D21 cast a wide and varied net looking at global studies, foreign language, maybe pre-law. The VA schools are such a total lottery for OOS, those admissions were a surprise for sure. She likes different things about all of the schools she applied to and is pragmatic about finances, merit aid, and what each program offers. D18 is at Pitt, and it has been a great fit for her, so we shall see. I cannot have a favorite 
, but I can see her some places easier than othersā¦
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We looked at Dickinson for S19 and he got in with the Presidential as well. We liked a lot about the school but it was pretty hard to get there from Chicago and he ultimately had other choices. I remember feeling bad about turning that one down though. The AO and the XC/track coaches seemed warm and welcoming.
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Repeating is actually pretty common in Texas with athletes. Parents are trying to let their kids grow bigger and faster for football. Usually they repeat an early grade or start first grade a year late so their kid will always be the biggest and fastest and has a better chance at a football scholarship. Seriously.
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Genetics are always the great equalizer.
But I sure canāt wait until weāre gene selecting for our babies. 
This year since our private schools returned in person and our public schools still have not returned all grades there has been a lot of animosity between public and private school parents. People want to paint all private schools with the same brush thinking they are all elitists etc. Now in addition to that private school families donāt ācare about our kidsā because they sent them in person. Itās nuts for sure.
This author seems to have that similar mindset Iāve heard all year long.
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Thatās not unique to Texas. Happens all the time here, with baseball also. S17ās friend graduated with honors with an offer from Colgate; did a 5th year at prep school anyway and still when to Colgate. I didnāt really get that - maybe the better D1 offers they expected didnāt come.
Dickinson has a lot to offer academically for a school of its size. If I remember correctly, it offers 12-13 different foreign languages. Congrats!
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So did anyone see these two articles in the WSJ yesterday? Sounds like there have been regular articles these days just about our favorite topics of WL and TO, etc. Just what we all needed to hear.
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D did not get the Presidential Fellows Program Full Scholarship at Miami but she did get an extra 2K a year in merit. So her total cost of OSS for Tuition room and board will be about 12K a year. And at Miami they lock in the cost for all 4 years. So we donāt have to worry about the pesky 3-4% yearly tuition raises.
She really didnāt expect to get it so she is happy just getting the extra 2K a year. I told her not a bad deal spending about 5 hours on a zoom call for an extra 8K.
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It varies by region, but US embassies in my neck of the woods (Central America) have been opening back up. In some countries there are sizable backlogs of all sorts of visa requests, but it seems that they are ramping up that process. Student visas were given high priority when they started opening up; Iām hoping that this year we will see better management of the process.
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paywall though, ugh, drives me crazy
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Near the end the article references Polarlist. I use that site a lot when Iām trying to get an understanding of the quality of schools and wealth in an area for investors. Iāve posted it on CC, but it makes people angry so I stopped. Before people check it out, remember that itās graduates of Harvard, Princeton, and MIT. Itās not accepted. https://polarislist.com/
@homerdog we are about 2 hours away by car and it checks a lot of boxes for sure, ballet certificate/minor/classes through CPYB is an added benefit. This year is so unusual, it is great to have some options. Best of luck to your D21, seems like she has great options already as well.
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Is Dickinson allowing tours?
I took a few hours off yesterday to celebrate D23ās 16th birthday and came back to over 100 posts! So many new acceptances- congratulations!!! Sorry to the WLs and rejections, this year is so weird.
D19 found a roommate from a FB page sometime before school was over, so maybe it was around April? I know D flew up to meet her first week of June for a music festival in NYC. At Tulane you can request a roommate but not a dorm, that part is random.
Boulder is a little different. From what I have heard you have from now until May 5th or 6th to send in a list of your top 8 dorm choices. Once you find out what dorm you are in, sometime in June I believe, then you can request a roommate. Nobody seems to care about that though because all of the kids are on FB and IG searching for roommates, I see lots of girls saying things like, āwe have 3 girls and are looking for a 4th for a suite.ā But they have no idea if they will even get a suite so Iām not sure how that will work out.
Meanwhile our friend going to FSU already has her lottery number and roommate picked out. They do it in waves - if you submit your housing deposit by a certain date (you had about a week after decisions came out) you are in the first group to get lottery numbers. Now they have until the first week of April to submit their top 6 dorm choices and they can request a roommate as well. All of this is being done before so many of the colleges have even sent out decisions!
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The Atlantic article was interesting, perhaps a bit harsh. I personally think itās okay for parents who can to put money into their kidās education, whether itās a private school or choosing a museum membership over a boat. Some parents donāt have any of those options. Is it fair? Our whole system isnāt especially fair, because to some extent, money begets money. Yes, everyone can work to get into an Ivy, but some people have to work a lot harder with fewer resources.
And the independent schools did have an advantage during the pandemic. Our school (a measly $10K a year) is small, and by its nature could have enough social distancing/mask control to allow in-person classes all year. Our nearby public schools were 100% virtual at first, then moved to twice-a-week in person. I know my son had it better than his PS friends.
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Thanks for posting. Interesting information
@homerdog they are doing accepted student days with small staggered groups outdoors. They were really responsive with Covid early on, I read that the president was at an African school near an Ebola outbreak, so had prior pandemic experience. D21 has visited most of her schools, but only Pitt during Covidā¦
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In our area it seems common for kids who go off to many of these top private boarding schools to re-do 9th grade when they come in after just finishing 9th grade in hometown. I agree- to me it is completely different to compare that group (5yrsin HS and in some cases fully repeating actual courses which may not be obvious at all when applying to college because the first 9th gr was done elsewhere) to 4 yrs at a local public or local private.
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