It’ll be interesting how things move with test optional or blind prevalence. The introduction of Pell Grant % and de-emphasis on % admitted was a big change. The Florida public schools have improved dramatically, as has UT-Austin, in recent years. They also brought in LMU, Santa Clara and some other former “regional” universities into the national list.
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I dropped off D22 at school this morning, and was surprised to see the entrance to school backed up onto the main arterial. Turns out there was a long line of cars for the COVID testing station that’s located in one of our school’s extra parking lots. I’ve driven by this COVID testing station many times over the last year and have never seen it like this. It’s only been two full days of classes so far this year. I hope these aren’t all symptomatic people getting tested because that’s a bad sign.
We are lucky at my D22 school so far. We’ve got an email stating we only have 1 student with COVID currently… They all do take masks very seriously from what I observed and from what I hear -majority at her school already been vaccinated. Of course it has only been about 2 weeks…
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Two weeks of school with only 1 reported COVID student seems pretty encouraging. My county is 75% fully vaccinated in the 12+ population, but I can see on a map supplied by my county that it varies neighborhood by neighborhood. And there are a few neighborhoods in my high school’s catchment boundaries that are not as high as the county overall. Our school district hosted another free vaccination clinic over the weekend at a park close to less vaccinated neighborhoods so I really hope people took advantage of that. I would really love for the Class of 2022 to have something that approaches a normal senior year. As parents we can’t help comparing to our own junior & senior years of high school so we know what they’re missing out on. 
With the school starting in a week, we were notified that vaccinated or not, all the kids will be wearing masks, keeping 6’ apart, have weekly testing, daily temperature checks and hallway monitors. MT and a capella are still unannounced. D22’s first reaction through the teary eyes: it looks identical to last year. Plus (minus?) senior trip is cancelled, an hour earlier start of classes, no remote or hybrid option this year. Buckling up for a bumpy ride. 
Our school district has a “special board meeting” tonight, as a reaction to rising case rates, though our country is still in PA’s Green category.
And there it is.
To assist students and their families in researching their college options, on Monday, Sept. 13, U.S. News & World Report will publish its 2022 edition of Best Colleges
A Nursing ranking will be added for the first time, along with a game developent specialty ranking for undergrad CS programs.
I haven’t looked at the old methodology, let alone the new, but I suspect that COVID-related test-optional impacts may not be seen until next year.
EDIT: last year’s methodology said “ The data used in these rankings pertain to fall 2019 and earlier.”, so I assume this year will be based on fall 2020 data.
As the fall 2020 class completed the application cycle in Jan/Feb., with almost all acceptances out by late March/early April, and National Emergency declaration/Travel restrictions happening on March 13, I would think that only yield and gap-year data would change. COVID-related test-optional policies became a thing for the 2021 admission class.
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We just had the same on 8/19. We’re one of the only districts in our county in PA that voted for mandatory masking. Took til nearly 1am after all community comments but glad it ended the way it did.
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Worried about being an empty-nester, or missing your kids when they head off to college? Here are ten easy ways to get them to move back home.
Popping in from the Class of 2019 thread, I also found the article interesting, although I don’t agree with all of what the author says. My husband taught at USC in the early '90s, and I’d always wondered how USC later became the school of dreams for so many. It was a good school when he was there, but it didn’t have the kind of cachet it has now. In any event, it was interesting to read how it happened. Assuming the USNWR rankings have driven a lot of university behavior in recent decades, I don’t think it is all bad. In particular, I think merit scholarships have done a lot both to broaden the pool of strong schools, by allowing schools to attract high performers, and, more importantly, to diversify the economic mix of students at those schools. It seems to me much healthier to make a place for the “donut hole” kids, rather than have a student body that includes only full-pay and financial need students. Our S19 is at a school that is generous with merit, and I’ve been really impressed with the student body they’ve built, both with respect to academic strength and with respect to including the full economic and demographic spectrum. My son himself has a merit scholarship, and rather than thinking of it just as a discount off the “sticker price,” he took it as an indication that the school really wanted him and valued what he would bring to the school. I think that has continued to motivate him (and give him confidence) as he advances. Anyway, sorry for highjacking the thread, but good luck to you all!
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Our private HS is masking, but no vaccine mandate. The Back to School dance was pushed back until October. The seniors are still supposed to have their ring dance in mid-Sept, though they have not announced the venue or specific plans. After a year of no dances, I hope they get to have a few. S22 has been dating a young lady since February 2020, and has never been able to take her to a dance. Sports are uninterrupted.
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The uninterrupted sports thing is a pet peeve of mine, since all other ECs at our school have been impacted - band, chorus, drama… Most are tentatively scheduled to be back on line this fall, but the non athletes have had a serious dent made in their activities lists and social lives.
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After a successful year last year that was mostly in-person, it seems the district is skipping most of the protocols. Masks are only recommended. There will be more kids per classroom, so distancing won’t be as easy. They did change up a few things over the past couple days - lunch has more spaces available and they have seats left open. Crossing my fingers it goes well. First day is tomorrow!
We’ve been fortunate that most of the clubs were able to start last year, after a short delay. My kids did the musical, robotics, Model UN, band w/1 concert, etc. No school dances…hoping those are able to be back.
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Masks are back for our school.
Band Camp wrapped up and 3-5pm practice was still on today, so perhaps it won’t be impacted.
Hi - I have couple of FAFSA related questions. For my D22, I do not think we qualify for need-based aid.
- We heard it is better to submit FAFSA whether we qualify for aid or not in year 1 so that down the road in year 2 or 3 , if needed FAFSA is in place. Is that the case? Is FAFSA something you submit right away while applying or is it something you submit every year?
- if you submit FAFSA, do you have the option of not checking the " are you applying for financial aid" box on common app? Does it hurt or help the chances one way or the other?
Thanks in advance for your pointers.
My family is similar: We don’t qualify for need-based aid. Our private college counselor told us:
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Yes, file a FAFSA no matter what. One, because as you mentioned, you might need to apply for financial aid if your income takes a hit in later years. FAFSA must be filed freshman year. You cannot skip freshman year and then start filing it sophomore, junior, senior years. Two, some schools require you to file FAFSA if you receive merit aid (just to see if you may qualify for federal aid, then the school can reduce your merit aid by a similar amount).
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Yes, you file FAFSA every year of college.
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Yes, you can NOT check the financial aid box even if you file a FAFSA. We were told that since we have the means to pay for college (thank you 529), indicating that we don’t want aid will help our child with admissions if he’s on the bubble. (Seeing your FAFSA, the school might contact you to confirm you meant to not apply for financial aid.)
You should check with your school college counselor to verify my facts. And, for what it’s worth, we know several families with the parents making high 6-figure to low 7-figure incomes (I can only dream), paying for the kids’ college tuition in full, and they were still told to and did file the FAFSA.
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We didn’t file the FAFSA, and none of the schools my daughter applied to required the FAFSA for merit aid consideration.
There are some schools that do require it, you should definitely check with each school to make sure you know their rules.
Some schools require you to file FAFSA the first year if you think you may ever need to ask for institutional aid. Many others don’t have that rule.
You do need to file FAFSA yearly to qualify each year if you plan on having your child take out Stafford loans (its required).
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I agree. We didn’t file FAFSA either. Didn’t want to give up that personal info. I did call each school to make sure they didn’t need it for merit. Our kids both got substantial merit where expected. They only applied to private schools. Not sure if it’s the same for public schools.
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We also didn’t file as we were 100% sure we wouldn’t qualify and D got plenty of merit aid at a number of schools.
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We live in Texas and it’s required to file a FAFSA to graduate high school here or you can fill out a form to formally opt out. I was surprised to learn that recently!