The final stage of the decision process really begins - S21 received his final admissions decision yesterday. He was accepted to Dickinson. I am grateful that he knows all of his options now so that we have time for a few visits and to make a decision. (8 of his schools were EA, and his 2 RD schools released decisions relatively early). We felt Dickinson was a low reach for him and were thrilled with the acceptance and pleasantly surprised by the financial aid award since it came in lower than the NPC said.
He applied to 10 for a variety of reasons -
couldn’t visit most (saw Denison and Wooster) so wasn’t sure enough of what he’d prefer
only got to take the SAT once in Oct of junior year in what was meant to be a baseline attempt but still felt the need to submit the score due to being a homeschooler so felt this might negatively affect acceptances and merit
as a homeschooler, felt that admissions decisions and merit were less predictable
needed to compare financial aid offers
But now he has hard choices to make because things went better for him than we’d expected - he got accepted to all 10 and only 2 came in over our EFC (Denison, by far the most expensive, and Clark). Willamette is right about at the EFC, and the 7 others all came in below EFC.
I think Dickinson fits him better, probably, than Denison, and since it came in much more affordable than Denison, he absolutely wants to consider it. So we’ll see Clark and Wheaton as already planned and then find a way to get to Dickinson. Likely this will come down to those 3 plus Wooster, but since we won’t see Dickinson until April, he might not have a decision until close to the wire.
Meanwhile, he attended a virtual admitted student day at Knox this weekend (enjoyed the live campus tour) and then attended a virtual session at Beloit on Monday and came out talking up their museums and link to Indiana Jones.
Hard to imagine that in ~5-6 weeks, we’ll be down to 1…it’s going to be hard to let some of these go - he and his dad and I really love a lot about all of them (including the letter he got from the Oregon governor today in relation to Willamette’s close relationship with state government there…a reason he’s been interested in that school all along).
Off to finish packing for our trip to the Boston area, negative COVID test results in hand.
In case you hadn’t seen, you can post your 2021’s final college decision on the “Where are you going, HS class of 2021?” thread. (parents forum). It has been fun seeing all the comments about the process and putting the final results on one page could help others.
Just wanted to thank everyone on this thread for being so supportive. I was really worried about S21 with his GPA and was glad to learn about schools beyond the usual suspects. I would never have thought that he would get acceptances with merit offers.
At D21’s request, we sat down this week, made a spreadsheet and systematically looked through all of her acceptances. In the end, much to everyone’s surprise, it came down to an in-state public university and Kalamazoo. D21 deliberated for a couple of days and last night committed to Kalamazoo! She seems very excited and relieved to have finalized her decision.
Thanks to everyone for your wisdom & support! What a year it has been for our seniors with trying to navigate through this during a pandemic.
Congrats everyone who is done! We are limping to finish line here! Waiting for Syracuse and maybe UGA tonight. Our expectation is if she gets into Syracuse, we won’t be able to afford it. This year has thrown us come curves! She got into her top pick (UConn), but no money so it won’t happen. Miami U (oh) is probably her top pick now. CoC, App State and Rowan still hanging in.
To follow your marathon metaphors, it’s not about being first (for most of us) but finishing. The finish line (and rest) is near. Fingers crossed for several more good choices. You’ve offered so much good advice and to me over this past year (and a half!!!). Thank you.
Aw, thanks! This go round has been much tougher than with S17, who actually had much lower stats! But he also had lower expectations! Somewhere along the way, Rowan lost its appeal to D21, but we’ll see! It will all work out in the end, for all of us!
First-time poster in this thread–I just read through the past several months of posts and it gave me some hope and stamina to make it through these last few weeks, lol. It’s hard for those now going through this to understand–my SIL (who does not have kids) said to me last night–“Why are you so stressed? Can’t the kids just take loans?” Sigh.
DS / Twin #1 has just about made up his mind–the offer from Lawrence Tech U was much much better than Middle Tennessee State, so I think it is LTU for him. I told him to think about it for a few days, but I think that is the route he will go. He is nervous that LTU’s degree requires more math than MTSU, but they seem to have good tutoring.
DS / Twin #2 is more tricky. Applied / got into schools this fall, then decided he didn’t want to go in the Midwest and he might want to major in business instead of engineering. Round 2 of applications went out, he still can’t decide which major he wants & so we’re trying to visit 4 more schools in the next few weeks. If anyone has input on any of these, I would love to hear about it:
Furman: accepted, great aid, but not sure if it’s a great choice if he goes for engineering
U of SC: accepted, waiting to hear aid, might be a little big for him, but who knows
NC State: still waiting to hear
Clemson: waitlisted, so not really a viable option
TCU: Accepted for engineering, not business and not sure how good the engineering program is if he goes there-also still waiting for aid /merit package
He was not accepted at Trinity U in TX.
What I am struggling with is that he was already accepted at schools in the Midwest that are great for both his potential majors, but absolutely refuses to consider them at this point. DH tells me to get over that and I need to, but it’s still making me crazy that we could be done at this point, but instead we are scrambling to visit more places.
Thanks for letting me vent! The twins are our only kids, so this is my first time going through this process and I underestimated the emotional toll this would take on all of us.
Long time lurker of CC since my D18’s college application days. I have an S21 in this thread’s stat range who is now close to a decision (finally) which he will hopefully make after an in-person accepted student visit next weekend. D18 and S21’s college apps and experiences were just so different. D18 knew what she wanted to study, wanted a big school, was accepted EA to her top choice, and we were done. She is now a junior and thriving at her school (Purdue). S21 is still not clear on what he wants to study, and he had changed his mind a few times on what kind of school he wants to attend. It didn’t help that we couldn’t easily visit schools and most weren’t offering in-person tours due to covid until more recently. At first he thought he wanted big state U (after visiting my D18 like a billion times), but after a tour of an LAS that offered in-person visits in mid-November, he began to realize that a smaller school is more suited for his learning style. Also, by nature of LAS colleges, there is no pressure to commit to a major as a freshman (most discourage that until sometime later sophomore year). So, he applied to 3 LAS in the Midwest (we prefer our kids to be reasonably closer to home as undergraduates, preferably ~2-3 hour drive away). He has been accepted to 2 of the LAS with merit scholarships, as well as 2 larger public Us which he has decided he will not be attending - although they are less expensive than the LAS schools but all schools he was accepted to are affordable for us. It’s mid-March already and he is dragging on his decision, but there is one LAS that is in the clear lead. Hopefully we have a decision by April 1 so that we can move on!
We are thankful that the further away schools both kids looked at are all within an hour or two of a close relative. Moving them in and out will be a pain, but at least there is a support system nearby for them.
The extra time to figure out a major is one of my favorite parts of LAS! That’s awesome that your son realizes they might be a better fit for him. Sounds like he’s on the right track.
It’s great to have a relatives living in different geographical area for support in case needed, that gives peace of mind while your S21 can branch out to a different area!
It took us a while to realize we needed to be looking at LAC’s. Hubby, myself, and D18 all attend/attended big Us, so that’s what we were accustomed to. Never really considered LAC until kind of late in application game, but glad we found what looks like the right fit for S21!
So what does it mean when your Lawrence University portal invites you to admitted students’ day and even has a pdf to make a yard sign that says, “Future Lawrentian” but the deferral letter hasn’t yet been updated???