Oh my gosh, the ED2 essay is done and the app is submitted!! I am so relieved to go into the New Year not worrying about it any longer. #:-S
Now, I have to go clean up as family is coming to celebrate tonight!!! Happy New Year everyone! <:-P
QOTD: We will try to get D to visit accepted schools that are in the running (money & interest-wise) especially if she hadnāt visited them during the search process. I figure itās such a big investment for all concerned. I donāt want her to wind up turning down a place sight unseen - there was a reason for every place she applied, so that should all be weighed in context when the decision comes down.
Happy New Year, everyone! <:-P
QOTD2 ( @eandesmom ): DD had a friend that graduated last year, and leveraging was part of their strategy. Their key was to make sure to apply to peer schools (in the eye of your target school) that were known to be better possibility for merit. I believe they contacted their target school and said āYouāre my first choice, but this competitive offer is hard to turn down. Can you match it?ā or something similar. The target school asked for a copy of the financial aid offer from the peer school, and then actually beat it by a bit.
@stencils that is what I figured, peer school offer leveraging. The challenge we have (a bit) is weāve got 4 peer LACās that I think we could leverage if desired and very well may if they arenāt close (one isnāt right now but am not sure itās worth trying). But I am not sure how the one flagship and private U would view those, whether they are peers or not in their mind. I am fairly sure weāve dropped the private U at this point but it would make a huge difference if we could get that flagship down. I suspect the privates have more wiggle room though and truth be told, his offer at the flagship was solid for his stats, others with higher received less and outside of countering another school I am not sure he has a great case to be offered more.
UC/Cal Poly is her alternative to the private that gave nice MAC and they donāt give a darn. No leverage here.
@ilikesporks - The named scholarships Iām talking about are either full tuition or full rides based solely on merit and/or leadership with separate scholarships and an interview process (sometimes requiring separate nominations and recommendations). Frankly I donāt think HYPS cares if Vandy or WUSTL were to want to give merit through a named scholarship and ā even if Vandy were to care if WUSTL did or vice versa ā I doubt that thereās too much to be done on that end as there are committees that decide these things based on criteria established by the donors. If there is straight merit to be leveraged among peer LACs, weāre open to that, but again, I donāt know if the schools will be.
I think that most of the leveraging tends to happen on the FA side and generally only among peer institutions. Now, if a peer institution of the HYPS variety were to offer FA, thatās another matter altogether as they are peer institutions, and FA offers can be reconsidered using different criteria. But so far, itās a no-go on the FA front. Weāll see what the tide brings in come March/April.
If thereās anything to be leveraged, weāll be leveraging, thatās for sure!
I agree @lovethebard. I also think the amts are pretty minimal compared to total costs. They are not going to grant full tuition or full ride. The other concern is whether or not they are willing to commit to matching it for 4 yrs vs. just freshman. They might grant the scholarship the 2nd yr, but reduce institutional aid, etc. I have heard of swings of about $5000. For us, that is a drop in the bucket when compared to what we really need.
Got back to this board after 10 days away. Yikesā¦ I think I wonāt be back reading 40 pages.
We did zero visits. DS has 2 BS/MD interviews next 2 weeks and waiting on 4. We visit after decisions are out.
** QQTD ** My son as visited 4/7 schools on his list. Of the last 3ā¦ one is his safety that has already been supplanted by a better school. So we wonāt visit. One is a reach, if he gets in Iāll send him to accepted students day I have a relative who lives in town so it should be an easy 1+ day trip. The last is CU Boulderā¦ if he actually applies and gets in we will probably send him out to see in (probably with me) over his spring break.
A bit depends on his acceptances. Iām also likely to want to send him back to see his top choice if itās feasible. It depends on him and how sure he is in his decision. Complication is he is in a EC that has competitions in March/April usually on Saturdays. Itās going to be a pain and require some last minute plane tickets I expect. I should find out the schedule for his EC next week and that will help a bit.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek 5K could make the difference in keeping a school on the list or not in our case. The swing at the moment is 6-9K over the best offer, 5K could keep a school in the running.
We didnāt visit many places outside of whatever was within driving distance (specifically the UCs, USC, and Claremonts), and one fly-in program.
D has yet to see her EA school (Yale) and has apps all over the place. Iām hoping sheāll be invited to some scholarship weekends and can see schools then. As for Yale, will probably wait until Bull Dog Days in April to visit (unless she/we can get there sooner). Like @srk2017, most of the visits will happen after decisions.
@LoveTheBard Ok. We are talking about an entirely different range of schools! LOL. In that stratosphere I think you can just play FA against each other.
@LoveTheBard ā your DD got into Yale but seems to likely have several other top tier schools to consider. Thatās awesome and truly hope she can make a good fit decision. I do think getting a sense of the surroundings and other aspects of student life if you can is helpful. Good luck!
Happy New Year! Hereās to an interesting year of transitions for our DC17sāGood luck to all of them and to all the parents!
@LoveTheBard, some scholarship invitations will pay a large portion of airfare. Generally, the students get to stay at the dorm with current students so lodging is free. If the parents go, then they pay for everything themselves. When S did this 3 years ago, we found that it was actually more complicated if we go because the scholarship weekend provided transportation to/from the airport and activities for the students only and not the parents.
Over the years, D had been tagging along visiting colleges with older brother. So she has a good idea on colleges in general. Our strategy is to visit after getting results from all her schools.
Happy New Year, Parents of the HS Class of 2017!!!
Finallyā¦Happy 2017! 
We are almost thereā¦congrats to those who know, and good luck to those still waiting to hear.
its going to be a great year!!!
We are one year closer to a decision. Yea!