Thanks for that. Our GC said counselor calls have kind of become taboo of late so she’s willing to do it but is going to check into it. My S can take the Boston trip and do his LOCI letter next week, then we will decide if he can say 100% he would go if off the WL. Also one more decision will come next week but will likely be a no.
Meanwhile, we checked the portal again and ND switched to the standard checkbox system instead of a LOCI letter request. Interestingly, they also ask if you’d be willing to transfer to ND.
Great news on the Cuse admission and CofC honors. We are off to Miami tomorrow for a visit as Mrs. Burghdad has never seen it. Also Daughter and I toured in June of 2019 which seems like forever ago. Also have to load up on some bookstore swag.
I’m jealous! Our visit was cut short by the storm. I guess this year we should be thankful we got to see it in person at all! Hope you have great spring weather for the trip! She also just found out this morning Rowan put her into Honors as well - going to make turning them down sting a bit more for mom and dad!
Regarding having GCs contact AOs on behalf of waitlisted students (and other situations)…it is definitely ok for the GC to do so, and is ROUTINE for GCs at private and relatively affluent HSs to do this. But, the GC contact would be in addition to the applicant sending in a LOCI, or writing an extra essay (whatever the schools asks for). Students should discuss next steps with their GC then execute the plan.
These communications are more powerful if the student would attend if offered a spot…and it’s not reasonable to ask your GC to stick their necks out if that’s not true. Their relationships with the AOs are based on truthful communications.
This is my first time visiting this forum, so forgive me if this has already been asked/answered. My D was admitted to Berkeley (GMP Haas) instate and USC (Marshall)
no merit. Does anyone have any opinions or insight into the better option? We live in SoCal, and she prefers USC/ staying in LA. Obviously, there is a huge price difference.
@seniorAV For business, both are great on reputation and recruiting hub for businesses. I would lean towards USC because of the Trojan network. If money is not an issue, I would take your daughter to tour both and decide. Congrats!!
How important do you think a LOCI is? Do you think it can, in fact, influence a decision? I have no experience with college admissions other than having had children apply. Learning a lot on these forums.
To tag onto this question for @Mwfan1921 , what I’ve been wondering: is the fact that a LOCI is sent more important than what it actually says? For one kid, with no new accomplishments, I’m envisioning 2 sentence intro, 2 sentence closing, and 1 or 2 middle paragraphs that somewhat regurgitate, briefly, the Why Us essay. Really quite short.
Luckily only two of my son’s 5 WL spots required/welcomed a LOCI and one he is passing on. I think the most important thing to say is that they will take the spot if accepted, assuming it’s that’s true. In his case he toured pre-Covid so we would remind them of that DI. He’s also about to get vaccinated, I think that’s relevant this year and this school has already said they will require it. Basically, no barriers if they call him.
In our house, none of the WL schools were visited. So, it remains to be decided - through virtual visits, I suppose - whether they would definitely attend if admitted. Hoping to get that settled by May 1 (in which case they would withdraw from the WL if they wouldn’t attend over their current acceptances), but that will not be settled before submitting the LOCI in the next week or two. Thinking out loud:
Does it matter, for practical purposes when the LOCI is sent, now or by May 1, if the school says it isn’t planning to call up from the WL before May 1 ?
Do they still write, “top choice” (I think that’s fair) and “would attend if admitted” (not sure)? I realize it’s not binding, but should they use boilerplate language here or does it need to be nuanced if they’re not yet sure?
Ikr it’s tough this year to decide, determine fit and my S has been super busy. Our position is that we won’t say he will attend unless he’s become certain, so we are waiting to send the LOCI until he has decided on that. If sending waiting a couple of weeks to send the LOCI means he’s out, then he’s out. On the other hand, if he was waitlisted next week by his other big reach and got called up there off the waitlist first, I think that’s fair play since you have new information but extremely unlikely to happen. Most likely he will be rejected next week, so probably not an issue for us.
With S’ results, grateful for the options but there will be some trade offs. I feel really mentally exhausted by this whole year and process at this point. I literally can’t wait until it’s settled and we are just buying dorm stuff.
I’d start a separate thread and you’ll get a much larger response. There are a lot of sharp posters with opinions that likely don’t look at this Parent thread.
There’s probably a $40K/year difference between in-state Cal and private USC. If your kid is already into Haas at Berkeley, which is one of the best (#3, I think) undergraduate business programs in the US, then most here would say take the cheaper better option.
But if the money won’t dent your pocketbook, then go to USC, if location is important.
I think that’s exactly right…Just a short LOCI, re-iterating interest, confirming will attend if admitted (if true), highlight S1/Q3 grades and/or anything else of note.
I don’t know if a LOCI can be the deciding factor, but if a school accepts them, there’s likely more risk in not doing it.
The WL situation, between the LOCI and short turnaround if offered a spot, feels a bit like we’re back where we started, when kids were not sure about ED because no visits.
Who here is visiting WL schools that are a plane flight away? (@NateandAllisMom maybe?) Ugh. I think this can be decided without visiting, at least I could do it, armed with my extensive spreadsheet LOL, but I am not the decider. Back in the land of teenage boys, there’s nothing that crystalizes the decision quite like a visit. Right now stuck with Goldilocks and the three (or four) colleges - except that none of them will be just right, there is no perfect school.
My S really wanted to go see the NE and he’s visiting admitted schools also. I think my H and I would have passed on the trip otherwise if he would have just wanted to choose one of his three CA options to deposit 5/1. Yeah, we are in the same boat that there is not a “perfect” option, mainly because of the impacted majors issue here in the West. So, he has a lot of trade offs to consider. I’m grateful now that we centered his OOS apps in one area since he feels like he needs to go look.
We deliberately didn’t apply to any “reachy” private schools for this reason. the $150-$200K four-year price difference between the schools buys a lot of enhanced opportunities from international study to down payment on a condo in a new city to startup funds for a business. The fact that our daughter picked an in-state public means that we can offer her a lot more additional experiences than we could afford if we were scraping up every penny and looking under the sofa cushions to be able to afford one of the top privates.
Of course one’s major also makes a huge difference in the decision. I expect that for business majors, networking is going to be much more important than for someone like my daughter who at this point anticipates pursuing graduate studies in molecular biology or genetics. All she really needs out of her undergrad experience is to get launched into a top grad program. And that requires being tight with a couple top professors as mentors and diving into meaningful research, not deploying a giant alumni network. And for majors in which professional certification is the primary objective, like say nursing or teaching, I expect it makes even less difference where you went to school.