@g8rmomk8ans — I’m sorry that the school is making you jump through all these hoops. How frustrating! I hope that your daughter gets an answer soon.
@psblstnr — Congratulations to your daughter on having such a strong year! I would definitely send along any updates on the transcripts. It can only help. From what I gather, the number one negotiating factor in changing financial aid packages is if your child receives a more generous offer from a comparable school/schools. In that case you can share the package with your child’s top choice and see if they would be willing to adjust their offer.
@g8rmomk8ans our kids are similar and so I feel for you! My son came down to tell me today that he got an email from his top choice today saying that because of systems issues and outages they weren’t going to release any more decisions until January. In a way he was relieved because, after much back and forth with admissions over receiving Q1 grades, he was told they’d make a decision on him in “a week or two”. That was two weeks ago. He was feeling like he’d been forgotten. In another way, it just prolongs the stress.
Fingers crossed for your D! So wonderful she’ll have so many schools to choose from. Hoping she has another school or two to add to that pile!
@ububumble UGH! Does sound like our kids have been in the same kind of boat! So frustrating. But good that they told him that he wouldn’t hear until January so that perhaps he can put it to the back of his mind a bit until then. I just wish that my daughter’s desired school would go ahead and tell her if it’s a No so that she can regroup and start focusing on a different school.
Just my experience but we got increased merit money for my S17 after calling the school in question. First we waited until spring before May1 but after regular decision had been out for a couple of weeks - they have students who have declined admittance at that point so have money ‘back in the pot’. The second piece was we sent them the offer from the school that gave him the best COA and scholarship and asked them to match. In this case it was a $3,000 bump per year requested and they gave us $5,000.
S21 just heard from Wheaton (MA) which is a definite top choice (accepted). We thought he wouldn’t be hearing until mid January. We’re all really excited by this one (and wow was I nervous watching him click on this one…almost felt like we were part of the ED process given how much I felt was riding on this one, haha).
@nichols51 Yay! So happy for all of you! I know you’ve been hoping for this one in particular!! Did they notify you about merit yet? Congrats to your son!
(Impatiently waiting for Wooster and Clark here. They’re reaches for D. In previous years, decisions came the week before the holidays. Dang this is hard!)
So is this it for your S??? Does he know for sure it’s Wheaton?
Yes, they gave merit (Balfour Scholar - $37K plus a $3K stipend to use one summer for an unpaid internship) and said need-based will come by Jan 15.
We’re going to begin serious discussions with him about culling his list a bit, but he doesn’t feel organized enough yet about the differences between schools to decide (I’ve been making a spreadsheet to highlight some key factors so he can compare more easily…hopefully that will help). It’s been a useful process for me in terms of really seeing what the main differences are since the schools have a lot of similarities, too (hence why he applied to this set).
Congratulations! - my daughter was accepted as well! She is still waiting on NC State and weighing other decisions, but it’s a great school and she is thrilled. Just wish they had her major…
S17 was deferred at Fairfield yesterday so now he is 4 for 5. It was a bit of a surprise as I thought Loyola would be a tougher admit, but he got into Loyola, and with merit. Though he was not rejected, he said at dinner tonight that he is now pretty set on Xavier (which seemed to his frontrunner anyway). When I asked his reasoning, he said, “Well, if I wasn’t good enough for Fairfield to want me in their EA cycle, then why would I still want to go there?” I have to admit, I felt exactly the same way when Villanova deferred (or maybe it was wait listed) me 30+ years ago but Fordham (my first choice!) accepted me. That was the year Villanova won the NCAA championship (not why I applied) and they told me during my on campus interview, “Everyone wants to come here now.” The next day I toured and interviewed at Fordham and fell in love. I felt much more welcome during my interview. Villanova could stuff it, as far as I was concerned LOL. No offense to Villanova grads! Anyway, my not normally introspective son has a point. He wants to go where he is wanted and not sit around and wait to see if Fairfield decides later he is good enough.
He is still waiting on two decisions. I’m concerned about one, Dayton. S21 submitted the app on 11/1 and has an email confirmation. Since he had not heard anything yet, he looked today and saw that their websites said EA decisions come out in November, but he hasn’t heard anything. When I looked at his portal today, it shows his app was 100% complete, but for some reason it says 11/2 as when it was received, tho he submitted 11/1 for sure. S17 did not notice the 11/2 note as it was in tiny type, while the 100% was in huge font (no reason to notice tiny writing since he had submitted on time). He sent an email today querying what his status is and why his app says 11/2 when it was submitted and confirmed email as 11/1. So he is waiting to hear back from them. Has anyone else run into something similar?
Small update on D’s #1 where we were having some issues with her admissions rep. When she re-sent her grades, she got back a nice email saying that her application was complete, that they were happy to hear of her continued interest, and that they looked forward to working with her. ??? Hopefully good signs.
I’m glad to hear this! We’ve had a few instances where things like this have happened. After D’s interview at one place, she sent and email to thank the interviewer, and to follow up on his offer to make an introduction to a student in her major. He never replied, and she felt strange about asking again. I think some things just slip through the cracks, especially when so many people are working from home, etc. It’s hard not to let the admissions office set the impression, even though a student will likely never see them again after they make their decision! Fingers crossed for good news coming her way soon.
Can I ask your daughter’s Stats? Mine had a 3.4 lots of EC’s and was accepted but denied WUE at Oregon State. Kind of bummed. Lots of EC’s but could not get past the gpa deficit. She knew she was going to have to do better her second semester 11 grade but then they sprung pass/fail on us. This semester she has a 4.0. Of course…the one that doesn’t count.
@Goolia66 m not sure if this was meant for me. My D didn’t apply to Oregon State. Her GPA is a 3.1 unweighted. 3.2 something weighted.
And I disagree with you about your D’s Q1 grades. Either have her counselor send them ASAP or your daughter should email the numbers to her admissions rep. Not sure how well that
would work for a state school, but try!
Can I ask your daughter’s Stats? Mine had a 3.4 lots of EC’s and was accepted but denied WUE at Oregon State. Kind of bummed. Lots of EC’s but could not get past the gpa deficit. She knew she was going to have to do better her second semester 11 grade but then they sprung pass/fail on us. This semester she has a 4.0. Of course…the one that doesn’t count.
I know that’s well above the GPA for this thread but the schools she applied to are much more in line with the families here than in the regular 2021 thread.
Congrats to all acceptances! We finally received Beloit FA - its quite doable and hopefully they will upgrade her merit after mid-year report is up. Will try to visit Hendrix in January-February since they are # 1 financially at the moment.
@inthegarden, thank you. I know you’ve been following our journey for a while and know that Wheaton was one of the ones I was super excited about as a good match for S21.
@psblstnr we got Beloit FA this weekend as well and were glad to get a little need-based in addition to the merit. It’s in our affordable category.
S21 is having a hard time thinking through the choices he has at this stage since we haven’t been able to visit much and the virtual sessions don’t have as much impact (especially for a 17 year old with ADHD/executive function challenges…all of the attributes are hard to keep track of). I’ve been putting together a comparison spreadsheet for him to see the similarities and differences - hoping we can narrow from 7 down to 3 or 4 as we wait on the final 3 (Clark, Denison, Dickinson) and fingers crossed find a way to get a few visits in by March ?
