a flying money bag! Or sad trombone, more appropriately. The school is still up there in the ranks after a good admitted student day and TacoSon was a good sport about it all and doesn’t seem discouraged.
My son got back from his trip to Boulder. He had a great time on the trip and LOVED the city and the area. But wasn’t impressed with the school. It didn’t click. It’s off his list. And for some reason he found the architecture boring. I’m still glad we sent him, it’s hard to make a decision if you haven’t seen the school IMO.
From what he had been saying before he left I assumed he was going to choose UofO if he didn’t like CU Boulder. But he’s not ready to commit anywhere yet. I do think it’s down to UCSC or UofO at this point but I get the feeling he is going to wait till the very last moment.
But my life is certainly not slow and quiet right now and don’t have too much time to obsess. Several extended family members are having health issues so I’m on a plane tomorrow to help out for a few days. I do most of my work from home, so my working location is flexible and I’m available to work from anywhere that has good internet.
Hi all,
wondering if anyone out there has any success stories regarding receiving Merit aid ($20K or more) from any of the usual suspect LAC’s we most target (Ursinus/Goucher/Beloit/Ohio Wes/Wooster, etc) WITHOUT submitting test scores. Standardized test just aren’t our friend and don’t think that will change over the next 6 mos for our 2018 kid. I know there are hundreds of test-optionals out there, etc–but specifically interested in those we tend to discuss more on this thread as kid fits right in here as i’ve mentioned previously.
I’m aware of a lot of the options/alternatives–just looking for some small rays of hope or examples of success from this particular community. Thanks!
@CroissantMiser my D got the following merit with a 3.67 W GPA (probably around a 3.2 UW), and a middling SAT score (1270, new test):
Allegheny: $26K/yr
College of Wooster: $27K/yr
Denison: $24K/yr
Lawrence: $20K/yr
I’m fairly certain all were test optional schools–I don’t recall needing to submit scores in order to qualify for the merit scholarships, but because we intended to submit to all that wasn’t a consideration for us. Her scores weren’t much to write home about, but they fell at least within the middle 50%, and she didn’t have a lot of quality ECs that were going to prop up her application.
I don’t actually think anyone on this thread went test optional. I could be wrong so hopefully someone will weigh in if so.
Test scores were not our friend but neither was GPA. We did submit as we figured that leaving them out, with the 3.45 at time of application, didn’t really help his app. If he’d had a stronger GPA (or really wanted to write more essays which was generally required for test optional) we might have considered it. But I’m not sure that it would have hurt him to leave them out either.
My S, with a 24C, 25 superscored ACT received $24K from Ursinus and $19K from Goucher. I know of one other on the thread that received 19 at Goucher, appealed and got it up to 22. I took a quick peek at our results and don’t have anyone with mid lower scores at Beloit but the threads results for Wooster at low-mid 1200’s were 26 and 27k.
Oddly enough it doesn’t look like anyone applied at Ohio Wesleyan which is surprising to me as it looks lovely! I recall running the NPC there and it was quite friendly, as was Bradley, which although not an LAC might be one for you to consider. I couldn’t get my kid to look at that part of the country. I do think test optional might have helped at Ursinus, they are stats heavy on awards and agree that Allegheny was quite generous, 24K there (with a lower COA to start) and then a 2K talent offer. We appealed Ursinus and haven’t heard back yet, though at this point it’s irrelevant since he committed to UVM on Sat lol.
@klinska
thanks for the reply…Your D’s “middling” would be my kids “jumping for joy score”…the GPA, class rigor/ECs are all there and in the same ballpark so hopefully that will keep the playing field level. Again, really appreciate the feedback from you and all the 2017 parents on this thread…very beneficial to the 2018 cohort.