I’m taking my 18 year old for his at CVS today. Parts of Illinois are now 18+ for any reason. Yay! They finally realized that the goal at this point is to get it in as many shots as possible. Hospital rates are going up again, but the avg age is only 46 now, crazy. Also, cases have been increasing again by more than 15% in the past 2 weeks. We flew home through Charlotte to Chicago last week after visiting UVA and it was packed and everyone at both Ohare and Charlotte and Charlottesville airport seems to have forgotten there’s a mask mandate in airports. Our flight was packed to the gil and it was just such a gross feeling. Fortunately our school mandates testing now 2x/week and all athletes have to get testing as well even if they’re remote, which my son has stayed remote this week anyway just in case, but fortunately his first test was negative.
I have a question about this. What if a kid has like 3 waitlist offers that they’ve narrowed down to a bunch and they would be happy to go to any of them. When they send their LOCI they can’t very well say they would 100% commit to each of them, so what’s the best course of action? Not sure we will wind up in this situation, however, we will know what’s what next week and if it doesn’t go well and things stand where they are now, mine said he would stay on 2 of the 5 waitlists he is on. I just don’t know how you deal with that going forward. It’s one thing if a school you applied to in ED deferred you which is what happened and it’s still his first choice, but it doesn’t feel right to tell 2 waitlist schools (or more) that you would jump ship for them. But at the same time, you would go to either of them over where you did commit. So then what? This is why it sucks to be on so many waitlists…or just to be a senior this year. lol
My kid has said that she won’t be accepting any waitlists. She’s decided to love the schools that have loved her back. I’m so relieved!
Was it difficult to get an appt? MN is 16+ but I have not been able to find appts within a reasonable driving distance.
Important and yes, if you do your research about whether a school is receptive to a LOCI. Some schools are very firm in that they do not want them, on the other hand, other schools welcome them. However, the one mistake kids make is to send a LOCI but don’t really have much to add and you need to find something to add/update since you originally applied.
For Michigan my son was postponed, it unfortunately wasn’t unexpected because that’s typical for our school and Engineering with some of the higher stats kids. He had just done his LOCI for his ED deferral school so he used the info he put in that since he had 4 significant updates and put them into the UM LOCI. I think he had to delete one because of word limits, then he answered the rest of their prompt with the remaining word count he had left. Added something specific to Michigan showing he had researched it and knew about the school instead of just some random letter.
Ultimately in this last big batch, he was the only one from our school admitted. Some were surprisingly flat out rejected, and of course there were a whole bunch of waitlists. Since that letter, he also had more updates so he has provided those to his waitlisted schools and he has some more updates he will be able to make after April 1. He is fortunate in that regard and just happened to get lucky I guess, because not everyone has a significant update.
My daughter also has friends that continuously updated schools when they were waitlisted and they got in. These were schools like Penn, NU, etc.
Honestly. I would do what you gotta do. If any of those 3 WL schools are ones that you would jump ship for if they were the only one making the offer then write the three LOCIs and send them. The chances of them all coming back to you with offers all on the same day is remote in the extreme. If one comes through for you then you can always decline the others later.
Thank you yet again for the helpful tips. Much appreciated. Like I said earlier, seems like the decision will be easier than we thought! Can’t complain. I will update you later. I’m just ready to start making travel plans to wherever! 
He’ll write the multiple LOCI’s the issue is how can someone really say “I’ll 100% commit to this school if accepted off the waitlist”. But I do see your point of the unlikelihood that all 3 or 2 or however many would offer is slim, and if the odds are equal that all would do it, then maybe someone does say 100% commit and it’s 1st school that offers off the waitlist you commit to and you then pull the others and you’re done. No harm no foul. The issue really comes in if you have your counselor go to bat for you.
Going off the assumption my son is rejected from all 3 he’s waiting for next week, he’s deciding between Michigan and UVA. He would blow off all waitlists I believe other than Northwestern and GT. He hasn’t visited GT (GaT) and NU was always too close for him, but before he was W/L and after he was in at UM he said he would really consider going to NU over UM. I think he just doesn’t want that huge program even though it is ranked higher at UM but that’s also why he’s considering UVA. It’s a smaller school but has enough national recognition that job prospects most likely won’t be an issue. I would literally die if he wound up at NU because he made it so clear that it is just way TOO close. My best friend lives in Evanston, and we are only a few suburbs away, 20-30 mins drive depending on traffic. But I literally hate going to Evanston so I won’t be a regular visitor, although he can come home anytime he wants if it shook out that way! 
We’re roughly the same proximity to Stanford. D18 applied and was rejected. But, if she would have gotten into Stanford, then almost everyone told her once you’re on campus, you’re in a different environment. You go to Stanford. I’d say the same for NU.
If your S gets into NU, then I think he should go unless something equivalent or “better” comes along, say like a college in Philly or even upstate NY. 
I would love some input from anyone in the know about Honors Colleges. One of the schools that D21 considered a “safety”, George Washington, has offered her a place in the Honors Program (plus a Presidential scholarship). She is interested in Political Science so being in DC would be a bonus. She has admits from schools that were originally higher on her list, but the more we learn about the honors program, the more confused she is!
It is a residential program of 120 students in each class (for reference, there are about 2500 first years). The first years are required to live in the “honors dorm” which is on their more traditional satellite campus…and honestly would be a nice transition to college life in a big city. It provides several layers of advising programs, honors classes that fulfill GE requirements, early registration, dedicated internships and research opportunities and honors programming. There is also dedicated, but optional, honors housing for upperclassmen.
So, is this type of a program worth going to a less selective, lower ranked school? The ranking of the school really only matters when considering post-graduate options. The most important thing to D is fit and happiness. For comparison, she was also given honors designation at W&M, but that pretty much just provides some funding for internships.
We are honestly so bewildered!
I agree - I think they are using LOCI to weed out kids who aren’t really interested. I think it’s a little cruel when the odds of getting off WL are low. The poor kids have already put in so much work.
S18 was focused on PoliSci (now doing Public Affairs) and had some overlap with your list: UVA (Echols), W&M (Monroe), GWU, American, Berkeley and UCLA were all contenders. He’d done a summer course at GWU previously during high school and really liked being in DC.
However a friend of a friend was a PoliSci professor at GWU and strongly implied it wouldn’t be worth spending the extra money to attend GWU (regardless of Honors college etc) or the other east coast schools over Berkeley (at instate rates). In particular she felt the prestige was likely to be more important long term than being in DC because you could always go to DC for a summer internship or a semester, and move there after graduation.
In the end S chose UCLA instead of Berkeley (partly because Berkeley is too close to home), but her predictions have been borne out, he got a summer internship at a famous DC think tank (unfortunately virtual due to COVID) and has had lots of opportunities with his professors at UCLA. It was notable that the other think tank interns were mostly from well known schools too (lots of Ivies). He’ll probably go to the East coast after graduation for work and/or a graduate degree. Overall, I wouldn’t let the Honors college offer sway your decision if there’s a good fit elsewhere.
Well 17 y/o D was able to get her Pfizer shot an hour ago!!! What a huge relief!!!
I called CVS because I could not take off work tomorrow and since she is 17 y/o had to be with her. So they told me to bring her in when i could . So she got it today (1/2 day work every Thursday for me). So happy she is jabbed now!
This is really useful information, thank you so much for sharing! It is great to hear of a student with similar interests and their ‘real world’ experience. D will likely not choose Berkeley for the same reason!
In the end I think he would have gone to Berkeley if UCLA hadn’t been an option. Those were the only west coast schools he applied to, because originally he’d been determined to go out of state. He hadn’t even visited UCLA until Bruin Day, but decided there and then he wanted to attend (getting the Alumni scholarship was a nice boost too, in terms of recognition).
Amongst the east coast schools he felt UVA was the best match, especially as Echols allowed you to get out of general ed, and he knew what he wanted to focus on. He put W&M slightly above GWU and well ahead of American. Our friends in DC tended to give the same order (without regard to PoliSci specifically, just general reputation) when asked what they thought of the various schools. Then a few others that were backup options and were quickly discarded (CWRU, Macalester, etc).
NYU posted their Class of 2025 data today and seeing it made my eyes roll. 1540 median SAT score(I know with test optional people are only sending it if it’s excellent) but STILL that’s Ivy League material score. To top it off, their acceptance rate was 12.8 percent overall, with many programs at the school having a single digit acceptance rate this year
I appreciate the schools that are publishing a breakdown of applicants and accepted students who were test-optional vs not. NYU didn’t, and I’m sure it’s because it would make the 1540 look less impressive.
Has anyone received a likely letter before? Our son just got one from Duke. I am truly perplexed! Unreal, you guys. Unreal. 
Me back in the day. Congrats to your son.