@Mom22DDs Wow, more than one full ride already? Congratulations to your daughter. For us, I gave D a budget for college. She can go over budget up to the amount of subsidized student loans, otherwise the school is unaffordable. Below budget, no student loan. With those parameters, she can make the call. I would have no problem whatsoever if she chose a lesser ranked school. I would even consider giving her the money we had saved, but we haven’t discussed this.
ETA: Just saw the additional post about Med school. No brainer. Save your money.
Thank you @VickiSoCal@showmetheMAC and @carachel2 ! DD is going to do a spreadsheet to help us compare the full ride to the other choices we’re asking her to consider. She was joking that she wants the money we’ve set aside for her, but just not yet. Hoping for the BSMD admission really. looks like she’s the one most careful about money in our household.
@showmetheMAC - DH & I had discussed giving her left over money from her college funds (if any) after she completes her education, not before, so we still have those funds available for her during her college years for valid reasons. She would not likely use up the funds for a car or something like that if we gave it to her now, but even if she got full ride, we would like trips to home and unsupported expenses like summer studies to come out of those funds. Sharing in case you want to consider this.
@Mom22DDs Just to clarify terminology to make sure we are using terms to mean the same thing, does your dd have several full ride offers or full tuition offers? Those terms typically mean a difference of about $12,000/yr or close to an additional $50,000 for their UG degree.
I don’t have an unbiased perspective bc our kids’ budgets are tight. They have to apply to schools with big scholarships bc their budget requires a full tuition scholarship. Where they have wiggle room is Ang the varying mats between full ride and full tuition.
Cheapest isn’t the automatic choice. It far more nuanced than that. How well does the dept fit their needs? What sorts of opportunities exist for research or internships? How well will the student fit in on the campus environment?
Fwiw, our experience is that we can’t judge depts based on university ranking. For example a low ranked college with only a minor in Russian is far more willing to help our 83rd achieve her language goals than a higher ranked flagship with a major. That school is near the top of her list.
Our ds is currently a Jr at UA. He met with the dept a couple of times his sr yr. He sat in on a class and talked with them about possible 4 yr plan options (he graduated from high school with 5 of his in major core classes completed.) He asked about UG research. He liked the answers. He is taking grad level classes and has been involved in research since his freshman yr. He loves it there and everything discussed his sr yr has come to fruition. Conversely, the Russian profs responses to dd’s questions are far from desirable. It does meet dd’s needs like it has met ds’ s.
So that’s the view of someone who can’t afford top schools and has incredibly strong students thriving and succeeding in careers built on UG experiences at lower ranked schools.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek - DD has been researching some colleges, and likes UA and their Honors program. Though traveling is not an option (we live in CA), she has been trying to meet alums locally – not sure if she got to meet any UA alum yet. From what you’re saying, UA looks like a great place to be, and that is the sense she is getting from her analysis.
We’ve a reasonable amount set aside for her college. It’ll cover any of the UCs, though it will not cover most OOS colleges. UPitt became a possibility only after the merit aid she received. She’ll gladly go to UPitt if she is accepted to their BSMD program, but is leaning towards UA otherwise. Given all the input here, and the clarity of thinking she’s expressed, we’re leaning towards it too.
Essay Fatigue
No actual essay fatigue for DS, likely because DS completed only 8 apps and no Honor Colleges apps. DS was interested in applying to the HC’s, but DH and I advised against. We figured that an engineering schedule is demanding enough, and there wouldn’t be much room for maneuvering the schedule with all the requirements. Based partly on while visiting Purdue, engineering student ambassadors told us that it isn’t possible to fit in all the engineering requirements in 4 yrs. Some students take summer courses or take longer to graduate. U of Pitt accepts into HC without requiring a separate app, so that is his one admit.
Pressing Submit
It was easy for DS to hit the submit button, except for his #1. This was the only app that wasn’t completed before the start of school. He labored on it for a full 2 months, yet still he was reluctant to hit the button. Totally not like him, which made my heart ache. Trying to support the dream yet prepare for the probability of disappointment. Very proud of his effort. =D>
Visit Fatigue
If there is any fatigue, it is with actual visits. We visited 9 schools and 3 of them twice. DS was satisfied at 4 visits. At this point, visiting an additional school just isn’t happening. [-X
@HappyGoLucky2017 - Kudos on the completed apps and visits. We did our first ever set of college visits this past week, and after 3 visits over as many days, it all started to look alike, and we decided to visit after we receive admissions. I admire you for braving 9 schools!!
in our home, DD is the most knowledgeable on colleges, not us, and she’s been sharing with us that some of the Honors Colleges are excellent and offer smaller class sizes and one on one mentoring, making it easier for her to do well in college. She did mention that some Honors colleges are just a lot more work and not much benefits, and is not applying to those. You might want to ask your son to research the Honors colleges for his schools before deciding not to apply for them. I believe you can always choose not to accept the Honors College admission, while accepting the UG admission - another things to confirm.
We would ditch the full rides in favor of paying for “better” schools that come within our budget, but med school is not in the works for us.
If we had stretch our current budget to include med school, we would take a full ride or full tuition at a school like OU that would even pay for the 1st year of med school.
@Ynotgo Lots of students from our H.S. apply and get into USC. (It’s probably next after UC’s, Cal States & Community College in terms of students accepted/attending.) There are range of majors, not just business. Although I haven’t heard of any kids that went there for physics/math/engineering. If he has other private schools on his list and isn’t just applying to UC’s I wouldn’t push it. USC isn’t a school for everyone.
November SAT scores are up. My son insisted on taking subject tests to retake chemistry and take literature for the first time. I told him not to bother, but he got the scores he hoped for, so I guess it was a good decision. Hopefully this will give him the push he needs to finish the USCal app, which is the school that wanted Sat 2 scores in the first place (because he is homeschooled). He still has the “why USC” essay to go, and he doesn’t even have a draft of that.
@itsgettingreal17 Your D is a machine! She’ll get it done, I’m sure. She’s just waiting until the last minute to share some of the stress with you. Kids do that.
@ynotgo I agree with the previous comments - it doesn’t sound like the effort for a USC application is worth it for your S, nor does it sound like it would be a good fit for him.
@dolemite I’ve also heard that USC stacks NM and TE - pretty sure a freshman from our town is doing exactly that.
As an example of how crazy this college game is - I was talking to a colleague recently and he mentioned that his son was accepted at Harvard, wait-listed at Stanford and rejected at USC. Not the results that one would expect, but that’s how it went for him.
@MotherOfDragons - so cool! We were in FL during a scheduled launch years ago and saw the shuttle on the pad during a visit to Cape Canaveral, but damage from a hail storm caused a delay so we didn’t get to see the “blast off.”
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@jmek15 and @MotherOfDragons Embry-Riddle is building a new student center (or so they say) that will have a large outdoor rooftop terrace specifically designed to allow the students to watch launches at Kennedy. Pretty cool.
So the guidance counselor just sent out an email saying that the deadline for all RD LOR’s is December 7.
Yikes!
D was planning on chilling for a bit, but now we’re back on track with the two RD schools she’s planning on applying to. She has the Math 2 SAT II retake this saturday, and I think sunday she’ll probably start working on those.
D17 did get her boyfriend to apply to UMD as a safety, so she’s happy about that. I’m amused by the fact that we will probably never know what D18’s ex-bf got on his PSAT when they come out next month.
@caroldanvers – Not to give you more cause for concern, but my son had to write four 250 worry essays for USC. They also has ten or so of these fill-in-the-blank things: favorite this or that, where you are content. Not taxing, and son did not take seriously, but still more time, in addition to entering three years of courses and corresponding grades. Just a little extra time required for those last two.
Congrats on subject test scores!
@MotherOfDragons – is there a chance that the LOR deadline is directed at those students who did not apply EA or ED? I thought that once the LORs were in the system, it was easy to push out to new schools? Non-CA schools would probably be different. My son has not exactly finalized his RD list; I think he is waiting for SCEA & EA result before deciding ‘what’s next’.
My son is under some slight mental duress at the moment. He’s had 2 coaches call him over the break to try to get him to verbally commit to come play/study at their schools. He doesn’t want to commit.They were working him hard, especially because his apps are in there. He’s trying to weigh all of his options and waiting for EA results is causing him stress. He’s totally confused now. Son17’s social circle consist of kids who are all trying to get into decent schools and the buzz at school is about who is applying where and when and all that. The kids are definitely feeling the social pressure to attend high ranking prestige named schools. I’ve been trying to tell my son to just pick a place that he feels the most comfortable and just go with it. The problem is he can’t pick a #1 because he’s only been accepted to his top safety and he’ll only go there if he gets rejected everywhere else. He’s still waiting on the rest of them. Even the schools that want him for lax right now haven’t officially offered us anything in writing yet because he applied RD so he could maintain control of the process. He has to wait until January on those to see if we get any merit. If he doesn’t get any merit $$ then he will probably go to one of his top 2 choices, but he won’t get any merit there, and we are not sure he will even get accepted. Arrrggghh.
This could’ve been so much easier had the coach at top school had offered him a slot and we had to commit to ED. Probably would’ve done it and we’d be totally over this BS.
