What kind of vibe is he seeking? My impression of St Olaf was predominantly kind and wholesome, politically liberal with room for moderate and more conservative perspectives.
Maybe have your kid look for some “vloggers”? These are kids not paid for by the colleges who do videos about life on campus. There are many on YouTube but I’m not sure how common this is for smaller schools.
These two seem more similar than different so I don’t think he can go wrong!
Wait, your HS senior doesn’t know how to use your credit card!!!
Nope, doesn’t have access to it. Has a Bluebird card that we occasionally replenish up to a small balance that wouldn’t cover the enrollment fee.
How do you expect them to succeed at college!!!
With their own card 
We cover tuition, room & board and reimburse for books, although they start to cover some of this as they start earning enough. The rest is on them. H and I think of it as weaning.
At 18 (D21 hasn’t had her b-day yet), they open their own checking account with their own money they saved up, and get their own credit card that they are responsible for paying off (entire balance) each month. I train them how to do this.
My first job was financial counseling. We aren’t Dave Ramsey level but the kids joke about how we live below our means.
Perhaps the outflow will be balanced by the inflow. (So sad for these parents and kids.)
Thanks for the suggestion. And yes, that is my impression of St. Olaf kids, too. I actually think that they’re very much ds’s kind of students. I don’t think he can go wrong either which is a nice feeling at this point.
The % undergrad students is high, but I wouldn’t sell UCSB’s grad programs short, since the research output at UCSB is high. Especially in materials, physics, and a number of other programs, a grad degree from UCSB is highly regarded. (Yes, that new classroom building will be really big!)
Even though he’s not on fb, are you in the parents groups for those colleges on fb? If you are, you could potentially ask if any parents of current students would be willing to put their kid in touch with yours. I have been so impressed by the kindness and helpfulness of the LAC parent groups on fb!
We have some neighbors who did not properly wean one of their kids, and they’re paying the price. literally.
Oof. People can be sickeningly cruel. If that’s the only way to hang on to your career, by scapegoating and traumatizing little kids… find a new career.
Thanks. I’m not on FB either but it sounds like it might be time to sign on.
I had clients that made the same mistake and then doubled-down on the mistake and co-signed loans for their kids.
All respect to UCSB’s graduate programs. I was merely commenting on the relatively small number of grad students compared to other UC campuses.
This time last week I was still in st. olaf’s group and could’ve helped you! However my D chose a different school, so I left it.
Yale waitlist ? May 3 is decision date. Any inside information ???
Looks like the weather will be horrible in Chicago this week. Yay! 
D19 just found out she was admitted to UC Santa Barbara as a transfer student. She is super relieved to know she has a great option.
GPA: 3.75 GPA at her CA CC (3.8 with two winter session classes this past winter)
Honors program at her CC
Major: Global Studies
Applied: UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside
Accepted: UCSB, UCR
Rejected: N/A
Waiting: UCB, UCSD, UCLA
I wasn’t going to post this here, but decided I will in case some parents here - especially Cali parents - might want to consider the CC route in case their DD or DS doesn’t like the schools they got into this year.
I will post D19’s choice once we get all the admits decisions in (UCB and UCSD this week, UCLA by end of next week).
Congrats! Isn’t UCSB her first choice? All her hard work paid off!
Our D21 has UCSB as her dream school (but didn’t get in). D21 decided to forgo her admits this year and follow S17 and D19 path through our local CC honors program. UCSB or bust!
D19 dream school is UCLA, but likes something about each school she applied to.
ND hurting for money…lol…doesn’t wait to pay the credit care fee
At clemson you can pay tuition with credit card but it costs about 2.8% more if you use that option
I made a quick response to CollegeYaYa and used “cowboy crowd” to avoid labelling the political affiliation and guess I came across wrong! Apologies if I offended anyone. I was trying to imply their are appearances associated with beliefs that are often incorrect, but also all kinds of crowds at all places( especially those that large!) I am a gay left leaning parent from Dallas, born and raised. My favorite footwear ever are my Lucchese cowboy boots…