DD is just like your son. She keeps putting off making a decision because she says she’s too busy with homework. We’re sitting down later today to discuss options. She’s finishing up boarding school in another state, which has made this college app season even more complicated.
Accepted - Wake Forest (50k/year), Texas A&M (Blinn Team, 30k/year), Fairfield University (Honors College, 43k/year with merit), UT Dallas (30k/year), SMU (spring admit, no FA package yet), Texas Tech (Honors College, 19k/year with merit)
Waitlisted - Davidson College, University of Richmond, University of Miami
Soft Denial - UT Austin (CAP - would have to complete first year at UT Arlington but would be guaranteed admission to UT Austin for sophomore year).
Denied - Dartmouth, Tufts
We can afford state school tuitions, but would need loans for the private schools. We are Texas residents but she was considered an OOS applicant because she attended boarding school in the Northeast. Thankfully, we still get to pay in-state tuition for Texas schools.
We really wanted her to choose Texas A&M but she doesn’t like it because she thinks it’s too conservative and she doesn’t like the campus. She loves UT Austin, but she doesn’t want to transfer from UT Arlington after freshman year. She also likes Wake Forest but doesn’t want ~80k in loans for undergrad. Also, we learned WF is known for grade deflation which would hurt her chances of med school admission. She’s leaning toward Texas Tech Honors College at this point because of its cost and some of the Honors College benefits (smaller classes, better dorms, early registration). She wants to do premed and TT would offer her opportunities to do paid research as well as offering shadowing opportunities at the local hospital.
My daughter repeated 11th grade in order to attend a rigorous boarding school in New England that offered her a very generous scholarship. She attended Texas public schools since kindergarten before this. She decided to leave behind her childhood friends in order to challenge herself academically in an intense college prep program. She was looking forward to spending time with NE family (cousins, aunts, grandparents) who live minutes away from her boarding school. The pandemic took virtually all family time away - she hasn’t been allowed to leave campus or have visitors since the beginning of the pandemic. She has grown a lot as a student and has worked hard to be on the dean’s list the entire time. She is grateful for the opportunity, despite being lonely and isolated. We are all heartbroken that she didn’t get into UT Austin (her dream school) because we didn’t know she would be considered an OOS applicant. Only 7% of OOS applicants were admitted to UT Austin this year and it is always particularly difficult to gain admittance to UT Austin as an OOS applicant anyways. She doesn’t want to do the CAP program because she is ready to settle down after transferring in high school already.
As parents, we wish she would choose A&M, but we know we can’t force her. She prefers Texas Tech over A&M. She ultimately knows grad schools are more affordable in Texas and going to an in-state university increases her chances of being admitted to Texas public grad schools. We don’t want to make the mistake we did by sending her OOS for boarding school. So, it seems, she’ll probably be heading to Texas Tech. She intellectually knows it’s the best choice but she’s not excited. Given what we know now, we all wish we had a “do over” so she could apply to some small LACs in Texas that offer good merit. I even suggested to my DD that she take a gap year and reapply next year, but she already feels behind because she chose to repeat 11th grade. The good news is we’ve heard good things about TT from alums. We hope she’ll one day grow to love it.
Ideally an academic advisor would provide input on this at the selected college but it helps to see some of the mandatory coursework unrelated to a major. My S was coasting on vibes, but looking over the map of the Boston subway system started to make things come alive. Hope you find your spark!
