@chardonMN Good tip! I personally did know about the late Morris deadline because S20 keeps getting emails about it, but he ended up committing to the main U. D22 has Morris on her list; she actually visited for a field trip in middle school and liked it. I haven’t been but it seems like a nice option. I think D22 will apply there, and also to Duluth, which is such a nice sized school in a beautiful location (though I’m biased, since most of my extended family is from the area).
Ditto on the pesky financial details. Too many unknowns for another two to three weeks for my DD to be able to pick between her top two schools, and number three just got a bit of a bump as she unexpectedly got an email informing her of an additional $5,000 in merit money (renewable for all four years). Probably not enough to have it beat out her other two, but enough to keep it on the list of possibilities. This waiting to have all the info as far as money and honors or not is killing all of us! Though working on the applications was definitely the bigger pain.
@NYC2018nyc My daughter just committed to IU after our visit on the last Kelley direct admit day. I would recommend you contact Kelley admissions to schedule a Hodge Hall tour in addition to any regular office admissions campus tour, which is pretty light IMO. If you want to see dining halls, you may have to ask for that specifically, as it’s not on the normal tour. Don’t miss Kirkwood Ave, walk the square, and maybe get Mother Bear’s Pizza, which are all common IU student hangouts.
Got into it a bit with D20 yesterday. She was accepted into one of her safeties, a good state school. On Friday, she received an email inviting her to apply for their honors program, which also includes automatic consideration for a full-ride scholarship. I told her that though it would be unlikely, it would also (obviously) be amazing to win.
Her response was a very flat, bored response of “well, whatever, but I don’t even know if I want to go there.” As you can imagine, this prompted a bit of a push from me about how, regardless, a full ride at a well-regarded (though not stellar, or flagship) university would be a no-brainer for her parents, who are footing the bill. (And with a S23 who we’ll be helping soon enough, too.)
I also reminded her that she certainly doesn’t “have” to go to college immediately, how she’s welcome to enroll in a CC instead, etc. etc. This isn’t our first discussion of the realities of her choices, our ability to help out, etc. D20 is a great, mature kid, but clearly yesterday we were both coming at the issue from different places and moods, and it left me with a bad feeling about this whole crazy process.
Mid-April, when “all shall be revealed” and decided on, can’t come soon enough.
I don’t think I can hold out for mid-April. I’m really going to push for an end of March decision.
It’s funny to hear talk of flats vs. heels. Instead, D20 needs to get some cheer shoes for her next visit. I had never heard of them, but her gymnastics career came to an end last week, and she decided to contact the cheerleading coach at her Big 10 school (deposited a few weeks ago). She attended a cheer clinic there today, and will hopefully/likely be invited to attend tryouts in April. It was very funny watching her during the ‘cheer’ portion of the clinic since she’s never cheered before. She also stunted (i.e., got thrown around by some big dudes) for the first time, and of course, tumbled. She loved it, so she’s going to go for it. She has a lot of work to do before tryouts.
@SoCalKel Welcome to my world. LOL! I am so familiar with what you are going through. S20 applied to 7 Flagships (OOS and our Instate) schools. All pretty much matches to reaches. But with the exception of the Instate school, none of them were financial matches unless meaningful merit was awarded. I had told him to apply to one or two financial matches., but his reply was “these schools are not are as well ranked as the ones I want to apply to”. The good news is that he has been accepted to 6 our of the 7 including the in-state option ( the waiting on UF this Friday). However, with the exception of the instate acceptance, none of the OOS Flagships have awarded him any meaningful merit in order for him to attend. He is now struggling with the idea of attending the in-state option thinking that it would be High School 2.0. I told him that a few of these financial safeties are still taking applications. I can not wait for this process to be over.
This waiting is killing everyone! Daughter was accepted to 2 (one in her top 4) in Early Action, but is still anxiously awaiting news for 5 more RD. The end of March still seems light years away!
Those financial details (along with potential scholarships) have ground this process to a halt for D20. She was accepted to all seven EA schools she applied to but only has received her aid packets from four of the seven. The hurry up and wait part of this is really dragging on.
Ugh. I wanted a decision soon, but not this way. Just found out last night that his top choice school raises tuition as you go. I can’t believe I missed this with how much time I spend going over tuition and fees and Net Price Calculators, but in my defense, it was just a note under the Cost of Attendance chart. The difference is about a 13% increase from freshman year for Junior and Senior year with a smaller increase Sophomore year.
All told it means about 7K more out of pocket for this school over 4 years than we thought which was already about 16K more than his second choice school. This is still within our realm of affordability but it’s pushing the limit and doesn’t leave a lot of buffer…a 5th year would be bad news. We’re supposed to go there this Saturday for an all day deal but now I’m not sure I want to go.
@CShell2 Oh wow! I had never heard of this… Now to start double-checking the aid offers my DD did receive so far. Can I ask where you found this info?
I can’t blame you for being disheartened. How does your son feel about the difference in cost?
@cshell2 That’s a big increase. ;(
It is common for schools to increase tuition each year but more like 4%. We are full pay so I’m not sure how that works with families receiving aid but it’s definitely common and, if anyone has any concerns about yearly increases, they should call the FA office of each school.
@homerdog - I’d expected annual increases (and had actually used 4% in my spreadsheet for what out total cost would actually be), but this is a built in increase for certain majors separate from that from $11,615/semester freshman year to $13,201 Junior and Senior year (there’s a smaller increase of $500/semester Sophomore year)
Word on the parents forums for this school is they don’t increase aid to compensate and in fact it often goes DOWN after freshman year.
This whole process has been overwhelming to say the least. The “hurry up and wait” mentioned above has been the worst. We are hoping we have at least a few viable offers to decide from on April 1. Too many variables, too much unknown to even narrow it down to a workable “if this, then that” plan. Best wishes to all - those still waiting and the lucky ones who can start moving forward!
He was definitely visibly deflated. But, I think he may be a little relieved as well. It’s still an option for him to go, but I don’t think he wants to spend that much more to go there. He is paying half the cost out of his UTMA that his grandparents gifted him so it’s not just meaningless numbers to him.
As for how I’d heard about it. I just was reading the Facebook parents page for the school and someone replied to a poster that was freaking out about their tuition bill making a huge jump. They said that certain majors when up the higher up in the program you got, so then I went back to the school’s website and started digging. Turns out there were a list of notes under the cost of attendance table and one was about this with a link to the REAL tuition and fees, not just the one for “most” majors that was on the main page. I still love the school, but this kind of makes me sad.
@cshell2 UMN TC seems to be doing this. They have been raising OOS tuition in 15% Increments. By the time, you get your acceptance, the price just went up another $3K. If no meaningful merit has been awarded, I would think these Financial Offers are also meaningless since it is basically full MSRP price plus Loans. Thank you but no thank you!
@cshell2 although it has been 20 year, by my wife and I attended UMD. I’m not sure the major, but I have a pretty good handle on the Bio, School of Business, Industrial and Electrical Engineering departments. I’m happy to answer any questions.
@1917souci - UMN is probably where he will end up, but we’re in state. They do sort of lock your OOS tuition there though. The OOS people that are already attending are not subjected to the big bumps that have been happening the past few years. There are separate tuition rates for 2019, 2018, 2017, etc freshman.
It looks like S20 has found a roommate!! They connected on the University of Denver ZeeMee site and Face-timed for 40 minutes. They both have been at last two International DECCA competitions, ski, and run XC. It sounded like they will both be at the same admitted students day in April, and hopefully both will qualify for DECCA again, and will get to hang out again in May.
He is grinding on scholarship essays, and preparing for State Swimming over the next two weeks. Once mid-March passes, he should be able to coast a little.
@roper1313 Congrats to your son on making so much progress. University of Denver is one of my son’s top choices as well. He is going to Admitted Students day on March 7th for a second visit to see if he can make a final decision. He’s still waiting to hear from a deferral school by the end of March but I have a feeling that Denver in March for my skier might seal the deal----no matter how much I tell him that the skiing option is NOT a reason to pick a college (insert eye roll). Although they do have his program, the school is a good size for him and the city location is also important to him so I guess there are worse “narrowing down” criteria. I’m still hesitant on Denver because of the quarter system but… While he has been on the ZeeMee site I don’t think he has done much else and probably won’t for a bit so kudos to your son for being proactive.