@CT1417 Yes, there wasn’t much cutting and pasting at all. Good luck getting it all done this week! And to sort of answer @thshadow 's new question about the number, quite frankly D gave up a couple apps/colleges that would’ve been great alternatives for her major, I think because it was just too much!
@mamaedefamilia glad to hear you are done!!! Must feel fantastic!
@dfbdfb Oh wow, congratulations on Earlham!! And great merit $$, congrats! It’s so nice to see her excited!! <:-P
D submitted her last college app yesterday. 15 total with many supplements. Now just scholarship apps left. 5 so far with some more opening up on Jan 1st.
@Aida Be sure to check the specific schools that your child is applying to regarding how they use the CSS Profile. S17 has a school on his list that requires the CSS for MERIT aid. The school states there is no need based component to getting their merit scholarships which they define as academic, artistic, talent or athletic. They offer NM @ $20K/ yr and in order to get it, you have to submit the CSS.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek, sadly, no, no closer to a final choice. Instead, we have a bunch of schools bunched together at close to the same affordability point with no good way of breaking ties.
Ah, well, we’ve got a couple months yet.
D has applied to 9 EA and rolling - accepted to 8 and waiting on one Jan. release (UVA). Not likely to attend as they don’t give merit $ but has been a favorite of hers for years since visiting a cousin on campus.
Merit at all OOS schools so far - no merit at the 3 in state. Waiting on PSU honors college - that would bring $.
No real reaches - one tough to get in admit this year that makes her happy but waiting to hear about any honors or merit (Villanova).
Likely will attend Alabama or tOSU.
Too many essays and short answers to count – nothing common about the common app —
@sbhyde Typically merit aid is applied first to reduce your total COA, then FA, if any, is offered to offset any differential between your EFC and the total COA after merit is applied. FA could be nothing, grants or loans. If you run the net price calculator for each of the schools you will get an idea of how each may apply it and how much need they may or may not meet. You can also look at each schools common data sets to see how much aid they generally offer. Unless a school states they meet 100% need, know that there may be no additional aid offered which is there looking at the data is helpful to give you an idea of chances, and the net price calculators help quite a bit as well.
FA packages are sent separately and the timeline varies. When you get them it will show how the school is applying things. By way of example we have received 2 so far. The first, where the COA is lower than our EFC, it simply shows the merit offer and then an unsubsidized student loan and a parent plus loan as our “offer”. The second, where the COA is higher than our EFC it shows the merit offer, a student subsidized loan, a student unsubsidized loan (but no parent plus which actually seems odd to not show as an option).
Congratulations @dfbdfb !! <:-P <:-P
Yesterday’s QOTD: 8 schools applied to - 2 via Common App, 5 UCs, 1 CSU. All apps are in, now we have to fill out the CSS and a couple of scholarship essays need to be written. Trying to be patient for a few months before decisions start coming in.
Thanks for all the congrats!
It occurs to me that the notifications for my daughter have been (and will probably continue to be) nearly perfectly ordered by gross acceptance rate, which is a little amusing.
How Many
Applications.
D applied to 9 schools, 8 via the common app.
12 or so supplemental essays
4 answers so far, all acceptances.
Honors Programs:
6 require extra essays
4 answers so far, all acceptances.
Lottery Scholarships so far:
9 require extra essays.
1 answer so far, no soup for you.
Middle of the pack for our self-selecting group.
As referenced above, D '17 got her BC admissions mailing. No mention of Gabelli invitation so she has not advanced to the interview weekend. Based on “word on the street” about financial aid and our EFC, this equates to a financial rejection.
Onward and upward…
Same for my D, but I ordered it as: 1) Ignored essay, 2) Noted essay was submitted but did not read, 3) Actually reading essay.
@Dave_N - I don’t think BC will be happening for us either and for the same reason. In fact, when H talked to their Fin Aid dept, they actually told him it was doubtful that they would accept any of our business expenses/deductions as they usually don’t. Seriously??? That pretty much puts our EFC at 100% No way…
D is finishing up her two final “why school” essays and will wind up with 10 apps total, all on Common App:
1 ED big reach (denied) but she knew it was a long shot and wasn’t upset
3 LACs she’s pretty keen on and would be happy to go to any one of them, one with MAC potential
3 state schools we can afford and she’d be fine with but would ideally prefer private LAC
1 fee waiver, no supplement, why not? safety with MAC potential
2 no fee, no supplement, why not? LACs that met similar criteria to the schools she’s really hoping for but are a little further away than she’s hoping to go, one with MAC potential
She didn’t fare too badly in the supplemental essay department. 4 LACs had short supplemental essays, and 1 state school had a short essay for Honors programs. She’s also been on 4 interviews and might have 1-2 more depending on what they can schedule. 2 schools have asked for parent statements, which means I have some writing to do. I’d crib pretty heavily from my parent brag sheet, but I have no idea how heavily the GC copied the stuff I said in her rec already :))
Aside from the ED denial, we haven’t heard from anywhere else yet. Still kicking myself for not hounding D to get her CA essay done early enough to have had some EA applications in. Now she’s got to wait and wait and wait… :-w
@dfbdfb Congrats to you and your daughter on Earlham! Do you mind if I ask how you heard (email or USPS) and if this was an EA application? My S is out of town right now but I have been obsessively visiting the mailbox like a woman possessed–mainly waiting on the Earlham notice. I wasn’t really expecting it until mid Jan. But was hoping we’d hear back sooner. Hmm. Anticipation! He intends to study Japanese so this is definitely one of his top choices!
@Basbleu, she found out by postal mail yesterday; this afternoon (before the post arrived, but already evening in the eastern time zone) an email from Earlham arrived giving her instructions on how to set up her student portal, but with no mention of an acceptance—if that hadn’t already arrived, I’d’ve thought it meant they’d be announcing decisions that way.
It’s kind of fun to me, the places that go old-school (so far for D17, Earlham and St Thomas) and notify by actual paper letter; I think my daughter would rather have the immediacy of email, but actually holding stuff in your hands does, I think, probably create more of a bond, you know?
QOTD:
6 applications - all EA done by 12/1 or before
Only 2 apps were on Common App and each required supplemental essays for application and/or Honors College.
4 Non-Common App schools: only 1 didn't require an essay.
6 Honors College applications with 3 requiring a separate essay
Accepted at all the schools (large, state flagships) and all but one of the Honors Colleges (waiting to hear on Ohio State).
Now daughter is working on essays for various Honors College programs. She has applied to the UFE program at Bama, the Social Science Scholars program at Michigan State, the Scholar and Fellows program at Mizzou, and is working on some essays for competitive scholarships.
She is holding up remarkably well with all the essay writing for the various scholars programs – I think, in part, because she is quite interested in the programs.
All I know is that I NEVER could have done it at her age!
Thanks @dfbdfb Well that IS concerning because S hasn’t heard a peep but he’s gotten other emails from them so I know they have the correct email and things aren’t going to junk mail. They called a couple of weeks ago bc he’d marked on his app that he wasn’t sure about sending scores and would let them decide. After sharing scores verbally their response was that he would “qualify for a higher amount of aid” if he sent them, so we did. I assumed that meant he would be accepted but maybe not??? It occurs to me now that I’m not sure if Earlham is need blind. I’m thinking it’s possible that this wait for the scores may have resulted in his app being diverted into a pile to review later. I emailed them under the guise of following up on scores. I noticed something on CC about people getting notice about Wooster before S got his, and Wooster has given him more merit aid than anyone so far so who knows! Tom Petty was a genius. Lol. Things will work out the way they were meant to, right?! Did they share anything about need based aid or just merit?
@Basbleu, I wouldn’t worry about the timing difference too terribly—I saw some people celebrating their Earlham acceptances earlier in December (read: really early in December, and yes, most of those ED, but at least one I know was EA), some the week before Xmas, my daughter’s came the week after Xmas… It makes me think that rather than releasing decisions all at once, they release them as they’re finalized. My daughter had a couple sentences in her acceptance letter that were semi-generic but even so clearly tied in to the themes of one of her essays, so it may even be the attempt to slightly personalize things that holds it up.
Now, though, if it went past the EA2/ED2 deadline of 15 January, I might would contact them to see if anything’s wrong, certainly.
ETA: Also, the Earlham College CC forum isn’t the busiest around (hi, Alabama!), but there are some people on it who seem reasonably knowledgeable about the way things run at Earlham. It might be worth posting there to find out if there’s reason for concern if your son applied EA1 but hasn’t heard anything yet.
ETA2: And the insert only had merit aid, not need-based. The deadline for submitting FAFSA information to them hasn’t passed, so presumably need-based decisions won’t be forthcoming for a good while yet.
Thanks a bunch @dfbdfb --that’s nice that they make an attempt to personalize things. What is your daughter’s intended major? I thought the college specific forums were only created for the bigger or name brand schools so thanks for mentioning that. I could’ve sworn I’d looked and didn’t find anything.