I have a random question I hope someone can answer. On the FAFSA and CSS we filled out months ago, I had entered my D20’s 2018 work income at $5,500, just estimating based on the time she had worked since she didn’t get a W-2. One school is now requiring that W-2 so we tracked it down, and she actually made less than $2K (oops!!). Is this something we should update on the FAFSA?
The AO who visited my daughter’s school mentioned that they had some out of state scholarships of around $3K that would be released in January. I think they were also targeting specific majors, but am not positive. My daughter declined, so I can’t see if she received it.
So D20 just finished first semester with all A’s and should be guaranteed a co-Valdictorian as she ended up with straight A’s in high school with 9 APs and 3 honors classes.
Congrats to all.
@ShrimpBurrito and @MBNC1755 Congrats to your kids on the FSU OOS waiver as well! It definitely puts it high on the list with that low cost.
For my DD it’s now down to FSU and a smaller school outside Pittsburgh (Robert Morris) where she is waiting to hear on Presidential Scholarship, Honors, and a Women in Leadership Mentor Program. Once she has all the info for that, and she’ll also be applying to FSU’s honors so will then need to wait for that too, she’ll have all the info for both schools. Her other acceptances were lower on her lists of schools so at least she has it down to two choices at this time. We’re hoping she’ll have heard from all the various things by mid March.
@bigmacbeth - I double-checked the scholarship and it says for Minnesota residents that meet the requirements…but it doesn’t really say what those are.
Also, I was wrong on the other scholarship coming with the acceptance letter. It actually was a few weeks later.
Congratulations to everyone on the great news lately! FSU is pretty popular here, eh?
I have a question for you FSU folks – are we going to be able to set up a housing contract next week even if we haven’t yet committed by submitting an enrollment deposit? My D will not have all her decisions for at least another month and a half, but if she ends up at FSU I want to make sure she has a good shot at getting a spot in the Landis LLC dorm. We already put the housing deposit down for UF, which wasn’t much. I think the deposit for FSU may be a bit more, though.
Congratulations! Lots of great news about FSU. While S20 wasn’t interested in Florida schools, S22 may be.
S20 got accepted for CS to UMD (Scholars) and Purdue, but he will stick with his original choice. No time for any senioritis around here. He seems as busy as always if not more.
NMF announcements should be out soon. Almost there 
Today UMD EA decisions came out, and it was the culmination of many
months of waiting for DS20. He applied to 11 schools, and has now heard from 10 of them. UMD was his reach, and he got in with spring 21/freshman connection admittance. So this is a “what would you do” post. Here are his options:
-Rutgers: Business School OR Arts and Sciences for Econ (merit decision in mid-feb)
-UMass Amherst for Econ (12k merit per year)
-College of Charleston Business School, Business Econ major, honors waiting list ($12,500 merit per year)
-URI Business School + honors ($12k merit per year)
-Salve Regina University (honors tbd, $24k merit per year)
-University of Maryland, no merit. freshman connection/spring 21 admit for Econ
He has already declined Fordham (too $, no merit), Earlham (too small), IU Bloomington (no specific reason—just gut feeling and never visited), and Southern CT (major safety, no longer needed).
Still waiting to hear from UConn (our in-state flagship) on 3\1, not his first choice but not out of the running.
For a kid who thinks he wants business but loves Econ and is willing to put Business off until grad school under the right circumstances, what do you smart folks think the best move is? Here are his stats:
3.5 wgpa in rigorous HS program,
Mostly honors and AP, 4s/5s on all APs, 1330 SAT, solid essay, 3 season athlete (running) for 4 years, t&f team captain, summer lifeguard, good amount of volunteering, TA in guitar and business classes, part time lifeguarding job at local pool during school yeAr, Political campaign volunteer (local)…
$ is not the biggest issue because we have some family support. But we’re not devil may care about it. If the cost/benefit makes sense, we have resources, but want to be smart, as we are a 2 schoolteacher family.
Any opinions on what you would do given the circumstances? PS: We recognize that he has knocked it out of the park given his stats and he is super lucky. We of course think he’s awesome, but realize that we could be sitting here with lots of rejections if we had overshot. Looking for purely objective opinions.
What’s the cost of attendance at each option?
@amsunshine I am wondering this, too. I’m hoping we can register early for FSU housing without committing to enroll. (We did this with UGA back in November. I like that system.)
And yes, FSU seems pretty popular here! I’m not surprised—we were very impressed when we visited a year or two ago.
@CTCape You said U Maryland with no merit but their website says the following:
Admission decision letters for early action applicants are mailed by the end of January and candidates for merit scholarships will receive an email notification by March 1. Final awards for all merit scholarships are made no later than April 1
@Octagon Freshman Connection/Spring admits are not eligible for merit like fall admits, unfortunately (as per freshman connection webpage). It’s basically a full spring admit, with this unique option to start early. Like a step up from waitlisted, I guess? The other option is to to spend your fall some other way and start as a full admit in January.
We realize that either way, you end up with a UMD degree, so we are open to it. But I won’t lie that he’s not excited. He runs, and was hoping to run club. From what I’ve read, one of the only downfalls of FC is that kids my not be able to do cub sports in the fall because they will be in classes during typical practices.
@roycroftmom So every school except UMD and Rutgers ends up hovering between low 30ks to 38k with merit. Rutgers is about 47k, and UMD is over 50. Rutgers could still give merit—will know mid-Feb. UMD merit is zero with Freshman Connection.
We would prefer to be under 40k, but have family support so we’re very fortunate. UMD was first choice, but the FC option has him chatting a lot about Rutgers B school tonight. I think he will ultimately have to decide between B school and Econ to make an educated decision to begin with. That will narrow his options. Or is UMD so much better than his other choices that it’s worth the FC and higher cost?
Congratulations to all on admittances, scholarships, and decisions! Still in waiting mode here but the admitted student events should help pass the time until all results are in. Going to 3 in February. Hoping for smooth travels.
@CTCape sounds like some good options. Please share the COA rather than the merit amounts and let us know what GPA is required for renewal of the merit at each school.
@CTCape If a southern school is OK, I would probably go with College of Charleston. My D17 applied, and was asked down for scholars weekend. She couldn’t make it, but they have a nice thing going there. I also have no idea about business/econ, but it’s a nice college town, and your S could run year 'round. That’s just my 2 cents, which is all it’s worth.
@bigmacbeth We are headed down there over April vacation, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he thinks. I’ve heard nothing but good things. He’s used to running in CT in snow, ice, freezing rain—you name it. But I’m sure he would give all of that up, lol. On paper it seems like the perfect balance for him: B school and Econ (his other choices have Econ in the behavioral sciences/arts and sciences schools), large but not massive, strong school spirit, etc.
My only reservation for him is how comfortable he will be given his liberal political beliefs. I know CofC is less conservative than some other southern schools, so hopefully we will get some sense of the vibe when we visit.
@Cheeringsection COA is highest at UMD (abt 52k), followed by Rutgers (abt 47k, merit tbd), then the rest are all under 40k after merit awards. Our goal was to stay under 40k, but we have family who want to contribute and have offered to do whatever is needed so that he doesn’t have to decide based on cost. We are very fortunate.
@amsunshine I’m not sure if they can set up a housing contract next week, but I did see that as long as they cancel by May 1 then all but $50 of the deposit is refunded. (https://housing.fsu.edu/future-residents/contract-and-processes/contract-terms#fall-2020-spring-2021)
My DD definitely won’t decide until mid to late March so we’ll probably pay the housing deposit for FSU when it opens for freshmen and if she doesn’t go then at least it was just a loss of $50. I figure it’s important to get her name in the system for being able to pick housing when it opens up.
Congratulations to all on the many acceptances! Such an exciting (but stressful) time!
Chiming in on the FSU acceptances - S20 was admitted with the OOS tuition waiver. FSU is now his least expensive option and seems like a good fit with his academic interests. We will pay the housing deposit as well to keep his options open. He needs to take care of the FSU Honors application. Does anyone know when they send out honors decisions?
He is now down to Miami of Ohio, University of Arizona and FSU. He is chasing down merit but we also need to consider fit as well. Thinking it will come down to FSU and Miami pretty soon.
@CTCape How does your ds really feel about being deferred to a spring admit? Is he ok with having lowest priority registration and not really being fully admitted in Connections ( I read their description. They are walking a tightrope there. Spring admit stats do not get reported for U rankings, so they seem to want them to feel like full-time regular admits without them being full-time regular admits. But they were upfront about lowest priority registration.)
Our family is one who doesnt care about U rankings. So my gut reaction is if cost isnt a major factor, what sort of setting would he thrive in? That list of schools is quite varied in size and location. CoC is small. My dd was invited to same weekend as @bigmacbeth and after the weekend eliminated it for reasons that might make it a better fit for your ds. It was predominantly liberal (and her impression fair or not, huge partying atmosphere) and on a small campus, those are amplified when you dont fit.