@AndreaLynn Congratulations! My son is a junior there and loves it. My D21 got in too. 
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@H0llyw00d congrats to you also
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Wow Susquehanna awarded S21 a nice merit scholarship. No FA letter yet, but I was shocked at their Merit offer.
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Congrats to all who received nice news recently!
I contacted f/a offices at Knox and Kalamazoo. As part of D’s f/a package, she received additional awards - Knox, 4700. Kalamazoo, 6,500. They were listed as scholarships. And, sure enough, they are guaranteed each year as long as she remains in good academic standing!! This is huge. Some of you may want to reach out and ask the same!
Still waiting on Wooster’s f/a package and Clark’s decision. In the next day or two, D will be sending a “love letter” to Lawrence b/c she was deferred.
Did anyone “attend” Knox’s parent phonecast last night? It was fabulous. I’ve visited dozens of schools over the years (D21 is my 5th kid going through this). Knox had one of the best information sessions out of all of them. So I wasn’t surprised by the quality of their phonecast.
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@lisabees that is such great news about the Knox and Kalamazoo additional awards. I recall that Kalamazoo was already looking good in terms of affordability. Does this mean that Knox is as well ? We’ve gotten FA numbers from 7 of the 8 schools that S21 has heard from at this point…expecting Wheaton’s numbers by Friday.
I was on that Knox call last night and agree that it was well done. I appreciated so much of what I heard and found it really useful to have the parent of a current junior on the call. Right before that call, I was on a Clark webinar for admitted students and their families, and it was really helpful and well done also - lots to be excited about there, too.
My S21 isn’t all that focused on college stuff these days. With his application process behind him and having narrowed his list a bit, I think he’s unsure how he’s going to make a decision and is just kind of in a holding pattern…hoping we’ll be able to visit 2 or 3 schools in March. Even if we can, I can see him being a kid who still isn’t really sure and has trouble making the final call, so I was glad the Clark webinar ended with a message that reinforced part of my perspective on this, and I called it out to my son once the webinar ended -
The Clark junior on the webinar said she didn’t have one of those “I know this is THE school” moments before she got to Clark as a first year. She said she thinks those moments can be romanticized and not to worry if you don’t have one. (important for students to hear this year especially, I think, with the lack of in-person visits that give a good sense of what the school is like during more normal times)…that your success, happiness, and feeling that you picked the right place for you/where you fit is only 50% due to which school you choose and is 50% your attitude and what you put into the experience once you’re there. After he heard this, I pointed it out to him to be sure he’d absorbed some of it and told him he has several great choices and doesn’t need to stress that there is only one right school among them. (got to admit though that I’m definitely wondering where he will end up)! 
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@nichols51 Glad to hear that Clark’s webinar was well done. And what a wise insight from that student. It’s so important for the '21 kids to hear. Those moments are romanticized. What a student feels about a school one day can be erased on another - by the weather or a tour guide. Your S has so many wonderful choices. I’m glad you will be able to visit a few in the spring. I, too, am excited to hear which school it ends up being for him!
Yes, if Knox budges a bit in increasing merit, it will be a contender.
D told me last night she just has no feeling about most of the schools. She visits their websites and their social media accounts. But it’s hard not to see them as anything but marketing opportunities. She talks often of a Gap Year, but she still needs to make a decision!
Anyone else thinking of a Gap Year? How (and when) will you make your decision?
Congrats! My S21 was offered a very nice merit award from Susquehanna, too. It was his first acceptance and has been the largest merit award offer so far.
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I don’t know if any of you have taken a look on Niche but that was helpful for me at least in helping my daughter make her list. It gives some idea of things like political climate on campus, social scene, life on campus, etc. that is hard to get directly from school sites or promo materials. It also has student reviews–which I take with a grain of salt, but when you see certain complaints or praises repeated, they seem more legit. Just thought that might help some of you with kids who are really struggling making a choice.
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I think an intentional Gap Year can be a fabulous idea for a young adult who is ambivalent about next steps or not quite ready to commit to a costly 4 year degree program. I’d definitely be supportive of my kid exploring job/internships in an area of interest, looking at actual gap programs, travel, etc. I think I’d just want to make sure that there is an off ramp to the Gap Year and I would probably lock-in a deferral with a merit aid commitment from a college of high interest. The biggest risk is that it can be difficult to get back into school mode/complete a degree if you don’t have a plan.
As it stands, D21 took her last final exam yesterday and is now a high school graduate! So, technically, I guess D21 is on a partial Gap Year/Semester by default. She would like to get a job and save some money and/or she has open invitations to visit family around the country but everything is in a bit of a holding pattern until we can get a vaccine (high risk immunocompromised household.) It is not optimal but it what it is, I guess. For the moment, D21 is signed up to take an online course at an art school and has a bunch of personal projects that she wants to work on. She is strongly leaning toward Kalamazoo for the fall but it is waiting to see how some upcoming admitted student events go before she makes a decision.
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S21 wants a gap year if his classes won’t be in person. With his ADHD, executive function, and related challenges, remote classes and even hybrid classes (even when done from a dorm on campus) are not likely going to be a route to college success for him. We’d talked about a gap year possibility even before COVID, but the main factor now is just COVID. The tricky thing is that I think this decision will need to be made by May 1st, yet I doubt we’ll have reliable information about the fall by May 1st. So I don’t know…I foresee lots of debate and stress over this in April. His three top choices all had students on campus in the fall. Two had especially frequent testing programs. Many classes were still remote or hybrid.
If he ends up with a gap year, I think it will likely be pieced together given limited lingering-pandemic-effect options. I agree with @auroranights about him having potentially a more difficult time getting back into school-mode the following year, so I’d encourage him to take a class or two somehow (not for credit) 2nd semester just to keep those skills a bit more active. He’d also try to find a paying job of some kind and then do some volunteering/get an unpaid internship, I think.
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Received f/a package from Wooster. Nothing. That makes the COA for Wooster $42,000. A far cry from the other packages (I never include the Stafford loans in my calculations when sharing here).
I expected this. Wooster was one of the worst financial options for my other kids, too.
Sigh.
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@auroranights Congrats to your daughter! How exciting to be a high school graduate. And Kalamazoo! If you visit soon, let me know. I might ask if you would take video for my daughter. It’s so hard to get a feel for it.
A gap year is an option. So many variables to sort through…
@nichols51 The timing is what concerns me, too. For us, it’s prompted by COVID, finances, and readiness.
But a year off from school? I’m not sure if that would make her more ready.
(D wrote a beautiful letter to Lawrence due to her deferral. One less thing off her plate.)
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Had S21 check the portal and update the spreadsheet. Wooster gapped him like 34K. Not doable.
Left with 3 options, possibly 4.
Albright - in budget
McDaniel - in budget but offer contains a lot more need
Widener - slightly over budget as a Frosh but can get back down to in budget by moving off campus as a Soph.
Susquehanna ? depends on the need amount they deliver. Right now it is 7-9K over budget so I am not hopefull
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We had considered a gap year as well back when D21 was very anxious about college. I had also suggested a PG year (she could do it at her older sisters’s boarding school) but that felt like a punishment to have one more year of HS so she really pushed back on that. I think that the year can be used to gain maturity and perhaps some ambition in some of these kids with ADHD and executive functioning challenges, and several parents I know wish they had done this with their kids. I do think that the typical options for a productive gap year are going to be quite a bit more limited due to covid, unfortunately. We’re going to move forward with traditional college and if it’s too much, her path may be a little longer than others but that is ok. I was very optimistic that life/school could be back to normal by next fall but I’m starting to lose a little of that hope.
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@Billb7581 , one of my older sons graduated from Susquehanna. They were not generous while our need drastically changed in his sophomore year. S was required to pay for dining, even though he lived in suites and loved to cook for himself. It could have been one way to save money.
Even though he loved the school, he regrets staying all four years, due to the loans he has now.
That is what I am worried about with McDaniel almost 13K need LOL.
Albright is like 8
Widener 5500
Not really that hopefull Susquehanna is going to close the gap that much when he got almost a max merit.
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@Billb7581 Driving through Widener’s campus right now and thinking of you!
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Hilarious that Albright has its own forum, but no one applying there this year. It seems like a good fit for a high B/Low A student.
@lisabees - its funny about Kzoo additional award - D got $6500 under Mandelle Award. I assumed its a need-based grant. thanks for letting us know
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@lisabees - I took a 20 sec video of main quad at Kzoo last August. PM me if you want it
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