Agree with other posters about how awesome this site has been.
Both I and my wife came to US as grad students and are completely unaware of schooling system and college admission process. we underestimated the stresses of the admission process. For good or bad, our local friends group does not talk about the details of this process (its a taboo subject to even share publicly available info)…maybe its good in a way to avoid tricky issues.
So this anonymous site has become our main source of learning the system. Thank you so much to all parents of 2020 community for educating us and helping us navigate the process.
@juleval Congratulations to your daughter! My D17 is a Jr. at UChicago and loves it. Let me know if you have any questions. D17 had a tough time choosing between Columbia, Georgetown SFS, Midd and a few other great options. I wish your daughter the best! Both are amazing options.
Thank you @GoodGrief16 The Real talk Princeton site seems like a great resource! Congrats to all for their acceptances. This college process this year was very daunting and the support here is terrific.
Hi there, fellow parents. My son is deciding between 7 LAC (he was also accepted into an out of state school’s honors program), and his top choices are Williams, Amherst, and Grinnell (with Wesleyan, Oberlin and F&M next on the list). Unless the financial aid process ends up with one far outweighing the others, he’s not 100% sure where to go. Neither of us went to a LAC. We live in the Mid-Atlantic/East Coast, so the only real downside to Grinnell is that it’s a 15-hour drive away. Any thoughts on those schools?
Are any of you factoring in recession grad employment outcomes into your decision making process? (In terms of cost, career development opportunities, and desired major?) We are having serious conversations bc our college jr dd is home. Dh and I graduated college in Dec 87 (recession). Our oldest graduated in 2011 (economy still recovering). They both got jobs as engineers but many (most) of our friends and ds’s friends really struggled with finding employment (engineers included. We knew students fwho were unemployed for 6-12 months. Work experience is what opened job offers. Co-OP, research, internship experience nuanced out who was hired and who wasnt.)
Obviously the future is unknown, but we are having real possibility outcome conversations with our college dd and high school sr. Our college dd already feels it bc she lost her CLS opportunity this summer (competitive critical language scholarship study abroad funded by the State Dept.) That disappointment combined with sr friends having job offers rescinded and jr friends losing summer internship/job offers makes it very real for her. High school sr dd, otoh, is sort of off in lala land. Her life is too comfortable to face hard future possibilities. Though on Friday she started to get a better grasp bc she started studying recessions in her econ course. I think the implications are starting to filter in through life and sr distractions.)
Anyway, we are having serious discussions about what employment opportunities will look like now vs what we had envisioned. We are discussing unemployment, inflation, and job development opportunities as an UG, and how those all intertwine in employment opportunities for new grads. (Our high school sr is not a grab by the horns and go after it personality. Our college jr is. Glad they were born in that order. Our college jr is probably going to face serious hurdles even though her background is stellar.)
Yes, @Mom2aphysicsgeek we are considering but we always have so it does not change the school choice but becomes one more point in favor of the criteria always in place: to avoid debt, choose a location that allows for internships and/or shadowing, and where there are likely to be first jobs available at graduation. The economy has cycles so it was always possible that what our kids will graduate into would not be a boom time. The difference now is that my DC understand much better how quickly the economy can change.
@spachen Congrats to your son - he has excellent options! D20 is heading off to a LAC in the fall too. She chose the one with easy access to a large city and other colleges and students. Based on her thinking, I would OVERWHELMINGLY vote Amherst. We toured there twice and the setting is beautiful, you are 2.5 hours from Boston, and it is part of the 5 College Consortium. The towns of Amherst and Northampton are the perfect place to spend 4 years. Amherst’s Beneski Museum of Natural History is truly world class and the Science Center is brand new. I would do a little research on the student body to make sure that it would be a ‘good fit’ for your son…the atmosphere appeared overly sporty for D20 and after both visits we suspected this may be a divisive issue on campus and this is truly the only reason it was bumped to #5 on her list. We never visited Williams or Grinnell due their remote and isolated locations, respectively. Best of luck to your son - I think the decision should be easy and I hope this helps. Please share his decision.
@spachen Great choices, he has! Of course, if it were my child I would be nudging them toward Williams, based purely on reputation and rankings. I know a few people who work at Grinnell, and given what I know about them, I would not hesitate to send one of my kids there right now. Higher ed administration matters in uncertain times like these, I think.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek - yes, future employment opportunity is definitely a consideration. D20’s 1st choice, Northeastern, is more expensive, but with the coop program, is going to give her a leg up on job opportunities. She will only go to her second choice (Loyola Chicago) if she gets a full tuition scholarship (wish they would let us know already!) - job prospects there will not be as good. Regardless, she will not have debt, but, it’s a scary time as parents to shell out that kind of money if she doesn’t get the scholarship
@spachen So many great choices! I haven’t visited Amherst or Grinnell, but I have spent a lot of time at Williams. It’s a gorgeous area of the Berkshires, 2.5 hours from Boston, 3 hours from NYC. Beautiful campus!
@coun2316 and @Mom2aphysicsgeek agree that scholarships and co-op programs may really become bigger factors for many this year when making their final choice. In uncertain times, the more things that are certain — like net price and availability of work experience— the better. Schools with large scholarships (or lower cost to begin with) and tuition already set for all 4 years will see higher yields this year IMHO.
@spachen Congrats to him on some great acceptances! What will he be studying?
I love Amherst for a lot of reasons: very nice campus, 5 college consortium, excellent academics, and commitment to diversity.
Congratulations to your son on his many wonderful options! My husband as well as several other family members are Amherst grads (some young, some old). There is no doubt that Amherst offers incredible academics and opportunities, but it has also become intensely competitive and the students’ mental health is suffering - significantly for many from what we’ve heard. Despite knowing this, we toured there (we’d been on campus many times before) with our son this past year. He looked pretty hard at it but decided not to apply for a few different reasons (he will attend another NESCAC school this fall). There is a lot to like about Amherst but they are struggling in some non-academic areas (as are many schools). For example, I believe someone else mentioned the division between athletes and non-athletes. Unfortunately there is also division among the athletes. For a school that has worked so hard to increase diversity, it is disappointing to see situations like this happening on campus. https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/hampshire-county/amherst-college-suspends-mens-lacrosse-team-fires-coach-following-racist-incident/
This is not the first - this one just managed to get press. Amherst’s attempts to increase diversity in both race and socioeconomic status were well meaning but not well thought out beyond admissions and financial aid. You can google this issue and read several articles about it. To Amherst’s credit they have acknowledged this failing and continue to work on it. This is not to say that Amherst isn’t a great choice. It is, but students might want to be aware of some of the pressures on campus.
I cannot speak to anything regarding Williams other than that we could not get our son to even look at it given its isolated location. And my Amherst grad husband didn’t have any interest trying to convince him otherwise I wish we’d looked at Grinnell (I’ve heard nothing but great things about it) as well as other LACs in the midwest but my son wanted to be in New England. We will definitely encourage our younger son to look more in the midwest when he gets closer to college applications.
Where does your son feel most comfortable? Did he have the opportunity to visit all the campuses? Visits made a big difference for my son. For example, Wesleyan seemed like a great fit on paper but within 5 minutes of being on campus he knew it was off his list. He couldn’t articulate it well but he just knew it wasn’t for him. Great acaedmics and a smart, creative student body but just not for him. I liked F&M a lot, he didn’t. He liked CMU, I didn’t. Your son has many great options and I’m sure he’ll do very well wherever he lands.
@CUsucceed I would love to hear a little about the student experience at UChicago. We toured the campus last summer when it was mostly empty, so we didn’t get a good perspective then, but my daughter loved what she saw. Of course now that it’s one of the top two options, she keeps hearing the “it’s where fun goes to die” line. Is it really a tense atmosphere all of the time? (Feel free to send a pm if you are able to share a little from your perspective or maybe if there are a couple of things that helped your daughter choose UChicago back when she was in this position.)
My D has heard from all of her schools and seems to be choosing among Cornell, WashU and Emory. Of the three we have only visited Cornell. We planned to see the others, if accepted, during spring break but of course everything is closed now. She’s been joining accepted students pages to help her get a vibe but any thoughts or comparisons welcome. I don’t think she can go wrong with any of them but it’s a big decision. We are giving her some space to process it all.
Good luck to everyone making these tough choices, especially without seeing all the schools!
Hi, does anyone know how I can update my email for this account? I originally registered several years ago with my work account that is no longer valid and would love to update it so I could register fir the upcoming webinar, etc. Thanks in advance!
Sounds like my D20.
She was accepted EA at Michigan and after the accepted students day fell absolutely in love with the campus and people she met at the RC.
She just found out she got into Wellesley and Brown. She had just about made up her mind, 95%, to become a Wolverine.
She got into honors and a LEAD scholarship at Michigan, as well. We are IS at MIchigan, and would get about half-cost at Brown and Wellesley. With everything going on I am super glad she decided to stay close to home.
The RC at Michigan does have a similar vibe to Brown and Wellesley.
So far she is planning on Honors, RC, and the UROP program…she’s fluent in Spanish so the language part of the RC isn’t so daunting.
IMHO Ann Arbor is the perfect college town, still a bit pretentious but enough of a blue collar vibe to not be annoying.
I wish we’d looked at Grinnell (I’ve heard nothing but great things about it) as well as other LACs in the midwest but my son wanted to be in New England. We will definitely encourage our younger son to look more in the midwest when he gets closer to college applications.