Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
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QOTD, we visited all but 2 of schools, which happen to be local to us, and a longshot. This morning was a long discussion about choices and the big problem is that we wont hear from most of the reach and dream schools, along with MAC until March (latest april 1st) . She got into Elon EA, and it is high on the list, but the big weekends are only for those who put down their deposits, and I feel that she really needs to go back and get a better feel, since I am hearing mixed reviews about the school . One of the weekends is in early March, and the other is the end of April. I wish they did not require a deposit, since you are not suppose commit to a school and then withdraw unless you get off the waitlist somewhere (at least that is what I am reading).
Her dream is GW ED2, but with the $ unknown we cant do that.
Then is Elon, unless GW or American accept her and come back with decent $
Then is Indiana, which is a great school, but same price as Elon/CofC and further away, still not out of the picture.
CofC, we were suppose to hear before the break, as she got her application in on time, but nothing. Surprised. But probably not high up unless she gets lots of $$
applied to emory. not sure still why. would have to give REALLY good $$
The real dark horse mentioned is Ga Tech. She applied to their Liberal arts school, which is very good, but not what most kids are applying to. Top kids in our local high schools dont get into GA Tech. Her scores and grades make this a 1 in 100 chance (3.5 UW, 29 ACT), but if by that tiny tinsy chance she got in, it would become top of the list.

She wants to study International Studies with a focus towards politics and/or social justice. (just to put choices in perspective)

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@MotherOfDragons Happy 18th Birthday to your daughter!

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Happy Birthday to @MotherOfDragonsā€™s D17! My DS17 was also 2 1/2 weeks early. Supposed to be Jan. 11, which would have been much better for him back when he was fencing. <:-P <:-P

QOTD: We donā€™t expect to have acceptances until March or even April 1. Spring break for us is the last week of March, and most of the schools heā€™s applied to will have some sort of accepted students day. Since our local UC is on the quarter schedule, he can look for a lighter schedule with no Fridays for spring quarter to make trips more feasible. He has only visited 9 of the 19 schools.

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@Ynotgo Another fencer! (at least former). DD is a December birthday fencer as well. She was looking longingly at the Junior Olympics Cadet results last year with all of her classmate friends and their 1999 birthdays, while she could only do Juniors.

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QOTD: We expect to visit a school or 2 or 3 in April for admitted students day, assuming he isnā€™t the kid who gets shut out during acceptances. Weā€™ve already visited all the schools. I will be very glad when all of this is over after about 4 months of waiting for decisions.

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Happy birthday to the December kids! S17 is an Aug. Birthday, so heā€™ll be turning 18 about the time he moves into a dorm.

Heā€™s visited all 3 of the schools he applied to. Heā€™s still waiting to hear from Buffalo, but he really doesnā€™t careā€“heā€™s pretty much deciding between MSU and Albany. He may try for an accepted students visit at MSU over Feb. or spring break. Albanyā€™s accepted students weekend is April 22ā€“seems a little close to decision making day, but weā€™ll see what he wants to doā€¦

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QOTD: DD and DH were going to visit any acceptance schools not already visited, during spring break. When she got into her ED school, I noticed how disappointed my DH seemed since he wouldnā€™t get to road trip w/DD. So, she and I brainstormed a father/daughter trip to the Star Wars Convention in Orlando and gave it to him for Christmas. They are both really looking forward to it.

Happy New Year!: Itā€™s DH and my 20th anniversaryā€“we met on New Years and got married on New Yearsā€“knew there would always be a celebration; however, surprised how many years weā€™ve been asleep for by 10:00!

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QOTD

We will be doing visits in late Feb/Early March. S has a school drama week long trip over Presidents week to NYC and has the spring musical over spring break. Which makes both of those weeks out. The schools are simply too far away, for the most part, to go to admitted students events. He applied to 7, has been accepted at 5. Of those accepted at 4 he has never seen, all far OOS, and has one outstanding OOS app (that I expect him to get accepted at) he has not seen as well. We will hear from the remaining 2 by mid Feb.

Soā€¦I will intercept him at the end of his drama trip since he will already be on the east coast and we will visit 3-4 schools. We have cut one based on their offer and another is on the bubble financially, it will really depend on whether they offer any FA grant monies as their merit offer did not match the NPC. Currently the trip is planned with the assumption that he gets into the last OOS school with a decent offer. Which is a reasonable assumption but still, you never know. I am personally leaning towards making it a 3 school trip (assuming acceptance at the 3rd lol) so he can see more of the overall area for each as they are all quite different. So hoping we hear from FA on one very soon and acceptance on the other.

I am kind of bummed that he really wonā€™t get the true admitted student events. At one school he will at least get an ā€œadmitted student information sessionā€ but for the rest all that is offered during his dates are the standard tours though weā€™ve indicated interest and availability to do more (attend a class, overnight, etc). Super frustrating as one school who has senior overnights the week before he will be there and the week after but not during his week. Who knows though, 2 of the schools have break till mid Jan so I am not sure what that means for admissions office hours and responses.

Assuming he is admitted to the other school that is local, I do expect him to go to their admitted student overnight and then make a decision after that. If their financial offer is doable that is. He will be there in Feb for a music scholarship audition. He will also be sending in another music scholarship audition to one of the east coast schools we are visiting as he will be unable to make it for their live dates by the deadline (they agreed to this). It is possible they will ask for a live one on our visit and I hope I know in time as to whether we have to deal with lugging an instrument with usā€¦not my idea of fun!

I do kind of wish we were visiting and traveling in april, the idea of east coast winter driving is not my idea of fun but it will be good for him to see what cold really looks like!

QOTD2.

Does anyone plan to ā€œleverageā€ offers from one school against another and if so, how do you (your student) plan to go about it?

@MotherOfDragons Happy Birthday to your D! Thatā€™s a pretty fun birthday to have if you ask me!

I started the 2017 3.0-3.4 thread last March and really a little bit earlier might have been helpful to me so I think your timing is perfect. Iā€™ll likely do a 2019 one unless someone else starts it first. S19 is a little outside the stats but fits in well with that group. Come on over, itā€™s a great group and lurk away. Iā€™ll be updating our outcomes list this week but I do think itā€™s a helpful snapshot. If you want you can start at post #2334 and that will start the list of outcomes, it currently takes 4 postings to get it all in and I expect it to continue to grow.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1871275-parents-of-the-hs-class-of-2017-3-0-to-3-4-gpa-p156.html

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@eandesmom , would you mind if I copied the first few posts you did on the 2017 thread to start the 2018 thread? They are really worded well!

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@MotherOfDragons not at all! I copied them from the 2016 thread :slight_smile:

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@MotherOfDragons Happy Birthday to your D! Boy will her 21st Birthday be a blast.

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QOTD2 - I doubt weā€™ll have much to leverage on the FA front unless one or more of the lottery schools are more generous than Dā€™s EA school. The other pans we have left on the fire are either named scholarships that couldnā€™t be leveraged elsewhere and merit scholarships which may or may not be sources of leverage, depending on the schools. If and when we are faced with some good choices, we would probably try to handle it as diplomatically as possible.

QOTD3 - Does anybody know if ā€“ when schools invite kids for scholarship weekends for some of the big, named scholarships (Iā€™m talking about schools like Vandy/Duke/WashU/Emory) ā€“ whether or not the schools pay to get the students out there or is that on the parentsā€™ dime?

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Future visits: No more visits, unless sheā€™s invited to a competition for serious merit money, in which case sheā€™ll go.

Funding for merit competition trips: It varies by school. Most are emphatically a no, but some kick something in, generally not the entire cost of the ticket.

Due dates: Our kids ran late. As one of my sisters puts it, sheā€™s a microwave and my wifeā€™s a crockpot.

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At least as regards the ones Iā€™m aware of, the school pays for the kidā€¦accompanying adults (if there are any) pay their own way

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Visits

If dc gets accepted to more than 1 of her 3 top choices, it will be incredibly difficult to pick, so visits are a must. Two out of 3 accepted student weekends fit our schedule and the third would have to be an alternate overnight. Since Southwest flights are cancellable, I might go ahead book these. They will be so much more expensive if we wait for the acceptances. None of these overlap with spring break, so not sure if a fun spring break trip would be overkill given all the potential college and EC travel in April.

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Happy (recent) Birthdays to DCs @Ynotgo @CA1543 @mtrosemom @MotherOfDragons ! <:-P <:-P

Congratulations @MACncheez! <:-P =D>

Happy New Year! <:-P <:-P :D/ :D/

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Hello all! Iā€™ve been reading along but not posting much. Congrats to everyone who has acceptances so far!

QOTD for yesterday: Technically, 8 schools applied to thus far, but 7 of those were UCā€™s, so just one app. Dā€™17 has two schools due Jan. 1 and she is almost done with the essays ā€“ just a few minor edits. Then one school due Jan. 15, plus her Slideroom submittal is due then. Iā€™ve set her a deadline of next weekend for getting all that done.

QOTD for today: we have 3 campuses weā€™ve never visited ā€“ all within a few hoursā€™ drive. Thinking about visiting one over Pres. Day weekend ā€“ the others we may just leave until after acceptances are out. D hates to miss school so we have to plan any visits around no-school days.

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QOTD2: We will likely be leveraging offers against one another, though quite early to be certain. I like the way Pitt does it. They have a cost analysis worksheet you can find online. Weā€™ll do something like that, plus D will write something describing ā€œWhy XYZā€¦should want meā€ that will put just a little bit of emotion into the decision. Low expectations. Generally unemotional. Low key.

@LoveTheBard why donā€™t you think you will include named scholarships as leverage? Maybe I use the term too loosely, but lots of schools have named scholarships that donā€™t amount to much. We will use them for sure in our analysis.

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QOTD:

Currently waiting on a hopeful merit scholarship from school X so we can fill out the worksheet mentioned above and give it a try. Itā€™s worth a shot.

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@dustypig --welcome! We are a nice and fun and safe group :wink: Hope you join in. Missing school is so hard for these kids. D missed two days for a visit and I feel like it took almost two exhausting weeks for her to catch up!