One thing everyone must remember is that these colleges are a business. They are like any other business in the US their job is to be profitable, rank high and have great brand recognition. Very few schools are only about education. Don’t get me wrong- they will educate your student but they want you to believe that their brand is the only brand that matters- only way your student will succeed. It’s absolute BS- no different then any other successful brand marketing campaign.
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What’s her research focus? If she’s really passionate about research, contact Andrew Seidler at https://onsf.utk.edu/ for a zoom.
He was GREAT! I don’t know if Other schools have something comparable but we never found anything like him and his office at the other schools. They will encourage and support S21 to accomplish his dreams.
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I’m sorry about your kitty. I had to put down one of mine a few weeks ago and it’s awful to lose them.
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I am not going to feel bad about using fee waivers. Its not like the College can run out of them. They aren’t a fungible thing.
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Don’t feel bad. I am wishing I knew this info a month ago as I assumed they were only available for financial reasons. I don’t read my Ds mail or email. Wondering if she received offers that were overlooked.
For my younger D we will create a sep email and I will have access. D21 even recommended it as it’s hard for her to manage everything, but she wants her one email account to stay private.
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I wanted to share some info about fee waivers…
-If you qualify for fee waivers for ACT and/or SAT (CB) tests, there are several thousand colleges that provide app fee waivers for those students. Here’s the CB list: Do all colleges accept application fee waivers? – BigFuture | College Board
-Some schools will give fee waivers for attending an admissions session (virtual or in person), junior visit day, or other types of events.
-Some schools will email fee waivers to those students on their email distribution list
-Many schools will give you a fee waiver if your student calls and asks
Setting up a separate email for college stuff is a great idea, it really helps to keep everything in one place.
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I don’t think S21 was offered many fee waivers. The few he got were from smaller schools that he wasn’t interested in. He did have one app without a fee, due to an award he won last year but that was it.
It was a good night here since S21 got his first acceptance! He was very happy and relieved.
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Congrats on the acceptance! It’s a great feeling!!
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My son just skipped over the payment portion applying to Stockton, they accepted him 1 week later LOL
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Thank you very much!
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Congratulations.
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You are right there. I am finding they don’t even put their best offers forward.
S21 applied to Widener,received X
Told them we were having trouble closing the gap, a day later he gets into the honors college (that he easily qualified for) and gets X plus 2K.
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My son was googling “name of college + fee waiver”. Or else he just called admissions and asked. Some of them you were able to just skip over and it didnt matter.
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“Here’s our Rec & Fitness Center - it has a rock climbing wall”
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Ok well put your drink down before reading this then! lol
We are at 23 schools. Yes, 23.
My daughter had a list of schools about 3 years ago. We were able to visit 8 pre corona and two of the schools that were originally at the top of her list, once we visited moved to the bottom. Since we were unable to visit the other schools she wanted to make an informed decision before committing to a school so we applied to all on the list in hopes that things will clear up a bit that we can get some in person school visits done. She did however take off the International schools that were on her list based on the current situation and unknown of travel restrictions.
Most of her top schools are out of state so she added a few in state schools to the list as back ups as I can’t see having to sit at home freshman year of college and still pay $70k.
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LOL. I can’t even see living on campus and paying $70k.
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Would love to learn more about this— how to best ask for more FA. Had you been in much communication with the achool before the offer, did you call or email? Are there any resources bailable that would help you figure out if they could increase the aid offer? Are you talking about both financial and merit, etc?
Ams thank you! I know that is a lot of q’s!
This whole off campus thing is throwing a wrench in my analysis.
Weidner comes in a few thousand higher but the offer includes only like 8% need, mostly merit and a small work/study
Albright comes in lower, but is almost 20 percent need.
Weidner he would have the ability to move off campus Soph year saving easily 5K as confirmed by a parent I know.
Albright he would be locked in to on campus for all 4 years, and I am fairly certain the need would fluctuate as my income was artifically low last year due to a non work related injury.
My head is spinning.
He emailed FA office with offers from similar schools with better offers.
Suddenly he qualified for the honors college LOL.
Maybe it is from all the CBA’s I have negotiated but I dont believe the colleges are throwing out their best and final offer from jump. They put together the best package they think you will accept.
I will mention he has visited all of these schools, demonstrating interest.
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I know of students that contacted the FA office and said they really need x amount more per yr (usually around the 5-10k) to attend. They mention it is their number one school and they will commit if the get the extra aid and the schools have worked with them to find the extra money. These are schools that meet 100% of need, so don’t know if it works at other schools.
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