@TVBingeWatcher2 how sweet! Hope they have a nice date.
@havenoidea Thanks for the input. I will have to check on if PA has the 72 hour test exception.
@burghdad my D21 and I have now flown twice in the past month to look at schools and I have found it to be a good experience- clean, organized and distanced. We stayed overnight in a hotel and the rooms were spotless and doors āsealedā. They even left sanitizing wipes and Clorox spray in the room for our use. It was a Hilton brand hotel.
The most important thing was my D21 actually got to see schools she was interested in. We made sure to connect ahead of time with students who we knew at each school so she could get an āunofficialā tour for those that were not touring and just get more insight from those that were. She was planning to ED to Duke based on all the virtual sessions but being on campus with face to face time with students changed her mind. I am relieved as I did not think it was a fit for her. Now she is focused on 3 other schools for EA. I am encouraging her to apply EA to as many schools as she wants- for most including our state school- it is the only was to qualify for merit scholarships. She has applied to 2 ārollingā admit safeties and we should hear from this soon.
Whew! Might have dodged a bullet with Duke! Good thing you went on the trip. This is why ED is a risk without visiting a campus.
@TVBingeWatcher2 That is such a cute story! I especially love the fist pump and that she watches to make sure he makes it inside. They sound adorable!
@whyboydanny Can you share what your D didnāt feel was a fit with Duke? We toured on our own this summer and S21 was sure he wanted to ED to Duke. Heās cooled on that idea somewhat which Iām half-relieved and half-sad about, since it seemed to be a great fit for him. But, no students were on campus when we visited so hard to judge real fit.
This is from the PA DOH travel guidelines:
Can I get tested instead of quarantining? If I test negative, do I still have to quarantine for 14 days?
Individuals should consider getting tested four to seven days after they may have been exposed to a person with COVID-19 or if they are exhibiting symptoms after they return from out of state travel. A test only shows an individualās infection status at the time of the test. An infected person generally exhibits symptoms between 2 to 14 days after exposure; therefore, a person should quarantine for the entire 14 days even if they have had a negative test during this time.
hope that helps!
I read the following link and many other similar ones. Please look and see if it is true.
https://money.com/collection-post/3-reasons-to-fill-out-the-fafsa-no-matter-how-rich-you-are/
https://money.com/collection-post/3-reasons-to-fill-out-the-fafsa-no-matter-how-rich-you-are/
Read this link and see if it is true. Please let me know if you think it is true.
@whyboydanny Also curious about Duke. S is visiting, but after his āreportā on Northwestern, Iām not sure what he takes away from visits.
He had a lengthy conversation with a recent Duke grad, whose experience of the social life there echoed a long post Iād read on CC. Basically, 1st yr you get close to people in your dorm, but so many of them join either Greek life or SLG that if you donāt, you can find yourself friendless. This happened to this boy, so sophomore yr stunk for quite a while until he found new independent friends. Academically, and with all the experiences they offer, he loved it.
@anaray - keeping in mind the schools my S is applying to, and our financial state, there is nothing in that article that persuades me to complete a FAFSA app.
@flyawayx2 let me first say one of the most beautiful campuses I have seen. There were some specific things but also my D21 just didnāt not get a āthis is itā feeling. The first issue for my D21 was the campus is large. It is a āsplitā campus with a freshman only East campus 2 miles from the main campus. There are buses that run between the two. The cute commercial area 9th Avenue is walking distance from the East campus but you would need a car or to take bus from West campus to get to it. The actual quad on the West campus is walkable but there were many areas of the university beyond very spread out. She felt it was like being at a large state school- albeit far more beautiful. We also recently toured Emory and Northwestern and those more compact campuses appealed to her.
Second was hearing about how hard and competitive it was. She knew this but hearing directly from our guide, who was a NM Scholar, how hard she had to work even for āBās was eye opening. They also had a good discussion about research and social activities and my D21 was turned off by how competitive that was as well to earn a spot.
COVID and current events definitely impacted campus life. My sense was this impacted its appeal but we felt it more there then other schools we have seen since COVID. Some of this predated COVID. For example they are attempting to change the social structure and disband Greek life- as are many other universities. School spirit seemed to center around basketball. We grabbed a school paper - something I try to do at every school as it gives you some insight you canāt get anywhere else- and it confirmed some of this feeling.
The funny thing is the reason we did the trip was I had the same experience with an older child who picked a school as number one, got in -thankfully not ED- and once we got there for admitted students day knew it wasnāt for him. It was definitely a āfeelā issue in both cases. Hope this helps.
I also wish some of them had earlier notification dates for EA. UNC seems so late for when the app is due and UVA is about the same. Iām sure it has to do with yield and the pool since there are a lot of overlapping kids who apply ED to other schools and then pull out of the pool when accepted.
@anaray Regarding the article in post #9552 on 3 reasons to file FAFSA:
- For merit money. You would want to carefully look through the descriptions and criteria for each type of scholarship offered by the colleges your child is applying to. VERY few scholarships require the FAFSA to rule out Pell grant eligibility, but they do exist. Other scholarships have need criteria, that is, they are combo merit/need.
This is a common reason given for the suggestion to file FAFSA. However, the basis for it, scholarship criteria, should be easy to check. In my opinion, a blanket recommendation that doesnāt include checking websites is not great advice. Filing FAFSA is not relevant to the vast majority of merit scholarships.
- For federal student loans. Some full-pay families have their student borrow money anyway, to have skin in the game or to just take the edge off their current payments by that smitch. These loans are relatively small.
- To gain an admission edge - this "reason" is a load of bunk. I don't know what they are smoking over there at Money magazine.
I will echo what @123Mom123 said. None of these reasons are relevant for our studentās situation.
Agreed. January EA decisions arenāt all that helpful.
Just adding on to @whyboydanny 's input. We know a lot of students at Duke, and I think I shared my thoughts earlier this year. My view is that Duke tends to attract a lot of students who were āalphasā in their HSs. So when they all come together for college it can be a lot, and I do think thereās jockeying. Of course, some students like being around equally ambitious students and thrive on that environment.
My D is friends with a number of students there. They have seemed to find their social spots, but I have heard itās kinda segmented. The university moved the Greek houses out of prime dorms in order to take them down a notch. That was a few years ago.
We have not completed the FAFSA as we do not anticipate qualifying for need-based aid, only merit if very fortunate. Given that there is a possibility of full-pay status helping in admissions this year, does completing the FAFSA help or hurt? Is your financial info available for AOs to view so they see you will not qualify or by not completing it do they see that you are not requesting any sort of need-based aid?
I wonder if the colleges with January EA results consider that their timeline requires their applicants to apply RD elsewhere to every college even remotely on their list, and that most applicants will then wait for RD results before depositing on an EA acceptance. If the college returned their EA results before Jan 1, some chunk of those students would not bother applying RD. This has got to involve lower yield - I know theyāve got complicated algorithms for yield, but the approach of Jan results is counterintuitive in my opinion.
Thinking out loud, maybe those colleges want to get a look at the RD pool before finalizing their EA decisions?
Schools with EA decisions that come mid-Jan donāt have much time to look at RD apps that are due 1/1 before EA decisions are due. It is an interesting thought though. It seems that the schools with EA and Jan decisions tend to be the more competitive of the EA schools. I still think they get good yield from EA because, since they give decisions two months earlier than RD, they have all of that time to be swaying their EA accepted students. Kids can visit (not sure about this year) before RD decisions come out. Those schools can be offering talks with professors and students and start getting the EA prospective students excited about their school. Colleges in the RD round then have a lot of catching up to do. With RD decisions coming mid or late March, it only gives kids the month of April to really do their research and get excited about a RD school.
I heard a NYC caller on a podcast say that they were planning to wait to file the FAFSA on the late side (maybe after admission?) because they would use the loan but did not want schools to think they were applying for need based aid (presumably to preserve an admissions edge).
Again the article above refers vaguely to āother scholarships and grantsā. Not sure if this means outside the college itself (so checking their website would not be adequate.)
Another thought is that a spouse could lose a job, out here we could have a major earthquake, etc. This seems unlikely (knock wood).
Iāll just chime in that my D20 had about 12 schools on her list and none required the FAFSA for merit. I think thatās outdated information. She contacted all the admissions reps to confirm, and was awarded merit at multiple schools in rolling and EA rounds before she pulled rest of her apps after getting into her ED school.
Oh and FYI - she EDād to Duke and is there now, so if anyone has any questions, just let me know.