@Sarrip Wow, you have a S09. It’s funny how much has changed even since then!
So, for the schools your D20, do the meets-need schools do so without loans? And, if they are still too expensive based on your EFC, what are you going to do if she gets in? Yikes, I feel for you and understand why you are hoping for a rejection or two to make things easier!
I think we overreached. She is accepted at our state school with a nice NMSF scholarship but beyond that it’s fingers crossed (6 more to go). We looked at the examples and the my intuition ballpark tool and think we should be able to make it work or come close. D20 does not want to take out any loans and will choose the state school if necessary. But for the cost of an application and time spent on essays, I figured it was worth the shot if she gets accepted to make the decision with all the info in hand. There are too many variables to rule out anything until she get accepted/denied and has an understanding of the actual costs.
My oldest daughter who graduates in May went to a state school (that was great for her and the same school hubs and I graduated from!) but it was mostly because I was scared off by the sticker prices of the other great schools around us. I’m confident I will be much better at this whole college search thing by the time I get to S23! 
@bigmacbeth - LOL yes , I have a D07, S09 & Oops D20. Ys, so much has changed. We didn’t really worry about how many College classes, AP’s he took or his GPA he just went to school and did his best, did some community service, had an active social life and applied to college. He was admitted to all except Harvard where he was waitlisted. His final contenders was JHU & Princeton. He decided to go to Princeton which is a school that mets demonstrated need no we paid between $9,000 - $11,500 between his freshman and senior year which was affordable. JHU was more expensive than Princeton. If any of her other schools meets demonstrated need without merit the same way that Princeton did she will have more contenders but I am very happy with the Presidential Scholarship that she has. I think it’s a great fit for her. When all is said and done she has an affordable school and as I explained to her, In life we do not always get to have everything that we want in the way that we want it. Sometimes we have to make a good decision even if it was not what we were hoping for and be ok with it. Being a midlife baby, she definitely has been indulged not just by us but by her brother and sister who are surrogate parents. Big brother travels from NY where he resides and works to NJ by way of public transportation to stay for 3 hours and take her to a movie, driving in my car or back home with him for the weekend and gets back on NJtransit to go back to NY. Her 31 year old sister also comes to get her for shopping, dinner, overnights etc.
Even though they have so many years between them they are still the best of friends and love being together. She may be about to get a reality check because just because we can afford to do something does not mean that we should do it. Don’t get me wrong, she worked, saved money last summer, shops thrift but she’s still a teenager. She is also a Fellowship finalist at another very nice school and if it works out she may have another full tuition for 4 years scholarship. I just can’t see not taking an offer like these and putting away money for grad school. But when all is said and done…I’m sticking to No Loans. Hubby is going to retire next year and we have to also thing about our quality of life. I’m so grateful though for my older children because when all is said and done they can be a voice of reason to DD20 and for some reason they can say the same thing I say but it’s as if she is hearing it for the first time when it comes from one of them.
@MamaFx3 - I cast a wide net myself with 17 schools. I was very nervous, seeing how many kids with these perfect stats get rejected from schools all the time so I wanted to make sure that when all was said and done, we were left with at least a few options. We have EA’s so far all with merit. I RD that she is likely to get into since she is a scholarship finalist and 11 RD. Many of the RD schools are the Reaches.
@Sarrip Holy Cow - 17 schools! And you already have several merit offers?! I am fairly certain with the schools we have left that merit is unlikely (because we missed those early deadlines). Congratulations! She should have plenty of good options - the tough part will be deciding…
@Sarrip: Our '20 kid has an '09 brother and an '06 sister. We should talk. 
@HarrietMWelsch, we absolutely should. I always feel like the grandma in the bunch 
I’m excited to say that the awful waiting and uncertainty is now over for D20. After submitting her RD apps and having a month or so of reflection, she came downstairs 2 days before the Feb. 1 deadline to convert to ED and said she wanted to switch to ED2 at Skidmore. She found out this week that she was accepted and is thrilled! And now I feel like I can breathe a bit easier.
She’d been denied by her ED1 reach school but did have some nice EA acceptances with merit. I think she wasn’t ready to commit to an ED2 school before the initial deadline because the sting from that ED1 rejection was still a bit raw and she liked several other schools pretty equally. But by Jan 30 she felt confident that Skidmore would be her first choice among her likely admits, that she had a really good shot at being accepted, and she was ready to know. And she had come to terms with giving up the dream of her remaining very unlikely reach, which was completely fine.
I think it’s a great match for her academic interests, and she can continue to take classical ballet daily, do pointe work, and even perform as a non-major, which was really important to her. Very excited for her!
@Driverof3 - I am so happy for you and DD20. Now on to the next phase. congratulations!!!
@Driverof3 FANTASTIC! Great news.
Ack. I was just trying to plan a couple of accepted student visits for D20 over spring break and just realized the CC has a totally different break than her high school. Between that and her spring sport schedule, it looks like we are just going to have to wing it without visits. Oh well. :neutral:
@amsunshine - Contact the schools that you want to visit and let them know that the schedules don’t match up. I bet they will arrange something for you to still come and enjoy a day at the school during spring break even though it’s not the accepted students day. Maybe a day of classes or an over night with a host. The worst thing that can happen is that you will be in the same place as you are now. It’s worth a try.
We got lucky that the c.c. that she attends and the high school have the same spring break.
Thanks so much for the suggestion. What I meant was, her dual enrollment school has a different break than her high school, so going across the country at all is unfortunately just a no-go, regardless of the dates the colleges have scheduled.
DD just submitted her FSU honors application which means she is now 100% done with any and all forms of applications. Woot woot! She did EA/rolling for all her schools but the honors and scholarship stuff kept trickling in and it feels soooooo good to finally be done. Should hear back about all honors and scholarships no later than mid March, and hopefully a bit sooner.
@voyagermom My D is finishing hers up as we speak. Congratulations to your D!
My S submitted FSU Honors app last weekend, but he’s still working on the medical scholars app. So…many…essays.
We are hoping to hear about all honors and scholarships soon, but UGA says “by mid-April.” If it really takes that long, S may get tired of waiting and pick a place that’s all cued up and ready.
@ShrimpBurrito - I agree with you, mid April when you have to make a decision by May 1 is just ridiculous. I struggle with the ‘By’ dates…just give a date and stick to it. Heck, I’m having a hard time waiting for RD even though we applied RD to schools. Decisions should be done before high school spring breaks so people can have a chance to do revisits by spring breaks. In our case DD20 is in Prep school 5 hours from home so visits are always a project of coordinating flights, buses and not missing too many classes. But I know that the world does not revolve around what I think 
.
@Driverof3 Congrats to your D! Skidmore was one the top 3 colleges on my D20’s list. We both loved it. She had the app ready to go for RD if she didn’t get into her ED choice. Though, as you know, RD at Skidmore is VERY dicey. They are clear that they accept 50% of their class ED. During the open house they stressed that they wanted students that were excited to be there, and did not want to be anyone’s “fallback plan.” If it was your D’s second choice after the ED1, I think it was good idea to ED2 there.
@Driverof3 Happy for you!! S21 and I toured Skidmore last fall and really liked what we saw. Sounded like they had great, flexible options for dancers. I hope you’ll keep posting after she’s enrolled so we can hear how she enjoys it.