My D was accepted to Gonzaga with great merit also. It’s moved to the top of her list of schools she’s accepted to that she’s already had a chance to visit.
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Not surprising for most of us on here.
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I think S21 is still getting emails from colleges! And I’m confused how University of AZ has so much money to give out. I would imagine in AZ it’s an important state college like most state colleges.
Fingers crossed for a normal winter gas, electric and water bill for you!
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My son is too and mail. I don’t understand it and want to know when it is going to end. Enough already. And these are not nothing schools either.
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Congratulations on your son’s acceptances! I’m hopeful that he’ll be able to make the trip to New England in April, and if so, I’ll be excited to hear what he thinks. We were fortunate to squeeze in a trip to Burlington in late August, and we were completely smitten with UVM and the surrounding area. The campus was lovely and easy to figure out without a tour guide. The students appeared happy and busy. Lake Champlain is stunning, and the waterfront area and bike path were lots of fun. Church Street is lovely, people are friendly, mask compliance was solid, and (outdoor) dining options at that time of year were great. Hearts were lost. UVM sweatshirts were bought.
My son has since been accepted into UVM’s Honors College for Environmental Science. Although he has also been accepted at a nearby University with a great reputation and highly competitive admissions, I think he still has the Green Mountains on his mind. The Environmental Science offerings, paired with Honors College, are hard to resist. He’s also a very outdoorsy kid and a competitive and recreational skier. This mom is trying to wrap her mind around being a 12-hour drive or a flight away from her son in the fall, but I’ll absolutely welcome the excuse to return to Burlington and check out the nearby ski mountains!
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I know this got answered, but I remember visiting Pullman, WA as a senior in HS as a lightly recruited athlete. One of the very few colleges that wanted me. 
Anyway, I must have had a “strained” look on my face and the WSU coach/rep said to me “Moscow, ID is about 15 minutes away.” Being the brash kid from the big city that I was with no governor on his mouth, I responded and said “So, I’m in the middle of nowhere and I’m 15 minutes from nowhere?”
I haven’t been back since. 
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@sushiritto I was in a similar boat as you. Growing up in Seattle and being so used to bigger cities, I was so shocked when I went to Pullman for an FBLA state competition. A friend went to Gonzaga so I went over to visit her once and when a college buddy’s husband did his residency in the area, I visited a few years ago. No matter how much older I have gotten (and living in Elk Grove, CA is a shock to me sometimes, having grown up in Seattle). My mind just can’t fathom living in Eastern WA. The cold would kill me but the environment of the small towns is not something my city mind can ever get used to.
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Thanks my husband works at the hospital and is vaccinated, plus we have N95 masks. I’m hoping my son can take a Covid test shortly before traveling but we will just have to see what the rules are. My husband was talking about flying into Albany because the flight and car prices were good but then he’s adding NY into the mix so I advised him against that. Sadly I’ll be left behind unvaccinated and with D24.
Interesting about UVM too that they use almost exclusively full time faculty vs. TAs. Smaller classes too. Son is pretty open-minded but he’ll have to consider his priorities. We can also research the faculty in his department - wondering if it’s such a great place to live and they attract really good teachers? Lifestyle-wise I think S would really love it, though travel home would be a bear even in good weather as neither destination is near a major airport. @SkiWestVA sounds like a great option for your S! We think my S is strong for and interested in ES, but so far he is sticking with CS. Internships are a big deal with CS too and he would be better off for that elsewhere. Not diverse, but he has already had some exposure to other cultures and LGBTQ friends growing up. In any case, I hope he gets to at least go see these places with my husband. He could have the same reaction to it that your S did.
@MorseLewis I think we have a lot of similar schools in the West. We loved Boulder when we visited but my enthusiasm has waned since they didn’t give him any money off and had some issues with Covid this year being a big party school. I didn’t really look to closely at course enrollment, but if that were an issue I don’t think it would make the top of the list.
I have a good friend who moved to Spokane with her whole CA family and likes it. Gonzaga was kind of a hold over from the original list before S got his ACT score and I don’t think he will pick that one or that we will visit since he got into SCU.
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Cal Poly SLO is notorious for impacted classes. It took me 5 years to graduate in the 90’s from SLO & it took my husband 6 (architecture). An option - SLO is a fun place to hang over summer to grab some of the competitive classes & there are usually jobs available due to tourists rolling thru to wine country.
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Just wondering if anyone has personal experience with the UMass Lowell Engineering program. I know that they have a great reputation in engineering and tech and also have strong career placement relationships with area and Boston firms. My DS was recently admitted for electrical engineering with half tuition, honors college and an additional award for internship, although we haven’t seen our official financial aid package yet. We are in-state and within driving distance. If he lives at home (not that we would want him to), that would mean it would cost us about 8k a year. Very affordable vs the price of the other schools to which he has applied- 70k+. All of his applications are RD).
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Same experience at Cal Poly in the early 90s. We would plan to be off campus for co-op during the lowest registration priority quarters because we knew we wouldn’t get any classes then. I don’t think I knew anyone who graduated in 4 yrs. I have friends with kids there now who say it’s gotten better but still an issue.
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Congrats to all the recent admits!
DD got a merit award of almost 30k per year off the 80k total cost at a private(“likely”) school… she did not apply for financial aid or do fafsa/css, or any of that as we are not chasing or looking for merit–we do not qualify and frankly many other families could use it so it felt selfish to apply even though we knew this school requires fafsa “for merit”. Well, apparently it doesn’t??? Very surprised. She definitely is going to keep this school in the running …
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I haven’t run into a private school yet that requires FAFSA in order to get merit. We didn’t file for either of our kids and they both got multiple merit offers.
Every other school she applied to besides this one did not tie the two together, I agree!
This one said they did when she applied and even sent an email after application and said being considered for merit requires fafsa/css so please fill it out…we replied back and said thanks but we do not qualify for aid and would rather it go to families who need it. Based on the EA admit thread on CC, people who applied got lots of various “merit” at the EA admit point, folks there said the full financial offer comes out in Feb. DD’s admit was just an admit, mentioned honors-like program she got in to, but no aid or merit mentioned until it came with the package in the mail this week. I understand merit is really a discount for these (Jeff Sellngo) “buyer” schools who offer lots of $, but still a nice surprise.
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Merit and Aid though are different so not sure why they would require a Fafsa to determine merit scholarships.
We don’t expect to receive any Financial Aid but we’re required to file the FAFSA by our state to graduate. We didn’t bother with the CSS though because I knew we don’t qualify. Of course the schools that don’t require Fafsa gave nothing, no surprise and told us we had some crazy EFC, again no surprise, but the merit was offered before any of that knowledge. But we also knew which schools offered it.
Many mid and upper mid want great students so they will offer merit. So that could be exactly what is happening with your daughter. They want top students so they will give them the best merit.
Yes I agree, just weird that they said they required it for “merit” consideration but clearly do not.
I think the only school that said we should fill out FAFSA for merit back with D19 was Fordham. I feel like I read you could fill it out after the fact though? So maybe if she chose that school then you would fill it out? We filled it out this year just in case any needed it for merit but did not send it anywhere yet as we are also full pay.
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Would the UCs benefit from limiting the percentage of OOS students to 10% like UT-Austin does? The measured shift to more in-state students with a growing divide between in-state and OOS tuition seems rational. However The total enrollment on some campuses seems to have expanded beyond what the infrastructure can handle.
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