Well, if you think you’ve been at the Decision Bar, you’ll get a kick out of this. Today was senior day for S21’s last high school meet. The seniors were recognized, etc. S21’s good friend got to the starting block and announcer says “Swimmer X is going to Berkeley.” They had the senior posters made with their colleges. I texted his parents who are friends of ours to congratulate them since we finally found out. His mom and I did a 5k and as of last weekend she was still wondering what he would decide and I told her if I found out from my S21, I’d tell her!
His parents were surprised so after swim I asked S21 where his friend was going and he said, “I think UC Davis.” 
His poor parents. I swear he was going to go to UCI with S21 at first after we did the campus tour. He does have til 11:59PM PST tomorrow.
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Going back to the topic of declining schools your kids were accepted to but won’t be attending, Ron Lieber, author of The Price You Pay for College, was just discussing this over on the Paying for College 101 Facebook group. His quote exactly: “Schools actively discourage this via their own actions, namely those that throw more money right after 5/1 at accepted students who they have not heard from. If they are going to throw money around after 5/1, they are only likely to do it to people who have not turned them down yet. They’re setting those rules, not us.” Then several posters went on to say their kids had been contacted after the May 1st deadlines with substantial offers. Lots of people have also posted that they’ve received substantial offers just in the past day or two, including from schools that offered zero merit with their initial acceptance package. Some offers have been enough to completely change their course of action and switch schools. Ron also posted an article he wrote about it in the NYT way back in 2017: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/your-money/when-colleges-dangle-money-to-lure-students-who-ignored-them.html?smid=url-share
So basically he was saying if finances are a huge part of your college decision process (and for many families it may actually be #1), it may actually pay off to NOT decline your offers, ever!
With my son, he received an unsolicited updated financial aid package from one school 2 weeks ago with an additional $5k a year in merit and yesterday he received an email from another school with another updated package with an additional $8k a year in merit. Not enough to sway his decision, but for some it totally could.
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Speaking of financial things, I’ve started the research for the planning for drop-off. Nothing concrete since there are no solid dates yet. Holy heck, we are going to have to spend so much money to get her/us there and stay the little bit to settle her in. When my older daughter moved in freshman year we only lived a 3 hour drive away- we stayed in our cousin’s Airbnb for free and her scholarship covered our car rental. I’ll just be in the corner crying over the price of hotels/airbnbs and the 27 hour drive each way. Lol
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It’s a racket as is parent weekend. The minute I knew when those were going to be I booked hotels. Turns out I got lucky with parents weekend because I must’ve done it the same day they posted on their website because we have low rates. I told my ex husband and he booked same day as well. 3 days later when he went to add a room the rates were $300/night higher. Now no one can find rooms at all and are booking much further out.
For drop off I have 2 blocks of dates booked and it was super cheap. But again it was so cheap and others who have booked later are finding higher rates.
The key I’ve learned is book as soon as you can and know the move in dates. After first year If you have some flexibility with dates it can be cheaper also. But yeah move in, parent weekend and if you have to fly for any of it it’s expensive. Not to mention if your kid has to fly for breaks. That’s the only positive with covid is there were less breaks and the flights were so dirt cheap.
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Schools have been offering additional FA late in the game for years, so it can definitely ‘pay’ to not decide/commit to a school until the last minute.
The context of previous posts recommending students decline their offers was after they deposited at a school (and the specific examples above were when applicants had chosen their school and deposited in March or April).
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We booked hotel, flight and a rental car, and it was all so expensive. I hope schools help out the kids with zero EFC because there is no way their parents can afford all this.
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So, the sleeping angel 
has narrowed it down to Santa Clara v Chapman COPA. I think she is definitely leaning toward Chapman because, well, COPA. But we are a bit nervous as they have only given need aid & we don’t want to be in a position that it all disappears next year. Santa Clara has given a combo of merit/talent/diversity so we know what we’re in for. That said, while the program at Santa Clara is lovely and she enjoyed the class she went to it’s small. And the school, while beautiful, is not in the best location. Chapman seems to have a more walkable town nearby which is important & the train to LA is right on campus. She’s a city kid so walkable entertainment is important to her. But either way, having picked California, she’ll have to learn to drive this summer
Anyway, any opinions?
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Decision day has finally dawned. Good morning and welcome to May 1! Who else here is waiting to deposit? Will we be done by sunset?
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I get leaning Chapman. Regarding need based aid…does the family income vary each year? You already know your 2020 income, which is what sophomore year need based aid will be based on…is that different than 2019 income (which is what the current FA for incoming freshman is based on)?
Yes, we’ve had huge fluctuations since my husband has been freelance for a decade. Though part of it is my paranoia. He just got a steady job, but I’m always worried that will end. So, it might just be my PTSD from scrappy by for a decade.
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Makes sense. So, if 2020 income was higher than 2019, sophomore year need based aid could be lower. I don’t know how accurate Chapman’s NPC is, or how complicated your financial situation, but you could run that with 2020 income and see what it estimates (increase 2021 COA by 3-4% though as it is set to this year’s COA).
Need based only aid makes me nervous if income fluctuates- I know a bump one year should mean ability to pay that much more, but I doubt that’s always the reality.
Speaking of driving, my D is heading to LA not knowing how to drive. I’m thinking maybe of teaching her over her first winter break, and just hoping it’s not too big an issue. I really don’t want to jump through hoops of getting her a permit before she turns 18.m at the end of October.
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We are still in decision hell. I am giving D21 til 5 pm and am staying far away from her today.
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Oh they gapped us a lot based on 2019 & when I spoke to the FA office they basically told me that both their netprice calculator & the EFC are useless… so, that is a worry. We’ve gotten them to come up to make it reasonable for next year. And I was told that they work even more with continuing students, which makes sense since losing students hurts their ranking. But still. My mother told me she does have some money but probably can’t access that till her senior year.
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Will your D be flying to LA? Since she doesn’t currently have a license, you might want to look into getting her Real ID so that she will be able to board flights. The Real ID requirement goes into effect on Oct 1, 2021.
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She will be flying back and forth after we initially drop her off (we are driving from MN). She has a military ID and a passport, so she’s covered on the REAL ID front. Neither of my kids ever learned to drive because we knew we couldn’t afford an extra car or the insurance, and because it’s often a huge pain to manage the permit hoops as a homeschooler- it never seemed worth it. I know LA is a car town though.
*also… the real ID requirements have been pushed back two years, I believe.
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We liked small town Orange, definitely cuter (and slightly cheaper) than Santa Clara. One advantage of Chapman was the availability of performing arts jobs at Disneyland down the road (D applied for dance) and the pre-pro attitude (eg focus on jobs as backing dancers for music videos or working on cruise ships) could be seen as an advantage too. Our sense was Chapman is a bit more conservative politically than SCU. On the other hand, at least in CA, the academic reputation of SCU is somewhat higher.
To the comments about cars in LA, S didn’t take a car to UCLA and hasn’t needed one. Less than half his friends have one because parking is hard/expensive and public transit is cheap (albeit a bit time consuming). He’s used a zipcar maybe 2-3 times in the last year and Uber maybe once a month.
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DD just committed to Chapman yesterday afternoon after oooohhhh so much back and forthing. It came down to Mount Holyoke vs Chapman, and i think she felt like she ‘should’ go to MHC bec it’s more competitive, but the aid and SoCal weather won out, lol. When letters first started coming out and she got in to Chapman, she was like ‘thank god i got into at least one California school’ and i could see which way the wind was blowing lol! Good luck and martinis to all parents today. 
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