I am in California and by FAR the most common 4 year college destination at our high school is Cal State Fullerton, live at home. Live at home and go to community college is even more common.
@lkg4answers, are you hoping for need-based aid at USC?
My understanding is that kids under consideration for merit aid beyond the non-competitive NMF aid were already notified. D20 got a letter from them saying she was not under consideration for any of the merit scholarships other than the standard NMF merit aid.
My kidsā school is about a 10 minute walk from state flagship U. While more kids from their school go there than any other school, thatās still a small percentage of the class. Most of the class goes OOS, in large part to experience a different part of the country.
A lot of kids who go OOS for undergrad come back to flagship for grad school.
@MidWestMom5 We did tour Madison late last summer, and he liked it fine; I think if it had been closer he would have been more excited. But by then he was insisting that he wanted to stay as close to the Twin Cities as possible, so he never ended up applying. I was also under the impression that scholarships for Minnesotans were very unlikely, so we figured if it was even a couple thousand/year more expensive, and a farther drive, he would have had to like it a lot more to make it his first choice.
When I was in high school it seemed like everyone who went to college stayed in Minnesota or went to Wisconsin, mostly to public universities. Our valedictorian was the exception and went to WUSTL, according to their LinkedIn - I had to look it up because I didnāt remember.
Re: getting out of their comfort zone, weāre encouraging our student to think about a semester abroad, summer research at an OOS school, etc. Hopefully there will be ways to stretch his wings even while going to a school ~45 minutes from home.
Yes, admission and an invitation to interview for merit based scholarships arrived last month. Since she is NMF and she has been accepted, she is guaranteed 50% off tuition. At Explore USC, she interviewed for the Trustee and Mork scholarships that cover full tuition. I believe the kids will find out if they received one of the larger scholarships at the end of the month.
@MommaCat Our dd is not only going instate but also commuting from home. We moved across the country twice during her high school yrsā¦lived in one place for 9th, another 10th and 11th, and now here. The school here is right beside the NWS and she wants to major in atmospheric science. Away doesnt always equal better or a positive good. 
Kids can experience adulthood locally. (Since we have launched kids multiple times now, our perspective on OOS, IS, dorms, apts, commuting is more along the lines of āwhatever.ā)
Didnāt mean to suggest that by not going out of state, kids arenāt spreading their wings. I totally agree that there are many ways to do so.
Our DS wants something slightly less rural than our state flagship, and while I will be thrilled if he chooses UConn for many reasons, I get not wanting to go to college with 75-80 of your high school classmates. Trying to convince him that It wonāt matter at a school of 19k is the current challenge. So itās not out of the running, just not at the top of the list.
On the other hand, several of his oos alternatives offer a different environment than heās used to at a reasonable price with the merit heās been offered. Unfortunately for us, his preference is the one that offered no merit (Rutgers), so Iām looking forward to the re-visits to refresh his memory.
Wondering if any other schools have cancelled April admit days and college visits. Colleges posted cancellations Harvard, UPenn, MIT, Stanford. Tough for many students waiting until admit day visits to make final decisions.
@prof16 I believe LMU also cancelled theirs.
Oh, wow. Have these schools only canceled their admitted studentsā days or canceled campus visits/tours altogether?
@Alwayslearn From what I have seen, they have cancelled both tours and admitted student days.
Add Cornell to cancelled college visits & tours
@prof16 Yikes, that is EXACTLY the school I was wondering about (among a couple of others).
Thanks for the info.
Is there a thread listing all cancelled admitted student days yet?
Please let Yale remain open for admitted day.
In Stanfordās statement they said,
I imagine that other schools will do something similar. It will be interesting to see how even more creative schools become in marketing themselves.
We were really looking forward to admitted students events! Oh wellā¦
There are some colleges that have yet to host their interview weekends for elite scholarships. I wonder if those will be cancelled as well.
@silverpurple My D17 (now Yale 21) just got home for spring break and said there are strong rumors (confirmed vaguely by faculty) that Yale may delay studentsā return to campus after spring break and/or move to remote learning. Shouldnāt feed the rumor mill I know, but if thatās even on the table, then Iām guessing Bulldog Days may get canceled.
I just started a thread to confirm cancellations of admitted students/revisit days